d assistant, was also being dragged before the Rajah. There was no
need even to question him, for on his knees, with piteous lamentation,
he confessed that in the spiced sauce accompanying the curry a quantity
of very finely powdered glass had been mingled, which would ensure an
agonising death to any one who partook of it. This had been done at
the instigation of the disgraced Dwarika Nath, whose bribe for the
purpose would be found hidden in the thatch of the cook-house. Gerrard
retained only a vague recollection of the issue of certain orders, of
the informers being dragged shrieking away, and the departure of a
troop of horsemen with orders to bring back Dwarika Nath dead or alive,
or of the hastily prepared food he forced himself to eat, and the
unruffled conversation of Partab Singh after supper. Dwarika Nath was
not brought back, for he seemed to have disappeared from the face of
the earth, but the bodies of the two cooks were an eyesore on the
ground outside the palace until the dogs and kites had done their work.

Another trial to Gerrard was the supervision maintained over his
movements. In order to carry out Colonel Antony's instructions, he
wished to move about the city and talk with the traders and others in
the bazars, but no matter how skilfully he thought he had eluded his
guardians, he had no sooner slipped out of the palace than a panting
escort was at his heels, insisting on his mounting the horse presented
to him by the Rajah--which at once put an end to any chance of
unfettered conversation. So tiresome did this surveillance become that
at last he determined to take advantage of Partab Singh's continued
friendliness to relieve himself of it. They were sitting one evening
in the covered balcony of a tower looking over the palace garden, oddly
assorted companions, Gerrard on the watch, as usual, against being
morally taken by surprise, the Rajah puffing at his hookah--for in
private he was the veriest free-thinker--in silence, the gleaming of
his fierce eyes the only sign that he was not asleep. He took the
mouthpiece from his lips when Gerrard broke into his complaint.

"My soldiers have been lacking in respect--have hesitated to attend my
friend whither he desires?"

"No, no!" answered Gerrard hastily, fearing a sudden holocaust. "They
are most courteous. It is merely that they are always there."

With a swift movement Partab Singh bent forward, and lightly touched
the ground at Gerrard