Returning to the factory, he acquainted Mr. Watts with the result
of his interview and his opinion of the agent. The chief's eye twinkled.
"You haven't been long reckoning him up, Mr. Burke. I'm afraid you're
right. I'll see what I can do for you."
Calling "Qui hai {'Is there any one?'--used as a summons}!" he ordered
the peon who appeared in answer to his summons to go to the black
merchants' houses, a row of two-story buildings some forty yards from the
southwest bastion, and bring back with him Babu Joti Lal Chatterji.
In less than ten minutes the man returned with an intelligent-looking
young Bengali. Mr. Watts addressed the latter in Hindustani, bidding him
hasten to Murshidabad and find out quietly what the Faujdar was doing
with the dastaks. When he had gone, Mr. Watts showed Desmond over the
fort, introduced him to his wife, and then took him round the English
settlement.
Next day Joti Lal Chatterji returned from Murshidabad with the news that
the dastaks, duly signed by the Faujdar, had been delivered to Coja
Solomon a fortnight before.
"'Tis rather worse than I expected," said Mr. Watts gravely. "There is
something in this that I do not understand. We will send for Coja
Solomon."
No one could have seemed more genuinely surprised than the Armenian when
informed of what had been learned. He had received no dastaks, he
declared; either a mistake had been made, or the papers had been
intercepted, possibly by some enemy who had a grudge against him and
wished to embroil him with his employer.
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