Talbot Mundy

“ Jeff grumbled. “Strange is no fool when it comes to business. All the way home this morning, after we shot the tiger, he was telling me what a magnificent property this forest is. He has made up his mind to have it. That beastly babu has told him how to get it. All he’s wondering now is how to meet the raja of Chota Pegu without arousing your suspicion.”
“That’s all arranged,” said Ommony. “If I know Chota Pegu he’ll be here soon after breakfast with his best horse foundered under him. I sha’n’t be here. This is the order of the day: Chullunder Ghose rides away before it’s light. ”

“ He waved his hand jauntily, and started down the rock, awkwardly because of long spurs. Half-way down he turned and called back.
“Downy old dodger! After this you will retire, of course! I will meet you in Paris!”
Ommony ignored the innuendo. In India a man grows used to misinterpretation of his motives. Even if he could have proved, black on white, that Strange had not bribed him the raja would have continued unconvinced.
“Don’t take my horse,” he warned. “That bay’s an old friend.”
“A very old one—yet fresher than mine!”
“I won’t have him ill-treated.”
“Pooh! Use him for tiger-bait! ”

“ You’ll see!”
“Do you know what Strange will think, if he learns you are staying with this raja?” Ommony asked her. “Our Indian rajas have a certain reputation.”
“Poof! He knows better. He might pretend to think that. He is cruel enough to pretend anything. But he will know it isn’t true, so what does that matter? It is what one knows that influences, not what one pretends to think. He knows in his heart he likes me. He said—over afternoon tea in New York—he would choose me before any woman in the world, if he were of the marrying kind. ”

“ Strange wakes up.”
“On foot? By train? To Hades?”
“The raja of Chota Pegu’s horse is in my stable. Ride across the forest and return the horse to its owner with my compliments.”
“A red one? Sahib, I know that beast! Self am not expert in equitation. Forest, moreover, is full of leopards, tigers, elephants, and snakes of all sorts! Do not know way.”
“I will lend you a jungli.”
“Who will kill and eat me! Sahib, with your honor’s favor this babu will take train and change at Sissoo Junction.” ”

“ What can do but tickle ear of money-nabob with account of ripe apples in next orchard, whetting appetite of octopus for loot, which is envy of white man, always? What could do? Must say something! He is incarnation of inquiry armed with can-opener and too much zeal. ”

“ In all likelihood he’ll meet the raja and have word with him. I leave an hour later. If I chance to meet the raja I’ll have word with him too. You see him next, and leave him alone with Meldrum Strange. They’ll cook up something or other between them; and there’s nothing we can do until we find out what that is. There’s only one point to be careful on: Are you sure the babu didn’t tell Strange about Madame Poulakis? ”

“ Told nothing this babu knows for certain. Truth is like savings bank account, for use in dire emergency. Direness not yet obvious. Spoke much of raja of Chota Pegu, intellectual gent with expensive leanings and no cash. Conversation turned on said aristocrat’s claim to own birthright in enormous tract of this forest. ”

“ Get to know people—as for instance, priests. If I should send word to you by jungli to meet me in a certain place, why not keep the appointment? If the raja asks you about Mr. Meldrum Strange, you may say——”
“Let me memorize your honor’s wisdom!”
“—whatever occurs to you as good sense at the moment. Bed now! There’s a cot in the out-house.”
THE babu shuffled off, his bare feet rutching on the polished floor, and Ommony joined his guests on the veranda. But Meldrum Strange proved taciturn, not even loosening his tongue under the influence of questions about the tiger he shot that morning. ”

“ He called down to the junglis, and one of them started away through the trees like a fantom, followed by Diana and the other dogs. (Hereditary junglis are as dirt beneath the feet of an hereditary prince; but a white man’s dogs are not to be despised.) ”