own palace gate was reached there was as good as a state procession,
made up for the most part of men who tried to look as if they had made
a capture by sheer derring-do and skill.

And down the street, helter-skelter on a sweating thoroughbred, came
Maharajah Gungadhura Singh just in time to see the back of the carriage
as it rumbled in through the gateway and the iron doors clanged behind it.
Scowling--altogether too round-shouldered for the martial stock he sprang
from--puffy-eyed, and not so regal as overbearing in appearance, he
sat for a few minutes stroking his scented beard upward and muttering
to himself.

Then some one ventured to tell him where the carriage had been seen
waiting, and with what abundant skill it had been watched and tracked
from Jinendra's temple to that gate. At that he gave an order about the
posting of the guard, and, beckoning only one mounted attendant to
follow him, clattered away down-street, taking a turn or two to throw the
curious off the scent, and then headed straight for the temple on his
own account.





Chapter Five




An Audit by the Gods