Read "Dr. Nikola Returns" by Guy Boothby online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"There are two points which we must hold in constant remembrance," said Nikola. "The first is that you are not a Chinaman, and the other is that if you go before the High Priest to-morrow morning and pose as one, he'll certainly find you out, and then we shall be ruined completely. If you run away I had better run too, for all the good I can get by stopping, but that I am resolved not to do. It has cost me many years' labour, to say nothing of some thousands of British sovereigns, to get as far as I have in this business, and come what may I am determined not to turn back."
"But in what way are we to get out of the difficulty?" I asked dejectedly. "If I can't come before them and brazen the matter out, and I can't remain away for fear of confirming what they already suspect, and I can't leave the monastery without drawing down suspicion on you, I must confess I don't see what is to be done. I suppose we couldn't bribe the man to withdraw his charge?"