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PTE

SH

a stem to the huge mushroom of a pith hat which he wore. Despite this protection his face was brown exceedingly, and faintly wrinkled through sheer exposure to sun-bright, sun-dried air. The fac

d, the corn-coloured tussocks of tiger-grass still yellower and still more corn-coloured, to glance round, as if measuring the distance between the long, low line of mud enclosure they had left but a few hundred yards behind--yet which, already, was losing itself in an illimitable sand stretch beyond--and a bigger tuft in the sand stretch ahead; a tuft of spear-points and horses, bayonets and men, waiting beside the first faint semblance of a reed-paved road. Then he took o

-the honest, elated, conscious laugh of one who has not many good stori

hbour do all that thou hast to do, and t

on with a laugh. "It is a ripping excuse for yo

ievedly, "and considering I really thought that wa

t's a queer world," he put in. "There is really no good in understanding most things. As for this place--! Great Scott! What would happen if my fifteen hund

g, a certain swagger underlying his jest. "Eshwara is a garri

t, just beyond the old town of Eshwara. And now, having thus secured their breakfasts, he and his lieutenant were on their way towards the horses and escort they had bidden await them at the boat bridge which lay between them a

right without you, hitherto. So if you'll stick to marking out the Viceroy's camp, and generally preparing the

w by then. I believe he could put it off till the 1

10th is bad enough. The place

ng up!

shwood suggested the 11th or 12th--the Vaisakh festival, did he? Well, he is an ass! But that's always the way. We try to understand feelings, instead of trying to know facts. However, we shall be

ssary decision, "Mrs. Walsall Smith is a

?" he went on, changing the subject; but the latter's clear eyes and brain were occupied for a moment in taking stock of Captain Dering

he pause. "Plenty of people, if you count padrés--the place swarms

ere must be a lot of black partridge, and I expect there's fish in the river.

rses, men and bayonets, and before them lay Eshw

lying triangular spit from which its fortified, temple-set walls rose, Eshwara seemed at the very foot of the blue barrier of hi

across the view in three broad bands of blue, curiously similar in tint; for the sky was pale with excess of light, the hills with excess of heat, and the water paler than either by reas

hemselves with it, and then die happy, in hundreds, of pneumonia! Those are the facts. I don't profess to understand them; and as I told you I don't want to. It's dangerous. As that cracked old Jesuit, Father Narayan, admitted, with that unfa

eneral Bonaventura's, who was the Nawabs' favourite. I want to see that old chap; he must be a character. My grandmother, old Lady Carewe, used to tell me about him; long yarns

one thing, Dillon; Father Ninian isn't a Jesuit. I was talking about him at the Club, when I knew I

," he continued, and the dry voice grew soft, "he thinks he knows more about doctoring than I do, and the worst of it is--" here a perfectly charming smile took possession of every wrinkle--"he does, in a way; for the natives believe in him, a

int and far, a peak sho

r themselves here?"

h to come and go upon for a robe of righteousness

of man,--the world of his probation, the heaven of his hopes, the means of his purification, and the fire of his retribution--had scor

d-by, old chap. I shall see you again soon, for I shall be coming over to the Smiths' pretty often, and I suppose your

e cavalcade start, nodded. "Thanks. I'm over pretty often at the Palace. Pidar Narayan plays the fiddle, and t

tain Dering, stooping to

t? That's why I say it's never any use to find out the meanings of things. They change so. Stick to facts; they don't. Well, ta-ta. I'll see you to-morrow, most likely, at the Palace. They have a sort of concert-pr

you did! My dear fellow, I couldn't play

which emphasized the undue shortness of his trousers, "for I heard Mrs.

d Captain Dering, i

he doctor's was scarcely a pleasant one; it would, in fact, have been wh

unsteadily, the yielding boats swaying, the wooden girders giving and groaning over their burden. Seen so, with but a plank between it and the milky water creased by the faint current, there was something unreal in the gay troop of colour and glit

a little white cloud had rested,

y for a 'mahseer.'" And the earnestness of his face, as he lifted his eyes skyward to watch a

ent upon his face. "We will get up some fun while the camp is here, of course; and after that--" he paus

nother knight-errant of old, riding acro

accent, yet with a curiously English phrasing in it, "but by dismounting

ative officer who sat his horse at the salute; then smiled,

Roshan Khan is up to the ropes here. You b

ake him, still as discipline could hold him. He was a good-looking young Mahomedan of about th

"We are connected with

zaar, which led from the bridge, for a short flight of steps and a narrow al

ure about the wisdom of his coming here; but then the Colonel is that sort. So I insisted.

hed away on their right hand for two or three hundred yards, until it ended i

d that is the palace. There

apartments,

ib lives there now, and the Padré has his chapel there

of the tunnel closed in on them. "I'd no idea it

solutely blank save for a low door at each of the four corners; and these were, so to speak, connected with each other by pathways raised two steps above the rest of the courtyard. A similar footpath crossed it in the middle and so c

eps he had reached it; so, laying his hand lightly on the cylinder, he vaulted to it, a

it's so confounded straight. Ah! her

he read the motto aloud, Roshan's hand, stiffenin

pped to his feet a

Well! I'd back a Maxim against old Blunderbore as a missionary agent nowadays. Hullo! they worship it still, do

on of his race and creed; all unconscious

come to bathe; and they give alms

aptain Dering. "Wh

saint was there now; he could see the brute's fuzzy head half way down, so he must have crawled in

n the gun nicely,"--then the insouciance of his face disappeared, its curves hardene

gled in harmony with his captain's across the raised union-jack towards the river-end of the courtyard where,

none could tell--who having raised a square of two-inch-high mud wall between his twice-born purity and the world, was preparing his daily food. Naked,

is wheaten dough-cake was cooking; beside him was a leaf-platter of curds, a brass vessel of

rther from the sacred square. Doing so his foot slipped an instant on the lower step. He gave an impatient exclamatio

most unconcernedly, took the half-baked cake from the embers, the leaf-platter of curds, the ve

ing's high peaked turban had sent a shadow to overtop

PTE

D HIS FLOCK L

ing. On two of the remaining sides, a twenty-feet high barrier of sheer masonry, buttressed and bastioned, blocked out all curious eyes. On the third, separating it from the courtyard where the big gun stood, rose the palace. Seen thus intimately from wi

ough it to a door which gave on the courtyard. Being exactly opposite the one in the corner of the Fort bastion on the other side, th

crossing from one door to the other, as by keeping t

nce the only other exit from the garden, save by boat, was through the second storey of the women's apartments, and as this was by a door leading directly into the royal rooms (which were on the other side of the tunnel that gave ac

s--dyed flaming red--standing at right angles to his cheeks, and a marvellous livery, consisting for the most part of yards upon yards of tarnished tinsel cloth, twisted and twined about head and waist like Saturn's rings. The oldest of old pantaloons, with a back curved by a life-time of obeisances, a toothless mouth, still full of sonorous titles, and a wicked old eye

me pantaloon, with a white muslin robe superadded to the livery as a badge of his dignity as door-keeper, precipitated himself upon them

er before I leave," said Vincent

ards the middle of the passage, the aisle to their left widened, and through a

By Jove! those old sinners knew how to be comfortable. Hullo!"--he paused in a sort of horror--"I say, Dering! I b

e along, do, Carlyon! I didn't promise to go to

ve they are having service." As he spoke a robed figure showed between the arches against the s

s as mad as a hatter, and boshes the whole business--at least, so Delamere said. I told you we were a bit early, but you would start; still it's

erhaps at the sudden sense of anticipation, the sudden quickening o

smile on his face he crossed to the edge of the marble plinth on which the passage opened, an

the edge of the terrace, and ended in steep slopes of fretted marble, where cascades had once wimpled and dimpled down to the water-maze which lay below--a shiny lake, cobwebbed over by narrow marble paths just wide enough for the bare, flying

he flowers. All was still, all was silent, until Vincent Deri

m told, and play 'Catch who can' up and down and all around the place! On the whole I expe

nctly, "especially if there was always such a confounded strong smell of orange blossoms. Bah! I'd pre

oft, half cynical expression,--"so's the other, in a way. It isn't altogether despicable to let yourself loose in Paradise without an arrière pensée of flaming swords. Especially if you can g

to waist, too massive in the contours of face and figure. For Captain Vincent Dering's taste had remained constant for the last three years to a different type of beauty; a type which, for the first time in his life, had made him sentimental, romantic, more or less unselfish. Still the girl was handsome, even in that babyish frock of starched white muslin, girt about with a yellow silk sash. The dress, he told himself,--for he was a conno

n sent to say those very words, and none other; "my guardian, Father Ninian Bruce, will be here

ain Dering. "I told Carlyon--" then he paused, feeling cur

go by the sun. He says it never needs winding up. But I think it is inconvenient

eaker up one of the curved flights of steps, which led from the plinth to a wide loggia on the second storey. Like the room seen through its arches, this was lavishly decorated

Dering in his best manner. "Doesn't it re

nterest came to the girl's fa

I ought to be able to speak to the people, as he does--and I wanted to read it, because it is my name, you see--Laila--it me

lesson, and her indifference--"The other people will be here directly; but they will come from the city,

incent, desperately. The young

naventura. "My guardian has it brought out here on Wednesday afte

rt-shaped nails--held the cover of the keyboard open stolidly; an

the piano, I assure you, Miss

rash burst into a naughty little love song he had picked up at Brindisi on the way out. He did it simply to soothe himself; so, to do him justice, he nearly fell o

te which would have made her fortune at a music hall, and then turned to the accompanist with a smile which showed an absolutely flawless

bered her nationality, altered his phrase, with a sense of relie

nd the Italians. He knew my grandmother there. She was a princess; but he never speaks of h

t of someone coming up the stairs made her veer towards dignity once more. "

t of her lesson, for she close

necessary to enable his brown eyes to meet all things, after their habit, squarely, if softly, gave him an air of alertness. He was dressed in an ordinary black soutane, but wore a fine white embroidered muslin skull-cap, such as nati

olute good breeding which makes offence impossible. There was a slight hesitancy in it too, now and again, which was overcome by a look that took the listener into its confidence, and appealed for friendly forbearance--"

faint resentment. "I think so, guardian

g, the recipient, felt glad of the diversion caused by the arrival, through the drawing-room,

she?" he said in an undertone to Lance, as the

d of that devil of a chestnut who nearly killed me at pol

rs as yet, Captain Dering," began the old man with the ceremony of a past age, "so perh

old friend, Mrs. Walsall Smith, coming in. I mus

g fair woman who at that moment came in with Dr. Dillon; the latter taken possession of and monop

murmured Lance, followi

r. Lancelot--I am righ

s. He saw so much as he made his bow, while Father Ninian stood looking first at the girl, then at the young man

then, ere he moved away, his hands fell apart for an instant as if giv

was an unusual method of introduction, certainly; yet somehow it relieved the shyness which generally beset him at such f

to be friends. I mean--" The shyness cam

uite simply. "I hope it will be peace. I al

there are a lot of you--I mean--o

her voice, belying the peaceful professions of the previous moment, made him look at her curiously, recognizing that he had touched so

sively. "Do you see that straight white thing floating down the curve of the current yonder? It isn't a log; those others are; plenty of logs come down the rivers from the forests in the hills, for they don't catch all, you know, at the government wood-station. And so the people here catch the runaways i

f a boy than he had been five minutes before. "I--I hope you will," he added; "really I do--I--I--" He felt his manhood as he had never felt it before, a

said, with a half-perplexed frown, "but you have seen

earing behind one of those balconies overhanging the

paused a second. "She was very frightened, poor little Premi, at what was coming. 'I shall die, Miss-sahib, I shall surely die,' she said to me the very last time I saw her; so I promised--I am a medical missionary, Mr. Carlyon. But when the time came, they would not let me in. I--I went to the husband--he is an educated man--you

ints' with which his grandmother, Lady Carewe, had been wont to still his boyish unrest on Sunday afternoons. Yet there was something beyond that self-c

s put them in the river--they have iron rings round their wrists and ankles to prevent them coming back to harm the men--" She

ttention of these two; "I 'ikes 'oo twenty 'fowsand times better than dad, an' I 'ik

in hers, had swung herself back from him so as to toss her fair

ed hastily; but not before the girl with the yellow silk sash, who stood between them, had looked from one to

er than any of us, you young sinner, because he gives you sweet

duster tucked into Saturn's waist-ring was now helping to hand r

waz!" (Protecto

accurate Urdu which comes so daintily from lisping English babies. "Did I not say I would hate thee because thou wouldst not tell me why thou didst prostrate

tle foot, and shook

d her mother,

rs insulting you? Who was it?" He turned, with the absolute command of his race, to the be-ringed one, who s

en tone; one which, nevertheless, seemed a compelling one, for

too "well acquaint" with Eshwara and all in it to need such help after fifty years experience. So it had come to be an unfailing sign that he was face to face with something unexpe

recollection he turned to Vincent Dering. "Of course, he comes

"Is there any reason, sir," he asked decis

"No!" he said, with a smile and a shrug of the shoulders; "none. He is welcom

er come across," pu

owed, with his hand on his heart, in foreign fashion. It seemed almo

but as Esmond said of the botte de Jesuit--not all. We

e foils, and took his opportunity. "That's what Roshan does to me. I took le

ness. "Of a surety! Of a surety," he interrupted, still in that gay, almost reckless voice, "and I wi

ny name," echoed Laila, curiously.

left the ol

imself, "when even those who have that greatest tie to life prefer to say good-by to it." He paused, t

ked stolidly

sing, guardi

ice had the dreamy tone in it again; "sing my favourite, child.

e as she stood turning over the leaves of the music, attracted Vincent Dering

" she said,

e shrugged his shoulders. "Yes! I fancy

ction to his phrasing, on the prelude; but perfect as his tone was, it seemed

His flock lik

it rose and filled the garden; the orange-scented garden with its fretted marble cascades and water-ma

gather the lam

the dead girl had drifted, making a

Him all ye

o of the call made men and women pause in the struggl

find rest un

s one, rose and fell, as the afternoon sun, shining into th

and, being musical to the heart's core, gave himself the luxury of silence. Only when Father Ninian, ever mi

ught he

"I heard her grandmother sing it, nearly s

getful of others, followed the girl whose dress ought to

PTE

FTW

ching the apex of the triangle formed by the city, the banks fell away, the river spread itself out to greater rest, until, at the uttermost end of a long spit of sandbank and tamarisk, it met the waters of its twin river, the Hari, in the broad placid lagoon which lay between Eshwara and the south; that is the dry stretc

or the older men remembered the days when the Hosts of the Lord-sahibs had regularly passed through the city, and had tales to tell about them; a fact which prevented the coming event from being too strange even to be thought about! Then the opening of the canal was another disturber of primeva

hed beyond the city's triangle into the rivers--and where, after a flood, the white gypsum silt lay like a robe of righteousness--they were being discussed; for the strange race who li

iness, and his thin legs and arms shewed grey lights on their tense muscles, as if these were truly iron. Behind him rose a wigwam of reeds, at the entrance to which a spear was stuck in the sand in order to display the head of a bottle-nosed al

ng about in the shifting river-bed, had always had an attraction for the Missionaries, who, as a rule, find the inferior races easiest to deal with. Gu-gu therefore--his name being as primitive as his appearance, since i

sides on this day the 'Missen' miss comes to us folk, and she never haggle

loss of which about his head made his baldness something of a shock--but also every article of clothing except his waist-cloth. The reason for this was, in a way, like many another thing about the old sinner, pathetic. Briefly he liked to dissociate his inner self from o

as he strenuously

y," yawned the aboriginal Gu-gu. "

ame in the palace nowadays. Those evil times are gone; we live s

en the deep water begins to run canalwards, the fish will run too. Then good-by t

, the old retainer's views on preserving being absolu

had to bring thy fish to the palace and be satisfied with our leavings.

s will give it; nay! six, mayhap, since the child is sick, an

ead wobbling, the flaming fringe of red hairs about his face giving him a ludicrous resemblance

ave taken them from us, and gifted them to the police, who know not the proper methods. Yah! Gu-gu, had I but had thee fifty years ago!" his anger lessened with sheer wistful re

-gu, feeling nevertheless a reverent

black water. So he kept favour with the Nawab. Birds that sing, and flowers that smell, and boxes that make music, and dolls that dan

squatted down again, and hubble-bubbled for a space at the

d rightly, seeing that we have grown old." Once more the piety smacked of pity, and the old man, finding a listener, went on with a certain gusto. "Look you! he had to walk like th

rate wink of a wicked old eye. Possibly this was due to the

of a man!--they say he was a prince in his own country, but fell into trouble; so came to make his fortune here with Pidar Narayan--was called Wazeer.

d, and his pipe this time gav

, came to make all the court cry sour buttermilk! Walidad, who had once stood so high, that, in a drunken bout, the Nawab promised him his half-sister to wife. And he got her too! She wept on her wedding day, but we in the lower storey heeded not tears in the upper. For, see you, mine uncle was chief eunuch--we kept the honour thus in the family from generation to generation--so I was in an

nds like a shelldrake in weedy water; a body cannot tell which way its head may be and which its tail! Nevertheless I felt a choke at my throat, Gu-gu, many a time, as I waited for him in

n our blood, see you, to watch, and beat the drum. That is our profession; and, by mine ancestors! I deemed it enough for mortal man. But Bun-avatar-sahib, see you, was not of our race. He was of Italy wi

ed Gu-gu. It was a point in the oft-told tale

ever generous to his favourites, look you--for Anari Begum's baby; ay! though he showed a writing of marriage, and had made the infant Christian after their habit. Still he got them, land and palace and all. So I stayed on serving my master's child, and when she died, her child, the Mi

lling me thou didst prostrate thyself in the dust as if he were indeed Nawab! Have a

my duty--I did but show my manners--I did but what we have done from generation to generation." He moved away muttering, full of virtuous resentment that a suspicion of anything save sheer servility should have been imputed to him. After a lifetime of trucklings and bootblackings, to be credited with higher motives was

ain, and assure the family of his

eration of scholars had been pet pupil in a little school started by another Miss from another Missen.

an on either the Hara or

ng, drifting, out yonder which might be secured for his wigwam before anyone else saw it! But as, silently, like a seal's, his black head came up from his first forge un

er. It was a faster stroke than Am-ma's; for a time the swifter. Then with a backward glance he drew a quick breath, knowing it would be a race indeed, for the black head had gone, and only a faint wale on the smooth water told where his rival, avoiding the slight resistance of the ai

ad of inflated skin under each arm, and your own in the middle--the issue would have been certain; for no one, in the whole tribe, knew the backward rip of a knife from below which would leave a rival helpless, lopsided

rent was a deodar log with the broad arrow of

by instinct, steering by sheer experience of logs and their w

horde of fifteen hundred ruffians with fascines and earth-baskets finishing a dam that was

on the log. Then suddenly, the right-hand one swerved outward. Onl

. The next, two black heads rose silently; but one of the

low for this, as Am-ma had done, did not comfort him. He swam back sulkily, his wrath increased by the knowledge one glance had given him, that the log on which his rival was paddling to shore triumpha

an ill world

in a balcony of the fort, dressed in a gorgeous ring-streaked sleeping suit which he could only wear when o

rested, as he spoke, on the low, bastioned building, all hemmed in by temple spires, at the very point of the city

should have called it old. I thought that

ort of

odd, cynical laugh. "That; it's ghostly.

w that inscrutable smile of his--he just pointed up to the telegraph wires--they go right across the garden you know--and said, 'There is half the news

's time we were off to prepare his way. Dashwood wants it done A1. They are going to lay on electr

ridge to superintend the laying out of the Vice-regal c

PTE

R-CU

side, passed her time on the bed in the scanty shade, keeping company with a sausage-roll of a pillow and a quilt, both covered in faded, greasy silk. As a rule she did nothing save eat pan; though sometimes, as a favour to Erda Shepherd, who came to read to her once a week, she would give a few more stitches to a knitted comforter which never seemed to get any longer. It had been begun, indeed, under the auspices of another "Miss," who had returned to England only to die, as so many do, from exposure, and overwork, and homesickness. For the rest, Mumtaza was an arrogant, yet good-natured old soul, who, despite those tears on her wedding-day, had kept dissolute Walidad under her thumb, and his son also. Therefore, it was one of her pet grievances--and she had ma

in-law! Then, friendly discussion becoming a necessity of life, the big wooden bed would once more hold two old ladies, two roly-poly bolsters, two quilts--also two tongu

of intimation. Mumtaza Mahal knew her duty towards men-folk better than to show temper at once; knew also the suffocating effect of ceremonials. So the tarnished treasures of past state had been dug out of the mounds of litter heaped

randmamma's heart, in that it had belonged to many dead and gone Nawabs? He was simply longing for the solace of a smoke, yet he did not dare to use the silver cigarette case with his initials, "R.K." on it, which Lance Carlyon had given him at Christmas in return for the fencing lessons. Fortunately, however, boredom and yawns are correct during visits of ceremony, so Mumtaza Mahal crossed her little fat hands over her little fat green-trousered legs, and told herself the lad was improved in both manners and looks; was distinctly more like her brother, the late and sainted Nawab. The fact emphasized her regret that, after a brilliant career in a mission school, a career which must have led to a minor clerkship, her grandson should have taken the unheard-of course of entering the army! If he could even have gone as the Nawab's grand-nephew, with a dozen troopers or so

l though he was,--had admitted, when pressed, that the young Mahomedan, given practice, might be able to lead the regiment as well as a fresh-joined English subaltern. The newer school, again, playing the Krieg spiel against him at Simla, and finding it

and, if he was lucky, Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, and a few other titles tacked on to it. Like all natives of India he lived largely on the approbation of his immedi

keenly than at his grandmother's scornful look, wh

h! Tis the pay

he replied sulkily, "and I cannot

men? Lo! thy grand-uncle, the Nawab, gave twice that to a coachman who had one eye black and the other blue because he

g that the pay was sufficient for his wants. In a way it was an unfortunat

y of age reminding youth that its turn for duty has come. "And for the son's that

matrimonial desires of his mother, who, having gone to live wi

igh decreed freedom

ound for him as a boy h

soothe the passion which seems to come back, vicariously, to Indian women in their old age. She had been brooding over an appeal ever since she had heard t

fathers. How canst help it? Think not the old woman cannot understand. Was I not young once? Was I not wedded with tears to thy grandfather--on whom be peace! So I know the heart hath fancies, and thine--listen while I whisper it--is--is for a wife like a mem! Wherefore not? Thou hast s

?" he echo

orn. "Is not the Miss at the palace Anari Begum's granddaughter? Was not

so, his wife, if he chose, almost by right. And yet from custom also, he--too sensible not to have gauged the vast difference between his position as regards Englishmen, and

aza with a forced giggle. "Who knows

sahib's child and heir. That is certain; else the Government w

lady's face; she tucked another budget of pan in

baby, a baptized baby, and swore it was Bun-avatar's lawful heir--that he himself had married them. Mayhap he did. But, look you, Anari was in the palace zenana ere she disappeared. Who is to say she is not thy cousin twice over?... I say not that she is, look you, but who can tell. Yet this is certain, Roshan; she hath Anari Begum's eyes. For I have seen her;

had cast in his lot loyally with the Government he served. In that time there had not been wanting--there never is in India--others, less scrupulous, ready to trade on his connection with a dispossessed family, and his possible sense of injustice. He had known how to treat them. B

all?" Then she suddenly clapped her hands together in absolute impatience and anger. "Yet is it true. He is the cause of all! But for

s died down to sombre discontent--"but that is fool's talk. He is too old. I could not meet him on equal terms." He drew himself up proudly; yet he felt a vague regret at his own acquired

r Narayan, for all he is so clever, was put to it to find a husband for the mother, the baptized baby! He to

en shrugged his shoulders impatiently. "But thou canst not

way," retorted the old lady, ending the discussion with proverbial wisdom as

d as if on his sword-hilt. The tempest of revolt which swept through him left him dazed, for he had reasoned the matter out with himself thoroughly, and thought he had accepted the situation, thought that he had realized that his dignity in the regiment under the present system went side by side, and not behind, that of the English officers. Yet h

r-shod feet making no martial clank, this time, on the union-jack of raised paths. The group consisted of half a dozen or so of men listening to something which was being declaimed, with much gesticulatio

n, whose costume smacked of Western culture, and whose

ction, Gorakh-nath-jee; but the question is whether t

on, due, evidently, to position, assented; adding, as a rider, and with some contempt, t

ing of drugs, shot a glance of absolute defiance at Ramanund. "Thy name, pundit-jee, is not likely to give friendly witness to mine," he began, allud

militant tone of the jogi, suggested hastily that they might inquire,

t to him, the expression of his race and cre

belongs to the Fort. It is not to be used as a sh

y prescriptive right. I can use it if I choose. The Government professes

urely, hast gone back to the old beliefs since the days when thou didst sig

ough. "It is a question

er to see the saint, and then bathe. But if there is no saint, many will no

y. "Have a care, caste-marker, lest

cudgels. "That can scarcely be, risaldar-sahib," he said; "our pio

he"--here he pointed wildly to Roshan--"yea! further, despite thy pretence of purity! Despite thy hunger yesterday when, returning to thy lost faith, thou didst come here to eat as the twice-born shoul

perplexedly. "What means he?" he said

understand--there--there is nothing certain, you see--and any chance--one g

iend's consistency by asserting that any such decision regarding the gun, if one had been made, would certainly be disputed. That he and his--though

r he had thought he had learnt tolerance of the Huzoors. So, with a frown and yet with relief, he put his hand on the latch which would open the way back to a less distur

from Captain Dering, and from Mr. Carlyon too. He says you are the best f

borately to let the old man pas

I have learnt new things

im for an instant; then he replied, "And I hav

gh as he went in; if the old

ught. New and old. Senseless, useless words, fit only for humanity to juggle dreams from, since no man knew the unseen beginning, knew the unseen end; knew even

gher

it ran in his old veins, thrilled to his old brain, and took him back absolutely to a palazzo on the outskirts of Rome, with the pale flood of the Tiber flowing beneath a marble loggia. He had never looked on running water since without remembrance, and now--his feet having led him unconsciously to the river's edge--he st

le from his face. He murmured a "Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa," be

said a voice behind him. It was Gorakh-nath the jogi, who, h

epresentatives of the two great supernaturalisms of the world;

fore the jogi it hardened, and the priestly arrogance of the naked ash-smeared figure, stretching a right hand in claim over the sanctifying pow

PTE

DEE-P

s it is--why should you f

and Eugene is so anxious everything should be

t pass, with his usual somewhat voyant courtesy, though it was only Laila Bonaventura. He had met her several times during the past few days, and the effect which her singing had made on him had vanished before her general failure to interest him in the least. And to

lash, a memory of the extreme regularity of the curves and lines which had annoyed him, ma

mith himself--might not hear and know. Vincent Dering felt a pulse of sheer virtue as he looked down the long table at his host, with the vague irritation which the possessors of women often arouse in those who are not thei

trapesing about his blessed old canal works with the pack of padrés and people he had got together to do honour to his skill. She would do it, of course, and get through with it, t

olutely unlike, had fenced him in on either side, a faint wonder tinge

d write every day to a woman and expect he

"mum wants 'oo, 'tos pup'll go off, she says, wis' all

gulp, and, ere catching the little mite in his arms, giving himself

s he came up, with Gladys shaking her

. "I don't know what I

ff in absolute content to tackl

lly, "everyone will follow, and I know Mrs. Smith is anxio

y at a tall man in a black frock coat--a man whose patriarchal beard had once been red and was now the colour of a carpet whisk--wh

poil the doctor, Mrs. Campbell. As I tell my husband, I yield to him in spiritual matters--the mission, you know, and all that;

placidly. "Ay, my dear; but ye didn't promise to be a wife to Dr

e, on entering the drawing-room, had made his way straight to those coils of red-bronze hair which had a trick of being the most conspicuous point in any group of which they formed part. So Lance would enjoy himself simply; he would not have to g

rier of hills with the gold-spiked temples of Eshwara enamelled against it, and a soft white mist hiding the feet of the far-distant snows; so hiding the "Cradle of the Gods! The floods had gone, however, and so had the robe of righteousness. The

!" said someone, stoopi

ilently into the stream. Most eyes watched it, but Lance Carlyon's turned to Erda Shepherd. He had only met her once, casually, when he was out

began impulsively, "

yes also. "Certainly," she interrupted co

he might regret--and she had regretted with foolish unseen blushes as she had lain awake at night wondering what had possessed her--the almost indecent unveiling of realities in

and he parried her fence wit

of it, if you'd rather not. It isn't a very Mark

thinking myself, Mr. Carlyon, ever since last Wednes

ow I didn't. However, we'll leave it alone. So you're not coming to the ball

nger and more vital. That calm assertion, too, that she knew she was playing feminine tricks with him, had

quietly; adding, as a rider and salve t

u can make it seem--well--awful low; but I--" he paused before even a possible sounding of his own trumpet--"you see I think it's awfully jolly; besides, it's

splendid figure beside her. "You are very tall, surely." T

ix-four; but he's a bit weedy. So when you're only six-one and a half you can't afford to wax fat; you've got to keep the body in subjecti

one on, and I don't want to miss--She stumbled, in her haste to end the tête-à-t

out from the world to stand so, hand fast in hand. "You were very nearly over that time," he said, smilingly, as he released her. "Now

, the scene which grew upon them as they went on had a strange unearthliness and unreality. She paused, and gave a little ga

gal camp with absolute incredulity. "Did you do all this?" she asked, doubtfully.

t sort. We--my fellows, I mean, and Dillon's gaol-birds--dug,

right. So white, so straight, so discipline

" said Lance, pausing su

procession of Englishmen and women, with a knot of dark faces

a half." Erda caught so much in

nd over yonder? Her eyes travelled past the snowdrift of the camp, rising against the

Lance exultantly, coming up with measured s

ictions, she was yet--as women must be until experience of work-a-day life teaches them, as it has taught men, the v

ort of thing in the army,"

all to pattern. It's an awful bore, but it keeps thing

nce the primeval sea receded from the hills, was the flag of that empire, its folds drooping round the mast. And beyond it, past the two brass guns pointing down the long vista, was an avenue of palms, bordered by green grass and beds of flow

TO THE

distant snows, lay that wreath of whi

n rows of tents, looking like solid blocks of marble behind her. The whole shut in from the world by a high white wall; still, silent, empty, waiting

figures with shaven, close-capped heads and leg irons clanking, as their bare feet threaded through the flowers. And behind them, half-hidden, as ever, under his mushroom of a hat, came G

lagstaff, emptied their earthen pots; "then go back to the road. And

em approvingly. "They like this better than picking oakum, and I've had to set some of 'em

here?" a

ge of them have to be sacrificed before the water will run." He grew grave again. "Poor devils!" he added, in a softer tone--"as if they hadn't paid tribute already. I lost over a hundred last year, what with pneumonia and malaria

nd as they slipped in through the closed por

hut down the outer screens. We want to have a r

dress close by. So it was eerie, in a way, to wait in the darkness, knowing it to be full of people she knew; yet to have consciousness of nothing save their voices, since age, sex, position, even race, were alik

sparks, I assure y

too much like a brand snatched frae the burnin

, as a most interesting scientific fact, calculated to confound those who sc

he crown of stars about their Mother's head--who feel the flame of immorta

ss; but if one could turn on a fifty-candlepower reflecting la

night and see, at once, in all corne

vely, "That's just the worst of it. When one begins to

onal argument against those who contend that Perfect Wisdom

sity for something on which to exercise our faith proves tha

ove! it would be dull. Who is it says the soul of man lies in

-and nowh

hen you men of Science spend your lives in listening--to the things which cannot be heard--looking f

w voice, young, full-throated, broke it. "But how can you tell if

ion, flooding all things

said Captain Dering, "it will make a difference to the durbar. As a r

e; the very legend round the arms of England above the Vice-regal chair stood out clear "Dieu et mon droit." And the expression on the two groups of dark faces, the one which had come b

ing come late, stood close to the latter grou

they call him Pidar Narayan, and let him do anything. Sometimes I wonder if it isn't

e right! It is the Dee-puk-rag--the sign of kingship. Have I not told ye always that the Lord is with us--and with you?" Then he tur

om the invited replied, "

n marks the born ruler of men--the God-sent guide; since, when it is sung, the light

ker and audience, a faint, far cry came from outside. More than o

en it at Euston--it will come back directly." And then, in response to something he alone

ed still in his ears. Even in the darkness he knew she must be close to him. He felt the soft ruffle of the lace about her hand upon his wri

ledge that his clasp was answered by that small hand--so small, so clin

t change--the whole position. It was a light, indeed; a light showing the way--a different way! A sort of fierc

nerves," said a calm voice coming to him from out of the floo

turned, bewildered, to find a pair of g

--he

with stolid indifference. "You thought it w

ould--anyone? e

how happy he had b

ine to war with that unearthly light. "Come along, man! There's been an accident in the workshop! I warned them not to touch--one--a mere

f any interruption to the intolerableness of his confusion, were already running as

thout a pause, he knelt down in the fateful, irresistible tide of life blood whi

vers, so full of men's power, so empty of men's passion; and then a straight one to the circle of

appen for a thousand pounds

the shoulder under the broad arrow--for t

n's. His haste had driven the colour from his face; he stood breathless, yet calm, his right han

d the slight figure from the wooden platform on which it had fallen, to the ground all sodden and stained with that tide of

st alone with death,--the doctor with both hands detaining that ebbing tide of life

rcle. "Hark to his 'Ram Ram!'

PTE

AND

n the sand, they would fling themselves air-wards to change places with his head; and that, with the net twirled dexterously above it, would go down like an extinguisher over the suspicious ridge or furrow. Sometimes--most often, of course,--they proved to be nothing else; but sometimes, again, there would be a pause, during which the black legs would remain uppermost, and then, once more, the black head would come air-wards with a wriggling fish, held, if it happened to be a small one, in its white teeth. For Am-ma had not been provided by nature with a pouch, like the pelicans who were fishing hard by; and, being absolutely destitute of clothing and pockets, had to sidle sedately to the bank with each prize before seeking another, since both hands and feet were needed for its capture. Otherwise, his method of fish

have been as inaudible as the swift coming of sunlight in the sky; and his sight told him immediately what it was in detail. A canoe was coming down the lagoon with two men in it. Now there was only one canoe in Eshwara, and that belonged to Pundit Ramanund. He had been over the black water, and learnt, amongst a number of other strange new things which were of no use, how to

ently not; the canoe stuck here, there, everywhere, yet still came on slowly. But if the occupants wanted--as everybody seemed to want nowadays--to cross over to the other side--that oth

t the certainty, closed his eyes, and went on

nding hollow from its nearness to the

, fool?" came Rosh

ease from paddling, and the canoe will tell you withou

n's, with an aside to the effect that they had better not alienate their only hope. The river was lower than he had expec

in." Being pleased with his own wit, he laughed, and kicking up his heels, ducked his head

but if they will quit comfort, and wade, carrying their boat here and there, I, Am-ma, wi

d Roshan Khan to his companion; adding in Hindustani--"Then come

here or there is one to a fisher." So saying, he closed his net with one dexterous twist, s

smoke rising from the water's edge a good way down stream. "They bu

ll, since he had no definite desire to foster ill-feeling or fear; but it had been the talk of the town till those small hours which end gossip, even in Ind

who is true leader." There was no doubt, no fear in his mind. Had not his tribe always, of old, chosen as its chief and God the man who could hold a torch in each hand at arms' length, on

, and the water was cold. It could scarcely have been anything else which brought anno

ank to sand-bank, led by Am-ma, swimming and diving like a duck, or walking on ahead unconcernedly, hi

hen wood is dear, funeral piles must be restricted) in full view, yet mercifully obscured for the most part by the heavy column of smoke which rose straight to a

y, as they neared the shore. "I am no D?m, like

o earn their livelihood by streaking the dea

the fire some day, Pundit-jee!" Roshan Khan listened with the wholehearted contempt of his

save for their turbans--stepped ashore and hurried off in the direction of the camp, st

able swiftness with which it rises from a dead-level, treeless plain, and shone reddish-yellow, like a fire, on his wet skin.

half-hidden in the smoke, seemed to dissolve, sending a great

emicircle cl

s dhatoora in the sweetmeats, for sure. Whether he was strangler, God knows! Per

adge, looked round hastily to where, a little distance off, the two jail-warders in charge

was now dying down to red embers pointed his meaning) "is the first; not the

ily. "Thou canst talk," murmured a voice. "When thy 'tu

e Pool of Immortality. Once more, sanctification at the 'Cradle of the Gods.'" He cast his eyes upwards unct

e pilgrims this year. So Gorakh-nath says. The canal will drain the spring. But then, h

ed at the news. "Turned

feet had found likely ground; he

he said, suddenl

ing reverberation of the first saluting gun, told

said the circle of pri

eered. "The Lord-sahib. Ay! he m

contented l

g. Is not that enough for poor folk?" Then his feet, feeling something far o

back to gaol, leaving the still glowing embers of what had b

s enough," murmured the fisher to

PTE

RLD'S

mp was no longer

ngered at the tent doors extorting shoe-money from the native visitors, who came in shoals to plead for patronage from one or another of the bigwigs belonging to the Hosts of the Lord-sahib. Groups of these petitioners, awaiting their turn for an interview, were to be seen at most tents; but they stood in crowds round one,

tness and lack of friction they bring to the English language. "An' what's more the Archangel Gabriel couldn't do it in heaven, though he'd have a better c

fle shocked, being unacquainted

must,"--

xpect! Well! he kept two hundred miles of North-West frontier as quiet as the grave, for five years, by the simple expedient of awarding thirteen seats in his divisional durbar to each o

that time was being lost. "I'm afraid that sort of thing wouldn't answer nowadays." The elder man looked at

parcel post! The Teuton, sir, is ruinin' British prestige by cheapenin' the seats of the mighty. There! th

egan. "His Excellency desired me to ask whether it might not be possible to give him

on duty, an' when he is in uniform there's no mistaking his place. And then we'll ask him in to the reception afterwards with the sahi

f parliament--perhaps

who wrote a book about India on the b

influence with his party, a

r a bit. Favour does, you know. But I cann't see my way to it. Old Hodinuggur would be refusing his 'atta and pan[7] again. He did it once, ye

resignedly. He had not yet grasped the fac

m the subsequent negotiations--diplomatic negotiations--it sounds well!--didn't reach the eye of His Honour the Lieuten

man of Secretariats,

cating the problem of British rule in India. Why should he want to come to durbar at all? When people change their dress they should change their desires, but the only effect our civilization has upon some men I kn

p and down in English fashion. The latter, in a wonderful parcel-gilt coach, was awaiting the effect of his ten-rupee tip with perfect patience and serenity; while his retinue, which consisted of a dozen ragged retainers carrying lances festooned with tinsel and yaks' tails,

hich makes the time of day an absolute uncertainty in a big camp. But it was calling time evidently; for two superb red-coats, blazoned with gold, appeared in co

; but the fact itself affected their two types very differently. The old Rajput's visit of ceremony was of another sort. He, obeying definite orders, would come at a specified t

tal words, and then these appeared to him so apposite to a leading article, that he took out a note-book, and, after some corrections, stored away, for future use, the assertion, that 'the time will come when th

t with the smile of the elect on their faces. Father Ninian was one of the first, resplendent in a new soutane and sash, with Akbar Khan in his ord

itton" (phaeton) of which mission people seem to have a monopoly, came good Mrs. Campbell and her niece, Erda Shepherd; the former full of indignant, y

! I shall put the doctor into the wrong book; for, you see, I canna write the two names ane after the ither like a marriage lines; for there is one big bookie for the women,

gh, as she got out of the carriage. "Really, there's

ll whose hand it was which stretched itself frankly, eagerly, for hers as she entered. Ye

ust written mine. Funny our hitt

d not conceal from herself--made her shrink, as if from actual intrusion. "I have to wri

on a sort of lectern, while the aide-de-camp, seeing t

Shepherd wants--Miss Shepherd, will you allow me to intr

ch was still hers, his face showed too kind for that; and as, at that moment, another lady came in with a flutter

ide-de-camp had by this time gone to see the laces and

one, this time, but it was gone in a minute as he went on quickly--"Erdmuth!--i

rothea. I was called so after--after some one you most likely know nothing about, Countess Zinzendorf. She was famous enough, though,

oed. "Rather! We had a pony called Ziska at home-

--only the name, you see, brought back such jolly old times. Ziska was the beggar who had his skin made into a drum wh

ndfather--we are really Moravians, you see, and our name should be Schaeffer,--saw it whe

urious, almost wistful smile. "Erdmuth!" he repeated thoughtfully; then turn

h such heat that the aide-de-camp, returning, stared; until Lance coolly asked him if he didn't think Miss Shepherd very unkind not to come to the Bachelor's Ball? Whereupon he, having by

e surprise fell back upon the woman's all-embracing excuse, "I-

t you know--" his voice slackened and grew soft, as if he saw what he described, and the sight made him glad--"all straight folds with a little edge of red-gold like--" he paused, then went on boldly--"like t

w it also. Saw herself, as he had described her, and the gl

know you were so well up in chiffons, Mr. Carlyon," she said, with a forced laugh. "

on like a revelation, and the blood was leapi

vitality and strength, the single-mindedness and simplicity which she had seen in him so often

encompass her; she sought

em to forget my work--work which I value above--milliners! Try Mrs. Smith--there

r than she did as, seeing Lance Carlyon,

e Captain Dering

ve her a message. Dering had had a touch of fever; he had been over at the palace arra

ing; he said he would drive me in his dogcart." There was no vexation, onl

e to begin with, and then--" He glanced at Erda

ghtily; "most unwillingly, I assure you. Thanks

eekers in the foreground, the scarlet-sin-stains of the chuprassies' coats against the dazzling whiteness of the tents, lay before her, one of those rare, incomprehensible moods came upon her when th

s Desire!

vile, she had never asked herself why this was so. She had read the story of Adam and

r as the eye could follow in the nearer hills, the climbing track worn by the weariness of that eternal search after righteousness, she asked her

sheer rock, had agonized after good, and remained evil. A little shudder of memory ran through her at the thought--how

two years in London ere coming out to India; and another s

n had called her that--a woman w

hal arch, and one of its sentries was barring the entrance of an ash-smeared figure which was brandishing a

gainst Captain Dering's order, of which I, for one, am heartily glad. A Christian government is bound to refuse sanc

ar; clear with what those

iveness--the cradle of the goodness,

in dignified, amazed displeasur

e is accustomed to a pith one. An' she standin' in the sun talkin' to Mr. Carlyon! It's just got to

nct duty on the part of mission workers to take every precauti

d almost winked. "Oh! Davie will take ca

gotten her cousin, the Reverend David Campbell, altogether. And yet she was engaged

ain. Davie, who was so much in e

o her white robe and a red-gold apple in her ha

TER

ING

the cane-bottomed seats of the mighty; and in each

t, to the majority of those silent spectators, at the expense of decency, since a durbar is, like a West Indian ball, not for 'talkee.' There was, however, no disapproval on those indifferent dark faces. Such things were part and parcel of that general eccentr

he proud alacrity so noticeable in India when the act is a confession of faith, indeed! But the mass beyond followed suit obedien

hair, the great gold footstool, seemed all too large for everything about their occupant, save the diamond star, the ribbon on his breast. Yet, in a way, the scene gained by his inadequacy when, after a decent pause, a decent silence, he rose, small, insignificant, to give vo

ajahan, nawaban wa

f names, for a few words from the Viceroy, and another bow ere the recipient passed on. Muriel Smith, who sat behind--the best dressed woman there, as Erda Shepherd had judged her--watched her husband's tall gaunt figure approaching, and wondered if that pause would come to him. Her heart beat so when it did that she could hear nothing except "graciously pleased," "eminent

iring energy. And now that the necessity for this was over, sleep and rest were his first thoughts. He took both, apparent

nd-i-khas-munsoor-i-zama

xterously to the exactly proper spot in the whole round world wherein obeisance and offering could be made with dignity to itself, and the recipient. Then it would be swept on, regardless of an invariable desire to break back, in an endless circle to its seat, while fresh titles rolled out, and a fresh owner was hemmed

native custom in his gloved right hand--had passed, the politicals gathered in a knot, like church-wardens for the offertory plates, and the distribution of atta and pan, that sacram

Save the Queen" once more, the Viceroy retired, the durbarees trooped out, still cal

tch. So India's safe for another six mont

ound," began the Under

the lower animals, begin by bestowing names on them? Ah! my dear Mrs. Smith

think I have forgotten the consolatory verses you wrote me

tender smile for the keen, whimsical face which had been friend to him,

there's a kind soul," urged t

t I

lo, the stars f

the breasts

red, came this

ome soul's inmo

n't approve,

e-born flame by

ep until--life's

them at the ga

id I commit such a crime--I mean rhyme? But the poet's right. Ye can't go wide of the mark

een, or is likely to see, that is, the mutual assimilation of East and West without injury to either--the little company of English men and women, empire makers and breakers, drifted out into the s

reless effort to solve the problem, the ceaseless striving to be just, which underlay all the quips and cranks, the foibles and follies, of the great camp, save

ibition of sheer eccentricity, by those of the jewelled and bro

played on his side, stood still, taking, it is true, the shots which came within reach dexterously enough, but never stirrin

d a smouldering resentment regarding his past relationship with one who was still to him the best and dearest of women was the result. He felt vaguely that she, as well as he, ought to have known that their sentiment, their monopoly, as it were, of friendship, could only mean--what it had meant to him during those few moments of blindness which had, paradoxically, opened his eyes. So he had felt bitter, and she had known it instinctively. If she had ever faced facts, this alone might have opened her eyes also; but she was too good a woman, too helplessly bound by her woman's cult of love, to disassociate it from friendship. So, without bringing a doubt even, the jealous desire of appropriation which draws a li

e camp were being shown, brought him so near her that she caught sight of his yellow, silver-laced

oken with a faint resentment, made the memory of the

said. "Why do you wear the same uniform

um-sahiba'; but they do sometimes, you know, because I own a lot of their houses and lands, and my grandmother was a native princess. I know that, though my guardian never speaks about it. He is ashamed, I think--like you are. I'm not. I didn't choose my grandmother. Why should one fuss about such things? If they're true, it can't be helped, and if they're not, what does it matt

fore her sudden garrulity to interrupt; now, that vague suspicion recurred, making him feel inclined to say brutally, "I am your cousin; I claim

ery, then continued: "Of course, I don't know yet; I haven't seen it, but I think it will be lovely. Only I wish my dress was different. I am Beatrice--Dante's Beatrice--and I think it stupid. But my guardian chose it because--" she smi

from behind, "I have been looking fo

of recognitions to Roshan Khan, and, as he carried his wa

uniforms--" she broke off to add, with more animation, "I do like the gold a

on--on Englishmen. And listen, child! You should not speak to strangers; and I would rather you did not speak

id resignedly, "only I suppose they must know what their wome

at her, startled,

--so, at least, he told himself--out of sheer politeness, to ask if she wanted anything. Yet so

ng yourself," he said kindly. "Why

n has been telling me not to do things; and I don't kno

eny the fact. "Sometime

I never mean to, never! If I want to do a thing I'll do it. I don't mean wicked things, of course--" she returned here to demure, almost plaintive piety--"I don't want to do them, and

a quick response in him. "Would you do that?" he

"I haven't tried yet; but I never pretend. I don't even

ou will look charming, I'm sure," he said in his worst manner. "And if you

mith?" she a

y don't know," he began. Her

matters," she went on, "for I can't. I haven't a dress.

t help consolation. "You'll have the ball, I'm sure; you will enjoy it awfully, and--and y

n't know it; but I will. That will be nice. And you are comi

making up their little misunderstanding by the way; possibly, because of this making up, since, for the first time, the elaborate

not desire an explanation of the latter's moodiness. When a chum was evil-

er to, awfully, if only because she's never seen a durbar; but"--he smiled--"I expect someone else wanted her instead. By George! Dering, you don't

Dering asked himse

thing. That would not be her version of the old, old story; a

of his own race would have mentioned; yet which had spoken to him with an equality which no Englishwoman would have allowed herself.

ew so strong that, finally, with a curious mixture of reluctance and triumph, he forsook the straight road to the Fort, and tu

nce at pomp, dirty, untidy, unkempt both in her surroundings and herself, made him feel what a fool he was. The more so when she began by resenting his summ

he might as well go through with his errand; so he c

I spoke to her, and--a

ly, then she cracked all her finger joints over his

ed prophetically. "And w

tly; "there is no talk of we

"That came after in my time; but God knows how

assed; yet, even so, Mumtaza Mahal looked shocked.

he folly of castle-building on so slight a foundation--"I

"Not I! Did she not say she would like

cely. "I--a risaldar on a bare pittance--with n

an? Are all things fixed? Do rulers never change? I live here in a corner, nothing but a poor woman: yet I hear more, it seems, than thou dost. I hear of discontent,

less laugh. "Is that new? Is there n

e to her in an instant. "If the Huzoo

ion regarding the great Rebellion from which so many things date, which youn

" he said, catching his bre

is now. 'Tis not a question of words. It is fate. Something happen

d him to himself. "Then let us aw

hou canst not wait. Having gone so far, the negotiations can

eated. "What gif

al, tucked a packet of pan into her cheek,

t her grandmother wore--good as new, being for a tall woman--and jewels. 'Tis

hings back, and he had many a time seen English women wearing native jewelry; ay! and decoratin

be easier t

PTE

F THE

tted out upon one side of the wide flight of marble steps that led upwards to the loggia of the palace. "Yet I know I'v

y. He would rather not have understood more th

he dreams they dreamt into his whole bearing, as he stood leaning over the balustrade gazing fixedly at the scene before him. It was beautiful indeed! Beautiful with that unearthly stillness which only comes to illuminations in a windless Indian night. The lines on lines, the curves on curves of tiny lights which outlined each pillar and arch, each buttress an

orange trees, hidden in the wilderness of roses, dreaming on the perfume

. It moved, sliding

Heaven only knew how many sad years of silence a

t of the water-maze,--where there was but room for the flying feet of a laughing girl on the marble ledges bet

in the lo

white radiance, those soft, sleeping, black shadows. Except in

fore? It was an idle question, Vincent told himself, if the

ura, with whom he had been dancing; the latter sitting still and silent as the shadow in which she was half hidden. A crackling laugh betrayed Dr. Dillon's wherea

us, and marked by extraordinary vitality in the virus, which after long yea

h of all the beauties of this hareem I'd better fall in love with! Dering, you're a steward, I believe. Tur

Vincent Dering, laughing; "but he d

emonstrated

e--to recognize the gentleman, even through a microscope, I am naturally at sea as to the proper

he was dressed as Lancelot-du-Lac, a costume which had been chosen for him two years before, at Simla, by a grass widow who had aspired to the part of Guinevere; but who, retiring before the you

solingly. "You look very nice in it. Only those things on your

ral of grief. Ah! ye should have seen him come to it just now with the general's

anyhow," continued Mrs. Smith, persisting in her mission o

ook in one corner. "I never said Robinson Crusoe was a good dancing dress, but I

ank into dr

nk of the disgust of an old established microbe, like myself, when his

ides, we aren't seven, and I believe Robinson

ce, who had been following up his own grievance. "Shirt sleeves

of me reports anyhow. Ye see I always have to wear two caps; one before, and one after supper. Otherwise I find the contints get mixed, and make me statements unreliable; and then me enemies say it's the champagne. I feel it coming

ng his arm, "I'm quite cont

to show off her long, rippling, pale gold hair, and the filmy green and white, the feathery weeds, the

the Commissioner, as he led her off; adding, in mock alarm: "Me dear madam! I ap

this fact--which Father Ninian had taken care to communicate to him as soon as the latter had found out that, nominally at any rate, the former was a Roman Catholic, and therefore a possible lover--when he had gone up to apologize

ring his arm, but she refused it

oying yourself,

red; "only it isn't real, of co

ply. "Perhaps, my dear young lady, it is as well it doesn't

the people, I mean. Except one or two--those for instance." She pointed out Roshan Khan who, dressed as himself, was taking advantage of

tle laugh. "He is quite crazy with joy. He told me to-day this was the firs

too," said Vincent, suddenly. "

rther over, and dropped to t

ng my teeth; and I want the use of them at supper. Come along and have someth

he upper storey. She did not care for supper, she repeated, and she had to mend her d

the outside wall, against which it clung like a swallow's nest, ended in the shadow of an archway. "I shall be bac

clear case of atavism, and as her ancestors seem to have been either saints or sinners, there you are! For it's

owed to escape the brutal realities. Here, where even the houses in the bazaar beyond the garden wall--those houses that were b

o think of going back forty years to enjoy this! This was the same yesterday, to-day, for ever! It was the love of physic

It lies--let me see--I think I can point it out to you. Ah! Captain Dering!" continued Father Ninian, finding the balcony into which he had stepped en passant, occupied. "W

," replied Vincent, "th

the cave is northwest, and the passage to i

e several times, haven'

er of fact, something always hindered me. I went as a medicine man, you see; and so many fall by the wayside. I wonder, indeed, how any reach it." He paused, and a wistful smile made his face look dreamy. "Some say none do. A jogi--Gorakh-nath, Captain Dering,--he whom you turned out of the gun--claims to be the onl

"I don't think miracles go dow

the blood of a saint turn crimson and flow. Faith, Captain Dering,--that is, the bel

rug of the shoulders for the old man's back, a

ties amid the chances and changes of this mortal life. The Garden of the Pal

into a place beside a lively vivandière, who welcomed him with entreaties to join in a comic opera

companion gay. Even the Commissioner's high voice, as he talked nonsense, seemed far from the gravity even of conferring titles, a

half reluctantly. She would be sure to dance badly: that make of girl always did. So he was relieved to find the ball room, and the

there it would be an excuse for sitting out. If not, he could always sa

coming up, and called to him: "Supper's A1; so

I go now I'll have time to change and have a shoot down the river. Am-ma says the

it. However, if you want to kill something--it's a common symptom--go! I shall stop till the bitter--

y Robinson Crusoe, this feeling was strong upon hi

water, the rippling tinkle of distant voices; for supper had almost emptied the garden also. The better for its picturesque effect. N

Laila Bonaventura had disappeared. It would be a bore if she were returning to inte

mo

e to his feet. She was coming,

rt dress of a Mahomedan lady, and Laila Bonaventura was wearing one as she came slowl

ding, yet revealing, was the soft film of fine muslin over the scented, ivory-tinted corselet, which fitted close to the full curves of her figure. So was it with the silver-streaked veil, through which the jewels in her dusky hai

eveal, that was

dark eyes darkened artificially. And yet her face did not corresp

billows, and so, with one hand, gather the straight folds of her veil to curves over her arm. As she did so, he saw, with a

ed! The suggestion of i

ery admiration

real," she went on, "do

d so silent; yet no words--as she would phrase it--came to matc

p suddenly, her whole expression changed, she flung her fettered hands forward almost into his face. The strings on s

e." He fell back for half a seco

in the dark! He had told himself ever since that it had come, then, by mistake--incomprehen

Come, and sit down, and let us

ee me but you, only you. That is why I waited till I

is real, and you give yourself--everything, and ask nothing."

ee. Come, let us go into the garde

k her he

really wrong"--she added, with her odd vein of piety; "but when somebod

ress?" he echoe

I'm not going to tell you. That is just like the novels

I should be angry

ace. There's one close by. My guardian wouldn't have it lit up because--he always has the same reason fo

they paused an instant on the edge of the water-maze, they chimed still. But to a new, curiously

I could do it now, and you could chase me, if I hadn't all this-" she gave a little mutinous kick at her sweeping skirt. Then suddenly she l

he wide arched passage in the lower storey; and when, having gained in the race, he would from

ear little balcony all by itself with

ith an answering laugh, a

es, one of which, half-disdainfully, half-regretfully, had been going round the beauties of the palace; the other, g

n-avatar used to meet Anari Begum here. Sh

n clear against the radiance of the garden, that vis

ing petition to be preserved, and

ed. "And he--God help us all! Wh

were younger. And he had the key--th

was Dering-sahib and--and--" he gave a bitter la

o the tune of the words which sang in his brain, "Go

of God and Love of woman, had

able com

PTE

VOTS O

that he would never wear the blessed thing again. It cramped him all over; body and soul. And then--for he knew his Tennyson well, as one of his name could hardly fail to do--his memor

he simply have refrained from remorseful pain, or f

artridge-boxes, and gaiters. The latter--being, after Indian fashion, simply a couple of bandages neatly twined--were, as a matter of fact, much tighter than his discarded greaves; but the clip of them about his calves was familiarly reminiscent of many a day spent out in the jungle alon

ible snipe, whistled a tune which Vincent was always asked to

e Fort--between its northern bastion where the stream turned hillwards at a sharp angle, and the southern one beside the bathing-steps--led to a tiny landing-sta

him with it; partly because he had no wish to be seen by any revellers in the palace. But the sight of the l

ttention, so that he was abreast of the bathing-steps ere he remembered his desire for secrecy, and, in his haste, the canoe--answering to his swif

a near shave," he m

unilluminated block of the palace rose betwe

the tool--we must get the

the courtyard, the entry to which had been blocked for the night, the main entrance to the palace having been prepared for the reception of the gue

the water, and in front of him jutted out a balcony smaller than the rest, and

, and sat staring at what he saw. Dering, of course! But the woman! Who on earth was she? A native? Hardly; and yet

don't. When I love, I mean to give, not to take; and the more I give, th

Bonaventura! And, if there was any cer

and human acquaintance with even the exact words of the great master. So as

hom I

grace and love

er did

of the tar-brush himself. Only a touch, still it made a difference; for one had to consider the children. For instance, when he married--Why a vision of a child's head he had once seen, far away in the north, covered with soft, waving curls of sun-bright red-gold hair, chestnut--yes, chestnut hair, the

ned, partly because the spit was reached, and in the darkness, made visible by that soft white radiance behind him, he must not miss Am-ma's hut. Am-ma, who had dominion over wild duck, among other

e Love though

ath which puts

as he sang it, if not musical, held a hint of something beyon

and walked up to the reed hut. Then he saw that the circle of lights was broken by a dark patch. It was Am-ma himself, squatting on his heels. To one side of him, firmly fixed in the sand, was a freshly-killed crocodile's head, its jaws ingeniously distended by a thin cane to which a string was attached. By pulling this the dead mouth seemed to ope

as the devil!" he explained, capering and chuckling to make muc

. "What the dickens shoul

uld there be for the son?--and here this quaint, broad, ugly face grew wistful--for it must be a son, surely, this time. No! he had no children; the demons had taken them all, every one; though he had left nothing undone, though he had sought out one medicine-man after another. What did it matter? he asked pathetically, if the charm were of one faith or another, if it brought a child. He had tried all. His own and everybody else's

e violet of the moonless sky, rose those palaces of stars lit up for pleasure. It almost seemed to him that t

int moan, which sent a shiver through him; the shiver of one who finds himself ba

ing off. "Well! I hope the Miss-sahiba will--wi

which Am-ma, regretful for all his anxiety, had shouted after him, he told hi

raight path. That scarcely audible "lip, lip" on the right meant that the water was close by, running an inch or two below a sheer yet crumbling edge of earth. That yielding softness on the left meant the ridge of dry sand. His way was be

dling down almost luxuriously into loose dry sand, still warm from yesterday's sun,

ll it comes, of what lies close at hand. Lance Carlyon, crouching in that stil

anionship. It seemed to him as he watched that faint grey lightening in the far east, that he did so, not as Lance

reature's. He could hear the soft rustle of feathers in the dark, the soft swish of the water as something stirred in it, the soft sob with which an

n in the sand around him, the mystery, the cer

tender as the eye of a mother watching her child asleep. But only for a space. Then the grey

nd the Light faced each other, wa

broke into battalions to face the foe. So into companies, till, as the red spear-points of the sun showed over the horizon, they rallied darkly, desperately, behind

late. The mystery of Dawn had held him helpless, as it had held

s a salute to the victor than in any hope of

esire to go home by land assailed him. Am-ma could take the boat back; there mi

is own moral turpitude. Why not te

wn, in sole charge of the little circle of flickering lights. Some of them had gone out, the rest looked trumpery in the growing blaze of day. But what ma

you," she had said, with a laugh at the wrinkle

bbering joy. He had been right. The Huzoors were kings. They knew

m those inside, had twitched away at his string so fiercely that the crocodile's head lost its ferocity in what appeared

in a second, however, at Lanc

son." Then once again the exuberance of his delight m

ked Lance, blushing once more, now that

ng. She must have gone out the other way while he slept, he confessed, sheepishly; but there

omething, at least, suggested the possibility of a snipe in the little swampy bit below the city wall, not far from the

which, on picking it up, he found to be the rare Sabine snipe, painted, absolutely beautiful, in its delicate harmony of colour. And the luck did not

ad bird in his hand. "You must be awful

one was anxious to keep on the surface. "And you too, Mr. Carlyon," she i

-ma pleased. He slobbered and blubbered with joy all over my boots, and yet--" he

ever saw. Poor little thing," she added in quick self-reproach. "Anyhow it seemed beautiful to them--it is the first--the firs

ce. "He called you the Life-

eath-bringer," she retorted lightly, pointing to the painted beau

Birth are the pivots of the Wheel of Life.' I remember reading that, in Sanskrit, when I wen

anything, and the fact touched her more than she cared to ow

ad known he would, he moved on also. "I'm afraid I sha

esponse to something in her voice. "

d to be married to my cousin--Dr. Campbell's son--David Campbell. He is a missionary--as I am--and--" she hesitated. "He is at home,--or was. We did not expect him back for two months, but he has had

ed what he was, a soldier; and since she began to speak, he had, insensi

anion, not out of pity, but from dread of her own admiration. "So as David"--she felt better after the semi-appropriation of the Christian name--"is in a hurry

in his absolutely honest humility, to conceive of th

boggier than you think." For the second time in their short acquaintance she felt his han

old some resolve. "It is what I have always hoped for, thought of." Then suddenly she smil

of it here, anyhow," h

fect congeries of small temples, each rearing its upright stone spire--the stone of Baal worship--about the central tank which occupied the middle of the square. It was quite a small tank, and absolutely dry; so that you could see the four or five worn stone steps which led down to the patch of earth, not six feet square, a

asked, looking at h

rims come here to bathe--there must be a secret siphon somewhere, for the water only comes when it is wanted. Three years ago the barriers put up to prevent accidents gave way--it

ent, and in another second wer

sahiba,--sing to u

ally at Lance. "I gen

and passed on; but as he left the court on his way to the Fort,

the children grouped inquisitively round her

God goes f

ows in H

d in his hand, and something between blessing and cursing in his heart. But above and through all, he s

PTE

WITHI

r, ushered in by a scarlet-sin-stain of an orderly, entered the tent

d a third very different sort of person, o

to the business in hand, changed from care

ay, actuated by no personal motive. A man of your attainments and culture can scarcely feel

d. "Quite so, sir," he replied. "It is merely, as my fri

m suavely. "In that case it is

ection 418 providing for emergencies," began Dya Ram;

justice?" Here the futility of his own sarcasm seemed to come home to him. He paused to consult a file, and when he looked up again, he spoke in Hindustani--evidently for the benefit of the third party. "There is no record whatever," he said briefly, "of any previous claim to the gun. It has been worshipped, of course

, though his companions were seated, here folded his hand

ice of hereditary nature.

ith brutal truth. "I am afraid I can do nothing. Of course," he continued, reverting to English, "if you bring a suit to claim prescriptive right, you may," here his patienc

litigiously, "but if it is prescripti

ow jogi Gorakh-nath to be a son-of-a-gun till the day of his death! So good-morning to you; unless

ner sat still further back in his chair, tilting it with his feet against

then, reaching forward, took up a newspaper t

ssess by right of birth. We refuse flatly to be lumped in with the crass ignorance of our fellow-countrymen who have, alas! not

in it whatever! And there isn't, Dillon. The son-of-a-gun business is ten times as dangerous. Dering's within his rights, but I wish to blazes he'd left the brute alone; or he might have put a blank cartridge in and fired a salute by mistake when Gorakh-nath was inside! But ye can't keep th

oke, and passed them to an orderly in exch

down the palm avenue towards the gaol, which the Commissioner was going to inspect. "It comes of their being

n answer out of the Public Works. Is there

, if you pass it, Smith says he could put a wire on from the Fort easily in a day. It would save sending by r

en the case in the mutiny--" he shrugged his shoulders, then went on--"these things come so easily; a touch starts them; but you mustn't show that you know it. Still, if you

of him I'd put him in cells for six weeks. And there's a warder, too,--or perhaps more. But there's no fear. I could hold the whole 'biz' myself, till the brutes managed to get off t

long archway with a massive door at either end, tunnelling a square block of flat-roofed building. "You'll find everything

notony of mud and lack of colour. The prisoners, fifteen hundred of them or more, stood in four long, straight rows, naked save for their waistcloths and the eared caps on thei

ir truncheons to walk close behind the Comm

aid laconically, "and as I've always r

occupied with the Commissioner, who, when a prisoner raised his hand, paused to

s in it," remarked the Commission

s had been inspected, the cook room interviewed, and the dinner to come

ut with iron beds looking strangely at variance with their surroundings, two of these

ation as he stepped up to the

come in?" he

Huzoor; the babo

th it, and tell the baboo-sahib to come to me for orders--at once. Now then, sir, that's all--and a bi

grave. "That will compli

dispensation, or there may never be another case. That

't it?" asked his

f this--I don't mean of this death--that goes without saying. But when cholera is about, poison is hard to detect, and even if I stamp out the disease, which I mean to do, they may simulate it." He bit at his thumbnail viciously as he strode on

s to bathe, shave, breakfast, and put on me gold lace contin

from afar. "The show? Oh, yes! I was forgetting. Rather, sir. Why! it is as much my canal as

er, quite ingenuously; but George Dillon flushed

y, sir; otherwise

th instant apology. "I'm sorry; I shouldn'

Nobody does mean anything in that sort of connection. It's left for the doctors to face facts

ding the bare possibility of his carrying infection, he appeared in Mrs. Smith's drawing-room, looking--for hi

foot. The room was darkened, and full of the scent of flowers. It was a familiar room to him, yet he never entered it without a glad recognition of the extreme femi

white ringed hands which clasped the fair curls on her

, as he approached, "I've such a racking headache.

e up, and the words "Dear Mrs. Smith, so sorry--" showed in Vincent Dering's writing. So, not content with the message of excuse sent her by the offender through him, she must have wr

ve you half a whiskey-and-soda before

er chair a-swing to match her tone. "I'm never nerv

ouldn't be the woman you are if you weren't. And you are nervous at t

s. Dombey; but I'm not that sort. Besides, it killed her. I am not coming. It

to give her a hint of the reality. The danger of a final éclaircissement with Captain Dering seemed imminent, and the shock of it might le

ying his dexterous surgeon's hand full on the raw. As he exp

a bit. Why should he? I am not complaining, mind you--

w it close, and sat down beside his patient in profession

women are always forgetting--that they are women, and that, while Eve swallowed

him with a growing resentment, which belied

in the very least. What has Eve'

a cause. The real evil is--is something different. If you do not understand--though I think you do a little--" she sho

"You have no right to hint

I never meant you to know, but which may help to cure--your headache." His voice, usually so dry, had a softness in it, though he went on without the faintest emotion. "Mrs. Smith, I have done myself the honour for nearly three years, of considering you as near perfection as a woman can he. Allow m

f-fact way, took up his hat

ned rhythm, and he felt his courage going down to his boots. It was heroic treatment, but she was

ed at last, and she rose, as he

ly, "and why you did not care to explain. I shall, of course, never be

hiskey-and-soda. Here! qui-hi! Whiskey sharab belatee pani la'o jul

ent the rather awkward pause which inevitably ensued in a perfect field-day of her hat-pins among her curls an

d to her dignified resentment. "I ought," she said stiffly, "to have thanked you for--for your good opinion of me, and you

heer up, Bacilla, you brute, or we shall be late," Bacilla be

hrough a sluice, declared, in a violent Scotch accent, "that the Victoria-Kaiser-i-Hind" canal was open. So, keeping time as it were, slowly, majestically, to those (also inevitable) strains of "God save the Queen," the outer floodgates swung back, allowing the river to have permanent possession during good behaviour, of the walled basin between them and the inner ones.

and the current of the riv

ngratulations were over, to slap his colleague on the back, metaphorically and actu

reamily; "now I shall have time to set

e w

ng useless, now the show's over,--until it's wanted for something else, of course,--I am going to see if I can't ov

echoed. "I know you can! You are the most intolerably circumscribed, self-conc

e until, womanlike, she relented faintly, and, exaggerating her ow

was only meditating if I should tell you tha

e echoed, horrified. "Oh, do

on some portion of that man--I don't care what it is--heart, brain, stomach, anything--and prevent him from killin

went over ostentatiously to him and pinned a carnation in his buttonhole, hoping he would like it better than the ro

it in my minim glass because I was working in my shirt-sleeves. The

e of the many tragedies which come from the delusion

PTE

URCH M

one passionate desire for Vincent Dering's damnation, he had meant to follow

his anger against Captain Dering--of being alien to his creed, his customs, his code of conduct towards women. So he had wandered off into the garden again, shadowed by old Akbar's incredulity, curiosit

r Narayan suspecting such a thing. The old master, he told himself, was old, indeed! God only knew if he would last a year or a day; therefore it would be well to ensure the favour of the new mistress. And there could be no harm in sounding her

at all--remove and return certain trays of clothes and jewels which had been smuggled by someone into her room, he had fallen at her feet, confessed falsely that he was the offender, and besough

d pirouetting to attract the attention of its neighbours on the wide marble sill of her latticed window. For Laila had a room in the upper storey all painted, carved, and set with little balconies, which was worthy of any king's favourite. And Father Ninian, mindful lingeringly of the fine ladies' boudoirs of his youth in Rome, had filled it, against her return from

girls of his vast experience, she had burst into a sudden laugh, uncovered one of the trays with kicks which sent first one, then the other of her bronze slippers flying, seized on a pair of silver anklets, and there she wa

l of a sudden, she raised her white muslin skirt high in both hands and began to sing, at the top of her voice, the wicked little love song which Vincent Dering had sung the first day she met him, old Akbar's dread turned to sheer wonder. This was not a ghost, but

nced like that, did she? I don't believe she was

. "The most noble says true, Anari Begum never danced thus. But there

nded indifference masked a real pride. Of her grandfather's gallantry, his good looks, his love of adventure. And of someone else, also, who had a

y where she had sat with Vincent. The girl's eyes grew soft. She understood now. That best, that dearest, that most beautiful, must have loved her guardian. That was the secret of his remembrance. How could one ever forget that one had sat in a balcony hand in hand? So content, yet saying so little--only feelin

id, sharply; "but thou canst tell the person who sent them--he who claims cousinship--that

bear with the paltry present, which remembered the facts of the past, the possibilities of the future--not temper her noble severity with the usual courtly favour? Her cousin's grandmother, a most virtuous princess, sister to the late Nawab, was still alive. Her memory of Bun-avatar-sahib was sti

she did claim to be a relation of the Nawab's. And when I asked her why she wore such dirty clothes sh

Begum, Huzoor, and there are plenty more like it. And all are really the Huzoor's; no one else's." Laila look

if Anari Begum was really the Begum-sahiba's g

dies receive her, I know, and her like--when they will come! It will be at night, of course, to ensure her privacy, so Pidar Narayan need know nothing. Only"--she paused, a change swept over her face,

s head and chuckled. Wherefore not? Was there a better, more careful m

Tis but to take a note to Dering-sahib; he must know somewhat before he comes wi

e she had been so content. For what could be simpler than to make it quite clear that you were real, that you did not pretend, that you were not even afraid? That, briefly, you were not like Mrs. Smith, w

and filled up the blanks between some words of his own which he had spoken carelessly, not five minutes before he had first seen Laila, and which came back to his memory unbidden. "It isn't altogether de

nsettled till her note came. That ended his vague reluctance, and he went over to the palace, eager as any lover co

camp went round by the longer, easier route, had promised to look in on the palace on their way past it, for a cup of tea, a

nyhow, we are ahead of everybody on the road to heaven, and the pilgrims will have to swallow the dust of our feet! I wonder how they'll like it.

, laconically, "both d

tiously recommend change of air to the hills? Couldn't ye swear the close proximity to an open canal and a gaol is unwholesome? If ye could, you'd oblige a grass-widower, whose wife is at Baden-Baden--or is it Mar

ld Mrs. Smith a long time ago that she and Gladys had had enough of Eshw

derful, with a faint gleam of silver embroidery about waist and hem. And she had been obtrusively, unnecessarily

y and by, when all the nice people leave. I'm so sorry you're going, but we are still to be quite gay, aren't we, Captain Dering? And that reminds me we have to settle whe

ian, who had come down to see his guest off, looked

w into a puzzled look, and he added, half to himself, "It need

her even with dear old Pidar Narayan. For the rest, though he was keen to get back to his jail, he would wait till she tired of her game, and then

made him long vainly to get rid of the surroundings which suited her so ill, drive all that civilized crew from the garden, and claim it as his own--and hers! She must have gone to the balcony already. She must be waiting for him. And yet a soft-heartedness for this other woman with whom he had been friends, whom for a few days he had imagined he loved (it had come to this now) forbade him

gure showed dimly aga

ash of silver, a faint gleam of it too. His heart gave a great throb of glad recognition. It wa

for this took time; but I wanted to be the s

he set them aside, took her in his

always Lail

ly. "I knew you would come," she sa

even to be aware of, the balcony. So he turned thither curiously, then stood arrested, so that the clash of the foils on the stone, as he purposely lowered their points, came as a warning to those two that they were observed. Laila, with a catlike noiselessness, withdrew in a second. She, a yard or two away, in deepest shadow, stood leaning in a careless, easy attitude over the balustrade. Her only possibility of escape lay, she felt instinctively, in showing no desire to do so. Vincent, for his part, turned to face the old priest, prepared to brazen it ou

t with that pale sash, on which, and on his pale face, such light as there was fell softly. For there was no anger in the l

or your companion--" he turned to that faint gleam of white and silver in the arched shadow.--"The air grows chill, madam, so close t

mistake. For an instant he felt bound to undeceive him, then the impossibility of doing so held him silent, feeling a c

you had b

to her her worst, nay! her only offence;--the taking and wearing of Roshan Khan's present. And now, wrapping her veil about her like a cloak, gathering he

an recklessly. Since he could not explain, he did not mean to

loved her, as you have just told her--and then, like an echo from the river below where a boat was moored, came to our ears, the same words, 'I love you.'--They were spoken, Captain Dering, by a boy, barely in his teens, to a waiting-maid. The boy was her son. She had been married, as they marry them in Italy, almost before her girlhood, and I, the boy's tutor, was nearer her age than his

is pride in arms, impatience at the falsene

ly mistaken--I refuse to explain, but I

in. He drew himself up, and, foils in h

d make you answer. As a priest of God,

n't prevent that--but you will wrong us--he

ome close, laid a hand on his, and

laid my hand on my fellow-men save in the hope of healing. It was a fancy of mine after--after we kissed, and parte

mistake, Vincent was touched; but despite

atter further. Shall we end this, sir,--unless--" he gave a reckles

o ruffle with the best blood in Italy. "I have not the privilege of being the lady's protector," he answered hotly. "If I were,"--He paused, then said courteously, "Shall we come upstairs? I came down for thes

e savageness of the old man's tone, and told hi

yon--who had been out of sorts ever since his walk at dawn with Erda Shepherd--was obliged to give in to dinner, grumbling the while, that Vincent was the

our, could he have been witness to Father Ninian's actions, when, his last

ry wall, he would have seen as pretty a bit of sword-play as could well be seen. Many a dexterous turn of wrist, many a quick imaginary parry, many a sharp riposte, following each

han a sixpence, shaped like a man's heart, upon the tassel of a resting lance b

d a feeble protest under the button of the foi

TER

HE G

the gaol, with its scattered workshops and houses, showed as mere spots and lines on the illimitable plain. But on the night after the band had played "God save the

o find out this new road to the sea. It had a sort of dreamy whisper in it, as if it were

f ceaseless sound came t

re, letting the night know that another white-winged tent was flitting, and that the dawn must

al. It was a strange cry

ar?--Har

in in a sort of chant:

eal to the godhead in man and woman; for the forerunners of the great host to

the darkness which prevented him from seeing the cause of the sound. He had been up all night. On his return,--later than he had intended, owing to his determination not to be defied by any woman,--he had found that in his absence cholera ha

Too short a respite for certainty, but Dr. Dillon, being no novice in such work, had his hopes; the more so because the disease, from the very outset, had become steadily less and less

his way back to his own house for a few hours' rest when the dreamy splash of the water mad

oor. What was it? It was quite distinct, though almost as low as the "lip,

re was already a glimmer of dawn in th

The thought made him frown, for this fulfilment of the river-people's prophecy was annoying; the more so from its absolute unlikelihood. Years might pass without such a chance coming again; yet it had come the very first day! It w

p. But it was only for a second; the next found darkness, save for that still, faint, gli

s a c

the sluice, swerving with the side current, coming back, again and again. He stood, grasping the rail

and hurried back to the bridge. By dropping this weighted rope over the dim white streak he was able to edge it gradually to one side, until it lay moored against the wall of the basin. Kneeling down for a closer look, he could see, in the fast-growing light, that it was the corpse of a woman. He could even guess the death she di

am to claim, a corpse seeking union with Mother Ganges was the worst; and of all corpses, this

d of it someho

les, he proceeded to tow the body back along the basin, past the first gates, and so to the river itself. Thus far was simple. Bu

orizon; the spot which would soon be the brightest, ablaze with the sun himself. Already the broad shield of the

as to

uddenly in a smile, as he caught sight of a round shadow like a man's head dipping

gu! Am-ma! anybody! Com

So, he assured Dr. Dillon affably, were the Huzoors; therefore he obeyed them. Consequently, less than five minutes after the call, with a vague wonder as to what sixteen rupees would feel like, all at once, in a man's palm, he was heading hard to the nearest stream capable of carrying the thing he had in tow back to the path of purificat

n without the glimpse, which the coming dawn gave him, of a long streak parting the river with a curved ripple like the prow of a boat, his experience told him what it was sure to be. Briefly, someone of the river people,--Am-ma for choice, since who but Am-ma had the l

for the most part under water, it was easy to swim under water too, across the tr

ting trick,--or you might wait till your adversary came up breathless, and dash after the p

ming, of course, under water. He came, up once for air, and smiled to see how far he had come; so, fearing lest

effort, he came up no more till he felt certain he must have put a screen of tamarisk between him and the horror. He had; but his teeth chattered, his eyes were half out of his head when he scrambled, hands and knees, on to the bank, and lying face down on the dry sand, moaned a

rung the necks of the few birds he had caught pitilessly, and went with them, as usual, to the bazaars. Not onl

as which had filtered to his ears through the water, had gone on his way unwitti

t first, when called upon to verify Gu-gu's story, Am-ma, remembering his promise of secrecy, gave it stout denial; but when the real truth of what had occurred dawned on his slow brain, the opportunity for piling agony on to his rival was too strong for him, and

too, must die!" remarked the syrup-sell

ls are afraid of me. See you, I have taken the

alance his basket on his head, he holds it so high since the wood-sahib up the river h

But I leave a son in my house, if the luck goes against me. That is the Huzoors' d

n the gaol last night. I have it from a sure hand." That might well be, seeing that he was none other than the gosain Gopi, who, scarcely an hour agone, had been given his

it back. Then 'tis cholera. That is why they burn them in their clothing and their caps, so that no

oving voices. "Yea! hark

on their own affairs, and a group of schoolboys on their way to a mission school came along, their books under their arms,--a quaint collection, for the most part. A copy of the Gospels, Sa'adi's Gulistan, and

d in their school talk to list

want them. Folks say they

er will not run. One brain--his, that they killed with the light--opened it but one inch; as all can see

e are many prisoners," they said, with that curious faculty for giving heart-whole a

a man's brain in their treatises; but, after all, the statement was scarcel

ive a fresh fillip to the flagging horrors. "They s

, looked at their guide doubtfully. If this was to be so, what was the use of ha

tly, trustfully, by a band of men and women and children, all in their saffron robes. "When folks have had their own miracle stopped, they would fa

es, desirous only to save their souls alive at any cost, it was unwise to sap at the foundations of faith. So the reply contented itself with assertions that there was no fea

r bazaars, no one who had any errand of any sort in Eshwara could fail to pass it sooner or later. Therefore, Dya Ram and

, quickly. "We have duly appealed against the order to the

rnful; for such as he are no favourite

etorted, "and they will give judgment with

crowd again, admiringly responsive, as

w up the petition object in toto," began Dya Ram in angry p

o serve God and Mammon; yet seeing that miracl

little party of progress keenly, and he broke in, as he passed on, "What is the use of combat

little party went on disc

was such a corpse went from it a week or two since; and they r

sent back because of the canal. Mark my words, Mai Gun

in your heart that they cannot help being revengeful, that their blood is on your head,

utskirts of the group, trying to sell

s-sahiba and the lights,

the appearance of Erda Shepherd, who, in the mission-lady's uniform of blouse and s

way back from escort duty to some lingering bigwig of the camp, he

iform, and the sight of the scarlet and gold, the buttons, the fal-lals general

p, dismount, and shake hands. And still more curiously, the reason for both these impulses was the same; t

d David Campbell," said Erda, with great

as certain of it; that a fellow could scarcely feel a desire to murder

sworn that though he had been a bit cut up at hearing the nicest girl he had ever met was already engaged, he had never had the remotest idea of fighting

es. That was because he was fresh out from England. Any fool, though, could

ounds, I suppose," he said

er's own virtue in smiling; "and I have been privileged for the first time to see somewhat of the noble

missionary-report style of her cousin's enthusiasm.

hen they called you evil names." Being of the new school of Free church

ou names?" aske

first time in her life the militant joy at p

They happened to do so to-day, and David heard it; there

ance's eyes were on the

course. We missionaries hear such things joyfully--for--for

he added, quite argumentatively, "if I believed in my work as you do I'd be hanged if I let anybody 'krab'

the meeting is at nine, and it is already the half-hour. To-morrow, you

e missionary report made Er

expect to be in the saddle al

had faced the probability of never seeing him any more with equanimity. Now she felt that she must tell

lley close by first, David," she said. "

and her heart sank. For something in his face told her, in an instant, that she had been too long in letting him know of her engagement to her cousin. The fact, by

People won't have many more chances of calling me names in Eshwara. I told you, didn'

meaning to him in an instant, and the wonderin

unless, indeed--" she could not withstand his look--"my Aunt has asked a few fr

upted quietly. "Now which way ar

elplessly. "But you

ed, while you polish off the old lady. They're not g

for his smoke, however, for he had barely left off watching the point where she had disappeared, for any hint of felonious calling of names, when she reappeared in company with Father Ninian, the lat

epherd home? I want to go over to Dr. Dillon at once: and I have advised her not to

es?" asked Lance,

o one ever called me names, sir; still less a lady wh

tically, as he looked after the hurrying w

him--" she paused, turned to her companion, and held out her hand. "

, a sudden resolve seemed to come to him. "But--I

eating everywhere bu

e you to know it. I had some news b

ormal course, now, in sheer shame at her o

, they sent him round the world for his health, and he died two months ago, it seems, in Australia. And the shock was too much for my uncle; he was an

he only said, "Thanks, Sir Lancelot, it won't make any difference to--to our friendship, I'm sur

PTE

LE MO

n the Fort like an Englishman; he felt rather like one, also, in his vague

ast. "That is a step, certainly, but--" he turn

a jaunty air of self-satisfaction, went on, "and this dust-like one has experience. She will see the female relation to-night aft

d the suggestion, half indignantly, yet with a reluct

d Akbar, still with his jaunty craft; "but if this visit of the female relation be auspicious

ner he had to do with some novel code of conduct,

n anonymous letter of warning. He would have done so had he seen any subsequent hint of intimacy between these two. But he saw none; on the contrary, they seemed to avoid each other in public; and though this might be a blind, on the other hand Roshan had seen too much of some English women's ways not to know how trivial an offence against the proprieties it was to

g survival of a past society--"I would I knew if it were wise to trust thee

duty, Cherisher of the Poor!" he said, almost pathetic

dation passed Roshan by; he saw nothing in it b

ake thy price. It shall be trebled if she bids me see her to-morrow, but--" here he lau

ack seat and watch--he! he! he!--the miracle! A pretty miracle, indeed! The idea tickled him so that he could not keep it to himself, and as he passed through the bazaar, doing his daily marketing, he used his new avocation of miracle-monger as a reason for good bargains. The shop-keepers, however, shook their heads. Miracles paid the priests, and might suit such as he, but for their part they considered that there were too many miracles in Eshwara. What was the good of the pilgrims coming at all if all their money went to the temples, an

ll stoppers of soda-water bottles, which lay exposed for sale on a handkerchief in front of him; a Manchester-made handkerchief, printed in the best style with the loves of Krishna. "We get no more than in the old days; nay, less. For

t, when the whole narrow street would be a sea of heads, when even the saffron robes would be lost to sight, and the o

red to the little hoard set aside for regeneration, which was diminishing so rapid

eller of drugs. "If the Sirkar puts a tax on my me

--at a decent distance even from the crowd of customers which was awaiting a patch on the coverings of feet already wor

mes easily in India. Yet they, too, felt inclined to agree

l was jogi Gorakh-nath's promise of defying tampions, and locks, and chains, and, as in other years, b

t of the gun, and had treated them to a dissertation on the mysteries of Yoga. Other less eminent practitioners in the art of miracles, he said, might have found it necessary to withhold the sight of the sacred person from devoted eyes. He, however, meant to show them his absolute independence of the body. He would leave it lying there, dead, while his soul w

not a miracl

aving the impresarios behind them in a state of rage and despair. Rage, for if this sort of thing continued on the morrow they would lose their year's harvest, since the Host of God-seekers were ever the na

hand, to point the dire urgency of action, and agreed on the wisd

se, and asked him to look sharp, and send round to Roshan Khan to come along also, as he had private information--here, with a laugh, he threw a lett

med by bare men in belly of great gun, contrary to astringent orders issued by my lord god. Therefore your petitioner

future life was to be, the young fellow had been painfully aware that Eshwara had wrought a miracle on him; that he was no longer content to take life as he found it; that already he had begun to look forward and

at's why I like Eshwara. As I remember telling you, one can't count upon anything in the topsy-turvy place--not even one's self. They talk of th

t turban of a policeman, ready, truncheon in hand, to assert the rights of law, but not many; since the rush of bathers had not yet come, and there was small danger to be feared from anything save that keen desire to be cleansed, which showed on almost every

e raised stone platform in front of the gun,

rapidly through the yielding crowd, "so I can hardly obj

d up, and a curious hush fell on the courtyard. It was broken by a muffled voice,

a miracle

d the centre, waited for the roar to subside a lit

y of the padlock. Take out the

ed him that he was on the wrong tack, and made him cover possible discomfiture with the wor

that Roshan's face showed somewhat scared, as, with a salute, he announced as the result of his

who were within hearing, that Captain Dering saw insta

out of my gun, their voices are welcome to it! Come along, Carlyon," he added, in English, "it's ventriloquism,

the padlock and chain for signs of their having been tampered with, nodded his head, and let the chain swing back on its staple. The sudden jerk threw a new light on

ering was clear,

onged inspection down the huge muzzle, "they've shoved in a false end, and there's so

ain Dering, heedful of the rising note of movement a

boy, and rather a small one, for there isn't room for anything big. Now isn't there a boy anywhere about the same size who'd like to come and draw him? He will be heads this way, and you will be able to get a good grip of his hair, and he wi

d beside them. "Go on, brotherling," they said, "thou art the best wres

rotherling," said a dozen voices, "and i

by eager supporters. By this time Roshan had returned, and with the aid of the gaff and one of the smallest of the guard, Lance's guess had been prove

regretfully, as he helped the Sikh champion into the gun, "but it is

s before ready, almost, to fight for the truth of their miracle, were swayin

the other hath strength left! Sho! sonling, let not

rrier and a badger, the draw wavered

ent had its effect. Gurdit's toes, his ankles, his calves showe

!" shouted Lance--"twenty seconds more--fift

half-a-dozen bearded Sikhs had hold of Gurdit's feet with such a vigorous pull, that Lance had to shove his knee forward, in a hurry, to prevent the boy from f

ongratulation, the crowd parted with smiles to let the Englishmen pass, "and I'm glad you let the beggar off, Der

These religious gatherings are always a bit risky--and, as you know, Dillon is having trouble over at the gaol. 'Pon

echoed Lance, "will the

ven with the extra contingent of police we should

volves the discomfiture of the few; and in this cas

PTE

GOLDEN S

a man--I wo

erd as the two young men entered th

s, in the pause following on the interruption of their arrival, he went

nd him--for most of the mission workers had already arrived--warned him that this was

t manner was shaking hands with Lance; "Yes! grievously wrong!"-

law to a group of other black coats, came up and put t

verely, "we generally have to thank the mi

Vincent, after a glance at the first sentence. Then he

nterests of peace, he must, as magistrate, forbid any street preaching or public profession of faith durin

not the informant. At the same time"--here he faced about to the room ge

tral we would not complain. But does this prohibition extend to the priests of other religions? No! a thousand tim

ng, "but I am only a soldier. I

bell, weightily, "and our orders are to

what ought to be done. The women workers, with Erda at their head, went solid for defiance,--only Mrs. Campbell making the reservation "if Jam

nce crossed over pugnaciously to where she stoo

" he said. "By Jove! how you would bang it! Then, right or wron

tle with a strain after contempt which did not somehow co

nd the grand-master who were left dead on the field, and the two thousand poor devils who got drowned in the river besides, and all the others--you know about 'em, of course, and you must admit he was a bloodth

l the more defiance, because his words touched h

mission house gave on the city--of a native tom-tom drifted in throu

using gilt paper, and trying to make a miracle out of the 'biz'! One god, he said, in many; the outline being the same, and the eye of faith sufficient to fill in the details of divinity! The people were buying them by dozens for the half of nothing. I asked 'em why, and they said as toys for their children. So I expect it will be the

er that, if she ever had a son, she prayed he might be like this. And something else she recognized--not for the first time, either; namely, that boyish, almost thoughtless as he was, puzzling himself not at all with the problems of

r Ninian, who had just entered with Laila, came up to greet he

d name, Sir Lancelot! It carries with it a fine inheritance of honour; therefore I can wish no better wish for the world, as well as for yourself, than that you may hand it on to your son. So, peace be with y

en to her it seemed impossible. To h

st say to you this afternoon. Come into the verandah, aft

ad not Father Ninian's voice risen at that moment; firmly, yet with its usua

ly to your preaching. But this year there is something new." He paused to put on his spectacles, yet the keenness they brought to his face was dimmed by wistfulness. "I cannot quite tell what it is. There is something beyond the things I know, though these are many--small, it is t

Think, sir, how many of these poor deluded souls, striving after salvation, may di

ld die upon its road to the 'Cradle of the Gods.' Die--though we have not the courage to say so,--with their faces set to the eternal goal of humanity; to

musical rhythm, so that Dr. Campbell

he certainty--we are missio

rtesy as he removed his spectacles, "have never tried to make a convert; therefore I can scarcel

nger, less experienced colleagues; "I should be loth to act hastily, and give

-who had been looking horribly bored--seeing the piano open, sat down to it, as the dissentients m

a woman at the bottom of it. I know from personal experience

ously inclined, suddenly changed the tune to "Where'er you walk," which he played daintily, purely, altogether

n. She scorned the offer of my sword in favour--excuse me for having overheard--of some drum o

alluding to Jean Ziska's drum, which was sou

gruesome tale alone? For it's just an awful tale, Mrs. Smith. As if he could not be content

Mrs. Campbell," said the sharp-voiced lady who ow

just have gone to the grave with him, honest man, dust to dust, ashes to ashes. I've often heard Dr. James say there was nothing

the city's triangle. On the right, the wall, set with its temple spires, trended away to meet the bridge, on the left to join the line of the palace, the bathing-steps, the Fort. In front of him, as he stood leaning over the balustrade at the western end of the verandah, lay dull streaks of sand, bright gleams of water, and beyond them--dim, mysterious--was the great level plain of India,

vered by a pall. The straight sweep yonder was the shield, still held upon the arm, the peak of shadow below it was the mailed feet. There was the curve of the t

a joined him. "From the great

e out full of determination to deny the glamour of t

o the trailing drift of cloudlets, added, "

r then, forgetting fanc

ell you," he said, "but I think

tive still by that inevitable

Dead," continued: "Then that ends it so--so far as I am concerned. But it remains as an

wishing for the first time that these reasons had been fewer, feeling that the possession

maze which was almost ludi

ives himself, as I do, to the great work. To someone whose life will be mine--whom I can respect and admire and--and l

will the--the great Work be furthered by your having to look after the house and all that? And it isn't as if you couldn't g

paused--she felt glad to change pl

as my people have always kept them, unless you help me. And then--" he paused again--"from the first moment I saw you, you reminded me--" he paused so long this time that a faint

dear old lady always walked out of the room promptly when we tried it on. I remember it used to take the starch out awfully, having no audience. But it was the same in everything. It beat even a boy to be really bad in that house, somehow. Yes! we had jolly times! You would have liked it--you would like it now"--he turned swiftly and held out both hands--"Come to it!--Come, and be Lady Carlyon as she w

ng in his face, his voice, that she f

et her voice betray the absolute tenderness she felt, "but, as

ss--with mine at any rate! Do you remember when you first told me your name--The World's Desire I called it--the woman with the red

-thrilled through her. She saw her

, with me!" she echoed desp

pted--"with more t

h, that if she ever had a son he might be as this man, came to make her r

for the world in the other life, the other work. The very self-sacr

d at last, "I am very s

e," he interrupted. "Tha

s if I did not look forward as I do; perhaps if I only sought happiness; but--" she clasped her hands tightly and the militant

l of bitterness. "You leave me out

light like a moon-ray shot, almost as if in denial--widening on its way, from the shadowy stretches beyond the

because, when he thought all was right, something went wrong. That's why he didn't come, Miss Shepherd," she added, for the light had effectually joined the s

e last day, comin' unawares, and makin' a' things manifest

ll say to it?" said Vincent D

hat they should say--that, of course,

ice, "it is so beautifully, suggestively t

ull-throated tones. "I hate having to see things I don't ca

ough Vincent had, now and again, found opportunity for a word or look. He took advantage of one n

been vaguely curious at their apparent avoidance of each other, their occasional

hat new song, of course. Come in, Mis

uld think a twelve beat would be best, really. It

er absolute sincerity and unconsciousness of wrongdoing was as palpable. On the whole, he felt vexed; the more so because the vaudeville dialogue proved unnecessary, since a sudden

ld be unwise. Whether Father Ninian Bruce was justified, by the circumstances, in his adverse report was another matter. Personally he denied it; nor did he propose that they should sit down quietly under the interference. They were only forbidden to preach in Eshwara. Therefore they had com

ted relief in most cases; but Erda, standing beside her co

ou, at home. It will emphasize the difficulties and dangers we have to contend against. It will show our meek reasonableness, and then--" he looked round with a jubilant smile--"it seems to me

most harshly, filling the room with its defiance. "

g Laila's hand under cover of the new song,--an occupation which always made him feel as if all the wine of life

was bedaubed with two white lilies and a butterfly rampant,--and catching up a teaspoon from the table, he began to sing in his

ppers on a

pers on my

ers dat we a

ey are s

and both voice and drumming echo

e pilgrims, who were still gathering to the miracles, like moths round a

topped their ears; but even so, the thr

ppers on a

pers on my

ers dat we a

PTE

HO

ll for the adornment of her drawing-room,--had been indeed Jean Ziska's famous drum, Eshwara could hardly have been more restless than it was on the night after Vincent Dering had sung, "Oh! dem golden slippers!" to its accompanim

ppers on a

rs dat we'se

air, the inevitable wearing of the golden shoes, the inevitable search after the golden gates which, found, will open upon Paradise. True, the

till; whether men find it in the good the

ght the desire rose st

oftly, tenderly, as she set an unopened deal box to go with her others. It was one which the Reverend David had brought with him from England, and which had been made over to her, not without nods and winks, smiles and suspicions of tears, from her aunt. For it contained the wedding dress. It was a Moravian wedding dress of the old style, to suit Erda's fancy; and she

ction of those who had built it and started the Christian settlement in the tiny valley in which it stood. This lay some thirty miles up the Hara, beyond the first range of hills; and the river, fresh from its

ng as an excuse for a more determined skirmishing. For it stood right on the pilgrims' road. Indeed, Erda and the other rebels would have to travel a good eight-and-twenty miles along that very road itself before coming to the slack water where they could cross the river by a ferry, and finish their journey through the level fields on its further side to Herrnhut, with its homelike, peaceful surroundings. The memo

t her no doubt; it helped her,

er feet were indeed u

rding sleep in the striving after something that was more to them

ater between the city and the great plain of India--the pilgrims were passing, now, in an unending stream--to take up their place

ara! Har

the eye could see little, for th

ar?! Har

Creator, the dread Destroyer. Monotonous, patie

the golden stair also, and their golden gates would open at the 'Cradle of the Gods'; mu

e that goal was reached; but the hidden spring of cleansing at the Pool of Im

ar?! Har

f the finding of that lost pa

as each weary pair of feet stumbled on the first stones of the town, it stumbled into an atmospher

hy had dead women been sent back to it by Mother

seven or eight men had been sacrificed, but which, only an hour or so agone, had showed in a huge ray, feeling here and there through the darkness for God knows what, then settling on it, making it impossible to hide aught, prying into the very Holiest of Hol

gi Gorakh-nath. What wonder? The Gods did not like

ose who were wise would make certain of at least a modicum of salvation, an

priests whose business it was to scorn the possibility of failure, and to deny the displeasure of the Gods. To say that jogi Gorakh-nath had been found out by the Huzoo

to come. To their experience, their hope, it seemed impossible even to dream their pilgrimage in vain. The dawn would show, anyhow. So hour by hour, minute by minute, the tide of pilgrims

n called his Hosts of the Devil in commotion. Indeed, that thrumming was still going on when George Dillon had gone raging over to conjure the experimenter, with oaths, to turn off his confounded bull's-eye at once, or the prisoners would go out of th

there was treachery inside or out, though perhaps he might, as a precaution, ask Dering for an extra guard. But when the latter happened to come in, as Mrs. Smith's escort home, while the doctor was still there, Dr. Dillon apparently changed his mind. Anyhow, he pooh-poohed Captain Dering's offer to send one, saying, the more you could keep a gaol to yourself the better--or for the matter of that anything else! So, with a curt good-night to Mrs. Smith, he went back to his work, leaving Vincent to remark, carelessly, that Dillon seemed in a bad temper. At which Muriel smiled. There was something in the air, she said, conducive to bad temper. She, herself, felt she

s, and accumulators, and batteries, half-sulky, half-bored, and wholly ill-used at having

arting to drive back; and he answered that but for fools, who were afraid of go

the air to-night without that. I believe your machine has leaked,

undown, was alive with them; for the pilgrims were camping there, as elsewhere. Nor were all the fisher folk abed as usual, for that, surely, was one of them paddling up stream on a dug-out,--just under the last s

why should he have sent the dug-out beyon

normal. Its pulse beat irregularly, and thing

f restless, twinkling lights. Those were the little latticed windows of Laila's sitting-room, that was fit for any king's favourite. H

were things

d could take what he was taking, and then shake his bridle rein and ride away. But for the present, it was the most absolutely perfect bit of romance in his whole life. He could not, would not give it up. Laila was right! This was the essence. As a rule, people mixed

made him revolt from it; but with Laila it was different. A passionate gratitude to the girl to whom fear, remorse, the very possibility of change seemed unknown, rose

en Vincent looked up at her windows asserting her absolute lack of pretence and single-mindedness, she was pitting her wits against old Akbar Khan in a manner worthy of her grandmother, Anari Begum; since Akbar, far more than her guardian, was to be feared. The latter, honest man, went to his bed, beyond the chapel, at ten of the clock precisely; but Akbar, who from ancient h

sofa, she listened to his

she may call me Begum, and hint at my being one, really, a thousand times over! Why not? Begum and

taken to quoting so much from it) they would make Pidar Narayan play Friar Laurence, and marry them on the sly. That would be so much more amusing than a regular wedding. He could not refuse, since he had once loved as she loved. You could hear that in his voice; after how many years?--fifty or sixty! And the Princess had, of

t upon a go

nt! Seeking something, claiming something, yet still content. That feeling came, sometimes, when you were saying your prayers. A so

as better than having a "statue of pure gold" erected to you! In the meantime, secrecy, so long as Vincent wished to play Romeo and Juliet, was her cue; there

e, to Laila's boudoir. For, despite the amusement, the girl's heart was beating fast with determination to climb her golden stairs without interruption. So she allowed herself to be kow-towed to, and called Begum-sahiba and she accepted the new dress and jewels without protest. Eagerly, in fact, since they were far more gorgeous than the first, and caught her taste

ever so much better than the dull lavender water, which was the only scent her guardian said a lady could use. Vincent would like that; he, like she did, loved s

winked at each other; and Laila's sharp eyes, catching this, brimmed over with laughter. She felt glad the rest of her face was hidden, until she was gr

ally the heir. That it had given her great gratification to see how thoroughly he had adopted English ways. That, of course, it would be impossible for him to marry an uneducated cow of a girl. Here, for a moment, she had relapsed to sincerity in order to remark that it must be impossible to love a person you had not seen, and that f

ring; while Akbar gave a gasp that was not all pleasure. He felt that he was being rushed, that the crisis might come before he was ready for it. At this rate, P

a house against the palace wall, where he knew Roshan was waiting for the upshot

to his grandmother, while Akbar pointed each triumphant appeal of the old lady's with a helpless "Gereeb-pun-was," his face grew pale with emotion; unt

r, the negotiations only existed in his own imaginings. But the look on Roshan's face--he had seen it often in his youth in connection with women

wild beast in a cage, biting his mustache, and t

lit up? I will stay there, waiting, till she come for an early walk among the flowers. That can be managed. Then, if the coast is clear, we can meet and talk. If not, there is no ha

that very moment Laila, ablaze with gold and jewel

she paraphrased, "i

her look like this; so absolutely

The heavy scent upon her dress assailed hi

more true," she whispered, "than thos

back, lost in his own

n the golden stairs; the gate

TER

L OF IM

ar?! Har

led eagerness and patience. And this was most noticeable in those who stood nearest to the bamboo railing which had been erected (in a square some four feet from the first step downwards) as a precaution against a dangerous rush on all sides; and in consequence, a dangerous crush on those steep steps. The only entrance to them, therefore, was by a sort of double sheep-pen at the end nearest the town, by means of which, when the time came, some fifty bathers would be admitted to the railed square from the inner pen, their places in which would be taken by the fi

fore business begins; talking and laughing London talk, for one of them was fresh from

-Aunt Sallies, Tommy Dods, Welshers, and the lot--and then the enclosure--" A sudden sway in the crowd made him look round hastily at his own. It was all correc

eat mass of bronze faces a greyish, corpse-like tint, while, half way up the sky behind them, the s

ara! Har

aler, and in another minute, at most, the twelve-foot square of cleansing water, which was all the Gods vouchsafed, must surely begin

titude; but the raised riding whip was sufficient. The eagerness died out for a moment from thos

would turn on the tap," remarked

ar, I'd insist on the curtain being rung up at the bill time. I

n one of those sudden silences which seize upon humanity even when in masses. So that a faint "rumpa-tum-tum-rumpa-tum-tum" was distinctly audible

a tom-tom, which has no end, no beginning; which holds ever in its beat

roke in again that swaying,

ife-Death-Crea

tle his wife and bairns in a jerry-built villa near London; so the memory of something beyond the iniquities of the plumber--those Borgias of modern life, dealing death unchecked, undiscovered--made his eyes pass b

died down to obedience. Once more that cry on the Creator, the Destroyer, e

of day; below, the square stone font of immortality

ween th

the dignity that doth hed

ick indrawing breath of thousands to voice a sort o

ave far out at sea which swallows up a lesser one, t

till empty, though

ing wa

o keep its temper, though I don't expect he'd be much good--and there's no one else. Inspector!" here the police officer turned to a silver-laced turban beside the outer pen, "leave that in charge of Govinda and Suchet--Stay! Shiv-deo will be better; he is a high-caste Brahmin. And you go and send every twice-born constable you've got, and can trust, to every alley and street that leads here; for there will be an awful crush when those in front don't move

solid packed mass of humanity. There was no s

o truncheons drawn till

thority, and that done, the head of it pulled out hi

oming, until a faint forward sweep, a half-hearted shout came from behind; from

n grew. And they stood back, all save a miserable-looking, dirt-clad, wild-ey

s he thrust him back gently, "have patience awhile. Giv

ne, at the other side of the pen, twirled his mustache airily, and laughed.

world. The crowd close at hand tittered, caught up the cue, amused itself with add

ar?! Har

rious sidelong motion of a forward crowd, as, in the clear light, a trickle of

pen, like puppies, by the scruff of their necks, one in each hand; and Shiv-deo, choosing out the nearest low-caste man unerringly, caught him in his arms

n! Thy sort can bathe in

herman--fell amongst them, hustled and silenced him, and nodded to

o that overwhelming flock, if a white hand and arm with silver buttons on the cuff--holding a silver-mounted hunting-crop, clubbed

; then, to the striker's relief, sat up, and apparently howled; app

ar?! Har

hesitated, then sunk out of sight again with a sort of drowning gurgle that came as an accompanim

ad been made to fill the tank in some new way. Then he frowned. There would be pressure

our right--

h spades and picks, could edge through the crowd, though it still yielded room to authority without a murmur. He had been on his way with a f

s," said the police officer, seizing on a possible diversion gladly, "

expectation ran through those first rows who could see. "Surely," they said to eac

s befriend the bold? Do not we, of Harriana, find the sacred river which t

in the almost rainless tract beneath which, so the legend goes, the

s hid water,

ince nothing was imp

s the eye could reach down every lane and street and alley, nothing but that sea o

k to his jesting remark to Erda, his young face clouded. Was it possible he should never see her again? Was it possible that the Reverend David was to claim his par

s this time, and the police officer looked up hastily. It meant that, for the first time, the crowd mus

"but, steady! please, in case of a rush. Remember that if we yield more foot-room, someone mu

nt those few yards of clear space about the pool being encroache

ayan, who had joined the party at the crucial moment, and piloted them through the crowd, which gave way to hi

ernly. "Tarry ye the Lord's leisure

mething they could understand. A man, set apart from others by his dress, his life, his invariable assumption of authority, his

ver the appearance of more matter. His barrier cou

secret supply had somehow been tampered with, but where, not even they could tell without help. And though they had sent, long b

what he had seen the night before. "They are most likely in the plot; one

to go up the Hara and pilot down a raft for the f

er," said the police officer. "Briefly, the miracle is off the bill.

re to address them--" began Ramanund, who had come down

ince rejected the faith of his fathers, and, so to sp

f your sort ever has, in all the history of the world. That does not reason. It feels. Show it another miracle, a

in the police officer. "For the rest, we must hold the fort, I suppos

, sir," said the

counted. "Yes! I'll last through. Inspector! Close your men in, and let them sta

han, and orders to send word of any dist

There is no fear till this is s

ning to the insistent throbbing of the old God-maker's drum in the distance, but through it all the note was patience. And it was patience, also, in the square enclosure of authority. Som

g chimed the hours regularly up

r ground, giving no inch, and authority stood its gro

on, until at last the red sun sank behind the

he stones of the courtyard began to show between the golden-shod feet. "Inspector! send your men to

a moment if they had had any sort of a lead over. And from what you told t

ching the crowd disperse

taken, so far. Still, there is dang

owd, silent no longer, rose that insiste

TER

RI

ngled house at Herrnhut, looking at a heap of white mu

isquiet of which she was conscious. Yet if anyone had ventured to suggest, when she had said good-by to Lance Carlyon the evening before,--said good-by almost carelessly, by re

or a wife to be, must needs hamper a man more than any other woman, even his sister. David had been kind about it, almost too kind. She flushed a little at the recollection of his words, his look; for that sort of thing had scarcely come into her calculations. But Dr. Campbell had pompously reminded her that her future profession would be wife, caretaker, sympathizer, and general bolsterer--up to a worker. Nor need

ish for you and for the world," had come back

efore a fraction of light faded from the sky above it. She could hear Mrs. Campbell's voice down the little ladder-like stairs, conferring with the cook over the wedding c

gered the quaint little cap idly, as she told herself tha

at. She looked ahead calmly, taking the world as the Creator made it. She thought, without a flush, as good women do, of the children she hoped might come; and as she thought, she frowned, not fr

d of her aunt calling her,

ss, now she was about it, since if there was anything amiss

n deliberately, chosen with her eyes open, though, maybe, focussed too much on that mental companionship. Too much? Impossible! Lance was wrong. That was the crowning glory of marriage; and even if it s

dress; and if it did not f

manhood playing, with dainty little tendernesses and conceits, about the abyss for which it is responsible. So, with the smile of an angel, she passed into the garden, the old militant feeling at her heart. Her feet were

n the right path. Indeed, the only regret of which she was conscious was one that she was

ttom of the garden into the wide shallows of the river, which here showed scarcely a streak or dimple o

nges, those in the Herrnhut garden; grafts brought by a missionary from Malta. Mrs. Campbell, notable woman as she was, made a steady income for good works out of the sale of the great red-skinned, red-hearted fruit, and prided herself in keeping them later on her trees than anyone in India. Indeed, in the shadier, colder

ter than she thought, something showed rounding the smooth, silver bend of the

seasons were floated down the river to Eshwara. Am-ma's

cing on one of them, as the mission folk always did when they wanted to stay the last possible minute of holiday at Herrnhut, and get back to Eshwara as quickly as they could. For it took half the time of the winding road, when the river, as now, was quiet and manageable. And Am

elds. She had often taken the pleasant little trip with Am-ma. There was no danger so far; but after that, when the river began to slip and slide, even he had sometimes

g on the landing-stage, and thought she wanted him; so she shook her head and began to walk back to the house. As she did so an orange caught her eye unde

had lingered longer in the garden than she had intended, and there was a chance, only a c

and, with her clasped hands laid almost caressingly among the soft muslin, pra

o tell her if there was anything wrong in the lighter rooms below; here, under the roof, it was already a little dark. Then catching up the orange, she ran downstairs, wondering if the bridal blo

ed the heavy curtains which, in Indian fashion, divided it f

aft straight to the pier glass which stood--the joy of Mrs. Campbell's heart--just opposite the curtains; so m

omething real, something not to be explained away, exaggerated, or minimized. It was a woman, tall, slender, rob

e herself; helpless befo

on your hair, and a red-gold apple

a second, not thinking at all; simply, with

e idea that she could not do one thing, that she must do another, she turned to the garden, and,--the red-gold fruit still in her hand,--hurried breathlessly through the w

ude sort of man in it,--comprehending, yet uncomprehending,--primitive, simple, expectant. "Huzoor!" he said, wi

it

ce struck her as absurd, and yet it seemed

it

le cry again, and this t

iss-sahiba say?" a

ugh. "To Eshwara--where else d

tranger, frailer self was adrift on the greater river of life. And a hand, heedless, seeing no

seat correctly. That is right! The Miss-sahiba recoll

t on the river that went to Eshwara--where else--and that she was

when she came floating down the river--not dead, like the Lily Maid

ized by its colour, absolutely unconscious of

is slave let it drift while he waited for t

ar idea startled her fro

her face; she rose to escape. But Am-ma's warning hand was on hers in an instant; that hand, so

one is in the stream there is no change possible; but

one need know (the quaint craft, rocking itself back to balance, made her feel giddy), her dress was only muslin, she could rem

seemed to cloud her senses. So she raised her face again, and stared at the river. Why had she done this? Why had she put this thing, that she must always conceal, into her life? There would always,

of it stung deep; the inst

do the work. "I want to get there as soon as possible. I must,

asked, in sudden interest. "Did the prisoners escape as it was arranged? And was it Ca

eart she realized that here might be something of more importance than her self-humiliation.

ldly, "what is this about prisoners escaping, and the

t was why she was going. It is nothing. Idle talk. It is always tal

ell me about this. If you do not, I will take

s talk, idle talk. It is always so. All day long, and all night long in the bazaars

his tale, and she had grasped the whole tissue of trivial

he deaths in gaol, the return of the cursed corpse, Gopi--the ticke

uld they expect to do? Here Am-ma had smiled inscrutably, and said the Miss did not know bazaar talk. Everything was possible to it. Had they

t he had refused, partly because he had to come away, and partly because he was the servant of the Light-bringers. As to when the prisoners were to escape he could not say. To-day, perhaps to-morrow, most l

ven if anyone were there, which was uncertain, half an hour at least to start a messenger. Then

get to Eshwar

t copper-coloured dome above the rim of almost black hills, with the river, dark, mysterious, already beginning to slide towards the narrowing ravine. It did not strike her that she herself, adrift on that river in wha

son's head, if you will leave the raft here, and take me as quick as you

s above the valley like a boat, faster than this, when the paddle cannot be used. It will take us with it. I will fasten this behind, and steer. Then in the slacker water when the paddle is possible, we will leave it; if the Miss-sahib

in one of the logs. Then he clucked emphatically. "Lo! who would grudge men's brains to the Masters when they are cle

her that the recurrence of th

isoners were to esca

ed at, could scarcely have happened just after they left Eshwara the night before. In that case the news must have followed them on the road. Therefore, if it was to happen a

he way to Eshwara! It seemed almost more incredible than what had gone before. But there was nothing to be ashamed of here. It was the only possible thing to do under the circumstances. Her journey might prov

PTE

LI

im of hills, had replaced that of sunset in Eshwara also, and Pidar Narayan's eyes, weather-wise as the fisherman's, looked a

, I should predict a dust-storm--a r

e crowd to buy up the old Brahmin's whole stock in trade, and give him an extra eight annas to go away and not drum any mo

egular black snorter. Glad it didn't come in the middle of the miracle 'biz', for, as a general smasher-up of ordinary experiences, commend me to a real electrica

leaving that curiously acquiescent way which white faces still cleave through dark ones--"T

torted Captain Dering, cynically. "That, si

as my model for Lucifer." He pointed to a gosain who was forming the centre of a group of gossipers round a syrup-seller

undrel enough for that! But really, sir--" he turned to Father Ninian again--"I think we may count on their behaviour now." He indicated the crowd. "If there was going to be a row it would have come off before this; now they will sett

black soutane, and looked round him again. "They will settle down," he said quietly, "if nothing new crops up to

arewell, he passed along the wall to the former, while the others, striking across the raised union-jack o

, and mixing with the crowd, got lost in it, while the door was closed behind them by some unseen hand. "I'll talk to Roshan about that. He was c

m him, and as he went by the guard-house he gave rather a sharp reprimand to Roshan Khan, who happened to be outside, for not having kept his eyes open while in ch

he inner courtyard, where the officers' quarters lay, hugging the river wall. It was quite a citadel, a distinct fortification of itself, with no ent

uous smile. "I believe the old Colonel was right after all, and coming here has put wind in his he

always a bit sorry for Roshan. He would be a f

You haven't seen him fight. I have. Talk of

traight to his quarters after Vincent's reprimand, h

ve told wherein the grievance lay which for the

e paused in his angry pacing of the room, and smiled complacently. Why should he give a thought to an impossible plan, when a possible one lay ready to his hand? If he married Laila, the land, almost the title, would be his of right. It would be easy anyhow to regain. Then with a fresh frown, he remembered Vincent's order. That would upset his plans. He had meant to slip out by the bastion gate just before--say an hour before--dawn, and cross over to the palace. Akbar Khan had arranged to be there to let him into the garden. Now he must make other arrangements. He must find the

the quick salaams, the ready smiles given him by the men, as they

who gave the word of command, or his, who had drilled them to obedience, who lived with them day and night? Without suc

met at its very gate that surging tide of patient,

and having reason to know that part of the night time, at any rate, which is usually given to sleep would be employed in something better, had, after stavin

above the sliding, rushing river, the sound of which was as a rule sleep-compelling, would sleep come; not e

g that the good-by was for ever. And he had not had time to think all day. But now, at rest in the cool darkness, looking from his lounge chair d

this com

,--his hea

ince gone out; but that was as much the cry at his heart as if

her to him in her wedding dress. And then he felt as if he could kill the Reverend David Campbell without shame or fear. He was vaguely ashamed of the

y ate a mi

re was not much time le

ly thing that mattered was that

uld sh

and expressed surprise at finding his companion still undressed. He was hungry as a hunter, he said; besides he wanted to have a decent interval between dinner and turning in. And that must be early, for he had just heard from the police author

Why should they rake us up at such an unearthly hour? Why can't they let the people have

nation to regain Paradise, as it was lost, through a woman. And that play of Romeo and Juliet in the scented garden--Juliet, whose bounty was "as boundless as the sea"--was a

ing to his room betimes. He was not due at the palace till twelve, but he was anxious to ensure the coast being clear, and Lance seemed just in the

even his despair becoming dreamy, and being obstinate, tried to fight against the fact. The result being that he finally fell asleep in his lounge chair with a soundness and

ed into an almost solid mass, seemed to slide with a slow, almost unseen movement, through them. They were waiting for the dawn. If nothing new came before th

the Fort, resting, after their long day, in Indian fashion by sprawling on their beds and gossiping, had dragged these beds into the open and dis

t it was of the utmost importance that he should know, not so much to himself, as to the Government he served. For his vague discontent had vanished, his well-reasoned, well-founded loyalty returned at this, the first hint at anything beyond the wild, aimless intrigue with which every Indian bazaar teems. But here, in this definite plan, by the collaboration of his troopers, of liberating fifteen hundred scoundrels,--or, at least, desperadoes,--of aping t

eed, had jumped at this indefinite arrangement, which bound him to nothing; which made it unnecessary for him even to broach the subject of an interview to his mistress. Since what was easier to say than that it had been impossible; as, indeed, it was! Perhaps Roshan Khan had himself grasped this fact; perhaps in insisting on this entry to the g

en vague excitement, he passed on to the inner court. Here, where Lance Carlyon's small band of Sikh pioneers were quartered in the long, low building in which

very day after dinner. Stupid of him not to have gone there first; and yet, surely, it was late. Perhaps they were uneasy; perhaps they had already heard! An open letter "On Her Majesty's Service" lying on the dinner table as he passed through the mess room (which was still lit up--sign that the servants had gone to sleep awaiting their masters' call) attracted hi

ew enough of invitations from E

the dining-room. There too, the swinging lamp still burnt, and show

e key of the little door in the bastion; Captain Der

his vague fear--then, by taking the canoe, which lay at th

an stole softly past the sleepin

e was no

must have taken it

this leading up to a balcony over the river where he had gone once before with a woman, a woman in a dress wh

mance was possible. It was shame unutterable, irredeemable. Shame that must be revenged without delay. So, forgetting everything else in the world except this, he passed the sleeping Lan

rtyard as he crossed it, pausing a moment beside the

cher of

a lesson; these aliens, these us

mp--which Laila, with that unfailing instinct of hers for all that matched the passionate mystery of the place, had set in a carved niche, where it looked like a votive offering to the unseen image of a saint--Vincent could feel the warm ivory of her cheek against his own, hear the soft chink of her jewels as they slid towards him, following the

e thought of her. Who dared to judge her by the narrow stan

ce time began; this was what the

t! Ju

r idolatry," she was to him

pered the name t

asterful, sounded in the passage above;

g; but Laila was on her feet in

l! let him come. I'm not afraid! F

hway, she stood like a queen, her hand raised, he

full-throated voice. "It is too late for that. Remember--" She

eam, and then the arches rang w

a! La

oundrel! You'v

a! La

one pistol-shot. Then two useless clicks of a trigger, before,

PTE

AP

knows where! and was blown out riverwards, citywards. Blown by that sudden blast, like the hot breath of someone's anger, which always heralds an electrical

artered birthright, begins afresh among the sons of Adam. When the Hosts of the Lord,--fighting, as men always fight, under the banner

ar sound of that pistol-shot, woke also to the knowledge that someone

s it?

as one does instinctively, for another shot to foll

hat really Erda Shepherd's voice, rising t

ss of the language. Yet even that made his bewilderment more utter. And all around him, about him, a mist--or was it a cloud, or what was i

rom the earth into the air, obedient to the call of that mightiest force in na

en right! The electr

ver steps, dimmed by the dust-atoms that glittered faintly in the clouded ray

a dream; he w

yield to impulse, to emotion, as he would never have done otherwise. He

back to me!--the world's

look of the face seen through those earth-atoms had brought it home to him that this was no dream. This was Erda Shepherd herself,

fly, sternly; for it came home to h

llow them at its leisure through the slacker currents, and, in obedience to her order, had forged ahead with his paddle, her anxiety had risen to fever-pitch; since the night, so far as she could judge, must be waning fast, and her errand would be useless if she were not in Eshwara before the dawn. For, as she had listened to Am-ma's garrulous talk while

ked that dear one in the face. "There is a good deal the matter," she sai

m others, made him set a chair for her, and, glancing round for a wrap, take the mess jacket he had laid aside fo

scent of the orange blossoms made him turn pale. Despite his hurry, his certainty that some

more at the comprehension shown in her own answer than the meaning in his question, and bu

about her throat of the gold lace on a mess jacket. How red it looked against her white dress! And what a lot of lit

made her realize that, quite mechanically, she still hel

d made him say those words which had come like the

e unseen river beyond the arches. Only just in

hough he turned in early saying he was half asleep. I wonder what is up? Can he have heard already, do

understand quickly, she did not fail to explain, breathlessly, how she came to be dressed as she was. She had been trying on her weddi

nately, as she told the tale. It was all of the tru

me to warn th

istened, for to most men the possibility of a w

egan; but she cut him short with a q

fernal--I beg your pardon--dust-storm won't interfere with the connection. You had better come over

vitality which finds itself face to face with action. "He said the raft couldn't overtake us for half an hour. But he must not go,

strange craft lay sidling against the bottom step, over which little waves were curving hurriedly, to reach up the wall, as if the water-atoms were as restless as those of earth, as eager to seek a new e

to Lance's mind, and he flushed up, even in the dark,

waiting him, and, catching up a lamp from the mess table, started with her close at his heels for t

ould be for greater convenience of action and greater protection (she had slipped her arms into it, deliberately, w

guard here. The massive gates of the citadel once closed, and a sentry

aid Lance, ahead, and his

bject, there must always be a sense of strain in that pause before the answering tinkle comes to tell that a human hand

nterrupted, but what was to be done if it was not. Thinking that he must, somehow, warn Vincent. Th

the wider issue. "What are you goin

g--either coming wind or far-distant thunder--had

ishable, yet unmistakable, like the roll of a half-muf

unreal it all was! Herself, most of all, in a mess jacket, and, of course--but this thought came second--her wedding dress! And then it stru

persisted, "you will have to g

he had to do this, if Roshan Khan had to be left in charge of

a-trin

w precision with which Lance--who had to remember each equivalent sign--spelt out his message. He could not be quicke

tle followed from the other end, which Lance translated in

his way to the wicket in the gate. To his surprise, it was closed. He

d. "Sentry! Open t

ering in contemptuous memory of the day; but it produ

f her voice being due to a swift instinct that the les

-either distant thunder, or faint, ineffective explosions of electricity close a

her red-gold hair in the dust, as she peered through a three-inc

her face was li

ide--I saw his feet. Come away, and let us settle what to do

d voice, "where the deuce has the sentry gone to?

chfully. "That's quite enough," she said; but she said it with a smile. That vigorous

ftly, as she put the lamp down on the

gainst interference w

positive, therefore, tha

e most urgent need for

reach it, a

t with or without his knowledge, the outer court was in the hands of rebels who thought their Eng

ing, were in the outside courtyard. What would be the use, either, of trying to force the door? Mere waste of time. The thing required was to preven

ow was that

took sudden comfort in the q

rply. "Go down stream to the spit, cut across by the mi

e the boat-bridge and though, of course, most of the men would be scattered on duty through the town, even some help would be better than none. Yet ho

u," he

ry to come in--yet a while. I

r being alone," he p

echoed. "Are they

ms--I could find

ir words--jostled eac

hy don't you

ht be worse than useless, without something to do--with

dragging the fingers through each other, in sheer straining after some thought on

The word seemed

arth or air

Am-ma shall fetch it--it must be close by, now. There

e stood in her white,

d softly "by Jove

men, and she was on the bottom step giv

ld lay hands on, he found her, in his room, sorting cartridges as if she h

aby if he didn't. I suppose it was wrong,"--though her woman's tongue sought speech

y brave," he

always had to try and not be afraid; but we are not a

g her eyes into the darkness for a hint of Am-ma's return.

sted in the men's hands from various points of vantage. They flew outwards; one, from Am-ma's hands inwards to a group holding a la

itating, divided between his

--"if I go there ahead on Am-ma's craft, I could

y of it all, and laughed--positively laughed. "Manage? Yes! of course I can manage--havildar! see those

o Am-ma's skin craft, and, edging his way along by the wall, prepared to drift down to the palace balcony. It was mirk dark now, and he had no fear of being seen by the crowd on the bathing steps and th

ere and there files of shadowy forms drifted about, but the most of them, seen by the little lights set on the ground beside each group, were in heaps, like

of the still windless storm, came a softer

en to battle. The Spirit had not move

n the darkness. Except for a glimmer of red light j

e by the stairs for

othe

yan must be awake also. He felt a certain relief at the thought when he caught sight of the canoe at the bottom of the steps. Then Vincent, as he had fear

PTE

GHE

of something which had happened; for, by a coincidence that for more than fifty years had never lost its mystical significance for Ninian Bruce--sentimentalist as he was to his finger tips--the night of the Vaisakh festival, when the pilgrims watched

. It had only changed its dwelling-place. It had fled from the senses, and found refuge in the emotions. In a way, indeed, by thus seeking freedom from it,

at thrill of self-absorption in another self, that claim for all, which is the essence of passion. For this woman, waiting for him in the land where there is no marrying or

m, that room made holy by her presence in his heart, partly in the chapel, made holy by the Bodily Presence o

in the balcony nearer the garden, had resounded through the arches. It had disturbed, but not startled him, its very boldness reassuring him of its right to be there. Probably it was some messenger from the police camp or the Fort. So

s he was in his robes--for the service of love which was to him, as a priest, his duty, as a man a joy u

years ago in the balcony above the pale flood of the Tiber, he could not have been quicker to reach the armoury, seize the long rapier, whi

at it was past him, desperate, indifferent, flinging him against the wall as it continued its reckless way to the oute

there? For that faint light from the Altar had given him a gl

a! La

face in sudden doubt as he turned swiftly to his left. Turned,

p--that was never to be lit up because of something that had happene

r fear caught at his heart.

t was realizing that some tra

wh

in a scarlet and gold mess jacket? Ah!--that was Captain Dering, undoubtedly. B

he glitter of rich stuff; one white arm, losing its hold on a cuff of scarlet and gold, swung back helplessly, and Vincent Dering, with a passi

d backwards over his s

il

dash, and the fire which had made that youth what it had been, rose up in him. The blood

s sword. "You shall answer for this, sir! How do y

the speaker was, then returned to his task with the indifference of o

man!" he cried recklessly. "Come and help, if

uaint, jewelled clasps of the scented corselet, which was crimsoning deeper with another

hearer into silence. He stood

ling effect of a useless waiting in the garden till dawn should make it necessary for hot-blooded lovers to return to the Fort, stole like a thief to the balcony. What could have happened? The only likely trouble which had occurred to his va

il womanhood, he had been imposed upon! Then, as he crept round a pillar craftily, the sight of P

. "This was unknown. And for the other, I told

mean? Father Ninian stood helpless, pa

who was the other? Who was that man? Curse

marry him. Hush! what's the use of being angry--now?" She checked his incredulous outcry, and her hand hesitated up to his trembling fingers, and hel

ted on her corselet, and she smiled again. "We match, don't we? I'm glad. Be

at could a man do, caught in a second by Fate to be chief actor in a scene like thi

g of a doctor!" he cried passionately. "We can settle scores

e face of what had happened--a triviality common in those who have been struck down as she had been, almost p

vainly trying to rise, lay back breathlessly. "Tell him, Vincent;

been coming here, night after night, to see her; she wears that dress to please me--there! Now you've got it! And to-night, some devil--she says Roshan Khan, but she's dreami

s, he understands; he knows what it is to be in love quite well. Do

e they always spoke, and her rich voice du

else!" cried Vincent, wildly. "She has fainted, I think--I can

nds," had sent into his very soul. Yes, he knew what love was. But he knew also--it came home to him in a second--that his love, even after all these

akes everything so--so red--you--you can'

thrust the lamp into Vincent's trembling hands without a word, and his own steady ones--the hands which had

self backwards and forwards. He had meant no harm, he protested--he had conducted more affairs of the ki

e said "fear," but for Vincent's face of anguish. What right had he to feel sorrow?--he, the man who had brought this about. "Sti

r in his arms, wit

her on the cushions before the alta

ndages she was lying there as he had directed,

es, Akbar,--and place them at her hea

eaming? How was it possible? The wild improbability of it stunned him; when not three hours ago he had had a sherry-and-bitters bef

is she--"

eplied Father Ninian quietly. "

his time it was the old priest who held up his hand against a passionate outcry. "Don't

"It is the wedding, I suppose," she said--there was a catch in her breath now--"but why have they put the candles like a bier? To save time, I suppose. But

the garden would have suffered without that promise to himself. And now, death should not cheat him, should not leave a stain, a regret,

ust going to begin," he whispered,

; part of her as Juliet. So it should be. His wild revolt at the sequence of improbabilities--for after all that idyll in the garden had been, bar its environments, commonplace enough--which had landed him in--in an Adelphi drama!--(he could

torily on the shoulder, as he b

t. I am a Catholic--I have sinned--we will say nothing about her--that lies between us. I wish to mar

could have killed the man who stood before h

he right to

replied Vincent, fiercely

ptain Dering tells me--" Then he gave way--"Cara mia," he whispered, laying his hand on hers, "tell me--I have

ly. "Must!" she echoed dreamily. "It's just as he likes

Vincent knelt down again

d. "Tell him to begin quickly, Vincent, for I don't want to waste

, and turned blindly to the alta

his voice began th

, the girl supported in Vincent's arms. The latter shook his he

had been put there by a saint in Paradise. He took it off now, and gave it to

ed in his rockings to say "Amen" with the others. He

he sought the light he had seen--sought his Captain. He seemed to bring a breath

e here. The troopers have seized the Fort--" He paused suddenly, horror-struck at

has nothing to do with it. Leave that

still on that pitiful

tol-shot--you mu

nt, wildly. "Yes! I hear

"I only know that if we don't get to the gaol before they do--they've gone to set the prisoners

g girl. She had saved his life--he loved her--coul

ace and was now holding Laila in his arms. "You must go, Captain Dering, and prevent

ll! if you won't come, I'm off--oh! come along, Vincent,

esolute. "You'll stay, sir," h

cious girl closer to him. "I

with a curious dazed defiance. The latter gave the defiance back, as thei

and the last word came also

e first time that the mist, which for the last half hour had dimmed the reality of all things, was due, n

relief. That was at

ercely, he realized also that the storm would fight against him in his efforts to prevent worse

lous. It could not be true. He would

planation as they ran down the river steps. Once there, the sight of the canoe he had left suggested the feasibility of getting to the gaol in it. His personal influence might avail. If that failed, he would

g hum of the storm, and Lance was left looking anxiously for sound or si

hat the air was growing darker, more impenetrable than ever, he shoved off his strange craft, to

pel. And as he lay in it, his ears and eyes strained for the least sound, he could hear as a kind of background to that muffled dru

it was hopeless to look forward--or backward for that matter! Why had Roshan shot the girl-

actly as he had said--

s sweep the paddle through the stream as he shot into

t red-and-gold mess jacket above her wedding dress, givin

nd Dillon could hold his own too, without much help, for a time--that was an

TER

ONO

eliberately beforehand as to what his best course of action would be should an alarm of this sort occur. Therefore that imperative kling-kling of the telegraph bell which ro

had hopes that danger was over. His last thought, as he slept, had been this; he woke to find that the complication must be faced. Woke with a strong regret, but a stronger instinct of fight. So he slipped his feet into his shoes, jammed his big mushroom hat on his head out of pure habit, and so, armed cap-à-pie, with a brain quick to work, and a body ready to foll

rouble arise, was the semi-fortified roof above the gate of the gaol; and that he knew to be ready for use. He had, therefore, only to wake them, as quietly as might be, so as not to give the alarm to the servants. Fortune favoured him in this; for, just outside the verand

e gave a sigh of relief, "then it's the beastly dust-storm disturbed you, I suppose. Isn't it sic

Fort. There's a plot on, to come here and set the prisoners free, and that's dangerous. So, till the troops come, I think you'd better bring Mrs. Smith and Gladys to the

d sat down on it, aghast, in surprise; but

self. "That's a taking up one's bed with a vengeance

things to the last, sometimes. And I shall want you

round the room, full of soft rose-shaded light, how pretty, how cosey it was. It had the same air of refined security now. Everything, down to a copy of the last 'Queen' ly

d

n, the society, and the security belonging to

re, and as Dr. Dillon, standing by the table in the pink glow of the lamp, asked himself the question, he yielded to the imperious f

kno

pink paper shade, after George Dillon had passed rapidly to Eugene's office to

e sand: a fragile figure in a blue dressing-gown, all frilled and embroidered like th

he entered. "Your dress, I mean. There's

" she answered,

forlornness--the forlornness of a delicate Dresden shepherdess set to drive a flock of real

ught it best not to wake her, and he said we had better start

none of resistance either, and she turned at the door

t I suppose it can't be helped." She turned to the darkness again w

ose so. He will be here directly I expect. And--and we will all take care of y

e you will. And I am really not a bi

when her husband joined them, striding along with Gladys, still sleeping, wrapped in a blanket in his arms, the doctor bade them come at their leisure and wait until he gave the signal before entering, then ran on swiftly to the gaol. For there was no time

ithout to establish communication with the former. So far, good. On the other hand, no amount of the light at his command would enable him to see, even from his coign of vantage on the gateway roof, what was going on, either outside or inside. And darkness was

the wheel, as it were. Between these two the spokes. Spokes of twelve feet high mud wall, dividing the whole into seven wedges of prison, absolutely distinct, blank, aperture-less, save for one heavily stanchioned

s porch, also gated. The inmost of these three gates opened on to a small courtyard, and this narrowed again into an alley which gave access to the central tower. Briefly then the whole gaol consisted of six wed

pital; and the entry to these was by a door on either side of the little courtyard, just beyond the inner g

in the hands of authority. Unless there was time to undermine the mud walls, and tools, also, wherewith to work. Of these, however, there were none in the gaol. Nothing, even, that c

f the plot being known, and of the sentry refusing him entrance. It was not, however, and the next moment, calmly as if he was merely on one of his not infrequent rounds of un

he first man, "and you can tell him I a

o give a private look round, first, to see all was in order, and remove possible traces of

the private safe in the office which held his set of keys in case of accidents, and locked both the right and left doors. Secure for a moment, therefore, from interruption, he ran outside, saw that the tool rooms, etc.,

after, the native superintendent--a big, dignified person, in

mean to stop it. I've had information to-night which will clinch the business. So take the night guard, rouse every warder, bring everyone here, even those on guard in the sections--the hospital orderlies--

; for, though he knew nothing definitely of any plot, he could not fail to know that there was more to excite men in the gaol, that night, than tobacco or opium! So he went about his summons with a sigh of relief, and before the five minutes were over had his posse of minor of

They will answer to their names, pass out through the wicket into the porch, and

they cuddled themselves into their blankets as they slipped through the wicket, and faced

of names, followed by brief "presents!" and swift exits. Th

ained the latt

have saved him the quick ques

sion this morning. He is of the utmost sobriety. A Brahmin, promoted by your Hono

tor, looking over the register. "Mark

last man ducked

at the

ested the burly official, with smiles.

y, as he stepped forward, closed the wicket, slid the bolt to i

he took out a revolver, and laid it on the table beside him--"every key you have; duplicate

n, helplessly, putting h

on't do, my friend. I want the lot

dly by it. "Sections B and C, warder

"Kishen Rao--" he began--

est swiftly, then looked up suddenly with a scowl that made the man literally collapse. "So that's it, is it? Dupl

darogah--"by your Honour's

. You go in there,"--he pointed to an inner store-room behind the slip of an office; a windowless place, pitch dark, where t

in English, as a sort of outlet for the intense satisf

up the stairs calling Eugene Smith in a low voice to come down

n except the solitary cellers--who, of course, are ironed--a few sick people, and the assistant surgeon; but baboo-jee is an agnostic, an

than a protesting "Huzoor, what shall we do?" from the pos

r, and of the sort which it would ne

ed. That was the only weak spot in his armour. "We can count on an hour and a half, at least," he continued, carefully allowing for the worst; "longer, perhaps. Now then, S

one by one, from the mud mortar. The light of one of the office lamps, set on the ground, showed by that time a sheer drop of eight or ten feet, and Eugene Smith, working ab

p he had brought up with him, and delibe

ne," he said. "Co

afe," assented Eugene S

ically, "I haven't felt so safe for t

t expect relief so soon. However, it can't be helped. I'll just go up and tel

his hand and crossed

e moment, as if roused by the concussion, the first crackling thunderclap of the dust-storm, sounding muffled t

Dr. Dillon's voi

troopers, and they're against us. So now--we'

satisfaction at the

TER

EARCH

owing to the darkness, the fitful gusts of wind, and the sand-banks, he drew up t

im, and refraining at times from the use of his pa

et, despite this knowledge, a keen disappointment filled him when those shots proved him to be so; sinc

was there f

trength his arms possessed, had taken so long to come down that mile or

s upon him. He had had time during his strange journey--so often idle perforce--to realize his position; time to piece the still stranger events preceding his jo

ke a woman who hesitates at nothing for the sake of the man she loves. And she had hesitated at nothing; not even at this, to give him pleasure, to make things match with his passion! The thought, the remembrance, made him for a moment feel inclined to fling up his hands, and let the canoe take him where it chose; take him down stream utterly. Then a half choking, yet wholly strenuous desire to escape from the whole st

ock at his resolution. Muriel, and dear little Gladys who called him "Derin' darling"; where were they? His eyes grew soft in the remembrance

low the light out, it could scarcely be of any use in that outer darkness--as a signal to the raft should it, by an off chance, drift past in his

t could make way against it. If so, then there would be no help. The only thing would be t

e of Muriel's garden; that garden in which she tried to defy Providence, and rear English flowers. He knew his feet must be crushing her treasu

dust. He passed to it instinctively, and as he did so, noticed the writing on the table. But many an earth-atom had fallen on that confession of ignorance since George Dillon

open, but that was to be expected at that season of the year, unless someone

a fool not to have thought of that before. Dillon would, of course, have seen to that. He, Vincent, might have remembered so much, at least; might have

ver the question, when he ough

wh

it out to Muriel and said that an active man accustomed to trapeze work might swing himself from it astride the high mud wall of the gaol, and

ht, it would have been worth the riskin

embrance came to hi

city, which was sure, he said, to vanish into space from his rude contrivances. Was it only yesterday that, in obedience to that pathetic look of martyrdom on Muriel's face, which still seemed--to one part of Vincent's nature--to call for instant sympathy

f-finished whiskey-and-soda, seen by the flash of the hurricane lantern he had sought out and lit, told him that Eugene must have been at work over his new toy till late.

help should arrive. He was face to face, now, with the fact that he must not rely on any aid at all. What had really happened, he could not guess. For all he knew, the troopers and pioneers might have risen and killed their officers, killed everybody who would be likely to help. His aim, now, was to sell his life

e time to take pot-shots at the devils; and though these would have brought retaliation, there w

come with the shots, that not help but attack lay outside, he had blown out his light, fearing lest Eugene Smith might also be exposed to similar attentions; so it was pitch dark. And the now almost constant reverberations, which seemed to send the sand-laden air in pulse-be

eepy whimper from the child, a low

ade him set

was only light

g light, contemptuous, at that short distance, even of that outer darkness.

its dainty blue frills, a child's golden head; and so,

ucky! Well! everyone has not been

ly. "No one has been killed yet, bu

ck circle out of which the intruding light seemed to spring, suddenly th

tors, thrown into black and white relief, like a shadow pantomime, about the outer gate. Then the sta

had begun

d once they get into the tunnel we shall have to sound cease firing until they come out on the other side; but then we ought to do decent damage, if the prisoners don't get at us first." He pause

alow, where the light stood, being, however, but little higher than these walls, much of what lay below in the sections themselves was necessarily hidden in shadow; especially on the side nearest the light. But the narrow alley leading up to the central tower, being in straight line with the ray, showed clear as daylight, save just under the citadel itsel

inimizing the danger--and were to swarm into the courtyard to help against the last gate (which, of course, was partly barred from the inside), he could

its rims and spokes of light, its centre of shadow. It lay dim, curiously

e tumult of voices, the intermittent shots withou

tall tamarisk tree in the Smiths' garden cut a jagged gap in the white rim of

g pauses, when the dust above seems to sink on the dust below, and fill one's very lungs. And now the gap was back again, a

ome up that tree in your garden. Wish I'd taken Dering's advice and cut it down. Thanks! I don't want to take my eye off

where Muriel and the child were sheltering, joined the circular outside wall of the gaol. The man, thought Dr. Dillon, trusting to their being occupie

gy into which she had fallen,--since she was not wanted either by her husba

would ever want to do it, and he said he could--" she paused, and gave a little cry--"It is Vincent himself!" she g

, still firing steadily a

s Captain Dering; and--and, by

hysterically--"I knew he would come--I

and crawled over in cover delibera

w. He's swung himself up. I alway

en laid his big hand on her shoulder. "Keep more down, please--your head's showing. He'

ot to watch--not to be there--with him--" She was shivering all over, the patient self-contro

t a great pity, a

r sudden break down. "They aren't killed; now we shall have

elt vaguely that the explanations only added to the general incomprehensibility; and

hem, but, as such things generally did, they had se

r?" he cried. "We can think of that--if we can think--

arious weapons for future use. "It is either the sex, or sin. This world would be a paradise of peace if people didn't want vir

and may be expected before long, alters our tactics a bit, Smith. We must husban

n his arms; and now the child, her arms round his neck, was cuddling close to him. "I'm

e, clinging hands almost resentfu

l take the brutes some time to force those gates unless they get help from within, and then there is the alley, and the doors. Still, we

s, in

paddling, and drifting, and shouting after a dozen fal

pected, and passed down before he had found Vincent? Or had it nev

the Fort, and satisfy himself it was not so. But the thought of her face, if he allowed care for her to c

And what w

him think hard. "You must go down to the spit, cut across it by

ct, involving her being

e, by a stern chase overtake it; but Erda was there and Vincent would meet her; they could do without him. But

little what happened, he steered, so far as he coul

t would at least float his logs to their destination, and that was something. Kings had come and gone,

tion, alert to the uttermost for the least hint of Lance, realized this from the very tone of their voices as they talked under their breath to e

onder if Am-ma was not playing false. For the darkness, the uncertainty, had its grip on her also. It was like some horrid nightmare, to drift on and on, hearing the muf

t one thing, that she must act,--"I believe we hav

. "Tis easy to give orders, Missy-baba," said a voice; "but not so easy

t comprehension. That was the beginning; a minut

t I tell you. Remember the child!

f you have the Dee-puk-rag, send it

ended in

ight, showing them that they were

there was a hush and yet a triumph in

ray, but the soldiers still crouch

Dillon's first shot echoed over the river

them stood up excitedly--"It has begun!--see you, Prag! Lehna, give the boatman a hand! Lo!

of relief. That

TER

D THE

begun did not, however, have t

at all. Had his revolver held other cartridges, he would have gone on shooting at Vincent, Pidar Narayan, at everybody, till he could shoot no more. He had

ain more possibilities for death, that he ha

as he burst into the open, into the lurid darkness of the new-come storm, had made him laugh bitterly; for it was only that b

which he had just been listening with loyal intent to frustrate it, could be made to serve his purpose without delay. His men would follow him anywhere. He had but to say the word--the word so many of them wanted. Then, those thieves of all that made life worth living would

and despair, he had dashed through the crowd of pilgrims who wer

riendliness; a more equal friendliness than that of most. There was no need to drag him into the quarrel, the more so because the disloyalty of the S

oopers, as he, Roshan would be alone with them! Let them both try thei

eys, and pilgrims, and God knows what, was not to his liking. He meant to fight. And if, as the conspirators had asserted, s

t once. As to what might follow, that might be after the fashion of Meerut in '57, or not. Who could tell the end of anything? The beginning would be an opportunity for fair fight between him and a thief.

shans, warring fierce

e to him in the sight of Dr. Dillon, standing with the light in his hand to

n? Or with Eugene Smith, whose tall, gaunt figure showed behind the ot

mbrance of the Great Mutiny, which is, alas! a legacy of wrong to young India. Which ties her hand and foot; which makes those who are wo

ld he be sure? He had come to c

ale which was irrevocable--struck him hopeles

cond; then with a wild fury gave the orders fo

proudly. That, at any rate, could not be stolen from him now. Now

ity into significant black-and-white relief, that doubt had returned; that desire to be on the side, once more, of men like Dr

elong stumble into death, had left Roshan cruel as death i

porch, had yielded, almost at once, to the troopers outside and the warders within, the second, barring the arched tunnel, was a tougher job. It was not until this had given way, and

ot feel this. Then the remembrance of the woman, the child, upstairs came persistently, burdened by the weight of that past tragedy whi

as he

ad already been great; would be greater. They must be close now on the lines of the original plot, at which Roshan had laughed, for the dawn was showing faintly--a mere promise of lig

entance--came to Roshan as he stood silent

ing else; every man worth calling one fights for that. But which was

question as to what they were doing, though at that exact mome

e had been her companion on the Brindisi route. Dr. Dillon had laid hands on it in his foraging, and as she had boiled the kettle, the rush and roar of a train racing through the peaceful French champaig

gave them a hold on things familiar, things beyond this midsummer-night's dream of madness. But the child chattered as she mu

an smiled, as mothers can do when they wish to guard that blessed unconsciou

, though, I knew what my prisoners were up to--those solitary cellers are on my mind--I believe the convalescents could dig them out with the c

a disclaimer; then he gave a brief assent. "Yes! but

s hand with the doubtful look of one sick to death, as he watches the long weary night merge

ed slowly, "th

rately trying to keep the pulse beats of those around him as near normal as might be--and there had been something beyond it in Vincent's

s premature? Why?"

of the townspeople, some

e storm"--b

e they would have come. Of course now, with the wind

of it came an all too familiar sound, the clank of leg irons. Some of the prisoners, the

," he muttered, almost petula

her; for, from below, a

rn you that, if you persist, I am not responsible. Open the

at once, but Captain Dering

. "I'll take my orders from you--you're in charg

"Tell him to be universally damned," he answered; and

was raised; there was almost an appeal in it. But every atom of that, every atom almost of h

to him. He drew himself up pro

keen as

and return to barracks, or

ce; then a wild laugh: "Close u

o high, passed through Roshan's turban-were almost lost in the answering yel

atest enemy--a safe conduct; and it had been refused, luckily. Well! let Vincent Dering take the whole consequences. The bl

recommenced; and now Roshan Khan's voice could be heard urging the me

ction door. If so we shall have the solitary cell men--my worst lot, of course--out in the

which led to the ten-feet drop, ran down a few step

door's shaking. How m

g--if they haven't got their leg irons off! We ought to settle most of the

the dust had sought dust again, the earth earth, than from any increase of light; and so the broad ray of the search-light, widening as it went, lost itself in

ow--not of this door, but some of the sections--and the alley. The game's up unless Car

and on her shoulder. "Yes, dear!" he said gently; "g

--" she broke down a little, partly because she was passing Vincent, and he, busy loading various rifles and revolvers, kept his eyes studiously from her. But Gladys did not choose to pass h

n'," she said. "I'm so gl

heck that formula made the man pause,

you know. You've got to be a brave girl--haven't you?" The

, Derin' darlin', I'll be b

ardness

He put the child down hastily, at a

shouted the doctor. "The secti

courtyard beneath them was half full of naked,

the centre of the door below, and carried out his own orders with deadly effect; though his heart sank when he saw that some of the prisoners were unironed--or rather unironed on one leg, and that they were

ank. It was growing lighter every instant, the air was clearer, the breeze of dawn was sweeping the smoke of the rifles riverwards, the great white

ar corner!" called Eugene. "What

for a second, and ran f

rying to pass in the keys! Shoot the devils--those

e prize, fell in a heap ere he touched it. Then a fourth pitched forward against the doors with the keys in his hand, and a fifth, groping for them, rolled over on his s

oking down on those two on the stairs. She gave a faint cry when Vincent flung his rifle away, and ran down to

wounded formed a barricade, behind which a man, squirming with

em! Stop him

nother hand--another--another--passing outwards from the crush

evolver in hand, let himse

voice; and at the sound, another man gave th

what they can; it is about the only chance." And sti

e there was always another dark hand to snatch at the prize, and p

s with the straight alley before them for a race. A race against three men, without arms

d thrust into the yellow silk sash he wore instead of a waistcoat beneath his red jacket--thrust it therewith an ugly frown as a last argument for his foes, when he had seen it lying among the pile of mi

sterner

t before beginning the race, and Eugene's legs were longer. Yet the yard

"I'll chuck you my kukri; get on and job

curve sped from his hand

aced the crowd behind w

lder. Surely one could bar it by swift blows and slow retreat! For a time,

to do?" gasped the w

the child, who clutched at her hand, watching

eside them he

o far! For these, the first, the swiftest, were naturally the unironed, therefore, the unarm

ow Eugene was faring; for he dared not tur

een caught up? Ha

e three had fallen befo

anot

uck him from behind. With a wild yell he flung his full weight on the

mith was up again, had the key

uted; "make a rush

not four yards from him, but the crowd was not one. T

tood uncertain

do with the keys if he wen

, Smith! there's a

one. Then slowly the door closed,

ncent!

but only for an instant; the next, George Dillo

get for these last few minutes that there is suc

g on iron, and falling with a dull thud on something softe

a woman slipped to her knees, and covered her face with h

ooked at her mo

' to be brave, dearest?" she as

PTE

A

ing for a lifetime, there on the altar steps beside the dying girl, with the glittering red-and-go

own; that long life in which

n, year after year, day after day, hour after hour. And everywhere it had seen a woman's

a woman. Passionate love, absorbing mind as well as body

k

between anathema and beata. T

omfortable position, a chill struck to his heart as he remembered what such chiming had meant in the past history of the w

the

er one, now that coming death had sharpened the full, youthful curves. He had noticed the likeness often--it had been clear when Laila had worn the

ta speaking,--Margherita, w

e had

; the desire which drove humanity from Paradi

for the dying girl also; the girl who had failed to find a paradise in this world, and was seeking a new road to it; seeking it alone. The only thing she craved in all God's earth to make tha

n resting on his arm, turned to the touch of it, a

ice came back full, rich, round, to make

a slight shiver

"you are there, aren't you? You

d as they met, he knew that in that kiss lay the great renunciation of his life; that henceforward there would be no woman waiting in Paradi

rmured Laila, sof

d lower to listen for an unheard breath; then lower still to shift that head from his

, dazed, uncertain. In truth, he felt all his years for the first time; felt that his last hold on

nt. He took up the rapier he had laid aside in crossing the chapel, and passed over to where the old eunuch was bemoaning the high-handedness of fate. It was a tyranny, indeed

e and love came the saint with his, and with t

ternly; "and tell it quickly,

le; so complex in detail. And, as he listened, the anger left Pidar Naraya

hty having made the Missy-baba so like her sai

peace! Her sainted ances

e Altar, towards the dead girl; then he ec

was t

died; and on the men who had loved them

uick life seemed to come back to him at the tho

e old retainer; "it must be close

ce. So far as helping those at the gaol went, he knew himself to be powerless. Physically, a couple of old men--mere shadows of men--could give no help, and he could not hope for influence there, among the Hosts of the Devil. But here in the city, among those Hosts of the Lord--the pilgrims for whom he had always had a secret

thought for amid the shadows of the chapel, and the grey glimmer of coming light showed him once more a sea of upturned eager faces. But the patience of the previous dawn was gone. They were restless now, restless with the vague, uncertain restlessness which is so dangerous in a crowd, which tells that the fuel for the flame is only awaiting a match, any matc

ath of the Gods was not instantly appeased. His wild, weird figure, in all its nakedness, its austerity, could be seen above the little circle of lamps which his immediate supporters held upwards at arm's-length. And above his head, like a canopy, drifted the wisps of tired earth-atoms wh

d Mother's necklace, which the jogi swung from one hand to the other as he calle

ding of blood there is

d, the strange demoniacal figure, in its lurid setting, he

ring that inrush of evil from the gaol which would breed violence among these still peaceful folk;

ress of a Europeanized native had been hoisted to the shoulders of some others, not f

of the door. "He is Brahmin, and a scholar above scholars. Mayhap he will tell

ulture to ignorance were drowned in a fiendish laugh, a

be Her drinking-cups, the skulls of men like ourselves. Let us give Her pleasure, brothers, and have blessing from Her hands

from those who were of the city, and they passing the tale on to others, the m

a man who had been buckling on his pilgrim's sandals as if for a s

blood which brings it. As jogi-jee saith, no man should ris

se, see you, and all know what t

t ever on the knees of the Gods, as we men have sat on theirs, seeing th

ds blood, She must have it, seeing She is Woman. As for him? Let him be silent. He

ss of the arched passage, an old voice said, with a curious note of gladness in i

to fold her dead hands decently as if in prayer, to cover the dead feet with the crimson draperies, the dead face

s he said the words, the vision came to him of a whole world which had loved, and sinned, and gone

ure it contained; a star-shaped, star-rayed pyx, set with jewels, relic of the days when singing-bir

," he said, "and walk in front--just in

per of alacrity. In his confusion, his resentful remo

e, priest of another cult, passed swiftly out of the chapel, leaving the Altar dark, bereft of its treasure; leaving the dead woman, bereft of her treasure also, lying in a glit

istful triumph in his face--he looked as a slave might look who dies in making himself free. He did not think even of the strangeness of the little procession. The night had been so full of stra

he said, and then his voice

aybreak and the flicker of two tall tapers, a strange star-rayed cup shining in the clasped hands of a man. An old man in a strange dress, chanting a strange song. And the s

it? What

oft hush of a wave; and abo

aised path. And those who did not know followed suit in awed bewilderment, till the way was clear, and the li

my father," said one here and there

s see!" ans

through which the pilgrims always passed on their way to the "Cradle of the Gods"--cleared itself by common consent, edged itself with a thicker throng of curiou

s influence, had slipped from his post above, and now stood before the gun, f

"Jai Kali Ma! Blood! Blood! Witho

es, do? Which was backed by divine authority? That both claimed that authority was clear. It held its breath, partly from the desire for

estern sacerdotalisms, met face to face, within two yards of each other, in

shifted the pyx to his left hand, and with his righ

ht, for jogi-jee's chaplet of skulls swirled dangerously for both attack and defence; since a s

he better man--t

the pyx in one hand, the sword in the other--alte

ss, jogi G

e pass

carry m

ing day, the claim echoed sharply; and the arrogance of it, the strengt

fine old face set like the nether mill-stone. Everything that had ever been in him--love, pas

ng like a snake, caught the chaplet of skulls in its upward swirl, a dexterous unexp

the strain, by the rapier's edge), the skulls were clattering,

nt, and men looked at each other wonderingly. Since, no matter whi

as in his place by the old gun. Pidar Narayan and his strange

oice, with that nameless ring in it which makes the o

the Blood of Sacrifice. The Victim required b

al Womanhood hath had Her toll, in full. The

from whence cometh your help, and f

m had ended, the earth-atoms returned to earth, had begun to show spectral in the dawn. To show shadowy, yet clear, with never a wreath

rom the still unseen sun below the visible horizon of this world, a ray of light seeking perhaps another wor

a roar rose f

fice is there! She is appeased! He speaks

father did,

d m

while others forgot all sav

am, Sit

ar?! Har

steadily as, preceded by that ambling figure--strangest

in montes; unde ve

but the spirit, the idea, were familiar. It was the song

id an old man, pushing his way to follow. "T

assented many,

has touched his brain. Then he goes the way our fathers wen

am! Sit

; not even the Mahomedan sentry at the Fort gate, to whom some of the agitators ran in their disappointment

ght when they say there is magic in these idolaters. Who would have deemed him pilgrim?

is comrades would return victorious from the gaol, an

the group, "we can do without the foo

"but their mood is diffe

after the lessening sound of that chanting voice. Not so much from any belief in Pidar Narayan, not even because of

ain his empire, failed egregiously. The crowd passed him by till a big countryman, with a lumbering jest, asked

no use here. The fools have followed after strange gods and men. But at the Pool there are tens of thousand

st plan--the soldiers and the Fort spoi

kulls to a bundle and followed hastily. He would

of its Psalm now, and falter

at introitum tuu

usque in

footsteps behind f

TER

IL

comfited by his arrogant claim to stand between heaven and earth; in other words, to be in pers

storm-darkness, had used that very darkness to the due maintenanc

dge that, if he was to do the best for others he must leave her to face it alone--had struck down stream on Am-ma

d the camp beyond it, he had lost himself absolutely in the maze of sand-banks and shallow channels which, when the river was low, as it was now, lay like a network between th

persistent, even while the hopelessness of finding his way grew ever

ing, yet irresistible, impact came to tell him that he had failed again, that he was on another sandbank, and another, and another! The dull concussion of them seemed to pass

he knew

--he thought of a fly in amber, the birds he had limed in his boyhood, finally of a death

sly, made him resolve on trying conclusions with the river at first hand. He was a good swimmer. As he told himself this, the first pulse of gratitude he had ever felt for the big bully who had chucked him, a sma

of beds and footballs, with no stem, no stern, and a d

e silk sash he wore instead of a waistcoat, in which to stick the hunting-knife that was his only other weapon. As he did so, he thought of the deer the knife had killed; as men think idly, irrelevantly, of suc

ng his feet on warm sand, sometimes parting a way, he knew not where, through the low tamarisk and high grass marking an island. If he could

showed on his left. Even so, he could not guess whether that meant the gaol side, or th

and, dry sand being beneath his feet

tamarisk branches within a stone's throw of him. A step or two more, in fact, showed him a cooking-pot, the remains of some food, a familiar fishing-net, and

ise was sufficient. The sleeper sprang to his like a wild animal, the blanket fall

he missi

imal, which struggles till it dies, reckless of odds. But, in truth, Gu-gu, with the certainty of speedy extinction before him, due to that cursed ghost, had given in to fate utterly, all round. Death would come when it came. All

know all about this business, of course; but now I've found you, you'll have

ter frowned, realizing that it was impossible to know if the

f his knife, "and show me the way there. I'll give you a hundred rupees if

asked Gu-gu, affably; and the words made Lance

e camping out of the way. I see! No! I don't want to go there yet. To the bridge! So qu

blue beads, started them. So they went on till the sand grew colder, less resistant, changed to water beneath their f

n yielding flesh. The fact indeed, or something else, seemed to make Gu-gu confidential. If the Huzoor, he said, with a shameless comprehension which made Lance inclined to

in the tone which was doubtful. Then, remembering that, short or long, he was equally at the man's me

to take th

sked Gu-gu. "He should,

oed Lance.

acle; but there must have been more than one miracle in the old days, since there was quite a network of canals and caves, which could be more or less flooded at will. All the river

and time meant everything. Besides, even in diving,

for treachery. A hundred rupees was a big bribe to a man who evidently had no personal interest in the matter; el

den arrest of the former gave Lance a dull shock once more. But this time Gu-gu's voice c

r a few minutes of crablike ed

s legs cease moving. The most noble one's must cease also. The rest will this dust-like one accomplish. Save the breath. That is in the Huzoor

, he knew, was grave enough. That breath to be drawn might be his las

long breath before trusting himself to the unseen man whom he held within reach of the grim signal--and something sharper should there be sign of treachery--Lance told himself that t

onds, the legs in front of him grew rigid, and nothing was left to be done save to hold on desperately to a waist-belt of blue beads and

rk of them--could see them! A corded, pulsing network edged with prismatic light, sending stars into the darkness, beating time to the singing in his ears, to th

thought. It merged into a frantic, insistent clamour for air! air! air! till something cold

t-belt of blue beads, and the touch of it lulled him to an instant's sheer relief. The dive wa

! And the hand he moved to feel it brou

where w

had been used to sever the

more deadly purpose; but you could never count on w

ore he realized more than the fa

was alone once more; alone in that network of under

Without help that was impossible. He set himself to remember what his guide

t about the ledge on which he lay and the walls of rock about him, and ere long came on what he sought. Flint and steel, a

with water, except in one corner, where the flooring shelved down to an archway. There it was deeper. This must be the opening of the tunnel through which they had dived, and through

g the only passage which led from it. He had to stoop as he ran, and from the feel to his feet he guessed that the passage led upwards first, then downwards; apparently

spoken; one of them, possibly, that which should have supplied the Pool with Immortality. The memory of that crowd of eager, patient faces, disappointed by such a miserable trick, made Lance feel pitiful; then his pity brought a sudden practica

levels could be raised. Without further thought, he turned it, and smiled to find himself right, as water poured out, filling the vaulted chamber with sound. Then, without further pause, he passed on

in which he stood, wondering which of the other outlets he had best try. The choice was a case of sheer chance, of course, he told himself;

st be stopped, anyhow, unless he wa

the handle which had turned so easily was stiff now; possibly because of the pressure of the water, possibly because there was some other r

? Would it rise, and rise, and ri

ould

a vague self-pity; almost an amused wonder that th

, then to the, as yet, dry passages which he

hat one did, or that he should find it, was remote--he would be wise

and, holding on to the cre

a higher crevice and waited again, a d

him to have gone back the way he had come. The passage had certainly seemed to

cindery. But as he fed it with oil and it flared up and smoked, the thought c

ulness, to Erda's face. How plucky she had been! Well! even if he had to be drowned like a rat in a sewer, he must not be behind her. The pathetic comfort of kindly memory, which with strange unreason--since

l the wa

y, and the eager, patient faces that had been waiting for it

ehensible thought, even though the reality of it was so certain, so close. Incompr

r crevice--almost a ledge in the rock--and

s more familiar, to whom, in a way, it was the one great certainty of Life, w

d could not be far off. With Vincent dead, and Eugene cut off by the stern necessity for keeping that door shut, he could not ho

rending and hewing at the gate below; ere long those outside would be inside, and with a leader who would know what to do. So life could only be an affair of moments; yet it seemed incredible, more than incredible, that all his strong will and determination would not avail even to save those helpless creatures in his charge. He stooped hurriedly and lifted the st

t dead man with his back against the closed gate, ran lightly down the alley calling on the prisoners to make way. One of them was Roshan Khan; but George Dillon did

ary alike to his sense of justice and injustice--for the injustice of his own position cried aloud for proof that he was worth a better one. So he had settled to complete that liberating of the prisoners which, with the help of the keys, ought already to be in hand. This done, the general rabble would be eager for freedom, eager for plunder, eager to get

tisfy him. To have

ough the crowd at the end of the alley, which hid

still guarding it, unarmed. There was a curious look of content in the dead face, and Roshan, gr

ice, quickly; "the swine fought till the other

ot cheated, only; but outdone, conquered! His rival had

ole hideous folly of the rest made him fling up his hands passionately as he d

, every crevice, every foothold in which stood out clear, e

lowed instinctively by the crow

first foothold of the broken stairs with h

none

ss, but the grey mystery of dawn, in which for an instant all sound, all movement, seemed arrested. There was one utterly

ant; if you can, you have th

tr

tunnel, but the light which, till then, had lit up its darkness, the swinging lamp by which the batterers of the gate had worked, was dashed down b

fight their way into the open

it! Outside, brothers, outs

d, calling on his men to rally. But they had construed his half-frenzied flight from that look on Vincent Dering's face into a lead, and they were mixed up inextricably with the h

could never have prevented the rush, but a quick wit amongst them seized on

ositions were reversed. The inside was out, the outside in, like Brian O'Lynn's breeches; and D

harp as you know how. T

tfully, leaning over the parapet and p

im doubt the evidence of his own eyes. But the answer in a woman's voice, wit

e! Oh! what can ha

doubt that th

TER

O DEL

end from foe, the troopers instantly reali

knew now where his sympathies lay. Not with these men, treacherous to their salt, but with those who could hold--who had

ung and seared

! not with that!

roism, the defiance of such a death. He knew he would give everything to die one like it; and he

e holding the horses say there were but a score of them all told--the cursed Sikhs--God knows how they got out of the Fort! I thought we had them safe. And

ve also, and who had died--died by his hand--returned to sweep him from every bearing, from every landmark, eastern or western, and leave him rudderless, drifting, in a storm of s

verything; most of all at the hateful confusion in himself, and in his world. So, without another word, he broke through the circle of troopers, dashed to where his horse awaited him, and was off like a whirlwind; that strange possess

y," said some of his men,

spirators. "The dawn is upon us, and if t

had indeed come, that the midsummer night's dream of madness was over; that those w

te, must have hidden much. Who, for instance, was to say--except those impenitent ones whose evidence, if given at all, must be doubted as the evidence of condemned men seeking to drag others down to their fate--whether suc

to them? Why w

fell on me) muttered one man below

then gave the cry, "To the rescue, brothers, to the rescue! Cut down the mut

f sight, the prisoners, even the resisting warders, had been driven into the portico,

,--"the Handle-end of His Sword is safest! Lo! Have at them, brothers!"--he added aloud--"have at the evil-born ones who would have killed the mems and the bab

ve--the--

saw and heard, had promptly swung himself down into the courtyard, looked through a crevice in the bar

is face pathetic in its bewildermen

int of reason, in his surroundings. In the splintered door, in every cranny and foothold of the broken stair, and so, past the parapet, they continu

Dering!" So, swiftly he passed down the alley,--swiftly, but hopeles

closed door and called to the man within. "Smith, open the door!

figure stood at the open door, tall, gaunt, with a hunted look in its eyes, almost a ter

one side, covered his eyes from the sight with a cry like a woman's, and

rcely. "And all for nothing--for nothing. At l

ing! For

f light and shadow over the clear, steely surface of the water, seen like a polished shield in the dawn. The air was clear also; the distant hills steel grey as the water, the sky steel grey as the hill

ing! For

with a wild, musical note, like the wail of new-weaned lambs and their mothers on a lone hillside, which su

is horse alongside; "the pilgrims are waiting st

atience? What was salvation, immortality, to one whose only desire was death--death and

ar?! Har

w, and those behind looked

but another shook his head, "How can that be? None know th

almost timidly. "God's club makes no noise

silence fell

ar?! Har

h that wailing note in it still, which lingers always in huma

ude which stopped the little cavalcade, as it entered the square around the Pool of Immorta

ar?! Har

ffectual movement of the sea, when, on a summer's day, it beats itself calmly yet persistently--rising and falling--upon a sheer cliff, against the impossible. There was no one to

sight. No hope here for the littlenesses of life; for

ng better, but for the best--neither culture nor conspiracy could touch; th

discords which were, perforce, the music of its sphere. "Come! Nawab-jee! There is still a chance with the 'Teacher of Religion.' The jogi will have held his folk, for

nce he meant nothing by it--led the cavalcade past the palace, throu

und it

ls, ere starting to seek safety over the British border in some far recess of the holy hills, whence,

went by yonder door to the old road. So what matter! They are in it. They will come back to Her by and by. It is so always. Men fo

Roshan looked

r-jee--" the change of title was significant--"we

out furiously at the voice, at the truth and the untruth in it;

you want them," he cried

hamed, still swinging his chaplet of skulls, followed them leisurely; for he knew himself safe in the superstition and the devotion of every woman in India. Since he, Her servant,

mounted, and, hitching the bridle over the muzzle of the "Teacher of Religio

tood beside the old gun with Vincent Dering and Lance Carlyon,

what had c

something by which to show the contempt, which was not now merely for the ignorant; but for those others, self-righteous, tyrannical, who had

he fooling? Who had

lding others? And who else was within reach? Who else could be followed up and

ception; unavoidable depths in the culture of a bare score of years. Leaving his horse tethered to the old gun, he ran hastily across to the palace, so, finding the door open, the wh

est clashing of satisfaction and despair, of desire and disgust, came to him that ever rent a man in twain. For a moment he fought for bare reason between them, then with a savage cry, he flung himself bes

he wall, and above them something more murderous; the dangerous delicate rapiers to which those others were but the p

d girl without a look, dashed out into the c

f an hour's lead, but that was nothing; he could overtake him, anyhow, at the first station in the pilgrimage,

time, forgetful of that leadership utterly. For they needed it no more. The danger of novelty had passed with their first step along the beaten track which their fathers had followed. Father Ninian, wise with the wisdom of long years, of secret sympathy, had known this; had counted on it in his forlorn hope of leading them into familiar bondage. He had told himself that he need only go as far as that first statio

ing more than that. Surely, now that he had left every atom of earth behind him lying w

efore the morning watch," he chanted; he had gone on blindly fro

k hand stretched itself out to steady the old priest, and a dark face turned to nod approval at other saffron robes; since

t aside. He must return. Yes! he must return. To do what? What could an old man do who had

nought, his time passe

hind him joined their testimony to his all unwittingly, as they called

is way, his horse slithering among the stones in its effort to obey whip and spur, and sending a dry clangour of hoof-beats through

the sun was still low on the horizon. The mystery of dawn had left the world, the very pilgrims, between their recurring cries, were c

shadow had fallen. Some God or Devil had had power. But the shackles

nt minds in the van, in the rear, t

sened as Roshan drove his way thr

stood in the hollow, backed by a further rise of the hill, where the quaint, dumpy, black temple hid itself under the huge b

urn for the loan of that same light to others. But with a curious shame Roshan avoided him, and passed on in his search among the jostling crowd, the continuous babel of trivial talk; for this was resting-time, when men and w

me new petitioner was seeking a favour of the Gods, and making a golden oriole, which sat i

e gabbled invocations, all he knew, on a rosary, ere solacing himself with the pipe w

rack, which was a shor

from his horse withou

now, for the old priest's breath fai

soft, white cloud which generally hid the goal of pilgrimage, before he turned bac

e that one l

black stone, not three feet high, chipped rudely to a blunt point. Father Ninian did not need the scattering of dead marigolds and dry basil leaves about its base to tell him that it was a fragment of an

The day had dawned clear and still, and as he sat looking wistfully over the valleys on valleys, the hills on hills, which lay bathed in light between him a

whole long eventful life, seemed over. All things seemed behind him. The passion, the pride, the cou

a tender knowledge

turned to see him, a yard or two on the path below, outlined clearly against the distant view of Eshwara

hi

one in its stern passion, and pride, and power. For, in a second, the old man's soul was back in a world where a dead woman belonging

rde

d Roshan, "you began it!--your pu

im took in his meaning with the swift comprehension which had been Pidar Narayan's

ssented. "Have you come to

come"--here he laughed wildly--"for what you taught me--fair play and no favour--and I

that method of assassination, surely? I thought you desired fa

arcely seemed to recognize it. No wonder! For this was Ninian Bruce himself. Ninian Bruce as he might have spoken to an

ry priesthood, ha

savage satisfaction in his heart. This man was not old, the odds were

unt summit of that upright black stone--a slim, still elegant figure, divested of

lack soutane caught up and tucked into

the courteous voi

of bearing, the reckless cont

yes," he said, "let us fig

the speaker, without moving, stood on guard. "

eant to kill had been and was. The man whose figure stood out like a black shadow against the distant blue of the hills

you a start?" The question cam

d also. But the sense of powerlessness was intolerable; he lowere

is in your eyes. That I have learnt more than

voice that vibrated harshly, like a harpstring struck to its fullest, "with

of two meeting blades sliding along each other was the only sound. It is a strange

hush--s

s, came another sound; the beaten, baffled c

ten the deadly insistence of the master's blade, slack as a snake in curves, firm as a vice in grip. Then that almost invisible turn of the wrist which had so nearly done for

would be needful came to Ninian Bruce at the first touch of his adversary's sword; f

g the attack, he parried Roshan's furious onslaught wit

the end, since he was old, and Roshan young. If in t

nd he drew back, choosing his ground, until under his feet he felt the dead marigolds, the withered basil leaves that lay a

n the world below and those faint, far peaks. And the

on your soul," he added in a lower tone; as, in an attack which held in it all the wildness, the fire, the

n an inch beyond safety--given purposely--yielded ro

e silently on through a dull, faint resistance. A cry that ended in a gasp, as

the reprise; and 'L'Addio de

s hand--the two stood within a sword's length, their faces glaring at e

it and death wavered, and Ninian Bruce, overborne by h

ll forward, slithered down the sharp blade, sending a little jet of cr

ong the withered marigolds and the sweet, dead leaves of the basil, which generations and gene

TER

TR

sioner's rich, round brogue, "you would

l lagoon between it and the tent in which he was sitting; a double-poled, Commissioner's tent, which two days before had swooped do

of roses. But the flowers were withered, dead. Even the palms, their work of welcome over, were wilting fast; but they still gave a doubtful shade to some groups of manacled men, who, guarded by yellow-legged constables, were placidly awaiting the Commissioner's leisure and pleasure; b

ecause in his care for others he had, as

e sudden idiotic outbreaks. One reason is as good as another. And so old Mother Campbell, wi

t on each other for support. It's the most comfortable way of getting through life. An' miracles are

n now. You can't, in fact. It's better you shouldn't; in India, at any rate. Just accept them, ignore them, smash them, hush th

s a row like this in India but there is something in it about a woman, which we've got to hush up. An' that's God's truth. Yes, we pa

s fingers, and staring out into it also. A sense of being face to face

"for it began early enough in the history of man. Well, I'm off; you won't wa

enal servitude will see through the rest. Then there's jogi Gorakh-nath and his gosain. They ought to be hung, but we haven't caught them, and we never shall; the wild ass that snuffeth up the ea

t water-fight between him and Am-ma! By the way, what are you going to do for th

--"besides it wasn't altogether Am-ma!" He paused, smiled an infinitely kind smile, then went on: "I was a brute, entirely, to talk about a heavy toll just now. We get its worth back, me dear fellow, over and over again. See! here is

. So when I refused, and set off, as ordained, for the raft, he took the Brahmin's money and stopped the miracle. Of a surety, the Awarder of Justice is right. This slave knew what was to come. He did not tell of it because, where the Dee-puk-rag is, there is victory; so there was no fear. Yet when the Miss-sahiba bade me help her, I obeyed, because

the day was quiet, as the Huzoor knows; only t

sunset stars, about the third jackal

ling his hat, and looke

; but it was not. It was because of Carlone-sahib who could not be found,--only

ht. He would not have left the pistol if he had. He has gone swimming, to get quicker and find help. So he is drowne

way because the Miss was not content. So I said: 'I will find him while his beauty is still on him, for you to see again,'--since that is in the heart of all women, O Awarder of Justice. Thus at the dawn--the dawn after the dawn of darkness--I, Am-ma, set out with my nets, seeing that fish, anyhow, could be found, and the

y to gods and devils alike, for I knew the handle of it. It was Ca

s knife, Gu-gu?' thinking to startle him. And

ew too deep. Then we swam with them. But he said nothing, nor did I. There was no need. We understood, as dogs do, that it was foe and foe. So it came

in the river. But I felt the cleave of the water from his foot at last, and spent myself in one stroke. So I laid hold of his le

must have restored the miracle. Not Gu-gu; else why was he hiding? What if it be Carlone-sahib? But most of all I thought of my little son, and the devils longing for him, and for a woman longing for the sight of a man's beauty, and I knew I must go and see if it lay there. So I dived, and found him, as th

ause. "Well! what do ye say, Dillon?

the rise of the water, will be the deuce and all if he uses it too soon. And then, if I can, I want to get round and say good-by to--to the Miss-sahiba. She's off to Herrnhut again this evening. In f

fidavit with a soft "damn," and Dr. Di

etically; "but, unfortunately, there is only one person

ioner, militantly--"why the blazes

to such an absolutely false position towards each other, that the only course consistent with propriety and les convenances is to--to hush the thing up!

nt, and the Commissioner nodded, finished his whiskey-and-soda at

t ill on him. Then, catching sight of something in a file, his humorous, kindly s

that whereas one Mussumat Ashraf-un-nissa, her neighbour, is in receipt of pension rupees twenty-five per mensem for similar bereavement of male protector and head of family lost in '57 mutiny, therefore her pension of rupees twenty per mensem, only, for exile of husband to Calcutta, be commuted to similar sum of twenty-five, seeing that your poo

armed resistance to tyranny in his paper for years. He barricaded himself in with his printing-press. Fact; jammed his fingers in so doing, and came to me in a blind funk for a professional certificate tha

attempted a lead," put in

n so until they learn, amongst other knowledge, to believe in something besides themselves--" here the hard eye

nd in the silence which fell between the two m

ter a bit, "and give my love to old Smith. I'm not sure but that I'd rather have s

the pith hat turning him into an animated mushroom, he passed ou

at midsummer night's dream of wild, useless revolt, save when one of the shackled prisoners awaiting trial sought a better bit

ter the Smiths' compound, the footsteps of those other Hosts who had

vant eyes. Vincent Dering's photograph was no longer on the mantle-piece, whence it had always looked out with a certain challenge in its very prominence. Where had it gone? What matter? There was no need

ng at his patient's door, and as he did so, re

ring; for something,--the exposure, the excitement, the strain, perhaps, of that awful inaction behind the door against which Vince

one of her husband's shaking, trembling ones

ctor--" Her eyes, on Dr. Dillon's, were telling their tale, so that it scarcely needed the rambling

ne, his teeth chattering, "when he waits like a

nd it's true, isn't it?--that it was hardest for him--and that--that Vincent would r

comfort, and the glisten

ous of a lump in his throat. "This will wear itself out i

t," she repli

details of every-day life. There was no hint anywhere of the past storm; not even in the palace. It lay, as ever, silent; its blank walls seeming to hold the sunlight back fr

the sad day! But this slave, knowing all customary things, hath remained insistent

the day before. The masons had been busy, building up the vault again; but, as Akbar Khan had said, the work was finished, the chapel restored to its original state, swept, and garnished. Even the candles were lit on the Altar, and four of the tallest tapers had been placed, one at each

rply; but there was something almost pathetic in its si

do that?"

eb-pun

e in the voice, and in the folded, prayerf

rful hands to the marigolds--"is not forgotten. Has not this dust-like one spent his life in prepari

with colour, could smell the perfume of the now fading orange-blossoms, could see the water-maze,

s the old man went on with an orthod

ve with the Commissioner?--if the Huzoor would say that the dust-like one has provided the pleasures of palaces all his life long for the noble people; yea! from the c

r. Dillon looked at the wicked old face, so comic, so pathetic, with the hopeless

anyone," he said gravely.

om Dr. Dillon's path as if it had been a deadly reptile. Indeed, he paused in the midst of his parting salaams to ask if it was in order that the populace be admitted to the sanctuary, since the mi

he old courtier began instantly on

tiently; so strode off across the courtyard, his head down, his

ers. But it was so dreary keeping to one's room, he said; especially when there were a lot of dismal th

nd looking at Lance with the oddest air of impatience, irritation, and kindliness. Yet there was n

You--you might get them to help you over to the palace garden this afte

for ten days!" Dr. Dillon positively blushed, under the brown. He got up vexedly, walk

n't believe in rest. And--and--look here!--I'll put you on the stiffest starch bandage ever made--and--Oh! confound it, man, one must risk something sometimes, you know! Here, orderly; go ove

lready, and the last part of his rema

njure me permanently," began La

tment. "If you mean your foot, I don't think it wi

to Erda Shepherd, he paused as he passed the Pool of Immortalit

he quoted softly, shook his hea

of crown to Akbar Khan's 'crass'--went into the garden for a last look at the familiar place

as never to see you again, and it seemed a bit rough--on--on us both; considering what a lot we did together, you know. I

s that the surprise had made her feel a little limp. T

e others, but not about you--you needn't go away immediately, need you?" he ask

much for her. "Yes! I can stop," she sai

but about yours

memory of that senseless flight from her own reflection i

d rather not--" beg

e was giving it any importance. She had told herself during the last few days that it had been unfortunate, that was all. Otherwise it was trivial; si

highest crevice, and felt the water stop steady between his knee and his ankle. Of his incredulity when Am-ma appeared, and his immediate lapse into unconsciousness; chiefly, he supposed, because there was no need for f

they seemed to invade Lance's

aid, "so I haven't found out yet w

ou, Mr. Carlyon," she said quietly, "and we were all very g

ing her hand, held it while he

ing me--so much." He paused, and his hand tightened on hers a little. "Thanks all round, for that! I

pause, a c

ming cool was sending the scent of the orange-blossoms into the air. The water-maze, with its marble ledges, where there was but room for the feet of a laughing girl, lay still a

nse that all this, in its way, was real also. That this

ruth between us, h

er the balcony, looking down into the water with a listlessness he had

he cried impulsively, recklessly--"not qu

led. "If you think

! How do I know? Yes! I suppose so--as it's tr

ess in the confessio

him. His heart was beating fast at something in her face, and yet his uppermost thought was for her; f

n, hiding her face from all but the sliding rive

tle sob. "I didn't tell you the truth about that. I--I didn'

hand found hers and held it. "Yo

once to help her, and

orange in my hand--and I thought of you--of what you said--of--of the World's Desire, a

ong, did not tighten, it simply held hers a

se until he added, "It will be a bit rough, I'm afraid, on the

say, now that the truth had been told between them. So while the sinking sun flared red o

TNO

1: Bona

te 2:

: Night, o

4: Ligh

ndoo mythology, is the creativ

her kind of reli

emonial hospitality

e 8: Bi

e 9: Ab

casts, used as a term

e 11: C