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No, I expect he's come to thank me. He seemed pretty keen on getting
some cash. Badly broke, you see. Don't know what he was doing in
London. Never can tell with these fellows. East is East, and there's an
end of it.
MARY
How did he trace you here?
JOHN
O, got the address at the office. Briggs and Cater won't let theirs be
known. Not got such a smart little house, I expect.
MARY
I don't like letting people in that you don't know where they come from.
JOHN
O, he comes from the East.
MARY
Yes, I--I know. But the East doesn't seem quite to count, somehow, as
the proper sort of place to come from, does it, dear?
JOHN
No.
MARY
It's not like Sydenham or Bromley, some place you can put your finger
on.
JOHN
Perhaps just for once, I don't think there's any harm in him.
MARY
Well, just for once. But we can't make a practice of it. And you don't
want to be thinking of business on a Sunday, your only day off.

JOHN
O, it isn't business, you know. He only wants to say thank you.
MARY
I hope he won't say it in some queer Eastern way. You don't know what
these people. . . .
JOHN
O, no. Show him up, Liza.
LIZA
As you like, mum. [Exit.]
MARY
And you gave him fifty pounds?
JOHN
Well, old Briggs agreed to it. So I suppose that's what he got. Cater
paid him.
MARY
It seems a lot of money. But I think, as the man is actually coming up
the stairs, I'm glad he's got something to be grateful for.
[Enter ALI, shown in by LIZA.]
ALI
Protector of the Just.
JOHN
O, er--yes. Good evening.
ALI
My soul was parched and you bathed it in rivers of gold.
JOHN
O, ah, yes.
ALI
Wherefore the name Briggs, Cater, and Beal shall be magnified and
called blessed.
JOHN
Ha, yes. Very good of you.
ALI [advancing, handing trinket]
Protector of the Just, my offering.
JOHN
Your offering?
ALI
Hush. It is beyond price. I am not bidden to sell it. I was in my

extremity, but I was not bidden to sell it. It is a token of gratitude, a gift,
as it came to me.
JOHN
As it came to you?
ALI
Yes, it was given me.
JOHN
I see. Then you had given somebody what you call rivers of gold?
ALI
Not gold; it was in Sahara.
JOHN
O, and what do you give in the Sahara instead of gold?
ALI
Water.
JOHN
I see. You got it for a glass of water, like.
ALI
Even so.
JOHN
And--and what happened?
MARY
I wouldn't take his only crystal, dear. It's a nice little thing, but [to ALI],
but you think a lot of it, don't you?
ALI
Even so.
JOHN
But look here, what does it do?
ALI Much.
JOHN
Well, what?
ALI
He that taketh this crystal, so, in his hand, at night, and wishes, saying
"At a certain hour let it be"; the hour comes and he will go back eight,
ten, even twelve years if he will, into the past, and do a thing again, or
act otherwise than he did. The day passes; the ten years are
accomplished once again; he is here once more; but he is what he might
have become had he done that one thing otherwise.

MARY
John!
JOHN
I--I don't understand.
ALI
To-night you wish. All to-morrow you live the last ten years; a new
way, master, a new way, how you please. To-morrow night you are
here, what those years have made you.
JOHN
By Jove!
MARY
Have nothing to do with it, John.
JOHN
All right, Mary, I'm not going to. But, do you mean one could go back
ten years?
ALI
Even so.
JOHN
Well, it seems odd, but I'll take your word for it. But look here, you
can't live ten years in a day, you know.
ALI
My master has power over time.
MARY
John, don't have anything to do with him.
JOHN
All right, Mary. But who is your master?
ALI
He is carved of one piece of jade, a god in the greenest mountains. The
years are his dreams. This crystal is his treasure. Guard it safely, for his
power is in this more than in all the peaks of his native hills. See what I
give you, master.
JOHN
Well, really, it's very good of you.
MARY
Good night, Mr. Ali. We are very much obliged for your kind offer,
which we are so sorry we can't avail ourselves of.
JOHN One moment, Mary. Do you mean that I can go back ten years,

and live till--till now again, and only be away a