u have more than once remarked to me, but when he
saw my unlucky hair, his language was positively improper. You see, it
was my misfortune--and your very good fortune, I'm inclined to
think--that I wasn't you. He even sent for water and had some of the
blood washed off my face, to make sure, I suppose, that we hadn't
exchanged wigs in the hope of deceiving him, and when he was quite sure
who I wasn't, I expected nothing better than to be cut into little bits
there and then. But some one ventured to suggest something, and he
came at me with great fury and demanded whether I knew where Partab
Singh's hidden treasure was. I know I ought to have struck a heroic
attitude and refused to speak, but as a matter of fact, I fainted. It
was horribly ill-timed, for Sher Singh is bound to believe for ever
that it was sheer terror of his alarming aspect that did it, but it was
precious fortunate for me, for when I woke up I was in a palanquin, and
they had tied up my head and looked after me a bit. Dear, good,
sympathetic souls! how they did try to make things pleasant for
me--always dinning into my ears that Sher Singh was fattening me for
the slaughter--the torture, I mean! They used to congregate outside
and discuss tortures in the halts, when I might have had a chance to
get a little sleep if there had been any air, like a whole regiment of
Fat Boys."

"If we had only known you were alive, Bob!"

"Oh, don't think _I'm_ trying to make your flesh creep. All's well
that ends well, and it's a useful experience to have been through.
Shows a fellow he can stand a good deal more than he ever thought he
could, I mean. But perhaps it was just as well it was me and not you."

"Complimentary, as usual!" Gerrard's laugh was a little forced.

"It's merely a question of nerves, old boy. You would have been
picturing the details over and over again when the beggars were not
talking about 'em, whereas I was able to put them out of my mind.
Well, we got to Agpur at last, and once in the palace, Sher Singh set
to work to try kindness. He let me take up my quarters--watched day
and night, of course--in your old Residency, which looks a good deal
the worse for wear since you left it. The servants you left in charge
seem to have taken first choice when they heard you were hardly likely
to come back, and then the palace servants and the guards had their
turn. Your books were all torn to pieces--they must have thought you
had gold-lea