the
maharajah had given them an immense idea of our importance. We had come
at four and it was now nearly five. The long pauses and the Persian
circumlocutions had occupied a good deal of time.

"You do not seem to have needed my counsel or assistance much," I said.
"With such an armoury of weapons you could manage half-a-dozen
maharajahs."

"Yes--perhaps so. But I have strong reasons for wishing this affair
quickly over, and the editor of a daily paper is a thing of terror to a
native prince; you must have seen that."

"What do you mean to do with your man when he is safely in your hands,
if it is not an indiscreet question?"

"Do with him?" asked Isaacs with some astonishment. "Is it possible you
have not guessed? He is a brave man, and a true believer. I will give
him money and letters, that he may make his way to Baghdad, or wherever
he will be safe. He shall depart in peace, and be as free as air."

I had half suspected my friend of some such generous intention, but he
had played his part of unrelenting hardness so well in our late
interview with the Hindoo prince that it seemed incomprehensible that a
man should be so pitiless and so kind on the same day. There was not a
trace of hardness on his beautiful features now, and as we rounded the
hill and caught the last beams of the sun, now sinking behind the
mountains, his face seemed transfigured as with a glory, and I could
hardly bear to look at him. He held his hat in his hand and faced the
west for an instant, as though thanking the declining day for its
freshness and beauty; and I thought to myself that the sun was lucky to
see such an exquisite picture before he bid Simla good-night, and that
he should shine the brighter for it the next day, since he would look on
nothing fairer in his twelve hours' wandering over the other half of
creation.

"And now," said he, "it is late, but if we ride towards Annandale we may
meet them coming back from the polo match we have missed." His eyes
glowed at the thought. Shere Ali, the maharajah, bonds, principal, and
interest, were all forgotten in the anticipation of a brief meeting with
the woman he loved.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VI.

"Why did you not come and see the game? After all your enthusiasm about
polo this morning, I did not think you would miss anything so good,"
were the first words of Miss Westonhaugh as we met her and Kildare in
the narrow path that leads down to A