n to the back of the blazing fire. "It is
nothing."

"Pardon me, I did not say that the one you have so impetuously
disposed of was yours. As a matter of fact, it was mine. Yours
is--elsewhere."

"Wherever it is you have no right to it if it is mine," panted
Drishna, with rising excitement. "You are a thief, Mr. Carrados. I
will not stay any longer here."

He jumped up and turned towards the door. Carlyle made a step forward,
but the precaution was unnecessary.

"One moment, Mr. Drishna," interposed Carrados, in his smoothest
tones. "It is a pity, after you have come so far, to leave without
hearing of my investigations in the neighbourhood of Shaftesbury
Avenue."

Drishna sat down again.

"As you like," he muttered. "It does not interest me."

"I wanted to obtain a lamp of a certain pattern," continued Carrados.
"It seemed to me that the simplest explanation would be to say that I
wanted it for a motor-car. Naturally I went to Long Acre. At the first
shop I said: 'Wasn't it here that a friend of mine, an Indian
gentleman, recently had a lamp made with a green glass that was nearly
five inches across?' No, it was not there but they could make me one.
At the next shop the same; at the third, and fourth, and so on.
Finally my persistence was rewarded. I found the place where the lamp
had been made, and at the cost of ordering another I obtained all the
details I wanted. It was news to them, the shopman informed me, that
in some parts of India green was the danger colour and therefore tail
lamps had to show a green light. The incident made some impression on
him and he would be able to identify their customer--who paid in
advance and gave no address--among a thousand of his countrymen. Do I
succeed in interesting you, Mr. Drishna?"

"Do you?" replied Drishna, with a languid yawn. "Do I look
interested?"

"You must make allowance for my unfortunate blindness," apologized
Carrados, with grim irony.

"Blindness!" exclaimed Drishna, dropping his affectation of unconcern
as though electrified by the word, "do you mean--really blind--that
you do not see me?"

"Alas, no," admitted Carrados.

The Indian withdrew his right hand from his coat pocket and with a
tragic gesture flung a heavy revolver down on the table between them.

"I have had you covered all the time, Mr. Carrados, and if I had
wished to go and you or your friend had raised a hand to stop me, it
would have been at the peril of your lives," he said,