“We are at peace now,” he said, “and I feel more secure than ever on my throne, but there is no knowing what may happen.”
There were no black looks now on the part of the Brahmin and the attendant priests, and it seemed as if the officers and men were welcome, for the treatment they received and the deference paid were of a marked character; while, on the other hand, the discipline kept up by the sergeant was stringent, and the temple people saw that every object in the vast, gloomy place was treated with the greatest respect.
Oddly enough, Stubbs selected Black Bob, as he was still called, to be his right-hand man there, and once only upon one of his visits Dick made a remark about it to the sergeant.
“Well, yes, sir, it does seem comic. There was a time when I’d rather have had any other man in the troop, and I don’t think I like him a bit better than then, but I’d trust him to do anything, or with anything. He don’t like me either, but you know he respects me as a soldier, and I respect him. He’s a gentleman still, and as a soldier—well, there, you know what he can do.”
“You’re not afraid of his helping himself to any of the idols’ jewels, then, Stubbs?”
“No, nor to any of the gold and silver down in the vaults here, sir. Not he. It’s a wonderfully rich place, sir. I don’t wonder at the Rajah liking to have us here. You get him to show you what there is here some day.”
“Not I,” said Dick contemptuously; “it would look too small. Let’s have a walk round.”
“Yes, sir. You can do it now without meeting one of the priests in every dark corner. It’s a wonderful place, sir; full of rum passages and dark holes. Regular dungeons, some of them. I expect they used them to put prisoners in, and there they are now, ready for any number.”
“What prisoners are they likely to have in a temple?”
“I don’t know, sir; but there they are, with rings in the walls, and chains, and strong doors. You might shut a man up in some of them, and he might holloa as long as he liked, and nobody would ever hear him, unless it was one of the stone gods. They might, perhaps.”