Page:The White Stone.djvu/122

118 "Thereupon, taking a stump of pencil and a scrap of paper, he traced some figures:

"'Let A be the sun, B, the moon, C, the earth,' and so forth ...

"And when he had come to the end of his demonstration,

"'Such,' he said, 'is the theory governing eclipses of the sun.'

"And as the dervish was mumbling a few words,

"'What does he say?' asked the General of the interpreter.

"'General, he says that it is the angel Gabriel who causes eclipses, by placing himself in front of the sun.'

"'The fellow is simply naught but a fanatic!' exclaimed Desaix.

"Whereupon he drove the dervish out with well-administered kicks.

"I imagine that had a conversation been entered into between St. Paul and Gallio, it would have ended somewhat as did the dialogue between the dervish and General Desaix."

"It must, however, be pointed out," said Joséphin Leclerc, joining issue, "that between the Apostle Paul and the dervish of General Desaix, there is at the very least this difference: the dervish did not impose his faith on Europe. And you will admit that his Britannic Majesty's honourable Governor of