the "wisest fool in Christendom" remarked, "No bishop no king!" The
combination of sarcastic respect and contemptuous politeness produced
an insolence that none except kings would tolerate for a moment; but
Jinendra's fat high priest could guess how far he dared go, as shrewdly
as a marksman's guesses windage.

"She has betrayed us! That foreign she-bastard has betrayed us!"
shouted Gungadhura, slamming the priest's private door behind him
and ramming home the bolt as if it fitted into the breach of a rifle.

"Peace! Peace, Maharajah sahib! Out of anger came no wise counsel yet!"

"She has been to the commissioner's house!"

"I know it."

"You know it? Then she told you?"

The priest was about to lie, but Gungadhura saved him.

"I know she was here," he burst out. "My men followed her home."

"Yes, she was here. She told."

"How did you make her tell? The she-devil is more cunning than a cobra!"

Jinendra's high priest smiled complacently.

"A servant of the gods, such as I am, is not altogether without power.
I found a way. She told."