He turned to Râm Nâth instantly and pointed out both signs, as to one who ought to know their value. 'What is up?' he said briefly. 'You must have seen these amulets being sold, as I did. Is it a trick? and who is doing it? and why?' His companion shrugged his shoulders. 'The priests, I should say--it is on a par with the paper which fell from heaven. There is always something. You think we ought to protest; but why? Such manifestations of the temper of the masses strengthen the hands of the Opposition by engendering a fear of resistance in the Government, and so making for the considerate treatment at which we aim. It is not as if such trivialities could do harm.' 'They might--there is some hope of mischief behind them--there must be----' 'Mischief!' echoed Râm Nâth acutely; 'you know as well as I that there are many folk in Nushapore whose only hope lies in mischief, and here comes one of them.' He pointed to Burkut Ali, who, accompanied by a servant carrying a bundle of kites, was passing towards the bastion beyond the bridge. He was followed by other claimants to the 'Sovereignty of Air,' which was due to be decided that evening after the kites had been chosen and entered for the competition. Râm Nâth looked after the faded brocades contemptuously. 'Poor devils!' he said--as an Englishman might have said it--'one cannot help pitying them, and yet, between ourselves, if we were in power we couldn't do anything else with them; though, of course, as the Opposition, it does not do to say so! But to return to our argument. Believe me, the ignorant masses are helpless without a lead, and we, the educated party, will not give it towards anything unconstitutional.' 'But others might. Burkut Ali, for instance.' 'Burkut Ali? Not to-day, at any rate! He will be occupied in the Sovereignty of Air--really an appropriate employment, is it not?' replied Râm Nâth lightly. 'And as we--and all Nushapore which carries any weight--will be otherwise engaged also, this affair of amulets--even if there is anything in it--will be like the heaven-sent paper by tomorrow. I, at any rate, know of no reason why this should not be so,' he added a trifle resentfully, seeing the look on his companion's face, 'and if I don't, who should? Well! good-bye, if you are not coming on.' Chris felt doubly relieved; partly at the almost unhoped-for straightforwardness of Râm Nâth's words, but mostly because he had been growing conscious during the conversation of the fact that, wherever he might find comradeship, it was not here. Still in that same weary bewilderment, therefore, he seated himself on the uppermost step and looked down to where, in the deep shadow of the archway of _Mai_ Kâli's temple, he could just see--above the heads of a little crowd listening to a declaiming priest--a hint of the idol's red outstretched arms.