"And Ananda, not being able to have you removed, wanted to shatter your prestige?"
"He thought that if I were humiliated in being beaten by a supposed native I'd ask to be transferred."
"Then it was all a plot, the other bout furnishing Boelke a chance to taunt you?"
"Yes, and clever. That final scene in the 'love song' doesn't belong there at all--I mean where the lover is resuscitated to challenge the gods to combat; that emanated in Ananda's brain; and when I saw the second wrestler come out painted black to represent Bhairava, I was convinced there was deviltry afloat and that it was the Hun."
Swinton laughed. "He got a surprise, major, though he was a dirty fighter. I saw the toe hold, but didn't see what happened to him."
"I gave him a paralysing something I had learned from a Jap in Calcutta. If you stand up, I'll show you."
Finnerty clutched the captain's hip, and, with the tip of a finger, gave a quick pressure on a nerve in the "crest of the ilium" bone. The effect was extraordinary; a dulling numbness shot with galvanic force to the base of Swinton's skull--needles penetrated his stomach.
"Marvellous!" the captain gasped, as he almost collapsed back into his chair.
The major smiled. "That was a new one on my Hun friend, for I cracked him there with the knuckles--almost brought the bone away."
"How many Huns has Boelke got?" Swinton asked.
"I don't know--three or four, and they're all service men; one can tell the walk of a Prussian, soldier or officer. Nominally, they are archæological men. Our paternal government actually supplied the prince with Doctor Boelke, for he was in government service in Madras Presidency, exploring old ruins."
"He is. All this temple row is his. This Dharama who wants to put the brass Buddha in is really a half-caste--a tool of the prince's. Ananda's plan is so full of mystery, neither I nor any one else can get head or tail of it. He doesn't appear in these rows, therefore the Buddhists think he is not a bigoted Hindu. So do the Mussulmans; and no doubt he will tell these two sects that I, as the British raj representative, fought against them. I think he's trying to get these two fighting peoples, the Mussulmans and the Nepalese, with him against the British if he comes out as a liberator. He's planning a propaganda so big that these three sects will bury their differences under a leader who does not stand for Brahmanism alone. I believe he's almost insane on this idea that he can unite the natives, Mussulmans, Hindus, and Buddhists, against the British raj. He bids for the Mussulman support by removing himself from that nest of Brahmanism, the maharajah's palace in the old fort, and secretly letting it be understood the Brahman's sway, with their tithe of a sixth of Darpore revenue, will cease when he sits on the _guddi_. There is an Asoka pillar in the Place of Roses that doesn't belong there; he stole it from a temple, I fancy. On its polished sides is a line of weathering showing that it was buried deeper than it is now for centuries. He put it there to show the Buddhists that his palace is in a sacred place--the true spot where Buddha received knowledge. He knows that his own people will stick to his rule--they can't do anything else--and he hopes to win the Buddhists by a crazy pose that he is the new Buddha--a war Buddha, ordained to the task of giving them liberty."