Each man of any influence at all began to scheme to use the system for the furtherance of his individual ambition.

Instead of bending all their energy and craft to the one great object of hurling an unloved conqueror back whence he came, each reigning prince strove to scheme himself head and shoulders above the rest; and each man who wanted to be prince began to plot harder than ever to be one.
So in Howrah the Maharajah's brother, Jaimihr, with a large following and organization of his own, began to use the secret system of which he by right formed an integral part and to set wheels working within the wheels which in course of time should spew him up on the ledge which his brother now occupied.

Long before the rebellion was ready he had all his preparations made and waited only for the general conflagration to strike for his own hand.

And was so certain of success that he dared make plans as well for Rosemary McClean's fate.
There is a blindness, too, quite unexplainable that comes over whole nations sometimes.

It is almost like a plague in its mysterious arrival and departure.