"Is he a Romany?"
"No."
Jan Jacobus half started up, but strong hands instantly jerked him down.
"He is a gorgio?"
"Yes."
"Do nothing. We do not soil our hands with gorgios. Let the woman bear the blame. She is a Romany. She should have known better. She is a woman, the wiser sex. It is her fault. Let her be punished."
"Do you all say so?" George Lane demanded.
"We say so." Again the rippling murmur.
Jan Jacobus made a desperate attempt to get on his feet, but, for all his strength, he might as well have tried to uncoil the folds of a great snake as to unbind the many hands that held him, for the Romanys have as many secret ways of restraining a person as the Japanese.
George Lane drew his wife tenderly close to him.