"The prince, having enjoyed the advantages of association with sundry
British officials, was entirely too sagacious and philosophical to
discourage the industry of the merchant at the outset; and with the
patience which is enabled to foresee the end from the beginning, he
awaited developments.

"In consequence, the merchant attained to everything but the ostentation
of his possessions, and only assumed the dignity of his riches in the
less calculating confines of his household.

"Even here, however, the subsidy of his liege was active, for among the
servants of the merchant were those whose appraising eyes followed every
movement, and whose mercenary memories recorded every transaction.

"With all the concern of a silent partner Prince Otondo balanced, in his
philosophical mind, the various enterprises of Ram Lal.

"If they met with his august approval, the merchant's traffic was
singularly free from obstruction; if the element of uncertainty was too
pronounced for the apprehensive potentate, the most surprising occasions
for the abandonment of his projects were developed for Ram Lal, whose
intelligent mind was inclined to suspect the identity of his providence.

"Prince Otondo did not propose to have his interests jeopardized by
precipitation or undue hazard.

"But this unhappy merchant, with perverse and unaware industry, advanced
still another claim to the covert regard of his calculating highness.

"Although a widower, there remained, to remind him of his departed
blessedness, a daughter, who was, as reported by the mercenaries of the
prince, beautiful beyond their limited means of expression.

"The unfortunate Ram Lal, therefore, commending himself to this elevated
espionage, first by his 'ducats' and next his 'daughter,' was in the
predicament of the missionary whose embonpoint endears him to his savage
congregation and whose edibility is convincing enough to arouse the
regret that he is not twins.

"Prince Otondo, whose imagination was stimulated by this vicarious
contemplation of beauty, did not find it difficult to decide that the
transits of Ram Lal to and from the British barracks were open to
suspicion that demanded some biased investigation.

"Unfortunately, too, the colonel in charge of the British forces at
Delhi was equally uneasy concerning the integrity of the merchant, a
state of mind which had been judiciously aggravated by the emissaries of
Prince Otondo.

"The officer in charge knew tha