Page:The Mating of the Blades.djvu/113

 others purloined from Whitechapel and Pimlico, still others learned during his years as able-bodied seaman and borrowed from the cosmopolitan throng of the South African gold fields, and others again that are the proud, linguistic privilege of the British army in partibus infidelium.

The sandy-haired gentleman had smoked a woodbine and listened, torn between awe and envy.

“Diddled me, 'e did, that there—crimson Ali Yusuf Khan!” the millionaire had exclaimed, kicking himself viciously in the shin. “Diddled me, by, the Bilked me, by  Kept me 'ere in London, on purpose, for 'is ruddy trial wot's comin' orf in the September assizes so's to keep me aw'y from Calcutta where 'Ector Wade is rubbin' noses with the Hemperor of Dollars and Cents. Yes! They syled on the syme ship, the, I just found out. And 'ere Babu Bansi writes me that the princess, too, is on 'er w'y to Calcutta, doubtless to meet 'Ector and that there plurry Yank.”

“But,” the sandy-haired gentleman had interrupted, “it seems to me the Babu should have …”

“Should 'ave nothink!” Mr. Higgins was fair enough. “'E did 'is part. Cybled me as soon as the old Ameer 'ad kicked the bucket and told me wot 'e'd found out about … you know. 'Ere”—opening the small, plump safe and taking from amongst his private files the wire which Bansi had sent him the day of the Ameer's funeral, addressed to “Gloops.”

He had read aloud: