Ranville shrugged his shoulders as though the whole thing was beyond his comprehension and, in fact, said as much. Bartley agreed with him. He added, such a thing was not understandable to any educated person but admitted rather gravely that the educated people were more or less outnumbered in our country.
As there came a pause in the conversation I remembered that Carter had wired Washington regarding the Chinaman who had visited us. I turned to Ranville to ask if there had been a reply. He shook his head, replying that nothing had arrived. As Bartley did not understand what we were talking about, I informed him, and he asked us what had been the substance of the oriental's conversation. We told him how he claimed to have found Warren dead with the dagger still in the wound. He said nothing until we had finished, then asked:
“What did he say was his object in calling on Warren?”
“Some silly story about a box with the ashes of Buddha in it,” drawled Ranville. “A yarn about Buddha's body being burned when he died, and the ashes being buried in seven places. Said Warren walked away with one of the boxes of ashes.”
I saw a smile creep over Bartley's face as he asked:
“Just what was his story.”
The Englishman dropped two lumps of sugar into his coffee and, taking his spoon, stirred it slowly; then he replied:
“He said that when Buddha was dead they burned his body and then divided the ashes into seven piles. Buried them in seven different places. That's about what he told us; seemed a silly yarn to me.”
“Well, Ranville,” replied Bartley, “it is all true. Tradition said that the ashes of the great religious teacher were placed in seven boxes and that seven shrines were erected. Up until a few years ago the scholars rather doubted the entire story; but they dug into one of the reputed shrines in India a while ago and found a box of gold and rare wood. It contained ashes and a fragment of bone. They are pretty sure it contained Buddha's ashes.”
“That's what he said,” commented Ranville. “And then he went on to tell us Warren had picked up one of those boxes in China. He wanted him to give it back. Chinese were all heated up over it, or something of that sort.”