"Ah! That is different?" said Sita Ram, pocketing Yasmini's letter, for
precaution's sake. "Wait here while I bring it!"

Two minutes later he returned with a parchment in a tin tube.

"Do I receive no recompense?" he asked. "Did I not find the title-deed
and keep it safe? Where is the reward?"

"Recompense?" growled Mukhum Dass. "To be out of jail is recompense!
The next time you find property of mine, bring it to me, or the constabeel
shall have work to do!"

"Dog!" snarled the babu after him. "Dog of a usurer! Wait and see!"





Chapter Eleven




To cover a trail is less than half the work, for any dog with a nose
can smell it out. You should make a false trail afterward to deceive
the clever folk. -Eastern Proverb

"Say: that little girl you're wanting to run off with is my wife!"

The other side to the intrigue developed furiously up at the Baines'