rds came jerkily. They had an odd,
detached sound, almost as though he were speaking in his sleep. He
turned away from Palliser, and took up his untouched glass.

But the next instant it slipped through his fingers, and crashed upon
the table edge. The spilt liquid streamed across the floor.

Palliser stared for an instant, then thrust forward his own glass.

"Steady does it, old boy! Try both hands for a change. It's this
infernal heat."

He turned with the words, and picked up a paper from the table, frowning
over it absently, and whistling below his breath.

When he finally looked round again his face cleared.

"Ah, that's better! Sit down, and we'll talk. By Jove, isn't it
colossal? They told me over at the fort that I was a fool to come across
to-night. But I simply couldn't keep you waiting another night. Besides,
I knew you would expect me."

Conyers' grim face softened a little. He could scarcely have said how he
had ever come to be the chosen friend of young Hugh Palliser. The
intimacy had been none of his seeking.

They had met at the club on the occasion of one of his rare appearances
there, and the younger man, whose sociable habit it was to know
everyone, had scraped acquaintance with him.

No one knew much about Conyers. He was not fond of society, and, as a
natural consequence, society was not fond of him. He occupied the humble
position of a subordinate clerk in an engineer's office. The work was
hard, but it did not bring him prosperity. He was one of those men who
go silently on week after week, year after year, till their very
existence comes almost to be overlooked by those about them. He never
seemed to suffer as other men suffered from the scorching heat of that
tropical corner of the Indian Empire. He was always there, whatever
happened to the rest of the world; but he never pushed himself forward.
He seemed to lack ambition. There were even some who said he lacked
brains as well.

But Palliser was not of these. His quick eyes had detected at a glance
something that others had never taken the trouble to discover. From the
very beginning he had been aware of a force that contained itself in
this silent man. He had become interested, scarcely knowing why; and,
having at length overcome the prickly hedge of reserve which was at
first opposed to his advances, he had entered the private place which it
defended, and found within--what he certainly had not expected to
find--a genius.

It wa