Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: about in his chair and for the first time looked the third member of the party in the face. "Hoity-toity! Well, I'm jiggered! Dash my drink and dinner, it's the princess!" He rose and saluted cavalierly, jocularly, yet with a deference one could not doubt, showing tobacco- darkened teeth in a smile of almost paternal indulgence. "So the Princess Yasmini is Gunga Singh this morning, eh? And here's Tom Tripe riding up-hill and down-dale, laming his horse and sweating through a clean tunic—with a threat in his ear and a reward promised that he'll never see a smell of—while the princess is smoking cigarettes " "In very good company!" "In good company, aye; but not out of mischief, I'll be bound! Naughty, naughty!" he said, wagging a finger at her. "Your ladyship'll get caught one of these days, and where will Tom Tripe be then? I've got my job to keep, you know. Friendship's friendship and respect's respect, but duty's what I'm paid to do. Here's me, drill-master of the maharajah's troops and a pension coming to me consequent on good behavior, with orders to set a guard over you, miss, and prevent your going and coming without his highness' leave. And here's you giving the guard the slip! Somebody tipped his highness off, and I wish you'd heard what's going to happen to me unless I find you!" "You can't find me, Tom Tripe! I'm not Yasmini to-day; I'm Gunga Singh!" "Tut-tut, Your Ladyship; that won't do! I swore on my Bible oath to the maharajah that I left you daybefore yesterday closely guarded in the palace across the river. He felt easy for the first time for a week. Now, because they're afraid for their skins, the guard all swear by Krishna you were never in there, and that I've been bribed! How did you get out of the grounds, miss?" "Climbed the wall." ...