. I will
soon make some coffee, and we will sit and smoke and talk."

"No, no," said Mr Braine, hastily.

"But it is hard indeed if we cannot hit out some plan before morning.
There, go up quietly. You will stay?"

"No," said Mr Braine, firmly. "You forget what was said when we came
away. I must be at my own place in case Barnes wants me."

"Yes, of course," said Murray, quickly. "Then I will come back with
you. One minute. Let me see if the boys are sleeping all right, and
say a few words to Hamet."

He sprang up the steps lightly, and entered the house, but no Hamet was
there to challenge him, neither were the boys in the outer room
stretched on the mats, as he expected to find them--asleep.

Murray looked round quickly, and at a glance saw that the guns had been
brought in and hung on their slings, the two baskets containing the
specimens shot, and the others were hung upon the pegs arranged for the
purpose, and the lamp was burning dimly on the rough table.

He caught up the light, and shading it with his hand, stepped lightly
over the mats, and looked into the inner room, drew a long deep breath,
and stepped back to stand thinking a few moments before he set down the
lamp.

He stepped to the doorway.

"Come up," he said.

Braine obeyed.

"Sleeping soundly?"

"Take the light. Look," said Murray, in a low voice.

Mr Braine glanced at him, surprised by his strange manner, and then he
caught up the light, and went and looked in the room in his turn.

"Gone!" he said, in a low excited voice. "What is the meaning of this?"

Murray shook his head.

"There was no mistake about the directions? I told Frank to go home
with your boy to bear him company, and to wait until I came. Oh, I see.
The foolish fellow! He must have misunderstood me, and taken Ned home
with him. They are waiting for us there."

"And Hamet? My follower?"

"Gone with them."

"He would not have known."

"Then the boys have been here. Frank was fagged out, and said he would
not wait for me any longer, and he has gone home. Your boy and Hamet
have accompanied him to see him safely there."

"You are speaking without conviction, Braine," said Murray, sternly.
"You say this to comfort me, and you are thinking differently. What
does this mean? What desperate game is this man playing? I swear that
if harm has come to that poor boy, though I die for it, I'll shoot this
rajah like a dog--like the cowardly cur he is."