"My master is a preserver of life and Nels is a great hunter."
"I've thought of that. Is there any danger that he will kill when I don't want him to?"
"Sahib, I, Bhanah, have known Nels since he was a puppy, I have seen him take his training to kill; therefore I believe he will quickly be taught to work together with my master, who is his heart's desire. This is the chief thing, that my master is his heart's desire. But also I know—he will kill when there is need for him to kill."
"Does he ever fail?"
"If he had ever failed, he would not be here. The Police Commissioner Hichens Sahib—to whom may the gods render his due!—has many times set him in the teeth of death; when occasion could be prepared, always."
"He did not fight the hyena."
"Now the Sahib speaks of an evil thing. For that reason he was made to live in a tent in the Jungle."
"But what—"
"The hyena is evil-itself; and a dog has no hope in him to fight with it. We may not 'speak a name in the same breath of common-judgment'; but I say that the living fear in a man's body made secret covenant with the knowledge of this fact—because the man had long desired that Nels should die. The lady-beautiful and his small children—all together—I say they were made to live in danger—that some hyena might destroy Nels!"
Only Bhanah's voice showed feeling as he finished.