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But nobody else in Sialpore took very much notice of Samson's excavation, and nobody cared about Dick's mine. Every maharajah always tries to make his wedding and coronation ceremonies grander, and more extravagant and memorable than anybody's else have been since history began; and there are plenty whose interest it is to encourage him, and to help him do it; money-lenders, for instance.
Gungadhura sent men immediately to search Sialpore for horses that might be held in waiting for her, with orders to hire or buy the animals over her head, or in the alternative to lame them. As for her motive in visiting the commissioner, that was not far to seek. There was only one motive in Sialpore for anything the treasure.
"Well I will take the hazard. Bring them in. But I will not feed them. And if you fail to come for them before dawn I will turn them out and it shall be all over Sialpore that the Princess Yasmini " "One moment, Mukhum Dass! If one word of this escapes your lips for a month to come, you shall go to jail for receiving stolen money in payment of a debt!
"D'you mean that there might be alluvial gold down by the river?" she asked. "Now, now, Mrs. Blaine!" he laughed. "You Americans are not so ingenuous as you like to seem! Do you really expect us to believe that your husband's purpose isn't in fact to discover the Sialpore Treasure?" "I never heard of it." "I suspect he hasn't told you." "I'll bet with you, if you like," she answered.
But Samson, prince of indiscretion, had seen fit three months before to let that official go home to England on long leave, and to volunteer the double duty in his absence. The proposal having economic value, and there being no known trouble in Sialpore just then, the State Department had consented. The worst of that was that there was no one now in actual close touch with Gungadhura.
He'll have to be stopped, and I'll have to make some sort of explanation." "What's an American doing in Sialpore?" "Prospecting. Has a contract with Gungadhura." "Um-m-m! We'll have Standard Oil in next! Better point out to Utirupa that contracts with foreigner's aren't regarded cordially." "That's easily done," said Samson. "Utirupa is nothing if not anxious to please."
He noticed a change in her voice symptoms of new interest, and passed it to the credit of himself. "There's an intrigue going on, and you can help me. Sp people whose business it is to keep me informed have reported that Tom Tripe is constantly carrying letters from the Princess Yasmini of Sialpore to that young Prince Utirupa who was here this afternoon. "You mean the British would depose him?"
Once again, my Lords, a royal daughter of a throne of Rajasthan shall choose her husband in the sight of all of us let come of it what may!" He ceased, and the crowd burst into cheers. Yasmini translated his speech afterward to Tess. He said not a word of Gungadhura, or of the throne of Sialpore, leaving that act of utter daring to the woman who was, after all, the leader of them all that night.
"Do as I say, Tom Tripe, and when I am maharanee of Sialpore you shall have double pay and a troupe of dancing girls and a dozen horses and the title of bahadur and all the brandy you can drink. The sepoys shall furthermore have modern uniforms, and you shall drill them until they fall down dead. I have promised. Go!"
That would be the end, then, of the safety of the secret. There was food for reflection there. What if the famous treasure of Sialpore were buried somewhere in the grounds of the River Palace! Somewhere, for instance, among those gigantic pipal trees. He folded the map and returned it to Sita Ram. "I'm expecting half a dozen officers presently. Show them in the minute they come.
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