"You admit it?"
"I admit it, and I wait to see what these priests in their turn will confess respecting their doings at the Pagoda of Pillaji."
The priests looked at each other. They evidently did not understand the reference.
"Of course," cried Passe-partout impetuously, "at the Pagoda of
Pillaji, where they were about to burn their victim."
The priests looked stupefied, and the judge was almost equally astonished.
"What victim?" he asked. "To burn whom? In Bombay?"
"Bombay!" exclaimed Passe-partout.
"Of course. We are not talking of the Pagoda of Pillaji but of the
Pagoda of Malabar Hill at Bombay."
"And as a proof," added the clerk, "here are the shoes of the profaner of the temple;" and he placed a pair of shoes upon the desk as he spoke.
"My shoes!" exclaimed Passe-partout, who was surprised into this incautious admission.