Page:The Yellow Book - 08.djvu/136

hurried perusal, a pious request that a certain gem which was about to be presented to the Queen by the Raja of Pepperthala, should be restored to the writer, who proclaimed himself the lineal descendant of the rightful owner of the gem. The Raja of Pepperthala, I concluded, was the broken-down ruler of a bankrupt feudatory state in Northern India. Further the communication stated that the writer would call upon me that afternoon at four o'clock.

I was puzzling over this odd manuscript when the tape machine that stands in the corner of my room began to tick. As it was unusual for news to be sent through at such an early hour, I threw down the anonymous effusion, and hastened toward the instrument. The tape coiled from the machine, and I spelled out the following:

"10.30 am. Prince of Wales has just left Marlborough House to call upon the Raja of Pepperthala, who is staying at Buckingham Palace by Her Majesty's invitation,"

That was a remarkable item of news in itself, to say nothing of the coincidence. Our last Indian visitor, I knew, had lodged in the Gloucester Road. Why then should the Raja of Pepperthala, an insignificant chieftain, whose name was not even mentioned in Griffith's Indian Princes, be staying at Buckingham Palace by Her Majesty's invitation? It being Press day, I had not time to puzzle over the anomaly, so I sent the manuscript and the news item to Mayfair, my friend and sub-editor, who worked in a room at the end of the passage, asking him to investigate the affair and let me know the result before four o'clock. Although Mayfair was but twenty-one years of age, he was like certain of the children of Israel, one in whom there was no blemish, well-favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, cunning in knowledge, understanding manythings,