"'You have come for it?' he asked.
"We bowed low with respect, saying that we had come for it. He lay back in his chair, making a sign for me to approach. Previously we had told him that it was useless for him to call out to the servants."
"You did not tell those servants their fortunes in your present garb?"
"No, no, my mistress. We no such pigs as that.... Sahib Voski bid me approach. My friend had the 'pi' ready on the cloth.... It was held to the head of the other. And so he died peacefully in his chair."
"Ah, so you say. Where are your proofs?"
Ben Heer slowly withdrew a white packet from the folds of his dress.
"What better proof could the slave of my illustrious mistress have?" he asked. "It is here—the precious stone with the secrets of the gods written on it. Behold!"
With a slightly dramatic gesture a glittering fragment of something that looked like green jade was held on high. The princess grasped it eagerly and devoured it with her eyes. Words were pouring in a liquid stream from her lips; she was transformed almost beyond recognition.
"At last," she murmured, "at last! But the other one—your companion. How did he die? You say he is dead. How?"
Ben Heer shook his head sadly.