aid: "A woman!
the jamadar was lying--all that stuff about Nana Sahib. There's been
some deviltry; they've used this woman to trap the messengers; that's
India. It's the papers they were after; they must have known they were
coming; and they've hidden the woman. We've got to lay hands upon her,
Captain--she's the key-note."

CHAPTER XV

Barlow had waited until the decoit would have gone before showing the
papers that were in his pocket because it was an advantage that the
enemy should think them lost. He was checked now as he put a hand in
his pocket to produce them by the entrance of Elizabeth, and he fancied
there was a sneer on her thin lips.

"Father," she said, as she leaned against the desk, one hand on its
teak-wood top, "I've been listening to the handsome leader of thieves;
I couldn't help hearing him. I fancy that Captain Barlow could tell
you just where this woman, the Gulab, who is as beautiful as the moon,
is. I'm sure he could bring her here--if he _would_."

The Captain's fingers unclasped from the papers in his pocket, and now
were beating a tattoo on his knee.

"Elizabeth!" the father gasped, "do you know what you are saying?" His
cold grey eyes were wide with astonishment. "Did you hear all of Ajeet
Singh's story?"

"Yes, all of it."

"It's your friend, Nana Sahib, whom you treat as if he were an
Englishman and to be trusted, that knows where this woman is,
Elizabeth."

A cynical laugh issued from the girl's lips that were so like her
father's in their unsympathetic contour: "Yes, one may trust men, but a
woman's eyes are given her to prevent disaster from this trust which is
so natural to the deceivable sex."

"Elizabeth! you do not know what you are saying--what the inference
would be."

"Ask Captain Barlow if he doesn't know all about the Gulab's movements."

The Resident pushed irritably some papers on his desk, and turning in
his chair, asked, "Can you explain this, Captain--what it is all about?"

There were ripples of low temperature chilling the base of Barlow's
skull. "I can't explain it--it's beyond me," he answered doggedly.

The girl turned upon him with ferocity. "Don't lie, Captain Barlow; a
British officer does not lie to his superior."

"Hush, Beth," the father pleaded.

"Don't you know, Captain Barlow," the girl demanded, "that this woman,
the Gulab, is one who uses her beauty to betray men, even Sahibs?"

"No, I don't know that, Miss Hodson. I saw