"He is wasting time! Sita Ram, who has a compass, and who knows
all that goes on in Samson sahib's office, sent me word that the little
vein of gold runs nearly due north. In another week at the rate the men
are digging your husband will be under the fort. That is English territory.
The English have nothing to do with Gungadhura's contract. They will
take the gold your husband finds and give him nothing. Then Samson
sahib would be considered a most excellent commissioner and would
surely get promotion! Pouf!"

"Perhaps my husband can make a separate bargain with the English."

"Pouf! Samson sahib is an idiot, but he is not fool enough to give away
what would be in his hands already! I myself, hidden beneath your
window, heard him give you clear warning on that point! No, there must
be another plan. Your husband must dig elsewhere."

"But, my dear, Gungadhura knows already that my husband has found
a 'leader.' He is all worked up about it, and goes every day to watch
the progress."

"Surely--knowing as well as I do that the vein is leading toward the fort.
He goes afterward to the priests, and prays that the vein of gold may
turn another way and save him from bankruptcy! Listen? I speak truth!
I speak to you woman to woman--womb to womb! I will count myself
accursed, and will let a cobra bite me if I tell you now one word that is
not true! Do you believe I am going to tell you the truth?"

Tess nodded. Yasmini, by her own admission, would lie deliberately
when that suited her; but the truth tells itself, as it were, and there is