“‘I have observed the proprieties in making my request. It is a time-honored custom for the suppliant to signalize his appreciation of the importance of the favor he solicits.’
“Ah! a sudden illumination pervaded the mind of the prince.
“The sapphire was a royal subsidy.
“What favor could he grant in proportion to the value of such means of overture?
“The question established another point of association; unconsciously he quoted again:
“‘To-day at sundown I shall expect my daughter. If she does not come to me then, O prince, a heaping handful of the precious stones you hold so dearly will be missing, and in their stead will be as many pebbles from the fountain in the courtyard.’
“‘Pebbles for diamonds!’ he repeated, and yet the proposition did not appeal to his cynical humor. There was menace in the suggestion, but his intolerant spirit did not resent it.
“In a vague way he was more convinced than alarmed, and did not pause to puzzle over the anomaly, although reassured somewhat as he reflected upon the cunning safeguards to his treasury, whose solitary sesame was known to himself alone.
“Prince Otondo, like other native rulers at this period, frightened at the mercenary reforms of the British in other sections, and instructed by the unhappy comparisons, had concentrated the whole of his fortune and considerable of his current revenues in jewels.
“These were portable and could be concealed about his person in any emergency demanding a hasty abdication on his part.