ie to old Hanani," insisted the _ayah_ in that
soft, insinuating whisper of hers.

Stella reached out a trembling hand and laid it upon her shoulder.
"Listen, Hanani!" she said. "I have never seen your face, yet I know you
for a friend."

"Ask not to see it, _mem-sahib_," swiftly interposed the _ayah_, "lest
you turn with loathing from one who loves you!"

Stella smiled, a quivering, piteous smile. "I should never do that,
Hanani," she said. "But I do not need to see it. I know you love me. But
do not--out of your love for me--tell me a lie! It is false comfort. It
cannot help me."

"But I have not lied, _mem-sahib_." There was earnest assurance in
Hanani's voice--such assurance as could not be disregarded. "I have told
you the truth. The captain _sahib_ is not dead. It was a false report."

"Hanani! Are you--sure?" Stella's hand gripped the _ayah_'s shoulder
with convulsive, strength. "Then who--who--was the _sahib_ they shot in
the jungle--the _sahib_ who died at the bungalow of Ralston _sahib_?
Did--Hafiz--tell you that?"

"That--" said Hanani, and paused as if considering how best to present
the information,--"that was another _sahib_."

"Another _sahib?_" Stella was trembling violently. Her hold upon Hanani
was the clutch of desperation, "Who--what was his name?"

She felt in the momentary pause that followed that the eyes behind the
veil were looking at her strangely, speculatively. Then very softly
Hanani answered her.

"His name, _mem-sahib_, was Dacre."

"Dacre!" Stella repeated the name blankly. It seemed to hold too great a
meaning for her to grasp.

"So Hafiz told Hanani," said the _ayah_.

"But--Dacre!" Stella hung upon the name as if it held her by a
fascination from which she could not shake free. "Is that--all you
know?" she said at last.

"Not all, my _mem-sahib_," answered Hanani, in the soothing tone of one
who instructs a child. "Hafiz knew the _sahib_ in the days before Hanani
came to Kurrumpore. Hafiz told a strange story of the _sahib_. He had
married and had taken his wife to the mountains beyond Srinagar. And
there an evil fate had overtaken him, and she--the _mem-sahib_--had
returned alone."

Hanani paused dramatically.

"Go on!" gasped Stella almost inarticulately.

Hanani took up her tale again in a mysterious whisper that crept in
eerie echoes about the ruined place in which they sat. "_Mem-sahib_,
Hafiz said that there was doubtless a reason for which he feigned death.