have stood a good deal from you, but there are limits.
What's come over you?"

"Oh, forebodings--presentiments, that's all."

"You always were a superstitious sort of chap."

Charteris's passion had faded. "Had this sort of thing before?"

"Oh yes, often."

"And the presentiments always came true?"

"No-o, not always."

"I should think not!" shouted Charteris, with a mighty burst of
laughter. "Never was anything like the presentiments I had before
going into action the first time, and now I remember it, you were
pretty much the same, but we both came out without a scratch. Cheer
up, old boy. Who would think it was you that gave Sher Singh the lie
to his face, and started calmly to march to certain death? Here, let
me mix you a peg. I looks towards you, sir."

"I likewise bows," said Gerrard, with a perfunctory smile. "You don't
think me altogether a coward, Bob? There is something evil about the
atmosphere of this place. I felt it as I rode in at the gateway."

"I should recommend the estimable Moraes and a blue-pill," said
Charteris, yawning. "Coward? nonsense! an overworked conscience
sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought is more your number. And
now, as I march at a commendably early hour in the morning----"

"I wish you were staying on with me, Bob."

"Oh no, you don't. Think of the evil atmosphere of the place getting
hold of me too. Why, we should sit in corners and grind our teeth at
one another. You forget the healthy rivalry between us. No, no, you
will do bear-leader to the youngster, and keep Sher Singh and the Rani
from scratching each other's eyes out, and I'll knock down some more
robber castles in Darwan, and demand your help when I stir up a more
vicious hornets' nest than ordinary. By the bye, when there was mortar
and all kinds of mess about, I took the opportunity of bringing up a
little more gold from the treasury--ten thousand rupees' worth or so,
as nearly as I could guess--and building it into this wall here," he
indicated the parapet of the terrace with his cheroot. "It is behind
this bluish stone. You may be glad of it in an emergency."

"You think of everything, old boy. Sorry I haven't been a jollier
companion to-night."

They parted the next morning, Charteris riding out to take up again the
nomadic life and open-air work that he loved, while Gerrard remained to
begin his irksome task of trying to induce the Regents, the Durbar, the
army and the citize