oard of gold an jewels--to be looked at. The
secret of that treasure made the throne worth plotting for--gave the
priests, who shared the secret, more than nine tenths of their power for
blackmail, pressure, and intrigue--and grew, like a cancer, into each
succeeding Rajah's mind until, from a man with a soul inside him he
became in turn a heartless, fear ridden miser.

Any childless king is liable to feel the insolent expectancy betrayed by
the heir apparent. But Jaimihr--who had no sons either--was an heir who
understood all of the Indian arts whereby a man of brain may hasten the
succession. Worry, artfully stirred up, is the greatest weapon of them
all, and never a day passed but some cleverly concocted tale would reach
the Rajah, calculated to set his guessing faculties at work.

Either of the brothers, when he happened to be thirsty, would call his
least-trusted counsellor to drink first from the jewelled cup, and would
watch the man afterward for at least ten minutes before daring to slake
his thirst; but Jaimihr had the moral advantage of an aspirant; Howrah,
on the defensive, wilted under the nibbling necessity for wakefulness,
while Jaimihr grinned.

What were five thousand drilled, armed men to a king who feared to use
them? Of what use was a waiting countryside, armed if not drilled, if he
was not sure that his brother had not won every man's allegiance? Being
Hindoo, priest-reared, priest-fooled, and priest-flattered, he knew, or
thought he knew, to an anna the value he might set on Hindoo loyalty
or on the loyalty of any man who did not stand to gain in pocket by
remaining true; and, as many another fear-sick tyrant has begun to do,
he turned, in his mind at least, to men of another creed--which in India
means of another race, practically-wondering whether he could not make
use of them against his own.

Like every other Rajah of his line, he longed to have sole control
of that wonderful treasure that had eaten out his very manhood. Miser
though he was, he was prepared at least to bargain with outsiders with
the promise of a portion of it, if that would give him possession of it
all. He had learned from the priests who took such full advantage of him
an absolute contempt for Mohammedans; and their teaching, as well as his
own trend of character, made him quite indifferent to promises he might
make, for the sake of diplomacy, to men of another creed. It began to be
obvious to him that he would lose nothin