Arrive to-morrow at ten o'clock. Keep
all secret." And he boldly signed the name "Alan Hawke" to that and to a
message to Captain Anson Anstruther: "Delayed four days here by private
business."

He raged as he hastily soliloquized: "I will at once present these
drafts regularly through the Credit Lyonnais. I will go and get the
whole story from Justine. I will pay off that tiger cat, Madame Louison,
for her sneaking away. She fancies she has done with me now! Ah! By God!
She thinks so? Wait! And this old Scotch saw-file! I'll break him up! If
I can only trace those stolen jewels to him, I'll have them or send
the old miser off in irons to a life transportation! I begin to see the
whole game at last! And I swear that I'll get to the girl if I have to
carry her off!"

He went down to the Credit Lyonnais in an elegant "mufti" garb, and
depositing a thousand pounds sterling to his credit, left the four
drafts for five thousand pounds each for collection, carelessly
referring to Messrs. Grindlay & Co., of Delhi, London, and many other
places, and mentioning the name of that eminent private native banker,
money-lender, and jeweler, the well-known Ram Lal Singh. "He shall back
his indorsement!" laughed Alan Hawke.

With a lordly insouciance, Major Alan Hawke then strolled out of the
great bank and deliberately arranged his line of future action while he
was taking his ease at his inn.

"First, to pick up all the threads of this queer intrigue through
Justine. I must go back to her at Geneva. Then, to be sure that Berthe
Louison is not repeating her cunning Delhi tricks with the dead man's
brother. She might frighten him. Then, armed at all points, I must
hasten on to report to Anstruther. I must have him give me a short leave
as soon as I can get it, but before I open my siege trenches I must
develop all the enemy's strength. What the devil is Berthe Louison up to
now?"

In the night train, speeding back to Geneva, Major Hawke remembered
some old desperate associates of an enforced "social eclipse" at
Granville-sur-Mer. "With a half a dozen resolute fellows I might hang
around Jersey and, perhaps, force my way into the stronghold. It depends
on where the mansion is located. If the jewels are there, I will either
have them or else bend the old man to my will by threatened disclosures.
But I must first fool Anstruther and my pretty employer. If Justine had
only remained at Jersey I might have easily won my way to the girl