the river, the maharajah has taken the posting of palace guards out of
my hands entirely. I've still the duty to inspect and make sure they're
on the job--Oh, I see! I have it!"

He turned on the corporal with all the savagery that the white man
generates in contact with Eastern subordinates.

"What do you mean," he demanded in the man's own language, "by
standing in the way of the maharajah sahib's orders? Here's his highness
sending a lady doctor to the princess for an excuse to confine her
elsewhere and have all this trouble off our hands, and you, like a
blockhead, stand in the way to prevent it! See--there's the letter!"

The Rajput looked perplexed. All the world knows what privileges the
rare American women doctors enjoy in that land of sealed seraglios.

"But it is written in English," he objected. "The maharajah sahib does
not write English."

"Idiot! Of what use would a letter in Persian be to an American lady doctor?'

"But to me? It is I who command the guard and must read the letter.
How can I read the letter?"

"I'll read it to you. What's more, I'll explain it. The princess has been
appealing to the commissioner sahib--"

The Rajput nodded. It was all over town that Yasmini had been closeted
with the commissioner on the morning of her recent escape. She
herself had deliberately sown the seeds of that untruth.