dy of a man--inert, crumpled up, fast
sinking into that hopeless state of unconsciousness which precedes
asphyxiation by charcoal.

In the winking of an eye Cleek had caught up the deadly little
firebrick furnace and sent it crashing through the plugged-up
window into the grounds behind, letting a current of pure air
rush through the place; then, while Narkom, with one hand over his
mouth and nostrils, and the other swinging a pair of handcuffs by
their chain, was doing a like thing with another window in the front
wall, he gathered up the semi-conscious man, swung him sacklike
over his shoulder, carried him out into the roadway, and propped him
up against the side of the stable, while he chafed his hands and
smacked his cheeks and, between times, fanned him with his hatbrim
and swore at him for a "weak-backed, marrowless thing to call
itself a man, and yet go in for the poltroon's trick of suicide!"

The woman was still there, squeezing her hands and sobbing
hysterically, but although she had not as yet uncovered her
face, it did not need that to attest the fact that she was no
Hindu, but white like the man she had spoken of as her husband, and
at the very first words she uttered when she saw that he was
beyond danger, both Cleek and Narkom knew them for what they
were--Sir Mawson and Lady Leake.

"Mawson, how could you!" she said reproachfully, going to him the
very instant he was able to get on his feet, and folding him to her
in an agonized embrace. "I suspected it when you left the house--but,
oh, how could you?"

"I don't know," he made answer, somewhat shamefacedly yet with a
note of agony in his voice that made one pity him in spite of all.
"But it seemed too horrible a disgrace to be lived through. And now
I shall have to face it! Oh, my God, Ada, it is too much to ask a
man to bear! They are there, on guard, those Hindus, protecting me
and mine until the Ranee's steward comes to receive the Ladder of
Light, as promised, at----"

"Sh-h!" she struck in warningly, remembering the presence of the
others, and clapping her hand over his mouth to stay any further
admission; for she had heard Cleek repeat after her husband--but with
a soft significant whistle--"The Ladder of Light!" and supplement
that with, "Well, I'm dashed!" and turned round on him instantly
with a forced smile upon her lips but the look of terror still
lingering in her fast-winking eyes.

"It is rude of me, gentlemen, to forget to thank y