“Well, isn’t that fierce?” and Imogene looked on with sweet womanly sympathy while Bill, the now triumphant lover, lifted Lonnie like he was a pigskin and hoisted him into the auto. “Sure thing,” said Bill, joyously. “He got it in the neck that time. Come, Petsy, we’ve got to honk some. We must revive him on the Q. T. “I’ll take him home with me and give him about four fingers with ginger on the side. That’ll fetch him.” Imogene looked her admiration of Bill’s generosity, and then, gathering her draperies and snuggling down by her future Chauffeur, she sighed a little as she looked upon the inert gentleman on the back seat--saying more to herself than to Bill, “Isn’t it a pity he has fits?” Oh, wild and wooly Wizard of the West; Worthy, winsome worker of the Test; Wakeful, watchful, wise one, whiskerless; Weird and woozy wight, all unexpressed. CHAPTER V. IN THE HIGHEST DEGREE. Five long and fateful years had rolled up the self-inflicted sacrifices of the man from Kankakee. In the remote glades of Gingalee lonely Alonzo Leffingwell has finally completed the curriculum of the fifty-seven Paths in accordance with schools of Hindustan. The Western Votary of “Meditation” had attained to the Highest Degree of “the first Discipline.” He is now descended from the inaccessible mountain upon which he received his education in the Lesser Attainments. He is now released from the “Cave of the Happy Musings of Misery.” His pilgrimages, penances and prostrations are suspended. He is temporarily absolved from the Wheel of Chance. He has, as it were, cut out the “Circle of Transmigration.” He is taking a vacation. And just here (as Alonzo afterward explained in Kankakee) should be made some explanation of the wide difference and distinction between the mystico-theosophic-scholastic courses of Illinois and India. In the Eastern branch TIME is the essential. In the Western school Hustle is the key. In the East forty to fifty years are consumed in mere preparation in initiatory contemplation, abstraction, introspection and absorption. Oriental methods call for time without dates, and a hundred years in the achievement of Gnanum is considered excellent work. The practice of doubling or “ponying,” which obtains not merely in Illinois, but which distinguished Western scholarship generally, is unknown in India. These methods are, however, invaluable when the American seeks wisdom in the Indian schools. By thus doubling or doing extra time Alonzo Leffingwell broke the record. At first the deprivation of soap, towels and other civilized accessories appeared important. At times he yearned for a fine-tooth comb and a safety razor. However, when he had sat for six months without a change of position, and after he had held up his hands for several weeks at a stretch, he ceased to feel the need of these things. Thus he conquered the Material and attained to the first stages of Nothingness in five brief years.