I paid you well--you must lie for me! We both lied then." "Then the curse of Allah be upon the liar who lies now," solemnly said Ram Lal Singh.

"I will not sign! I have the savings of years to guard.
You will go away and the Crown will come upon me for the missing gems.
I was absent five months from the Palace when you were in Brigadier Wilson's Camp! I will offer my head to these generals, but I will not sign! The Kaisar-I-Hind is just, and I will tell all!" With an oath of smothered rage, Hugh Johnstone strode away.
"I must try and make a royal present to Willoughby's wife,--a timely one--and lose a half a lac of rupees to Abercromby.

They may find a way to pass the matter over." He dared not press Ram Lal to a public exposition of all the wanderings of Mirzah Shah's jewels.

"If I had not told them that fairy tale, I might hedge; but it's too late now.

I will go down to Calcutta, see the Viceroy, and then clear out for good.