What will your rising be without the Snake?
Would they follow you a yard if they suspected you had lost it ?' 'So you would threaten me,' Laputa said very gently.

Then in a burst of wrath he shouted, 'They will follow me to hell for my own sake.
Imbecile, do you think my power is built on a trinket?
When you are in your grave, I will be ruling a hundred millions from the proudest throne on earth.' He sprang to his feet, and pulled back a shutter of the window, letting a flood of light into the hut.

In that light I saw that he had in his hands the ivory box which had contained the collar.
'I will carry the casket through the wars,' he cried, 'and if I choose never to open it, who will gainsay me?
You besotted fool, to think that any theft of yours could hinder my destiny!' He was the blustering savage again, and I preferred him in the part.

All that he said might be true, but I thought I could detect in his voice a keen regret, and in his air a touch of disquiet.

The man was a fanatic, and like all fanatics had his superstitions.
'Yes,' I said, 'but when you mount the throne you speak of, it would be a pity not to have the rubies on your neck after all your talk in the cave.' I thought he would have throttled me.