Guns of the Gods Part 45

Samson paused, then whispered: "The treasure of Sialpore!"

"What--in the palace?"

"In the grounds! There's a tunnel already half-dug, leading toward it from inside the palace wall. I've proof of the location in my pocket!"

"Gad's teeth!" barked Willoughby de Wing. "All right, I'll have your escort in a jiffy. Have a whisky and soda, my boy, to stiffen you before the talk with Gungadhura!"

A little less than half an hour later Samson drove across the bridge in the official landau, followed by an officer, a jemadar, a naik and eight troopers of De Wing's Sikh cavalry. Willoughby de Wing drove in the carriage with him as a witness. They entered the palace together, and were kept waiting so long that Samson sent the major-domo to the maharajah a second time with a veiled threat to repeat, said slowly:

"Say the business is urgent and that I shall not be held responsible for consequences if he doesn't see me at once!"

"Gad!" swore De Wing, s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g in his monocle. "I'd like a second whisky and soda! I suppose there's none here. I hate to see a man broke--even a blackguard!"

Gungadhura received them at last, seated, in the official durbar room.

The bandages were gone from his face, but a strip of flesh-colored court-plaster from eye to lip gave him an almost comical look of dejection, and he lolled in the throne-chair with his back curved and head hung forward, scowling as a man does not who looks forward to the interview.

Samson cleared his throat, and read what be had to say, holding the paper straight in front of him.

"I have a disagreeable task of informing Your Highness that your correspondence with the Mahsudi tribe is known to His Majesty's Government."

Gungadhura scowled more deeply, but made no answer.

"Amounting as it does to treason, at a time when His Majesty's Government are embarra.s.sed by internal unrest, your act can not be overlooked."

Gungadhura made a motion as if to interrupt, but thought better of it.

"In the circ.u.mstances I have the honor to advise Your Highness that the wisest course, and the only course that will avoid impeachment, is abdication."

Gungadhura shook his head violently.

"I can explain," he said. "I have proofs."

Samson turned the paper over--paused a moment--and began to read the second sheet.

"It is known who murdered Mukhum Da.s.s. The a.s.sa.s.sin has been caught, and has confessed."

Gungadhura's eyes that had been dull, and almost listless. .h.i.therto, began to glare like an animal's.

"I have here--" Samson reached in his pocket, "a certain piece of parchment-- a map in fact--that was stolen from the body of Mukhum Da.s.s. Perhaps Your Highness will recognize it. Look!"

Gungadhura looked, and started like a man stung. Samson returned the map to his pocket, for the maharajah almost looked like trying to s.n.a.t.c.h it; but instead he collapsed in his chair again.

"If I abdicate?" he asked, as if his throat and lips could hardly form the words.

"That would be sufficient. The a.s.sa.s.sin would then be allowed to plead guilty to another charge there is against him, and the matter would be dropped."

"I abdicate!"

"On behalf of His Majesty's Government I accept the abdication. Sign this, please."

Samson laid a formal written act of abdication on the table by the throne.

Gungadhura signed it. Willoughby de Wing wrote his signature as witness.

Samson took it back and folded it away.

"Arrangements will be made for Your Highness to leave Sialpore tomorrow morning, with a sufficient escort for your protection. Provision will be made in due course for your private residence elsewhere. Be good enough to hold yourself and your family in readiness tomorrow morning."

"But my son!" exclaimed Gungadhura. "I abdicate in favor of my son!"

"In case of abdication by a reigning prince, or deposition of a reigning prince," said Samson, "the Government of India reserves the right to appoint his successor, from among eligible members of his family if there be any, but to appoint his successor in any case. There is ample precedent."

"And my son?"

"Will certainly not be considered."

Gungadhura glanced about him like a frenzied man, and then lay back in a state of near-collapse. Samson and De Wing both bowed, and left the room.

"Poor devil!" said De Wing, "I'm sorry for him."

"Would you be a good fellow," said Samson, "and send off this wire for me? There--I've added the exact time of the abdication. I've got to go now and summon a durbar of Gungadhura's state officers, and tell them in confidence what's happened. I shall hint pretty broadly that Utirupa is our man, and then ask them which prince they'd like to have succeed."

"Good!" said De Wing. "Nothing like tact! Why not meet me at the club for a whisky and soda afterward?"

Inside the durbar hall Gungadhura sat alone for just so long as it took the sound of the closing door to die away. Then another door, close behind the throne chair opened, and Patali entered. She looked at him with pity on her face, and curiosity.

"That American sold you," she said after a minute.

"Eh?"

"I say, that American sold you! He sold you, and the map, and the treasure to the Englis.h.!.+"

"I know it! I know it!"

"If I were a man--"

She waited, but he gave no sign of manhood.

"If I were a man I know what I would do!"

"Peace, Patali! I am a ruined man. They will all desert me as soon as the news is out. They are deserting now; I feel it in my bones. I have none to send."

"Send? It is only maharajahs who must send. Men do their own work!

I know what I would do to an American or any other man, who sold me!"

Chapter Twenty-One