The Stolen Child 
would remain in the mission school until she had 
reached a certain age. In the presence of the 
mother and other witnesses, the uncle placed the 
hand of the child in mine and formally delegated 
to me all the rights of a guardian. 
This arrangement was very satisfactory both 
to the mother and her brother, until the mother 
married a Mussulman. The stepfather insisted 
that the child should be brought up in the faith 
of Islam, and persuaded the mother to demand its 
return. I felt that it would be a sin to return the 
child under the circumstances, and refused to 
comply with the demand, telling her that she 
could come to see her daughter whenever it 
suited her convenience, but that it must remain 
in school according to the contract. 
The Mussulman then sued me before Artum- 
bala for the possession of the child. He pre¬ 
sented his side of the case first and, if there was 
a single fact in any of his statements, that fact 
entirely eluded my observation. When my turn 
came, ignoring the falsehoods of the plaintiff, I 
made a plain statement of the facts of the case. 
Knowing that I could prove what I had said, the 
plaintiff tried to circumvent me by asking if the 
laws of my country would allow me to act as I 
was doing in this controversy. To this I replied, 
257 
