Tom Tripp had done exactly what Yasmini ordered him. Like his dog
Trotters, whom he had schooled to perfection, and as he would have
liked to have the maharajah's guards behave, he always fell back on
sheer obedience whenever facts bewildered him or circumstances
seemed too strong.

Yasmini had ordered him to report to the maharajah a chance encounter
with an individual named Gunga Singh. Accordingly he did. Asked
who Gunga Singh was, he replied he did not know. She had told him
to say that Gunga Singh said the Princess Yasmini was at the commissioner's
house; so he told the maharajah that and nothing further. Gungadhura
sent two men immediately to make inquiries. One drew the commissioner's
house blank, bribing a servant to let him search the place in Samson's
absence; the other met the commissioner himself, and demanded of
him point-blank what he had been doing with the princess. The question
was so bluntly put and the man's attitude so impudent that Samson lost
his temper and couched his denial in blunt bellicose bad language.
The vehemence convinced the questioner that he was lying, as the
maharajah was shortly informed. So the fact became established beyond
the possibility of refutation that Yasmini had been closeted with Samson
for several hours that morning.

Remained, of course, to consider why she had gone to him and what
might result from her visit; and up to a certain point, and in certain cases
accurate guessing is easier than might be expected for either side to
a political conundrum, in India, ample provision having been made for
it by all concerned.

The English are fond of assuring strangers and one another that spying