o outside and wait for her," coolly commanded the young
man. "When she comes, you can come in and warn me, and I will be ready."
Ram Lal obediently left Hawke without a questioning word, and the busy
brain of the adventurer was soon occupied with weaving the meshes for
the bird nearing the snare. "This woman's help is absolutely necessary
to me now!" he thought, as he contemplated his own handsome person in a
mirror. "If she can only hold her tongue and keep a secret, she may
be the foundation of my fortunes. I think that I can make it worth her
while, but she must never fall under the influence of this she-devil in
petticoats, who comes to-morrow night! And yet, the Louison knows she is
here! A friendship between them must be prevented!" He closed his eyes
dreamily, and studied the problem of the future attentively, revolving
every point of womanly weakness which he had observed in his past
experience.

He had finally hit upon the right thing. It came to him just as Ram Lal
entered, with his finger on his lip. "She is in there, waiting for you,
and she came alone!" said the crafty merchant. "I can perhaps frighten
her with the idea that Madame Louison wishes to supplant her as lady
bear leader. The future pickings of this young heiress would be then
lost to her! Yes! A woman's natural jealousy will do the trick!" so
sagely mused the young man as he walked out into the hall, where Ram
Lal's treasures were heaped up on every side. There was no one visible
in the shop, but Ram Lal silently pointed with a brown finger, gleaming
with whitest gems, to a closed door. It was the entrance to the room
specially devoted to the superb collection of arms, the regained loot of
Delhi, slyly collected in the days of the mad sacking by the revengeful
English soldiery. A bottle of rum then bought a princely token.

It had been with a guilty, beating heart that Justine Delande abandoned
her fair, young charge to the morning ministrations of a bevy of
dark-skinned servants. However, the sturdy Genevese waiting-maid who had
accompanied them to India was at hand, when the spinster incoherently
murmured her all too voluble excuses for an early morning visit to the
European shops on the Chandnee Chouk, and then fled away as if fearful
of her own shadow. She was duly thankful that no one had observed her
entrance to the jewel shop, and the refuge of the room, pointed out by
the amiable Ram Lal, at once reassured her. Justine was accorded a bri