"I wish to probe the family
records and find out what I can of the 'distaff side of the line,'
as Mr. Guy Livingstone would say. I have some really valuable
presents, and I am on honor to the Viceroy in this, for, of course,
a baronetcy must not be given into sullied hands. Johnstone will
probably hermetically seal the girl up till the Kaisar-I-Hind has
spoken officially. Then, if this delicate matter of the hidden
booty of the King of Oude is settled, the old fellow intends to
return to the home place he has bought. I'm told it's the finest
old feudal remnant in the Channel Islands, and magnificently
modernized. The government does not want to press him. You see
they can't! The things went out of the hands of the hostile traitor
princes, and Hugh Fraser, as he was, cajoled them from the custody
of the go-betweens. We have never gone back on the plighted word of
a previous Governor-General! The Queen's word must not be broken.
I have a bit of persuading to do, and some other little matters to
settle!"
"Well, then, Anstruther, we may meet again on the line of the
Indus," said Hawke, with his lofty air. "I have always preferred
the secret service to mere routine campaigning, for, really, the
waiting spoils the fighting! Poor Louis Cavagnari! He confirmed
my taste for silent and outside work! I was sent out from Cabul by
him as private messenger just before that cruel massacre, a faux
pas, which I vainly predicted.
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