"God forbid!" laughed Samson. "That young woman is altogether too capable of trouble without a throne to play with! I suspect her, as it happens, of very definite and dangerous intentions along another line connected with the throne of Sialpore. But I know how to disappoint her and stop her game. I intend to recommend—for the second time, by the way—that she, also, should be sent to Europe for a proper education! But the point I'm driving at is this: are we agreed as to the proper course to take with Gungadhura?"
They nodded.
"Then, as I see it, there's no desperate hurry. Norwood will need time to gather evidence; I'll need specific facts, not hearsay, to ram down Gungadhura's throat. I'll send a wire to the high commissioner and another to Simla, embodying what we recommend, and—what do you say to sending for a battery or two?"
"Good!" said Willoughby de Wing. "A very good thought indeed! I know nothing of politics, except this; that there's nothing like guns to overawe the native mind and convince him that the game's up! Let's see— who'd come with the guns? Coburn, wouldn't he? Yes, Coburn. He's my junior in the service. Yes, a very good notion indeed. Ask for two batteries by all means."
"I'll tell them not to hurry," said Samson. "It's hot weather. They can make it in easy stages."
"By jove!" said Topham. "They'll be here in time for the polo. Won't they beef!"
"Talking of polo, who's to captain the other side? Is it known yet?" asked
De Wing.
"Utirupa," answered Topham. "There was never any doubt of that.
We've got Collins to captain us, and Latham and Cartwright, besides me.
We'll give him the game of his life!"
"That settles quite an important point," said Samson. "The polo tournament— after it, rather—is the time to talk to Utirupa. If we keep quiet until then— all of us, I mean—there'll be no chance of the cat jumping before the State Department pulls the string. I feel sure, from inside information, that Headquarters would like nothing known about this coup d'etat until it's consummated. Explanations afterward, and the fewer the better! Have a drink anybody?"
In the outer office beyond the curtain Sita Ram cautiously refitted the knot into its hole, and sat down to write hurriedly while details were fresh in mind. Ten minutes afterward, when the conference had broken up in small-talk, he asked permission to absent himself for an hour or two. He said he had a debt to pay across the river, to a man whose wife was ill.