HOW PHARAOH MET SHADRACH When the ambassadors had gone, at first there was silence, a very heavy silence, since even the frivolous Abati felt that the hour was big with fate.

Of a sudden, however, the members of the Council began to chatter like so many monkeys, each talking without listening to what his neighbour said, till at length a gorgeously dressed person, I understood that he was a priest, stepped forward, and shouted down the others.
Then he spoke in an excited and venomous fashion.

He pointed out that we Gentiles had brought all this trouble upon Mur, since before we came the Abati, although threatened, had lived in peace and glory--he actually used the word glory!--for generations.

But now we had stung the Fung, as a hornet stings a bull, and made them mad, so that they wished to toss the Abati.

He proposed, therefore, that we should at once be ejected from Mur.
At this point I saw Joshua whisper into the ear of a man, who called out:-- "No, no, for then they would go to their friend, Barung, a savage like themselves, and having learned our secrets, would doubtless use them against us.