"There may be picric acid in prayers as well as in bombs."
"There may."
"We have to make these fanatical preachers realise that even if the onward march of progress is but faintly heard in the sealed vaults of their mosque, civilisation is standing outside the walls with its laws and, if need be, its soldiers."
"You are satisfied, sir, that this man is likely to lead the poor, foolish people into rapine and slaughter?"
"I recognise a bird by its flight. This is another Mahdi—I see it—I feel it," said the Consul-General, and his eyes flashed and his voice echoed like a horn.
"You want me to smash the Mahdi?"
"Exactly! Your namesake wanted to smash his predecessor—romantic person—too fond of guiding his conduct by reference to the prophet Isaiah; but he was right in that, and the Government was wrong, and the consequence was the massacre you represented to-day."
"I have to arrest Ishmael Ameer?"
"That's so, in open riot if possible, and if not, by means of testimony derived from his sermons in the mosques."
"Hadn't we better begin there, sir—make sure that he is inciting the people to violence?"