d that gentleman. "Who are
they? People who have been here before?"

"Yes, sahib," said the girl. "It is Dula, with her husband."

"Child bad again!" muttered the Doctor. "Where are they? In my room?"

"Yes, sahib."

"Don't go away, Archie. Stop and talk to the wife till I come back."

The Doctor passed out of the room, and Mrs Morley turned to Archie, to
say imploringly:

"Have you brought any news?"

He shook his head.

"Nothing--nothing?" she cried, in a tone of voice which made the lad
feel almost ready to reproach himself for being alive and well when his
companion whom he had taken light-hearted and merry from that very room,
so short a time before, was--where?

"Here, Maria--Archie!" came in a sharp tone of voice which made them
both start. "Here--quick!"

There was only a little lamp, which gave forth a faint light, upon the
table of the Doctor's surgery and consulting-room, but it threw up the
figure of a slight, graceful-looking native woman and a tall, fierce
Malay; and, jumping at conclusions, Archie judged by the man's bandaged
head that he had been wounded, and that his companion had brought him to
the Doctor for help.

The Doctor sprang from his seat as his wife entered, drew his chair on
one side, and thrust her in.

"Now, be calm, my dear. Be a woman! You know these people?"

"Yes, yes!" exclaimed Mrs Morley in agitated tones, as the woman
stepped forward, to go down on one knee and kiss her hand, while the man
muttered something and then drew himself up rigidly.

"And you think we can trust--depend upon what they say?" continued the
Doctor, with his voice quivering.

"Yes. Speak! Tell me, what is it?" cried Mrs Morley excitedly.

"Well, be calm, then. Be quite calm and firm, as I am. Minnie is alive
and safe."

"Ah!" ejaculated Mrs Morley, as she sank back and buried her face in
her hands; while the woman now fell upon her knees, catching up Mrs
Morley's dress and holding it to her lips as if to choke back her sobs.

"And I told you to be firm," said the Doctor pettishly. "This man has
escaped from up-country somewhere--I don't know the confounded place's
name. He was overtaken and wounded by some of Rajah Suleiman's people,
so that he shouldn't tell tales, I suppose. But he says he can show us
where the young English lady has been kept a prisoner, and that she is
quite safe.--Isn't that so?" he added, turning to the man.

The Malay stared, muttered something, an