"You are. You're the only trained stage-actor in the bunch. You're his height—not unlike his figure—"
"I resemble him as much as a kangaroo looks like an ostrich!" laughed
Jeremy. "You're talking wild, Jim. What have you had to drink?"
"How about you, Ramsden? Will you see this through?"
Jeremy shook his head at me. I believe he thought for the moment that Grim had gone mad. He hadn't the experience of Grim that I had, and consequently not the same confidence in Grim's ability to dream, catch the essence of the dream, pin it down and make a fact of it.
"I'll go the limit," said I.
"Well, I'll be damned" laughed Jeremy. "All right; same here. I stake a gold-mine and Rammy raises me. Fetch your crown and sceptre and I'll play king to Jim's ace in a royal straight flush. Mabel's queen. Hadad's a knave. He looks it! Keep smiling, Hadad, old top, and I'll let you forgive me. Rammy's the ten-spot—tentative—tenacious—ten aces up his sleeve—and packs a ten-ton wallop when you get him going. What's Narayan Singh? The deuce?"
"The joker," answered Grim. "Are you in on this?"
"Sahib, there was no need to ask. What your honor finds good enough— your honor's order—"
"Orders have nothing to do with it. We're not in British territory.
This in unofficial. I've no right to give you orders," said Grim.
"You're free to refuse. I'm likely to lose my job over this and so are
you if you take part in it."
Narayan Singh grinned hugely.