erstand, Colonel. What should I know?"

"Perhaps you would be well advised to try and remember. Do you mean to
tell me that you now hear of this business for the first time?"

"Certainly! I have not heard a word about it until now."

"And you have not been told that one of the assailants who was killed on
the spot was one of your servants?"

"No. I have a great many servants, and I am not responsible for their
actions, if they are not done by my orders."

"But this is exactly what I believe to have been the case. You will
hardly expect me to believe that one of your servants would have dared
to make such an attack on his own initiative. Unfortunately, the other
villains have escaped, but one of them left behind him a sabre belonging
to a man in your bodyguard."

It was evident that the Maharajah had a hard struggle to keep his
composure. Endeavouring to conceal his rage behind a supercilious smile,
he answered--

"It is beneath my dignity, Colonel, to answer you."

"There can be no question of dignity justifying you in a refusal to
answer the British resident, when he demands it. You are dealing not
with an ordinary British officer, but with the representative of His
Majesty the Emperor of India. It is your duty to answer, as it is mine
to question you. A refusal might have the most serious consequences for
Your Highness; for the Government Commissioners that would be despatched
from Calcutta to Chanidigot on my report might be but little impressed
by your dignity."

The Indian set his teeth and a wild passionate hate flashed from his
eyes, but, at the same time, he probably reflected that he would not
have been the first of the Indian princes to be deprived of the last
remnant of sham sovereignty for a paltry indiscretion.

"If you consider it necessary to make a report to Calcutta, I cannot
prevent your doing so; but I should think that the Viceroy would
hesitate before giving offence to a faithful ally of England, and at
the very moment when he has to ask him to despatch his contingent of
auxiliary forces."

"Since you refer to this matter--whom have you appointed to command your
force?"

"My cousin, Tasatat Maharajah."

"And when will he start?"

"In about four weeks, I hope."

The officer shook his head.

"That would be much longer than we can allow. Your force is to join my
detachment, and I am starting at latest in a fortnight from now."

"You are asking what is impossible. At present we hav