r sudden departure?"

"Yes. I was forgetting. If you will be so kind, I wish you would see the
expedition out, and take charge of the expenses. There are some bags of
rupees somewhere among my traps. Narain knows. I shall not take him with
me--or, no; on second thoughts I will hand you over the money, and take
him to Simla. Then, about the other thing. Do not tell any one where I
have gone, unless it be Miss Westonhaugh, and use your own discretion
about her. We shall all be in Simla in ten days, and I do not want this
thing known, as you may imagine. I do not think there is anything else,
thanks." He paused, as if thinking. "Yes, there is one more
consideration. If anything out of the way should occur in this
transaction with Baithopoor, I should want your assistance, if you will
give it. Would you mind?"

"Of course not. Anything----"

"In that case, if Ram Lal thinks you are wanted, he will send a swift
messenger to you with a letter signed by me, in the Persian
_shikast_--which you read.--Will you come by the way he will direct you,
if I send? He will answer for your safety."

"I will come," I said, though I thought it was rather rash of me, who am
a cautious man, to trust my life in the hands of a shadowy person like
Ram Lal, who seemed to come and go in strange ways, and was in
communication with suspicious old Brahmin jugglers. But I trusted Isaacs
better than his adept friend.

"I suppose," I said, vaguely hoping there might yet be a possibility of
detaining him, "that there is no way of doing this business so that you
could remain here."

"No, friend Griggs. If there were any other way, I would not go now. I
would not go to-day, of all days in the year--of all days in my life.
There is no other way, by the grave of my father, on whom be the peace
of Allah." So we went to bed.

At four o'clock Narain waked us, and in twenty minutes Isaacs was on
horseback. I had ordered a _tat_ to be in readiness for me, thinking I
would ride with him an hour or two in the cool of the morning. So we
passed along by the quiet tents, Narain disappearing in the manner
peculiar to Hindoo servants, to be found at the end of the day's march,
smiling as ever. The young moon had set some time before, but the stars
were bright, though it was dark under the trees.

Twenty yards beyond the last tent, a dark figure swept suddenly out from
the blackness and laid a hand on Isaacs' rein. He halted and bent over,
and I heard some whis