“I’ve always been saddled with old Calaman before when I looked over the city,” he remarked. “It will be pleasant to go where we please and see what we please, without that old rascal always on the watch.”
The dinner that evening at the palace was well served, and Lord Slava made a noble figure at the head of the table, as the host.
There were fifty people at the great board, most of them of noble blood and resembling in a general way Lord Slava himself.
Nick Carter had the place of honor on the right of the host, with Chick on his left. Close by were the two Arnolds and Patsy Garvan. The white men declared afterward that they never had sat at a pleasanter dinner table.
It was proved that the educated inhabitants of Shangore were full of wit and a certain delicate humor that would have done credit to New York, Boston, or Philadelphia, not to leave out Chicago and San Francisco.
“Say, chief,” whispered Patsy, after a particularly good story by Lord Slava, “we haven’t got anything on these people at our swell public dinners in New York, have we?”
“The after-dinner speaker and story-teller is not peculiar to any age or clime,” laughed Nick Carter. “I hope they are taking care of Jai Singh and Adil through all this.”
“They are dining with my principal officers in an adjoining hall,” volunteered Lord Slava, who had overheard the remark of his guest. “We owe a great deal to Jai Singh. We must not forget that he wanted to take up the challenge of the Golden Scarab. It was only the detestable meanness and pretense of Calaman that prevented his doing the work that fell to you, Mr. Carter.”
“I can hardly feel bitter against Calaman for that,” laughed Nick. “I had an experience in that arena which was entirely new to me, and I must confess that I enjoy new sensations.”
There was more talk and jollity over various things, and then Nick Carter got to his feet, and in a speech that Patsy afterward said was a bully one, thanked Lord Slava for his assistance in rescuing Leslie Arnold, winding up by requesting him to accept the rifle that had killed the head of the Golden Scarab and had helped to bring a better government to Shangore.