Alan's recovery was rapid, since as the Asika had told him, if a patient
lives through it, the kind of fever that he had taken did not last long
enough to exhaust his vital forces. When she asked him if he needed
anything to make him well, he answered:

"Yes, air and exercise."

She replied that he should have both, and next morning his hated mask
was put upon his face and he was supported by priests to a door where a
litter, or rather litters were waiting, one for himself and another
for Jeekie who, although in robust health, was still supposed to be
officially ill and not allowed to walk upon his own legs. They entered
these litters and were borne off till presently they met a third litter
of particularly gorgeous design carried by masked bearers, wherein was
the Asika herself, wearing her coronet and a splendid robe.

Into this litter, which was fitted with a second seat, Alan was
transferred, the Mungana, for whom it was designed, being placed in that
vacated by Alan, which either by accident or otherwise, was no more seen
that day. They went up the mountain side and to the edge of the great
fall and watched the waters thunder down, though the crest of them
they could not reach. Next they wandered off into the huge forests that
clothed the slopes of the hills and there halted and ate. Then as the
sun sank they returned to the gloomy Bonsa-Town beneath them.

For Alan, notwithstanding his weakness and anxieties, it was a heavenly
day. The Asika was passive, some new mood being on her, and scarcely
troubled him at all except to call his attention to a tree, a flower, or
a prospect of the scenery. Here on the mountain side, too, the air was