“Mental?”

“Moral first.  The most rigid, perhaps of all; he must be a man above suspicion.  The honour of a Rhamda must never be questioned.  He must be upright and absolutely unselfish.  He must be broad-minded, human, lovable, and a leader of men.  After that, my lord, comes the intellectual test.”

“He must be a learned man?”

“Not exactly, your lordship.  There are many very learned men who could not be Rhamdas; and there are many who have had no learning at all who eventually were admitted.  The qualifications are intellectual, not educational; the mind is put to a rigid test.  It is examined for alertness, perception, memory, reason, emotion, and control.  There is no greater honour in all the Thomahlia.”

“And they are all athletes?”

“Every one, my lord.  In all the world there is no finer body of men, I myself would hesitate before entering a match with even the old Rhamda Geos.”

“How about the Rhamda Avec?”

“Nor he, either; in the gymnasium he was always the superior, just as he topped all others morally and mentally.”

Did this explain the Avec’s physical prowess, on the one hand, and the fact that he would not stoop to take that ring by force, on the other?

“Just one more thing, Jan Lucar.  You have absolutely no fear that I may fail tomorrow?”

“Not the slightest, my lord.  You cannot fail!”

“Why not?”

“I have already said—­because you are from the Jarados.”

And Chick, facing the greatest experience of his life, submerged in a sea wherein only a few islands of fact were visible, had to be content with this:  his only friends were those who were firmly convinced of something which, he knew only too well, was a flat fraud!  All this backing was based upon a misled faith.

No, not quite.  Was there not that strange feeling that the Jarados himself was at his back?  And had he not found that the prophet had been real?  Did he not feel, as positively as he felt anything, that the Jarados was still a reality?

Chick went to bed that night with a light heart.

XL

THE TEMPLE OF THE BELL

It was hard for Chick to remember all the details of that great day.  Throughout all the morning and afternoon he remained in his apartments.  Breakfast over, the Rhamdas told him his part in certain ceremonies, such as need not be detailed here.  They were very solicitous as to his food and comfort, and as to his feelings and anticipations.  His nonchalance pleased them greatly.  Afterward he had a bath and rub-down.

A combat to the death, was it to be?  Suits me, thought Watson.  He was never in finer form.

The Jan Lucar was particularly interested.  He pinched and stroked Chick’s muscles with the caressing pride of a connoisseur.  Watson stepped out of the fountain bath in all the vigour of health.  He playfully reached out for the Lucar and tripped him up.  He sought to learn just what the Thomahlians knew in the art of self-defence.