Curiosity getting the better of him, Yuan Ki got up
and crept across the hall. Coming close to the casket, he looked
through the glass cover--and there lay the teacher.
Just then a hand was laid on Yuan Ki's shoulder, and the nurse hustled
him back to bed, scolding him for his imprudence. "But," said Yuan Ki,
"the teacher--how did he die?"
"Lie still," said the nurse, "and I will tell you. When you fell into
the water, teacher jumped from that high window to the ground. It
seemed to sprain his ankle, or something, for he limped badly as he
made his way to the water. He reached you just as you went down the
last time, and bore you up. A man ran out on the deck with a boat-hook
and reached for you both. He caught your sleeve and hauled you in, but
the current carried teacher out of reach, and then we saw him sink. He
was an expert swimmer, but the sprain must have caused him to lose
consciousness."
Yuan Ki's next letter to his father read in part like this: "My
father, my heart is broken, for I shall not see your face again. I
know that what I shall tell you means that your hopes for me will be
crushed and that you will disinherit me; but, oh, my father, I have
learned now what is the love of Christ. Teacher had tried to tell us
about his Christ, who said: 'Greater love hath no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his friends.
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