Jeff marched up to him, struck his pose and said, “Peace be unto you!
Master, I have a complaint to make about your servants. They have stopped us from carrying out our holy work, work which is blessed by His Serene Highness himself, the Imperial Hand!”
The officer fingered his swagger stick, then spoke in his own language to his subordinates. He turned back to Jeff. “Who are you?”
“A priest of the great god Mota. ”
The PanAsian asked the same question of Alec; Jeff interceded. “Master,” he said hastily, “he is a most holy man who has taken a vow of silence.
If you force him to break it the sin will be on your head.”
The officer hesitated. The bulletin concerning these crazy savages had been most pointed, but it had given no clear precedents for dealing with them. He hated to establish precedents; those who did so were sometimes promoted, more frequently they joined their ancestors. “He need not break his holy vow. But show me your cards, both of you.”
Jeff looked amazed. “We are humble, nameless holy men, serving the great god Mota. What have we to do with such?”
“Hurry up!”
Jeff tried to look sad rather than nervous. He had rehearsed this speech in his mind; much depended on it getting across. “I am sorry for you, young Master. I will pray to Mota on your behalf. But now I must insist that you take me before the Hand of the Emperor — at once!”
“That’s impossible.”
“His Highness has seen me before; he will see me again. The Hand of the Emperor is always ready to see the servers of the great god Mota.”
The officer looked at him, turned and went back into the station house.
They waited.
“Do you suppose he’ll actually have us taken before the prince?” Howe whispered.
“I hope not. I don’t think so.”
“Well, what will you do if he does?”
“Whatever I have to. Shut up — you’re supposed to be under a vow of silence.”
The officer came back after several minutes and said curtly, “You are free to go.”
“To the Imperial Hand?” Jeff inquired maliciously.
“No, no! Just go. Get out of my district.,”
Jeff stepped back one pace and delivered a last benediction. The two “priests” turned away. From the corner of his eye Jeff saw the officer lift his swagger stick and cut savagely at the senior of the two policemen; he pretended not to see. He walked about a block before he spoke to Howe. “There! We should have no more trouble for a while.”
“How do you figure? You sure got him sore at us.”
“That’s not the point. We can’t afford to have him or any other cop thinking he can push us around like the others. By the time we have gone three blocks the word will be all over town that I’m back and to lay off. That’s the way we’ve got to have it.”
“Maybe so. I still think it’s dangerous to have the cops on the alert for us.”
“You don’t understand,” Jeff said impatiently. “There isn’t any other safe way to do it. Cops are cops, no matter what is the color of their skin. They deal in fear and they understand fear. Once they understand we can’t be touched, that it is very bad medicine to bother us, they’ll be as polite to us as they are to their superiors. You’ll see.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I’m right. Cops are cops. Pretty soon we’ll have them on our payroll.
Oh, oh! Watch it, Alec — here comes another one.” A PanAsian policeman was dogtrotting up behind them. However, instead of overtaking them or calling to them to halt, he crossed over and kept abreast with them on the other side of the street. He ignored them determinedly.
“What’s up, d’you think, Jeff?”
“We’re being chaperoned. A good thing, Alec the rest of the monkeys won’t bother us now. We’ll just get on with our job. You know this town pretty well, don’t you? Where do you think we ought to locate the temple?”
“I guess that depends on what you are looking for.”