to-morrow," he replied in a faltering voice; "I must have a little
time to think."

"I will not give you a single hour," answered the king. For seeing
the man before him was frightened, he began to suspect he was a
deceiver. "If you do not at once tell me where the gold and jewels are,
I will have you flogged until you find your tongue."

Hearing this, Hari-Sarman, though more terrified than ever, saw
that his only chance of gaining time to make up some story was to
get the king to believe in him. So he drew himself up and answered:
"The wisest magicians need to employ means to find out the truth. Give
me twenty-four hours, and I will name the thieves."

"You are not much of a magician if you cannot find out such a simple
thing as I ask of you," said the king. And turning to the guards,
he ordered them to take Hari-Sarman to prison, and shut him up there
without food or drink till he came to his senses. The man was dragged
away, and very soon he found himself alone in a dark and gloomy room
from which he saw no hope of escape.

He was in despair and walked up and down, trying in vain to think of
some way of escape. "I shall die here of starvation, unless my wife
finds some means of setting me free," he said. "I wish I had treated
her better instead of being so sulky with her." He tried the bars
of the window, but they were very strong: he could not hope to move
them. And he beat against the door, but no notice was taken of that.

9. What lesson does the trouble Hari-Sarman was in teach?

10. Do you think it would have been better for him to tell the king
he could not reveal secrets?

CHAPTER VI

When it got quite dark in the prison, Hari-Sarman began to talk to
himself aloud. "Oh," he said, "I wish I had bitten my tongue out
before I told that lie about the mare. It is all my foolish tongue
which has got me into this trouble. Tongue! Tongue!" he went on,
"it is all your fault."

Now a very strange thing happened. The money and jewels had been
stolen by a man, who had been told where they were by a young servant
girl in the palace whose name was Jihva, which is the Sanskrit word
for tongue; and this girl was in a great fright when she heard that a
revealer of secrets had been taken before the king. "He will tell of
my share in the matter," she thought, "and I shall get into trouble,"
It so happened that the guard at the prison door was fond of her,
as well as the thief who had stolen the money and jewels.