before."

Here at all events it was clear that she was concealing nothing. She was
obviously as puzzled as Ralston was himself.

"Where had you seen him?" he asked, and the answer increased his
astonishment.

"In Calcutta," she answered. "It was the same man or one very like
him. I saw him on three successive evenings in the Maidan when I was
driving there."

"In Calcutta?" cried Ralston. "Some months ago, then?"

"Yes."

"How did you come to notice him in the Maidan?" Mrs. Oliver shivered
slightly as she answered:

"He seemed to be watching me. I thought so at the time. It made me
uncomfortable. Now I am sure. He _was_ watching me," and she suddenly
came forward a step.

"I should like to go away to-day if you and your sister won't mind,"
she pleaded.

Ralston's forehead clouded.

"Of course, I quite understand," he said, "and if you wish to go we can't
prevent you. But you leave us rather helpless, don't you?--as you alone
can identify the man. Besides, you leave yourself too in danger."

"But I shall go far away," she urged. "As it is I am going back to
England in a month."

"Yes," Ralston objected. "But you have not yet started, and if the man
followed you from Calcutta to Peshawur, he may follow you from Peshawur
to Bombay."

Mrs. Oliver drew back with a start of terror and Ralston instantly took
back his words.

"Of course, we will take care of you on your way south. You may rely on
that," he said with a smile. "But if you could bring yourself to stay
here for a day or two I should be much obliged. You see, it is impossible
to fix the man's identity from a description, and it is really important
that he should be caught."

"Yes, I understand," said Violet Oliver, and she reluctantly
consented to stay.

"Thank you," said Ralston, and he looked at her with a smile. "There is
one more thing which I should like you to do. I should like you to ride
out with me this afternoon through Peshawur. The story of last night will
already be known in the bazaars. Of that you may be very sure. And it
would be a good thing if you were seen to ride through the city quite
unconcerned."

Violet Oliver drew back from the ordeal which Ralston so calmly
proposed to her.

"I shall be with you," he said. "There will be no danger--or at
all events no danger that Englishwomen are unprepared to face in
this country."

The appeal to her courage served Ralston's turn. Violet raised her head
with a little jerk of pr