"I--look at me, sahib! I have tempted Ranjoor Singh, and he did not yield a hair! I stood closer to him than I am to you, and his pulse beat no faster! All he thought of was whether he could crush me and make me give up my prisoner. "Ranjoor Singh is a buffalo of buffaloes--a Jat buffalo of no imagination and no sense. He is buffalo enough to love the British Raj and his squadron of Jat farmers with all his stupid Sikh heart! There _could_ not be a better for the purpose than this Ranjoor Singh! He is stupid enough, and nearly blunt enough, to be an Englishman. He is just of the very caliber to fool a German! Trust me, sahib--I, who picked the man who--" "That'll do!" said the general; and Yasmini laughed again like the tinkling of a silver bell. There came then a soft rap on the door. It opened about six inches, and a maid whispered. "Wait!" ordered Yasmini. "Come through! Wait here!" She pulled the maid through the door to the little back stair-head landing. "Did you hear?" she hissed excitedly. "She says Kirby sahib has come, and another with him!" She was twitching with excitement. Her fingers clutched the general's sleeve, and he found himself thinking of his youth. He released her fingers gently and she spared a giggle for him. "Bad business!" said the general again. "Kirby will ask questions and go away; but the troopers of Ranjoor Singh's squadron will come later, and they will not go away in such a hurry. You can fool Colonel Kirby sahib, but you can not fool a hundred troopers!" "No?" she purred. She had done thinking and was herself again, impudent and artful. "I can fool anybody, and any thousand men! I have sent Sita Ram already with a message to the troopers of Ranjoor Singh's squadron. The message was supposed to be from him, and it was worded just as he would have worded it. Presently Sita Ram will come back, when he has helped himself to payment. Then I can send him with yet another message. "Go and put thoughts into the buffalo's head, General sahib, and be quick! There must be a message--a written message from Ranjoor Singh to Kirby sahib--and a token--forget not the token, in proof that the writing is not forged! Forget not the token. There must surely be a token!" She pushed the general forward down a passage, through a series of doors, and down another passage--halted him while she fitted a strange native key into a lock--opened another door, and pushed him through. Then she ran back to her maid.