Abraham stared at him with unseeing eyes. A mist of years drifted between them, and now the old man came slowly out of the past and found himself seated on the lawn in a lonely valley with great, naked mountains piled around it. "What did you say?" repeated David. Abraham hastily changed the subject. "In those days if a stranger came to the Garden of Eden he did not stay. Aye, and in those days Abraham could have taken the strongest by the neck and pitched him through the gates. I remember when the men came over the mountains--long before you were born. Ten men at the gate, I remember, and they had guns. But when my master told them to go away they looked at him and they looked at each other, but after a while they went away." Abraham rocked in an ecstasy. "No man could face my master. I remember how he sat on his horse that day." "It was Rustir?" asked David eagerly. "She was the queen of horses," replied the old man indirectly, "and he was the king of men; there are no more men like my master, and there are no more horses like Rustir." There was a pause, then David spoke. "John was a good man and a strong man," he said, looking down at his own brown hands. "And Rustir was a fine mare, but it is foolish to call her the best." "There was never a horse like Rustir," said the old man monotonously. "Bah! What of Glani?" "Yes, that is a good colt." "A good colt! Come, Abraham! Have you ever opened your dim eyes and really looked at him? Name one fault." "I have said Glani is a good colt," repeated Abraham, worried. "Come, come! You have said Rustir was better." "Glani is a good colt, but too heavy in the forehand. Far too heavy there." The restraint of David snapped. "It is false! Ephraim, Jacob, they all say that Glani is the greatest." "They change like the masters," grumbled Abraham. "The servants change. They flatter and the master believes. But my master had an eye--he looked through a man like an eagle through mist. When I stood before my master my soul was naked; a wind blew through me. But I say John was one man; and there are no other horses like his mare Rustir. My master is silent; other men have words as heavy as their hands." "Peace, Abraham, peace. You shame me. The Lord was far from me, and I spoke in anger, and I retract it." "A word is a bullet that strikes men down, David. Let the wind blow on your face when your heart is hot." "I confess my sin," said David, but his jaw was set. "Confess your sins in silence." "It is true." He looked at Abraham as if he would be rid of him. "You are angry to-day, Abraham." "The law of the Garden has been broken." "By whom?" "David has unbarred the gate." "Yes, to one man." "It is enough." "Peace, Abraham. You are old and look awry. This one man is no danger. I could break him in my hands--so!" "A strong man may be hopeless against words," said the oracular old man. "With a word he may set you on fire."