“As I have urgent business,” said I, “will it not be possible, by special permission, to obtain it to-day?”
“I don’t know,” replied the official, “what kind of business you have, but there is no precedent for giving a passport on the day of arrival. We can’t deliver one now; you had better go home.”
As the inn-keeper and the father of the daughter who received my treatment were with me, they invited the official apart and told him that I was the court-physician.
“On what business,” said the official, coming to me again, and with a great surprise, “are you going to India?”
“On some urgent business,” replied I. “Is it not possible for you to have the conference to-morrow?”
I could see that though I waited till the day after to-morrow, it would be quite impossible to get the passport, so I devised a scheme of my own to suit my purpose.
“If I wait till to-morrow,” said I in great excitement, “give me a note mentioning that though I arrived here on this date there was no time to open the conference, and you detained me here three days.”
“No such precedent,” said the chief official.
“I am not at all concerned about that,” said I; “I must get a note anyhow showing the cause of my detention here. If you want to know my position and my secret business, you may find it out by proper processes from the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs in Lhasa.”