The maharajah nodded.
"Good!" he said curtly.
"I cautioned the relieving guard that if they had a word to say to any one they'd follow the first lot into cells. It don't do to have it known that elephants break loose that easy."
"Good!"
"Subsequently, acting on instructions from Your Highness, I searched the cellar of Mr. Blaine's house on the hill, Chamu the butler holding a candle for me." "What did he see? What did that treacherous swine see?" snapped Gungadhura, pushing back the bandage irritably from the corner of his mouth.
"Nothing, Your Highness, except that he saw me lift a stone and look under it."
"What did you see under the stone?"
"A silver tube, all wrought over with Persian patterns, and sealed at both ends with a silver cap and lots o' wax."
"Why didn't you take it, you idiot?"
"Two reasons. Your Highness told me to report to you what I saw, not to take nothing. And Mr. Blaine came to the top of the cellar ladder and was damned angry. He'd have seen me if I'd pinched a cockroach. He was that angry that he locked the cellar door afterward, and nailed it down, and rolled a safe on top of it!"