Shall we try it together ?" [Footnote 2: See the newspaper accounts of fire-walking in the presence of the Prince of Wales and about a thousand witnesses mostly European.] I did not hesitate.

There are times when even such a slow thinker as I am can make up his mind in a flash.

I said "No" with such emphasis that King laughed.

The Mahatma looked at me rather pityingly, but made no comment.

He invited the two of us to sit down, so we squatted on the floor as close to the trough as we could go without being scorched.
There were no screens or obstructions of any kind, and the only appliance in evidence was an iron paddle, which the man who had admitted us picked up off the floor.
He took that paddle, and without any preliminary fuss or hesitation walked straight on to the bed of white-hot charcoal, beginning at one end, and smoothed the whole glowing surface with the paddle, taking his time about it and working with as little excitement as a gardener using a rake.