there a local chattering
broke the stillness for a moment, where some dry branch snapped,
refusing to bear its burden.

For minutes the two hesitated, considering the wounded one; then the
elder priest drew out the kerchief. Skag did not understand all the
words spoken, but he made out that this kerchief was a token that
should find the hand that caused the wound "_and seal it unto
torment_." The second priest's lips moved, repeating the same
covenant. The elder then turned back toward the city, signifying that
Skag might follow.

After they had walked some time, the old priest halted and drew forth
the kerchief again. He examined the monogram woven with a fine needle
into the corner. To him the shape of the first English letter was like
a ploughshare, and the second was like the form in which certain large
birds fly in company over the heights of the hill country. The priest
looked long, then hid the kerchief once more, and they hurried on.

Near the unwalled city, the priest sat down before the pandit, Ratna
Ram, whose seat was under the kadamba tree by the temple of Maha Dev.
Ratna Ram was learned in the signs of different languages and could
write them with a reed, so that those who had knowledge could decipher
his writing, even after many days and at a great distance: Ratna Ram,
to whom the gods had given that greatest of all kinds of wisdom,
whereby he could hold secretly any knowledge and not speak of it till
the thing should be accomplished. (The pandit was well known to Skag
who studied Hindi before him for an hour or more, on certain days.)

Taking the reed from Ratna Ram, the old priest carefully reproduced the
letters he had memorised--A. V.--explained that he had found a
kerchief, doubtless fallen from some foreigner as he walked in the
jungle. . . . Did the pandit know the man whose name was written
so? . . . Now the priest spoke rapidly in his own tongue, repeating
the covenant Skag had heard him pronounce in the monkey glen.

For a while Ratna Ram sat silent. The priest waited patiently, knowing
that the pandit's wisdom was working in him and that he was considering
the matter.

Then Ratna Ram spoke to the priest:

"Oh, Covenanted, you are learned in many things and I am ignorant. But
knowledge of some things has pierced to my understanding like a sharp
sword. Consider, oh, Covenanted, Indian Government, who is lord over
all this land, over the Mussulman and over us also, over our lan