gs.

I had left the door of the room wide open, in order to be able to
hear anything that might happen in the house; but the only sound
came from a couple of rats that gnawed and rustled interminably
among the rubbish in the corner.

It must have been nearly eight o'clock, and I believe I had
actually dozed off at last, kneeling in the window, when all at
once it seemed to me that the rats were making a different, and
greater noise than I ever heard rats make. It was pitch-black
dark. I couldn't see my hand in front of me. My first thought
was to glance through the window at Scharnhoff, but something--
intuition, I suppose--made me draw aside from the window instead.

Then, beyond any shadow of a doubt, I heard a man move, and
the hair rose all up the back of my head. I remembered
the pistol, clutched it, and found voice enough for two words:
"Who's there?"

"Hee-hee!" came the answer from behind the table. "So Major
Jimgrim lied about a broken leg, and thought to trap Noureddin
Ali, did he! Don't move, Major Jimgrim! Don't move! We will
have a little talk before we bid each other good-bye! I cannot
last long in any case, for the cursed Sikhs are after me. I
would rather that you should kill me than those Sikhs should, but
I would like to kill you also. If you move before I give you
leave you are a dead man, Major Jimgrim! Hee-hee! You cannot
see me! Better keep still!"

If it was flattering to be mistaken for Grim in the dark, it was
hardly pleasant in the circumstances. For a moment I was angry.
It flashed across my mind that Grim had planned this. But on
second thought I refused to believe he would deceive me about
Scharnhoff and use me as a decoy without my permission. I
decided to keep still and see what happened.

"Do you think you deserve to live, Major Jimgrim?" Noureddin
Ali's voice went on. I heard him shift his position. He was
probably trying to see my outline against the dark wall in order
to take aim. "You, a foreigner, interfering in the politics of
this land? But for you there would have been an explosion today
that would have liberated all the Moslem world. But for that lie
about a broken leg you would have died a little after ten o'clock
this morning--hee-hee--instead of now! Don't move, Major
Jimgrim! You and I will have a duel presently. There is lots of
time. The Sikhs lost track of me."

I did move. I stooped down close to the floor, so that he might
fire ove