came he to be there at this hour? Moment
by moment her uneasiness grew. The conviction that Nick was in danger
came down upon her like a bird of evil omen, and inaction became
intolerable. She turned in her chair with the intention of calling to
Kasur to order her horse that she might go in search of him. But in that
instant a voice spoke to her from the compound immediately below her,
arresting the words on her lips,--a whining, ingratiating voice.

_"Mem-sahib!"_ it said. _"Mem-sahib!"_

She looked down and saw an old, old man, more like a monkey than a human
being, standing huddled in a ragged _chuddah_ on the edge of the path.
He seemed to be looking at her, obviously he must have seen her sitting
there, and yet to Olga his eyes looked blind. They stared straight up at
the sky while he spoke, and there was a dreadful paleness about them, a
lifeless hue that contrasted very strangely with the deep copper of his
bearded face.

"Do not be alarmed, most gracious!" he begged in a thin reedy voice. "I
come with a message from the captain _sahib_. He has been detained in
the city; but all is well with him. He bids me to say that he desires
the _mem_ to eat alone this morning, but to have no fear. He will be
with her again ere the sun has reached its height."

Olga leaned upon the balustrade of the verandah and looked down at her
strange visitor. She was not sorry that she was thus raised above him,
for he was very dirty. The voluminous _chuddah_ in which he was swathed
looked as if it had wrapped him in those selfsame folds for many years.

"But what is the _sahib_ doing?" she asked. "Why doesn't he come?"

The old man wagged a deferential beard. "Excellency, how should a poor
old seller of moonstones know?"

"Oh!" Olga suddenly became interested in the messenger. "You are the
moonstone-seller, are you?" she said. "Have you ever been here before?"

He bent himself before her in a low salaam. "I am my lord's most humble
servant," he told her meekly. "A very poor man, most gracious,--a very
poor man. I come here at my lord's bidding--when he needs me."

Olga's brow puckered. "How queer!" she said. "I wonder I have never seen
you before. Perhaps you only come at night."

"Only at night, most gracious," he said.

He made as if he would hobble away, but she called to him to wait, while
she ran to her room to fetch a few _annas_ for him. It took her but a
second or two to find what she wanted, but when she emerged aga