posts had been driven into the ground some twenty feet from the
veranda, and lamps had been fastened upon them.

"I don't know whether the juggler will like that," Mr. Hunter said, "and
I shan't light them if he objects. I don't think myself it is quite
fair having a light behind him; still, if he agrees, it will be hardly
possible for him to make the slightest movement without being seen."

The juggler, who was sitting round at the other side of the house, was
now called up. He and the girl, who followed him, salaamed deeply, and
made an even deeper bow to Bathurst, who was standing behind Isobel's
chair.

"You must have paid them well, Bathurst," Major Hannay said. "They have
evidently a lively remembrance of past favors. I suppose they are the
same you were talking about?"

"Yes, they are the same people, Major." Then he said in the native
dialect to the juggler, "Mr. Hunter has put some posts with lamps behind
you, Rujub, but he hasn't lit them because he did not know whether you
would object."

"They can be lighted, sahib. My feats do not depend on darkness. Any
of the sahibs who like to stand behind us can do so if they do not come
within the line of those posts."

"Let us go out there," Wilson said to Richards, when the answer was
translated; "we will light the lamps, and we shall see better there than
we shall see here."

The two went round to the other side and lit the lamps, and the servants
stood a short distance off on either side.

The first trick shown was the well known mango tree. The juggler placed
a seed in the ground, poured some water upon it from a lota, and covered
it with a cloth. In two or three minutes he lifted this, and a plant
four or five inches high was seen. He covered this with a tall basket,
which he first handed round for inspection. On removing this a mango
tree some three feet high, in full bloom, was seen. It was again
covered, and when the basket was removed it was seen to be covered with
ripe fruit, eliciting exclamations of astonishment from those among the
spectators who had not before seen the trick performed.

"Now, Wilson," the Doctor said, "perhaps you will be kind enough to
explain to us all how this was done?"

"I have no more idea than Adam, Doctor."

"Then we will leave it to Richards. He promised us at dinner to keep his
eyes well open."

Richards made no reply.

"How was it done, Mr. Bathurst? It seems almost like a miracle."

"I am as ignorant as Wil