"Listen! The Rajah is talking with him!" said Michael Petroff, holding up his finger for silence.
"Nobody is watching you, my dear friend," said the Doctor's quiet voice.
And a deep and almost gentler voice replied: "I heard the watchman walking back and forth before my door all night, Sir. And I also heard the drum when the watch was relieved."
"My friend," answered the Doctor, "You must have been dreaming."
"No," continued the man whom Michael Petroff had called the "Rajah," "I excuse you, Sir, because I know that you are only doing your duty. But your tact ought to prevent you from carrying out your precautions in such an obvious way. I have given you my word of honor not to make any attempt to escape. I want you to tell that to the English government, by whose authority you are keeping me here in confinement. Neither have I any weapons concealed in my room. I want you to search it."
"I know that perfectly well, my friend!"
"All the same, I want you to search."
And the "Rajah" would not be satisfied until the Doctor had promised that his room should be searched immediately.
During this conversation Dr. März had appeared in the doorway, with the "Rajah" just behind him. Dr. März was a small man, dressed in a light-gray suit, with a ruddy beardless face and a quick, searching but gentle eye, while the "Rajah" stood behind him, tall and dark, and almost filling up the doorway. The "Rajah" had a long black beard and a fearless, dark brown face, in which the whites of his eyes showed strikingly.
The "Rajah" was simply a teacher, who had taught for a few years in India in a German school. A protracted fever had caused an incipient delusion, which, after his return to his native land, took entire possession of him. He imagined himself to be an Indian prince, who had been exiled by the English government.