These pampered civilians are as haughty in their way as the military and be damned to them," mused Hawke, cheerfully humming his battle song, those words of a vitriolic wit: "General Sir Arthur Victorious Jones, Great is vermillion splashed with gold." "This old crab has quietly stolen himself rich, and now forsooth would tack on a Sir Hugh before his name.

Ah! The jewels! I must delicately hint to him that I am in the inner circle of the cognoscenti." And then Alan Hawke cheerfully joined his obese and crafty friend and host, Ram Lal Singh.

For an hour the soft, oily voice of the old jewel merchant flowed on in a purring monologue.

The ease and mastery of the Conqueror's language showed that the usurer had well studied the masters of Delhi.

Sixty years had given Ram Lal added cunning.