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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Fascinating Traitor, by Col. Richard Henry Savage
+
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+Title: A Fascinating Traitor
+
+Author: Col. Richard Henry Savage
+
+Release Date: June, 2004  [EBook #5972]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 2, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A FASCINATING TRAITOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Carrie Fellman.
+
+
+
+A FASCINATING TRAITOR
+
+AN ANGLO-INDIAN STORY
+
+By Col. Richard Henry Savage
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+BOOK I. OUT OF THE DEAD PAST.
+
+
+I.-A Chance Meeting at Geneva
+
+II.-An Offensive and Defensive Alliance
+
+III.-"And at Delhi What Am I to Do?"
+
+IV.-The Veiled Rosebud of Delhi
+
+V.-A Diplomatic Tiffin
+
+
+
+BOOK II. "A DEVIL FOR LUCK."
+
+
+VI.-The Mysterious Bungalow
+
+VII.-The Price of Safety
+
+VIII.-Harry Hardwicke Takes the Gate Neatly!
+
+IX.-Alan Hawke Plays His Trump Card
+
+X.-A Captivated Viceroy
+
+
+
+BOOK III. PRINCE DJIDDIN'S VISIT TO ENGLAND.
+
+
+XI.-"Do You See This Dagger?"
+
+XII.-On the Cliffs of Jersey
+
+XIII.-An Asiatic Lion in Hiding.
+
+XIV.-The Council at Granville
+
+XV.-The French Fisher Boat "Hirondelle"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I. OUT OF THE DEAD PAST.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A CHANCE MEETING AT GENEVA.
+
+
+
+
+
+"By Jove! I may as well make an end of the thing right here to-night!"
+was the dejected conclusion of a long council of war over which
+Major Alan Hawke had presided, with the one straggling comfort of
+being its only member.
+
+All this long September afternoon he had dawdled away in feeding
+certain rapacious swans navigating gracefully around Rousseau's
+Island. He had consumed several Trichinopoly cigars in the interval,
+and had moodily gazed back upon the strange path which had led him
+to the placid shores of Lake Leman! The gay promenaders envied the
+debonnair-looking young Briton, whose outer man was essentially
+"good form." Children left the side of their ox-eyed bonnes to
+challenge the handsome young stranger with shy, friendly approaches.
+
+Bevies of flashing-eyed American girls "took him in" with parthian
+glances, and even a widowed Russian princess, hobbling by, easing
+her gouty steps with a jeweled cane, gazed back upon the moody
+Adonis and sighed for the vanished days, when she possessed both
+the physical and mental capacity to wander from the beaten paths
+of the proprieties.
+
+But--the world forgetting--the young man lingered long, gazing out
+upon the broad expanse of the waters, his eyes resting carelessly
+upon the superb panorama of the southern shore. He had wandered far
+away from the Grand Hotel National, in the aimlessness of sore
+mental unrest, and, all unheeded, the hours passed on, as he threaded
+the streets of the proud old Swiss burgher city. He had known its
+every turn in brighter days, and, though the year of ninety-one was
+a brilliant Alpine season, and he was in the very flower of youth
+and manly promise, gaunt care walked as a viewless warder at Alan
+Hawke's side.
+
+He had crossed over the Pont de Montblanc to the British Consulate,
+only to learn that the very man whom he had come from Monaco to
+seek, was now already at Aix la Chapelle, on his way to America,
+on a long leave. He had wearily made a tour of the principal hotels
+and scanned the registers with no lucky find! Not a single gleam
+of hope shone out in all the polyglot inscriptions passing under
+his eye!  And so he had sadly betaken himself to a safe, retired
+place, where he could hold the aforesaid council of war.
+
+The practical part of the operations of this sole committee of ways
+and means, was an exhaustive examination of his depleted pockets.
+A few sovereigns and a single crisp twenty-pound Bank of England
+note constituted the rear guard of Alan Hawke's vanished "sinews of
+war." The young man briefly noted the slender store, with a sigh.
+
+"Twenty-five pounds--and a little trumpery jewelry--I can't ever
+get back to India on that!" He seemed to hear again the rasping
+voice of the vulpine caller at Monte Carlo: "Messieurs! Faites vos
+jeux! Rien ne va plus! Le jeu est fait!" And, if a dismal failure
+in Lender had been his Leipsic, the black week at Monaco had been
+his long drawn-out Waterloo! "I was a rank fool to go there," he
+growled, "and a greater fool to come over here! I might have got
+on easily to Malta, and then chanced it from there to Calcutta!"
+
+The sun's last lances glittered on the waters gleaming clear as
+crystal, with their deep blue tint of reflected sky, and liquid
+sapphire! The gardens were becoming deserted as the loungers dropped
+off homeward one by one, and still the handsome young fellow sat
+moodily gazing down into the rushing waters of the arrowy Rhone,
+as if he fain would cast the dark burden of his dreary thoughts
+far away from him down into those darkling waters. But thirty-two
+years of age, Alan Hawke had already outlived all his wild boyish
+romances. The thrill with which he had first set foot upon the land
+of Clive and Warren Hastings had faded away long years gone! And,
+Fate had stranded him at Geneva!
+
+As he sat, still irresolute as to his future movements, the dying
+sunlight gilded the splendid panorama of the whole Mont Blanc
+group.  Rose and purple, with fading gold and amethystine gleams
+played softly upon the far-away giant peak, with its noble bodyguard,
+the Aiguilles du Midi, Grandes Jorasses, the Dent du Geant, the
+sturdy pyramid of the Mole, and the long far sweep of the Voirons.
+But he noted not these splendors of the dying sun god, as he stood
+there moodily defying adverse fate, a modern Manfred. "I might
+with this get on to London--but what waits me there? Only scorn,
+callous neglect!" His eye fell upon the statue of Jean Jacques,
+lifted up there by the sturdy men who have for centuries clung to
+the golden creeds of civil and religious liberty--the independence
+of man--and the freedom of the unshackled human soul. "Poor Rousseau!
+seer and parasite, fugitive adventurer, the sport of the great,
+the eater of bitter bread--the black bread of dependence! I will
+not linger here in a long-drawn agony! Here, I will end it forever,
+and to-night!"
+
+There were certain visions of the past which returned to shake
+even the iron nerves of Alan Hawke! Face to face now with his half
+formed resolution of suicide, the wasted past slowly unrolled itself
+before him.
+
+The brief days of his service in India, an abrupt exit from the
+service, long years of wandering in Japan and China, as a gentleman
+adventurer, and all the singular phases of a nomadic life in Burmah,
+Nepaul, Cashmere, Bhootan, and the Pamirs.
+
+He smiled in derision at the recollection of a briefly flattering
+fortune which had rebaptized him with a shadowy title of uncertain
+origin. Thus far, his visiting card, "Major Alan Hawke, Bombay Club"
+had been an easily vised passport, but--alas--good only among his
+own kind! He was but a free lance of the polished "Detrimentals,"
+and, under this last adverse stroke of fortune, his poor cockboat
+was being swamped in the black waters of adversity. He had staked
+much upon a little campaign at the Foreign Office in London.
+The cold rebuff which he had received to there had carried him in
+sheer desperation over to Monaro and incoming onto Geneva, he had
+"burned his ships" behind him. Ignorant of the precise manner in
+which his clouded reputation had stopped the way to his advancement
+in the English Secret Service, he remembered, even at the last,
+that a few letters were due to those who still watched his little
+flickering light on its way over the trackless sea of life. For
+hard-hearted as he was,--benumbed by the blows of fate, his heart
+calloused with the snapping of cords and ties which once had
+closely bound him--there were yet loosely knit bonds of the past
+which tinged with the glow of his dying passions--the unforgotten
+idols of his adventurous career!
+
+He rose and walked mechanically along the Qua du Mont Blanc with
+the alert, springy step of the soldier. "Once a Captain, always
+a Captain" was in every line of his resolute, martial figure. His
+well-set-up, graceful form, his nobly poised head and easy soldierly
+bearing contrasted sharply with the lazy shuffle of the prosperous
+Swiss denizens and the listless lolling of the sporadic foreign
+tourists. Crisp, curling, tawny hair, a sweeping soldierly moustache,
+with a resolute chin and gleaming blue eyes accentuated a handsome
+face burnt to a dark olive by the fiery Indian sun. An easy insouciance
+tempered the habitual military smartness of the man who had known
+several different services in the fifteen years of his wasted young
+manhood. As he swung into the glare of the hospitable doorway of the
+Grand Rational, the obsequious head porter doffed his gold banded
+cap.
+
+"Table d'hote serving now, Major!" With the mere social instinct of
+long years, Alan Hawke recognized the man's perfunctory politeness,
+tipped him a couple of francs, and then, mechanically sauntered to
+a seat in the superb salle a manger. "I'll get out of here to-night,"
+he muttered, and then he bent down his head over the carte du jour
+and peered at the wine list, as the chatter of happy voices, the
+animated faces of lovely women and the eager hum of social life
+around, recalled him to that world from which he contemplated an
+unceremonious exit. It was in a deference to old habit, and the "qu
+en dira't on," that he ordered a half bottle of excellent Chambertin
+and then proceeded to dine with all the scrupulous punctilio of
+the old happy mess days.
+
+Something of defiance seemed to steal back into his veins with the
+generous warmth of the wine--a touch of the old gallant spirit with
+which he had faced a hard world, since the unfortunate incident
+which had abruptly terminated his connection with "The Widow's"
+Service. His eye swept carelessly over the international detachment
+seated at the splendid table. Lively and chattering as they were,
+it was a human Sahara to him. He easily recognized the "Ten-Pounder"
+element of wandering Britons; poor, anxious-eyed beings grudgingly
+furloughed from shop and desk, and now sternly determined to descend
+at Charing Cross without breaking into the few reserve sovereigns.
+Serious-looking women, clad in many colors, and stolid cockneys,
+hostile to all foreign innovation, met his eye. He sighed as he
+cast his social net and drew up nothing.
+
+There was a vacant chair at his left. Very shortly, without turning
+his eyes, he was made aware of the proximity of a woman, young,
+evidently a continental, from her softly murmured French.
+
+"Houbigant's Forest Violets," he murmured. "She is at least
+semi-civilized!" He was dreaming of the far off lotos land which
+he had left, as he felt the rebellious protest of his young blood
+and the defiant spirit awaked by the mechanical luxury of the
+well-ordered dinner. "These human pawns seem to be all prosperous,
+if not happy! I'll have another shy at it! By God! I must get back
+to India!" The whole checkered past rushed back over his mind! The
+fifteen years of his "wanderjahre"! Scenes which even he dared not
+recall! Incidents which he had never dared to own to any European!
+He but too well knew the origin of his loosely applied title of
+Major--a field officer's rank more honored at the easygoing clubs
+of Yokahama, Shanghai, and Hong Kong than on the Army List--a rank
+best known at the ring-side of Indian sporting grounds, and only
+tacitly accepted in the extra-official circles of Hindustan. For it
+figured not in the official Army List, either as active or retired.
+The whole panorama of the mystic land of the Hindus was unrolled
+once more by the memories of fifteen clouded years, He saw again
+his far-away theater of varied action, with its huge grim mountains
+towering far over the snow line, its arid wastes, its fertile plains
+bathed in intense sunshine, its mystic rivers, and its silent,
+solemn shrines of the vanished gods.
+
+Major Alan Hawke silently ran over his slender professional
+accomplishments. "I'm not too heavy to ride yet. I've a fair hand
+at cards--tough nerves, and even a bit of staying power. Luck may
+turn my way yet and there's always the Pamirs! At the worst, the
+Russians--the Afghans,--or those fellows up in Sikkim and Hill
+Tipperah! An artillerist is always welcome there!" But even in his
+moral desperation, he hung his head, for a flush of his boyhood's
+bright ambitions returned to shame him. An old song jingled in his
+memory, "When I first put this uniform on." He lapsed into a bitter
+reverie!
+
+The soldier of fortune was finally aroused from a brown study by
+the impassive steward presenting two great dishes. The clatter of
+some late convive seating himself also caused him to turn his head.
+
+"Hello, Anstruther! You are a long way from staff headquarters
+here!" quietly said Hawke, as the new arrival gazed at him in a
+mute surprise.
+
+Captain the Honorable Anson Anstruther put up his monocle and
+duly answered: "I thought that you were still in Calcutta, Hawke."
+There was a faint noli me tangere air in the young staff officer's
+manner, and yet mere propinquity drew them together in a few
+minutes. With the insouciance of men bred in club and at mess,
+the two soldiers soon drifted into an easy chat, meeting on safe
+grounds. They calmly ignored the surrounding civilians, regardless
+of the attractions of two falcon-eyed Chicago beauties, loud of
+voice and brilliantly overdressed, who were guiding "Popper" and
+"Mommer" over the continent. These resplendent daughters of Columbia
+already boasted a train consisting of a French count (of a very
+old and shadowy regime), a singularly second-hand looking Italian
+marquis, a wooden-soldier figured German baron, and a sad-eyed,
+distant-looking Russian prince, whose bold Tartar glances rested
+hungrily upon both Miss "Phenie" and Miss "Genie" Forbes.
+
+The Anglo-Indians, however, calmly pursued their dinner and gossip
+regardless of the fact that Miss "Phenie" had violently nudged
+Miss "Genie," and whispered in a stage aside: "Say, Genie, look at
+those two English fellows! They are something like--I bet you that
+they are two Lords!" The approval of the gilded Western maidens,
+whose father systematically assassinated a thousand porkers per
+diem, was lost upon the chance-met acquaintances. "I must get back
+to India, by hook or crook," mused Alan Hawke, and therefore, he
+very delicately played his wary fish, the sybaritic young swell of
+the staff. Captain the Honorable Anson Anstruther's reserve soon
+melted under the skillful bonhomie of the astute Alan Hawke. An
+easy-going patrician of the staff, he was in the magic circle of
+the viceroy.  The heir to an inevitable fortune, and already vested
+with substantially stratified deposits at "Coutts" and Glyn, Carr
+and Glyn's, he would have been envied by most luckless mortals the
+heavy balances which he always carried at "Grind-lay's," a fortune
+for any less fortunate man.
+
+He was already interested in the remarkably fetching looking young
+woman at Alan Hawke's left, being a squire of dames par excellence,
+while Major Alan Hawke himself wondered how Anstruther had drifted
+so far away from the direct line of travel to London.
+
+Thawing visibly under the influence of Hawke's gracefully modulated
+camaraderie, the susceptible Anstruther was attentively examining
+his fair neighbor in silence, while he tried vaguely to recall some
+story which he had once heard, quite detrimental to the cosmopolitan
+Major.
+
+He gave it up as a bad job! "Hang it!" he thought. "It may have
+been some other chap. Verylikely!" It was the strange story of a
+sharp encounter with the hostile Kookies, in which a couple of English
+mountain guns, long before abandoned by a British expeditionary
+force, had been served with due professional skill and most
+desperate dash by a reckless man, easily recognized as an English
+refugee artillerist. The wounded escaped British soldier, who had
+died after denouncing the deserting adventurer, had left his parting
+advice to the Royal Artillery to burn the fearless renegade, should
+he ever be captured. It was the Story of a nameless traitor!
+
+But, the vague distrust of the curled darling of Fortune soon faded
+away under Hawke's measured social leading. A silver wine cooler
+stood behind their chairs, and the old yarn of a British officer
+playing Olivier Pain became very misty under the subtle influence of
+the Pommery Sec. Alan Hawke guarded the expected story of his own
+wanderings, waiting craftily until Bacchus and Venus had sufficiently
+mollified Anstruther.
+
+He duplicated the champagne, knowing well the warming influence
+of "t'other bottle." The Major of a shadowy rank had early learned
+the graceful art of effacing himself, and on this occasion, it
+stood greatly to his credit. Anstruther was now quite sure that the
+graceful head of the beautiful neighbor swayed in an unconscious
+recognition of his witty sallies. A true son of Mars--ardent,
+headlong, and gallant as regarded le beau sexe--he talked brilliantly
+and well, aiming his boomerang remarks at a woman whom he knew to
+be young and graceful, and whose beauty he was gayly taking upon
+trust; an old, old interlude, played many a time and oft.
+
+"What is going on here in this beastly slow old town? Nothing
+much for to-night, I fancy," said the aid-de-camp, wondering if a
+promenade au clair de la lune or a carriage ride to Ferney would
+be possible! He already had noted the purity of the French accent
+of the fair unknown. No guttural Swiss patois there, but that crisp
+elegance of tone which promised him a flirtation en vraie Parisienne.
+
+"Only Philemon and Baucis, an antique opera, at the Grand Opera
+House, and sung by a band of relics of better days, wandering over
+here!" said Hawke.
+
+And then it finally dawned upon the blase young staff officer that
+he had met Alan Hawke in certain circles where plunging had chased
+away the tedium of Indian club life with the delightful sensations
+of raking in other people's money.
+
+"Better come up to my rooms then, and have a weed and a bit of
+ecarte!" slowly said Anstruther. "We may manage a ride afterward!"
+Alan Hawke nodded, and a thirsty gleam lit up his crafty eyes. He
+instinctively felt for the little card case containing that solitary
+twenty-pound note; it was a gentleman's stake after all. And the
+would-be suicide silently invoked the fickle goddess Fortuna!
+
+Captain Anstruther, however, furtively murmured a few words to the
+solemn head steward and then leaned back contentedly in his chair.
+His ostensible orders for cafe noir and cards, as well as the least
+murderous of the obtainable cigars, covered the plan of using a
+five-pound note in an adroit personal inquiry. For, the Honorable
+Anson Anstruther proposed to ride that very evening, and he did
+not wish to bore Major Hawke with his company. He nursed a little
+scheme of his own. "Do you make a long stay?" carelessly said the
+wary Major.
+
+"I intend to leave to-morrow night," gayly answered the other. "I
+came over here on a very strange errand. I've got to see an eminent
+Gorgon of respectability, who has a finishing school here for the
+young person [bien clevee," said Anstruther, eyeing the unknown.
+
+"Hardly in your line, Anstruther!" laughed Hawke, casting his eyes
+around the depleted table, for Miss Phenie and Miss Genie Forbes
+had vanished at last, leaving behind them expanding wave circles
+of sharply echoing comment. The noisy Teutons had devoured their
+seven francs worth, and the fair bird of passage on their left was
+left alone, woman-like, dallying with the last sweets and finishing
+her demi bouteille with true French deliberation. "It's a case of
+the wolf and the sheep-fold!"
+
+"Not that; not at all!" gayly answered Anstruther. "I have a long
+leave, and I only ran over here to oblige His Excellency." He
+spoke with all the easy disdain of all underlings born of an Indian
+official life--the habitual disregard of the Briton for his inferior
+surroundings. "By Jove! you may help me out yourself! You're an
+old Delhi man!" He gazed earnestly at Hawke, who started nervously,
+and then said:
+
+"You know I've been away for a good bit of the ten years in the
+far Orient, but I used to know them all, before I went out of the
+line."
+
+"Then you surely know old Hugh Johnstone, the rich, old, retired
+deputy commissioner of Oude?" Alan Hawke slowly sipped his champagne,
+for his Delhi memories were both risky and uncertain ground.
+
+"I fail to recall the name, Johnstone--Johnstone," murmured Hawke.
+
+"Why, everyone knows old Johnstone; he is an old mutiny man. You
+surely do! He was Hugh Fraser until he took the name of Johnstone,
+ten years or so ago, on a Scotch relative leaving him a handsome
+Highland estate!" There was a warning rustle at Hawke's left, as
+the fair stranger prepared for her flitting.
+
+"I was very intimate with Hugh Fraser in my griffin days. But I
+thought he had retired and gone back home. He is enormously rich,
+and an old bachelor! I know him very well; he was a good friend of
+mine in the old days, too!"
+
+Anstruther leaned toward Hawke, as he signed to the waiter to refill
+his hearer's glass. "Well, I can surprise even you! He has turned
+up with a beautiful daughter--at Delhi--just about the prettiest
+girl I ever--"
+
+"Je demande mills pardons, Madame!" politely cried Major Hawke, as
+his fair neighbor's wineglass went shivering down in a crystalline
+wreck.
+
+"Pas de quoi, Monsieur," suavely replied the woman whom till now he
+had hardly noticed. A moment later the slight damage was repaired,
+and then Captain the Honorable Anson Anstruther had his little
+innings.
+
+With courtly hospitality he offered the creamy champagne as a
+remplacement for the lost vin du pays.
+
+A charming smile rewarded the gallant youth, while Major Hawke
+turned with interest to the renewal of the interrupted narrative.
+He had caught a glance of burning intensity from the dark brown
+eyes of the lady a la Houbigant, which set every nerve in his body
+tingling.  It was a challenge to a companionship, and, as he led
+on the triumphant Anstruther, he deeply regretted the absence of
+that most necessary organ,--an eye in the back of the head. He was
+dimly aware that his beautiful neighbor was very leisurely drinking
+the peace offering of the susceptible son of Mars. "I will bet
+hundreds to ha'pennies she speaks English!" quickly reflected the
+now aroused Major.
+
+"You astound me, Anstruther," the Major said. "Not a lawful child!
+Some Eurasian legacy--a relic of the old days of the Pagoda Tree!
+Why, the old commissioner always was a woman hater, and absolutely
+hostile to all social influences!" The Captain was now stealing
+longing glances at the willowy figure of the beautiful woman whose
+glistening dark brown eyes were turned to him with a languid glance,
+as Alan Hawke leaned forward. To prolong the sight of that bewitching
+half profile, with the fair, low brows, the velvet cheeks, a
+Provencale flush tinting them, the parted lips a dainty challenge
+speaking, and the rich masses of dark brown hair nobly crowning
+her regal outlines, Anstruther yielded to the spell and babbled
+on. "The whole thing is a strange melange of official business and
+dying gossip!" dreamily said Anstruther with his eyes straying over
+the ivory throat, the superbly modeled bust and perfect figure of
+the young Venus Victrix.
+
+He was duly rewarded by a glance of secret intelligence when he
+leaned back, dreamily closing his eyes. "You see, they were going
+to make old Hugh Fraser or Hugh Johnstone, as he is now called,
+a baronet for some secret services to the Crown of an important
+nature, rendered about the time when mad Hodson piled up the whole
+princely succession to the House of Oude in a trophy of naked corpsess
+pistoling them with his own hand." He ordered a third bottle of
+Pommery, with a wave of his hand, and proceeded: "Of course, you
+know, Her Majesty's Government always closely investigate the social
+antecedents of the nominee in such cases. The change of name is
+all right; it is regularly entered at Herald's College and all that
+sort of thing, but the Chief has heard of the sudden appearance
+of this beautiful daughter. Now, old Johnstone surely never looked
+the way of woman in India! It's true that he went back about twenty
+years ago to England on a two years' leave. He has lived the life
+of a splendid recluse in his magnificent old bungalow on the Chandnee
+Chouk."
+
+Anstruther paused, fishing for another fugitive smile. He caught
+it behind the back of the wary adventurer.
+
+"I know the old house well," said Hawke with an affected unconcern.
+"Men were always entertained royally there, but I never saw a woman
+of station in its vast saloons."
+
+"Now there you are!" cried Anstruther, lightly resuming: "I was
+sent up to Delhi to delicately find out about this alleged daughter,
+for the Chief does not want to throw Johnstone's baronetcy over.
+The fact is before they packed the toothless old King of Oude away
+to Rangoon to die with his favorite wife and their one wolf cub out
+there, Hugh Fraser skillfully extorted a surrender of a huge private
+treasure of jewels from these people while they were hidden away
+in Humayoon's tomb. There's one trust deposit yet to be divided
+between the Government and this sly old Indo-Scotch-man, and
+I fancy the empty honor of the baronetcy is a quid pro quo." Alan
+Hawke laughed heartily. "It is really diamond cut diamond, then."
+
+"Precisely," said Anstruther, as he most calmly waved his hand
+to the steward, who silently refilled even the glass of the Venus
+Anonyma. A slight inclination of the head and parthian glance number
+three, encouraged Anstruther to hasten and conclude, for the moon
+was sailing grandly over the lake now.
+
+Love thrilled in the young man's vacant heart, sounding the chords
+of the Harp of Life. He had been in a glittering Indian exile long
+enough to be very susceptible. "I spent two weeks up there with
+the expectant Sir Hugh Johnstone," lightly rattled on the aid. "I
+verified the fact that the young woman is his acknowledged daughter.
+He has no other lineal heir to the title, for an old, dry-as-dust,
+retired Edinburgh professor, a brother, childless and eccentric, is
+living near St. Helier's, in Jersey, in a beautiful Norman chateau
+farm mansion, where old Hugh proposed once to end his days. It seems
+to be all square enough. I was as delicate as I could be about it,
+and the matter is apparently all right. The papers have all gone
+on, and, in due time, Hugh Fraser will be Sir Hugh Johnstone!"
+
+Anstruther quaffed a beaker with guileful ideas of detaining his
+fair neighbor, now ruffling her plumage for departure, for only a
+sporadic knot of diners here and there lingered at the long table.
+"The girl herself?" asked Hawke, with a strange desire to know
+more.
+
+"Report has duly magnified her hidden charms," replied Anstruther.
+"She is called "The Veiled Rose of Delhi," and no manner of man may
+lift that mystic veil. I was treated en prince, but held at arm's
+length."
+
+Hawke smiled softly, and said in a low voice, "I hardly see how all
+this brings you over here. The Rose blooms by the far-away Jumna."
+
+"Then know, my friend," laughed Anstruther, "such a rose as the
+peerless Nadine Johnstone must have a duenna." He deftly caught an
+impassioned glance from the softly shining brown eyes, and hastily
+went on. "She was educated right here in this emporium of watches,
+musical boxes, correct principles, and scientific research. Mesdames
+Justine and Euphrosyne Delande, No. 122 Rue du Rhone, conduct an
+institute (justly renowned) where calisthenics, a view of the lake,
+a little music, a great deal of bad French, and the Conversations
+Lexicon, with some surface womanly graces, may all be had for
+some two hundred pounds a year. Miss Justine Delande, a sedately
+gray-tinted spinster, has been tempted to remain on guard for
+a year out in India, having safely conducted this Pearl of Jeunes
+Personnes Bien Elevees out to the old Qui Hai. I have been charged
+with some few necessary explanations and negotiations, the delivery of
+some presents, and, when I have visited this first-class institute,
+enjoying all the attractions of the Jardm Anglais and the Promenade
+du Lac, I shall flee these tranquil slopes of the Pennine Alps.
+Incidentally, the records of Mademoiselle Euphrosyne will confirm
+the very natural story of the would-be Sir Hugh, whose vanished
+wife no Anglo-Indian has ever seen. She is supposably dead. A last
+official note after I have run on to Paris will close up the whole
+awkward matter. I will call there tomorrow and then take the early
+train, as I am on for a lot of family visits and sporting events
+before I can settle down to have my bit of a fling."
+
+"It's a very strange story," murmured Alan Hawke. "No man ever
+suspected Hugh Fraser of family honors."
+
+"And 'the Rose of Delhi!' will probably marry some lucky fellow
+out there, as old Johnstone has lacs and lacs of rupees," said
+Anstruther, "for he cannot keep her in his great gardens forever,
+guarded by the stony-eyed Swiss spinster, or let her run around as
+the Turks do their priceless pet sheep with a silver bell around
+her neck. There was some old marital unhappiness, I suppose, for
+the girl is evidently born in wedlock, and the story is straight
+enough."
+
+"Have you seen her?" eagerly inquired Hawke.
+
+"Just a few stolen glimpses," hastily replied Anstruther, politely
+rising and bowing as the fair unknown suddenly left her seat, in
+evident confusion.
+
+The two men strolled out of the salle & manger together, Major Alan
+Hawke critically observing the heightened color and evident elan
+of his aristocratic friend.
+
+"Oh! I say, Hawke," cried Anstruther, "they'll show you up to my
+rooms in a few moments. I'll go and see the maitre d'hotel here!
+The service is beastly--beastly!" and the youth fled quickly away.
+
+Major Alan Hawke nodded affably, and slowly mounted the staircase
+to his room, wondering if the aid-de-camp was destined by the gods
+to furnish forth his purse for the return to India. "He's pretty
+well set up now, and he evidently has his eye upon this brown-eyed
+nixie.  Dare I rush my luck? The boy's a bit stupid at cards." With
+downcast eyes the anxious adventurer wandered along the corridor
+in the dimly-lighted second story. It was the turning point of his
+career.
+
+There was the rapid rustle of silk, the patter of gliding feet,
+a warm, trembling hand seized his own, and in the darkness of a
+window recess he was aware that he was suddenly made the prize of
+the fair corsair ci la Houbigant. "Quick, quick, tell me! Do you
+go with him?" the strange enchantress said, in excited tones, using
+the English tongue as if to the manner born.
+
+"Madame! I hardly understand," cautiously said the astounded Major.
+
+"I want you to help me! You must help me! I must see him! I must
+find out all." The sound of a servant's steps arrested her incoherent
+remarks. "Wait here!" the excited woman whispered, as she walked
+back down the hall. There was a whispered colloquy, and Alan Hawke
+caught the gleam of the silver neck chain of the maitre d'hotel.
+The sound of an opening door was heard, and, in a few moments the
+flying Camilla returned to her hidden prey.
+
+"Tell me truly," she panted, "what will you do with him? He wishes
+me to ride with him; my answer depends on you. You are in trouble;
+I can see it in your haggard eyes. Help me now, and--and I will
+help you!" And then Alan Hawke spoke truly to the waif of Destiny,
+whom chance had thrown in his way.
+
+"I only wish to play with him for a couple of hours; if luck turns
+my way, that will be time enough!"
+
+"Ah! you would have money! Let him go away in peace! Help me
+to-morrow, here, and I will give you money!"
+
+"What is your own scheme?" the doubting vaurien demanded.
+
+"I must know all of this Hugh Johnstone, all about this girl," she
+whispered, her lips almost touching his cheek.
+
+"Let me play with him to-night; I am yours as soon as he departs!"
+sullenly said Hawke.
+
+"Then, finish in two hours," the woman said, gathering her draperies
+to flee away, "for I will ride with him to-night!"
+
+"Just a bit unconventional," murmured Alan Hawke. "Who the devil can
+this French-English woman be anyway." He realized that some subtle
+game depended upon the memories of the past strangely evoked by the
+artless Anstruther's babble. As he strolled back to the smoking-room,
+he saw the maitre d'hotel slyly deliver a twisted bit of paper to
+the all too unconcerned looking young Adonis, and the gleam of a
+napoleon shone out in the grave faced Figaro's hand. "Now for our
+cafe noir, a good pousse cafe--and--a dash at the painted beauties.
+I can't play very long," was Anstruther's salutation, as he
+complacently twisted his mustache en hussar. Major Hawke bowed in
+a silent delight.
+
+And so it fell out that both wolf and panther--hungry vulpine prowler
+and sleek feminine soft-footed enemy--gathered closely, around the
+young British Lion, whose easy self-complacency led him into the
+snare, hoodwinked by the fair unknown Delilah.
+
+Alan Hawke strode to the windows of Anstruther's rooms and standing
+there, watched the drifting moonbeams mantling on the spectral
+blue lake, while his chance-met friend rang for a waiter. There was
+the murmur of confidential orders, and then Anson Anstruther with
+a bright smile dropped easily into the role of host. The young
+staff officer was so elated by the apparently flattering selection
+of the fair anonyma that he never considered the idea of possible
+foul play. It was evident that Major Hawke had not noticed the
+little by-play which was the delightful undercurrent of the table
+d'hotel dinner. There was no time lost in the preliminaries of the
+card duel.
+
+Through curling blue wreaths of aromatic incense, over the
+brandy-dashed coffee, the two men sententiously struggled for the
+smiles of Fortune, with impassive faces, in a rapid duel of wits
+as the fleeting moments sped along.
+
+The tide of luck was set dead against Anstruther, who strangely seemed
+to be now possessed of a merry devil. He made perilous excursions
+into the land of brandy and soda, gayly faced his bad fortune, and
+feverishly chattered over the well-worn Anglo-Indian gossip adroitly
+introduced by the now nerve-steadied Hawke. General Renwick's
+loss of his faded and feeble spouse, the far-famed "Poor Thing" of
+much polite apology for her socially aristocratic ailments; Vane
+Tempest's singular elopement with the beautiful wife of a green
+subaltern; Harry Chillingly's untoward end while potting tigers;
+Count Platen's enormous winnings at Baccarat; Fitzgerald Law's
+falling into a peerage; and Mrs. Claire Atterbury, the wealthy widow's
+purchase of a handsome boy-husband fresh from Sandhurst. All this
+with Jack Blunt's long expected ruin, and a spicy court-martial or
+two, furnished a running accompaniment to Anstruther's expensive
+"personally conducted tour" into the intricacies of ecarte, led
+on by the coolest safety player who ever fleeced a griffin. Truly
+these were golden moments. The Major's cool steady eyes were sternly
+fixed on his cards.
+
+The self-imposed sentence of suicide of the afternoon was indefinitely
+postponed when Alan Hawke amiably nodded as Anstruther at last
+apologized for glancing at his watch. "I've a bit to do to get
+ready for to-morrow, and we'll try one more hand and then I'll say
+good-night."
+
+"Well, I'll give you your revenge at any time, Anstruther! By
+the way, what's your London address?" Hawke was complacently good
+humored as he glanced at a visiting card whereon sundry comfortable
+figures were roughly totted up.
+
+"Junior United Service, always," carelessly said Anstruther. "They
+keep run of me, for I'm off for the woods as soon as the shooting
+season opens. Where will you be this winter?"
+
+Major Hawke assumed a mysterious air, "That depends upon the Russian
+and Chinese game--the Persian and Afghan intrigues! You see, I am
+awaiting some ripening affairs in the F. O. I was called back on
+account of my familiarity with the Pamirs, and there's a good bit
+of Blue Book work that my knowledge of Penj Deh, and the whole
+Himalayan line has helped out." The captain was a bit agnostic now.
+
+"You were---" began Anson Anstruther, timidly, the old vague gossip
+returning to haunt him. His ardor was cooling in view of the very
+neat sum of his losses in three figures.
+
+"On Major Montgomerie's escort as a raw boy when I came out," promptly
+interrupted Hawke. "I went all over Thibet in '75 with Nana Singh
+as a youngster. He was a wonderful chap and besides executing the
+secret survey of Thibet, he ran all over Cashmere, Nepaul, Sikkim,
+and Bhootan, secretly charged with securing authentic details
+of the death of Nana Sahib." The cool assurance of the adventurer
+disarmed the now serious Anstruther, for both the sagacious
+English officer and his disguised assistant, Nana Singh, were both
+dead these many years. "Morley's is my regular address; I keep up
+no home club memberships now," coolly said Hawke, as at last they
+threw the cards down.
+
+Anstruther picked up his marker card as he glanced at Hawke's ready
+money upon the table. There was a ten-pound note folded under the
+Major's neat pocket case and a plethoric fold of Bank of England
+notes bulged the neat Russia leather. He never knew that only thirteen
+one-pound notes made up this brave financial show of his adversary.
+Alan Hawke was a past master of keeping up a brave exterior and
+he blessed the Cook's Tourists who had that day left these small
+bills with the hotel cashier.
+
+"Now, here you are," hastily said Anstruther. "Do you make the
+same total as I do?" The spoiled partrician boy carelessly shoved
+out sixty pounds in notes and rummaging over his portmanteau produced
+a check book. "There, I think that's right. Check on Grindlay,
+11 and 12 Parliament Street, for four hundred and twenty-eight."
+Hawke bowed gravely with the air of a satisfied duelist, and then
+carelessly swept the check and notes into his breast pocket.
+
+"Tell me, what sort of a girl is this Nadine Johnstone," the wanderer
+said, by way of a diversion.
+
+"I can't tell you! Only old General Willoughby has pierced the veil.
+Of course, Johnstone could not refuse a visit from the Commander of
+Her Majesty's forces. In fact, Harry Hardwicke, of the Engineers,
+accompanied Willoughby. The old chief treats Hardwicke as a son
+since he bore the body of the dear old fellow's son out of fire in
+the Khyber Pass, and won a promotion and the V. C. Harry says the
+girl is a modern Noor-Mahal! But, she is as speechless and timid
+as a startled fawn! Now, Major, you will excuse me. I have to leave
+you!" There was a fretful haste in the passionate boy's manner.
+The hour was already near midnight.
+
+"Shall I not see you to-morrow?" politely resumed Hawke. "You will
+not spend your whole morning with the stern damsel in spectacles
+and steel-like armor of indurated poplin?"
+
+"Do you know I'm afraid I shall miss you," earnestly said the aide.
+"Hugh Johnstone wishes me to urge Mademoiselle Euphrosyne to allow
+her sister to remain in India, in charge of the Rose of Delhi until
+the old eccentric returns. Of course, the girl left alone would
+be an easy prey to every fortune hunter in India, should anything
+happen!" There was a ferocious, wild gleam in Alan Hawke's eyes
+as the aide grasped his hat and stick. "I wish to probe the family
+records and find out what I can of the 'distaff side of the line,'
+as Mr. Guy Livingstone would say. I have some really valuable
+presents, and I am on honor to the Viceroy in this, for, of course,
+a baronetcy must not be given into sullied hands. Johnstone will
+probably hermetically seal the girl up till the Kaisar-I-Hind has
+spoken officially. Then, if this delicate matter of the hidden
+booty of the King of Oude is settled, the old fellow intends to
+return to the home place he has bought. I'm told it's the finest
+old feudal remnant in the Channel Islands, and magnificently
+modernized. The government does not want to press him. You see
+they can't! The things went out of the hands of the hostile traitor
+princes, and Hugh Fraser, as he was, cajoled them from the custody
+of the go-betweens. We have never gone back on the plighted word of
+a previous Governor-General! The Queen's word must not be broken.
+I have a bit of persuading to do, and some other little matters to
+settle!"
+
+"Well, then, Anstruther, we may meet again on the line of the
+Indus," said Hawke, with his lofty air. "I have always preferred
+the secret service to mere routine campaigning, for, really, the
+waiting spoils the fighting! Poor Louis Cavagnari! He confirmed
+my taste for silent and outside work! I was sent out from Cabul by
+him as private messenger just before that cruel massacre, a faux
+pas, which I vainly predicted. He taught me to play ecarte, by the
+way!"
+
+"Then he was a good teacher, and you--a devilish apt scholar!"
+laughed Anstruther, as he politely held the door open for the man
+who had coldly fleeced him.
+
+Alan Hawke's pulses were now bounding with the thrill of his unlooked-for
+harvest! He experienced a certain pride in his marvelous skill,
+and, restraining himself, he soberly paced along the corridor. The
+excited aid-de-camp stood for a moment with his foot on the stair,
+and then slowly descended. "He suspects nothing!" the amatory youth
+murmured, as he passed out upon the broad Quai du Leman.
+
+He walked swiftly along, gayly whistling "Donna e Mobile,"
+with certain private variations of his own, until he reached the
+splendid monument erected to the miserly old Duke of Brunswick,
+who showered his scraped-up millions upon an alien city, to spite
+his own fat-witted Brunswickers, and so escaped the blood-fleshed
+talons of the hungry-Prussian eagle.
+
+Duke Charles I hovered amiably in the air, over a comfortable
+carriage wherein the "other little matters" were most temptingly
+materialized in the person of a lovely woman waiting there with
+burning eyes, her splendid face veiled in a black Spanish lace
+scarf. It was the old fate--"Unlucky at cards, lucky in love!" The
+staff officer's abrupt command to "drive everywhere, anywhere,"
+until "further orders," was implicitly obeyed by the stolid cabby,
+who set off at once for a long round of the mild "lions" of fair
+Geneva, nestling there by the shimmering lake.
+
+The click of the horses' feet upon the deserted roadway kept time
+to the murmurs of a most coy Delilah, who molded as wax in her
+slender hands the ardent military Samson, who was all unmindful
+of his flowing locks! And the silent moon shimmered down upon the
+waste of waters!
+
+Alan Hawke was seated for an hour alone in his room, enjoying the
+cigars offered up by the "Universal Provider," who had yielded up
+so liberally. The strong brandy and soda had at last restored his
+shaken nerves, for he had played with his life staked upon the
+outcome! He then grimly counted up his winnings. "Four-hundred and
+eighty-eight good pounds! That will take me back to Delhi in very
+good shape," he soliloquized. "I wonder if there is anyway to get
+at that girl? If I mistake not, she will have a half a million!
+The old Commissioner always liked me, too. By God! If I could only
+get in between him and this baronetcy I might creep in on the girl's
+friendship! But the old curmudgeon keeps her locked up! Rather
+risky in India!" He leaned back, enjoying memories of the women with
+pulses of flame and hearts of glowing coal whom he had met in the
+days when he was "dead square." This strange woman! Who is she?
+What does she know?
+
+He dozed off until the clattering return of the Misses Phemie and
+Genie Forbes, of Chicago, aroused him. His broad grin accentuated
+the easily overheard strident remark: "Say, Genie, I wish we had
+had those two English Lords at our opera supper. They are just
+jim-dandies, that's what!"
+
+"As long as the world is full of such fools, I can afford to live,"
+he pleasantly remarked, as he turned in. A new campaign was opening
+to him. Far away, up the shores of the moon-transfigured lake, a
+hot-headed young fool was showering kisses on the hand of a woman,
+who sweetly said: "Remember my conditions! Prove yourself my friend,
+and I will meet you in Paris! Now, take me home." Samson was shorn
+of his locks, and the delighted Alan Hawke found a little note
+slipped under his door in the morning.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+AN OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE ALLIANCE.
+
+
+
+
+
+When the now buoyant Major Alan Hawke was awakened by the golden
+lances of morning which shivered gayly upon the Pennine Alps he
+proceeded to a most leisurely toilet, having first satisfied himself
+that his winnings of the night before were not the baseless fabric
+of a dream. He smiled as he fingered the crisp, clean notes, and
+gazed lovingly upon the dingy-looking but potent check drawn on
+the old army bankers.
+
+"No nonsense about that signature," he cheerfully said. "Anstruther
+is no welsher," and, as he rang for his hot water and a morning
+refresher, he picked up the little note with an eager curiosity.
+
+"By Gad! she is a cool one! This is no vulgar darned occasion!
+I need all my wits to-day!" He was studying over the brief words
+when the ready waiter took his order for a cosy breakfast. He had
+deliberately moved out all his lines to an easy comfort, throwing
+out a line of pickets against any appearance of social shabbiness.
+"She said that she had money," he murmured, as he read the note
+again. "What the devil does she want, then, if she has all the
+money she needs! Perhaps some discarded mistress! Bah! The old
+man's heart is as hollow as a sentrybox, and, besides, he has not
+been in Europe for nearly twenty years. Ah, I see! Perhaps a bit of
+blackmail--some early indiscretion! She did speak about the girl!
+Then I must be the silent partner of her future harvest! She probably
+needs a man's arm to reach the wary old Baronet in future. My lady
+writes in no uncertain tone."
+
+He carefully folded the note and bestowed it safely with the spoil
+of the young patrician. "Of course I must show up," he said as he
+betook himself to his tub whence he emerged shapely as an Adonis
+with the corded torso of an athlete. The appetizing breakfast put
+the Major in excellent humor, and he drew forth his "sailing orders"
+as he lit his first cheroot. Seated in a window recess, he watched
+the hotel frontage, while he read the imperative lines again. They
+were explicit enough and had been dictated en reine. "Meet me at
+the Musee Rath, in the vestibule at two o'clock. He leaves here at
+one-thirty. Keep away from the hotel and avoid us both. Go up to
+Ferney and come back on the one o'clock boat."
+
+There was a neat carte de visite in the inclosure.
+
+"Now, I will wager that is not her name," he smiled as he read the
+Italian script.
+
+"I can certainly now afford to throw a day or so away on her. At
+any rate, I will let her make the game. I must wait a day or so to
+send on the Grindlay check," the wanderer mused, smiling genially
+upon the head porter. Major Alan Hawke casually inquired, upon his
+leisurely descent, "My friend?"
+
+"Ah, sir! Paid his bill and left. Luggage already sent to the station
+labeled 'Paris.'" Alan Hawke most liberally tipped the functionary.
+"I think I will take a run of a few days up to Lausanne or Chillon
+myself; the weather is delightful." He strolled over to the local
+Cook's Agency and sent his treasure-trove check on to London for
+collection.
+
+"I think that I will fight shy of this sleepy burgh," he ruminated,
+as the little paddle-wheel steamer sped along toward Ferney, leaving
+behind a huge triangular wake carved in the pellucid waters. "It
+might be devilish awkward if Anstruther should find me here, hovering
+around his fair enslaver. I may need this golden youth again, in
+the days to come! He will be out of India for a couple of years,
+but I will not trust Fate blindly. What the old Harry can she be
+up to?" He suddenly burst into a merry peal of laughter, to the
+astonishment of the crowd of passengers.
+
+"Fool that I am! I see it all now! Anstruther cleared out early!
+The proprieties of the home of Calvin must be respected! After he
+has adroitly pumped the intellectual fountain of the past dry, then
+a quiet little breakfast tete et tete will give Madame Louison the
+time to fool him to the top of his bent! The sly minx! Evidently
+she is cast for the 'ingenue' part in this little social drama! And
+her trump card is to hide from me what she extracts from our Lovelace
+by the coy use of those deuced fetching brown eyes and--other charms
+too numerous to mention! But you shall tell me all yet, Miss Sly
+Boots!" And the Major dreamed pleasant day dreams.
+
+Life now seemed so different to the hopeful vaurien, with the
+physical and moral backing of the four hundred and odd pounds! "I
+was a fool--a damned fool, yesterday," he cheerfully ruminated. "If
+I only handle this woman rightly, then I may get the hold I want
+on this old recluse Johnstone, congested with the fat pickings of
+forty-five years. A close-mouthed old rat is he, and yet it seems
+that he is vulnerable after all. If he is playing fast and loose
+with the government he will never get his honors before he gives
+up the sleeping trust of the forgotten years."
+
+Major Hawke vainly tried to follow the exuberant Anstruther in his
+incursion into the placid temple of Minerva, where that watchful
+spinster, Miss Euphrosyne Delande, eyed somewhat icily the handsome.
+young "Greek bearing gifts." Professional prudence and the memory
+of certain judiciously smothered escapades caused Miss Euphrosyne
+at first to retire within her moral breast works and draw up the
+sally-port bridge. For even in chilly Geneva, young hearts throb in
+nature's flooding lava passions, jealously bodiced in school-girl
+buckram and glacial swiss muslin. So it was very cool for a time
+in the august cavern of conference where Anson Anstruther, a bright
+Ithuriel, struggled with the cautious and covetous Swiss preceptress,
+and the swift steamer Chilian was far up the lake before Captain
+the victorious Honorable Anson Anstruther, sped away to the morning
+meeting with the woman who had seemed to lean down from the moon-lit
+skies upon her young Endymion in that starry night by the throbbing
+lake.
+
+Major Alan Hawke, proceeding on his voyage, found a certain bitterness in
+the distant mental contemplation of Captain Anstruther's employment
+of his leisure till train time, not knowing that the young soldier's
+sense of duty led him first to dispatch several careful official
+dispatches, one to London, and the two others to Calcutta and Delhi,
+respectively. When Captain Anstruther finally deposited his mail
+with the head porter of the Grand Hotel National he deftly questioned
+that functionary. "My friend--Major Hawke?"
+
+"Gone up the lake for two or three days, sir. Going to Lausanne
+and Chillon. Keeps all his luggage here, though. Shall I give him
+any message for you?" With a view to artfully veiling his coming
+meeting with the beautiful Egeria a la Houbigant, the captain
+deposited a card marked "P. P. C."
+
+"A devilish pleasant fellow and a right stunning hand at ecarte."
+Anstruther prudently walked for a couple of squares, and then hailed
+a passing voiture, directing him to the very cosiest restaurant in
+the snug city of Bonnivard.
+
+Major Hawke, far away now, entertained a slight resentment toward
+the man who had so coolly aspired to les bonnes fortunes, and
+ignored his own possible interference with the Lady of the Lake.
+It was with a grim satisfaction, however, that he saw on the boat
+the Misses Phenie and Genie Forbes, of Chicago, the bright particular
+stars of the traveling upper tendom. "Popper" and "Mommer" were
+deep in certain red-bound Baedeker's and busied in delving for
+"historic facts," while the artful Alan Hawke glided into a fast
+and familiar flirtation with the two bright-eyed, sharp-voiced
+damsels. Both the heiresses were dressed as if for a reception,
+with judiciously selected jewelry samples, evidencing the wondrous
+success of machine conducted pig demolition. They glittered in the
+sun as Fortune's bediamonded favorites.
+
+And, so, while Madame Berthe Louison and Captain Anstruther lingered
+au cabinet particulier, over their Chablis and Ostend oysters,
+the recouped gambler extended his store of mental acquirement, by
+tender converse with the two sprightly belles of the Windy City. In
+fact, the whistle of the steamer was heard long before Alan Hawke
+could extricate himself from the clinging tentacles of the audacious
+beauties. He was somewhat repaid for his social exertions, however,
+as he sped back to keep his tryst at Geneva, by the acquisition of
+a large steel-engraved business card inscribed, "Forbes, Haygood
+& Co., Chicago," loftily tendered him by "Popper." He smiled at
+the whispered assurances of the Misses Phenie and Genie that they
+"should soon meet again."
+
+"Bring your friend--that other Lord," cried the departing Miss
+Genie, waving a thousand-franc lace fan, as she sagely observed,
+"Two's company--three's none. We'll have a jolly lark--us four.
+Don't forget, now!" The polite Major laid his hand upon his heart
+and played the amiable tiger, although burning inwardly now, in a
+fierce personal jealousy of Anstruther as he wandered alone around
+the cold gray halls of the museum, and gazed upon the pinched
+features of the permanently eclipsed shining lights of the "Bulwark
+of Civil and Religious Liberty." There was no charm for him in the
+bigoted ferocity of Calvin's lean, dark face, smacking his thin
+lips over the roasted Servetus. He abhorred the departed heroes
+of the golden evolution from Eidegenossen into Higuerios and later
+Huguenots. They interested him not, neither did he love Professor
+Calame's scratchy pictures, nor the jumbled bric-a-brac of art and
+history. None of these charmed him. He waited only for the gliding
+step, the clasp of a burning hand, and the flash of the lustrous
+dark-brown eyes. It was his own innings now.
+
+He had referred to his watch for the fiftieth time, when, from a
+closed carriage, the object of his mental vituperations gracefully
+alighted at last. It was with the very coldest of bows that the
+irritated man received the graceful, self-possessed woman, whose
+lovely face was but partially hidden by her coquettishly dotted
+veil.
+
+"She dresses like a Parisienne, walks like an Andalu-sian, and
+has all the seductiveness of a Polish countess!" the quick-witted
+rascal thought, as they strolled into the museum, which the departed
+General Rath knew not would be the scene of many a hidden love
+intrigue, when he endowed it with a benevolent vanity. The two wary
+strangers strolled along until they found a retired corner. Madame
+Louison seated herself, waving her lace parasol with the impatient
+gesture of one accustomed to command.
+
+Alan Hawke was in no gentle humor, and his cheeks reddened as he
+felt the calm scrutiny of the woman's searching glances. He was
+now determined to take the whip hand, and to keep it. His accents
+were staccato as he said, "Tell me now who you are, and what
+you wish of me!" A clock, hung high over them on the dreary, drab
+walls, ticked away brusquely, as the angered woman gazed steadily
+into his face.
+
+"And so your little windfall of last night has already made you
+impudent? If you cannot find another tone at once, I will find
+another agent! The man whom you plucked has told me the story of
+your wonderful skill at cards!" The sneer cut the renegade like a
+whip lash, and Alan Hawke sprang up in anger. Madame Berthe Louison
+coolly settled herself down into the red cushions.
+
+"The way to India is before you, but five hundred pounds is not
+a fortune for Major Alan Hawke! Listen! I watched you carefully
+yesterday, in your vigil upon Rousseau's Island. Your telltale face
+betrayed you. You were left stranded here in Geneva. An accident
+has brought us together. You cannot divine my motives. I can fathom
+yours easily. Tell me now, of yourself, of your past in India--of
+your present standing there. If you are frank, I may contribute to
+your fortune; if not--our ways part here!"
+
+"And, if I warn Anson Anstruther that you are a mere adventuress,
+if I notify my old friend Hugh Fraser (soon to be Sir Hugh Johnstone),
+then your little game will be spoiled, Madame Louison!" defiantly
+said Hawke. The woman leaned back and laughed merrily in his face.
+
+"You are like all professional lady killers, a mere fool in the
+hands of the first woman of wit. I dare you to cross my path! I
+will then join Captain the Honorable Anson Anstruther, in Paris, at
+the Hotel Binda! I will also see that you are excluded from every
+club in India! Your occupation will be gone, my Knight of Ecarte.
+Anstruther waits for me." She tossed him a card. "See for yourself.
+He was kind enough at breakfast, and, he will help me, if I ask
+him."
+
+"And why do you not fly to his arms?" sneered Alan Hawke, who had
+quickly resigned the bullying tone of his abordage.
+
+"Because he is a nice boy and a gentleman," the woman said, with
+a cutting emphasis. "Now, let me read you, Monsieur le Major, a
+lesson in manners. Never be rough with a woman! That is the road
+which always leads on to failure. I wish you a good appetite for
+your breakfast, which I have delayed, and for which I beg your
+pardon!" She rose and swept along with her Juno strides, and had
+reached the second Hall of Antiquities before Alan Hawke overtook
+her. It had flashed across his mind that he had for once in his
+life met a woman who was not afraid of the future, whatever had
+been her past. A single malicious letter from Anstruther would ruin
+him in India, for there was an ominous cloud, no bigger than a man's
+hand, lingering in that hiatus between his old rank of Lieutenant
+of Bengal Artillery, and the shadowy tenure of his self-dubbed
+Majority. This Aspasia hid none of her methods. She had boldly
+captivated the passing Pericles, and, evidently, she was the desired
+one.
+
+"Let me explain," he began, as the woman looked calmly into his
+face.
+
+"We are only losing time, Major," Madame Louison remarked, as she
+sought a corner. "I see that you have already repented. Do you know
+any one in Geneva?"
+
+"Not one of the seventy-five thousand here," frankly answered Hawke.
+"The only man I came here to see, the English Consul, is away on
+leave."
+
+"Then I can use you safely," answered the stranger. "Now,
+I owe you a breakfast. Will you put me in my carriage? I know the
+town thoroughly. Remember that it is only business that brings us
+together, and yet we may become better friends." In a half an hour
+they were seated in an arbor by the lake, where a homely German
+restaurant offered good cheer.
+
+The Lady of the Lake did the honors ceremoniously, and Major Alan
+Hawke was permitted a cigar after the lake trout, filet, pears,
+cheese, Chambertin, and black coffee had been discussed. He was both
+conquered and repentant, and had adroitly atoned for his mauvais
+debut by a respectful demeanor, which was not feigned. He answered
+the running fire of questions which had led him from Cape Comorin
+to the Himalayas, and from Chittagong to the Khyber Pass.
+
+"You are sure that no one in Geneva knows your face?" Berthe Louison
+asked at last.
+
+"I have been here only two days, and it is twenty years since I
+first roved over Switzerland on schoolboy leave," was the truthful
+answer.
+
+"Then I can use you if you will decide to aid me, after you have
+heard me. I know, already, all that young Anstruther knows of the
+whole Johnstone matter. I do not intend to meet him at Paris," she
+demurely said. "I am absolutely untrammeled in this world. I am
+free to act as a woman's moods sway her. I have plenty of money,
+a fact which lifts me above the degradation of man's chase, and
+I indulge in no illusions. I am a soldier's daughter, and my dead
+father was the son of one of Napoleon's heroes of La Grande Armee.
+My whole life has been most unconventional; and I am free to dispose
+of myself, body and soul, and will, but for one thing." She was
+pleased with Alan Hawke's mute glance of inquiry. "Only the business
+which brought me to Geneva! We are all the slaves of circumstance!
+The veriest fools of fortune! I do not blame you for your surmises!
+I had vainly sought, for two years, the very information which I
+gained last night by chance at a Geneva table d'hote. It was from
+Anstruther that I discovered the changed name under which Hugh
+Fraser's daughter has been hidden from me for years. For I owe this
+all to chance, to Anstruther's susceptibility, and to my playing
+the risqu'e part which you saw fit me so well." The woman's eyes
+were now flashing ominously.
+
+"But you led me on--you deceived me!" stammered Alan Hawke.
+
+"I had nothing to risk!" the resolute beauty replied. "My name
+is not Berthe Louison, as you may well imagine! As for the little
+amourette de voyage, I will leave the laurels to your handsome young
+friend and yourself. I do not play with boys, and, as for you, I
+should always guard myself against you!
+
+"Now, I will be practical! I know Europe; I do not know India!
+I need a man brave, cool, and unscrupulous; I need a resolute man
+to aid me in the one purpose of my life! I wish to go out to India
+to face this Hugh Fraser, to lift up the curtain of the dead past,
+and I need a protector--a paid champion--a man who values the only
+thing which is concrete power in life; a man who knows the power
+of money!  For, gold is irresistible!" Her bright face hardened.
+
+"My duties are, then, not to be of a tender nature," lightly hazarded
+Hawke.
+
+"I can soon judge of your value by your adroitness, and you can make
+your own record!" smiled the strange woman waif. "Let me see how
+you would do this! I do not care to personally approach Mademoiselle
+Euphrosyne Delande, I would have a picture of the woman whom I
+seek--the lonely child whom I have hungered for long years to see!
+I do not care to expose myself here--"
+
+"The Preceptress might telegraph out to India and the girl be
+spirited away!" broke in Alan Hawke.
+
+"Very good! Precisely so!" said Berthe Louison, gravely. "I will
+tell you now that I have played perfectly fair with Anstruther! I
+have enabled him to assure himself of Nadine Johnstone's regular
+standing as the legal and only heiress of the would-be Baronet! I do
+not fear Anstruther! He is a gallant boy, worthy to wear a sword,
+and, he does not work for hire! He tells me that Euphrosyne Delande
+showed him the last pictures of the girl which were sent on before
+Hugh Fraser suddenly telegraphed to have his child 'personally
+conducted' on carte blanche terms out to join him."
+
+Major Hawke buried his head in his hands and slowly said: "I can
+do it easily! We must not be seen together here! Go up to the Hotel
+Faucon, at Lausanne, and wait for me there for three days. I have
+to remain here at any rate to collect Anstruther's check in London.
+I have in my favor all the facts of Anstruther's story. I happen
+also to have Anstruther's P. P. C. card. I will bring you the
+picture you want, or a half dozen copies. Will you trust to me? I
+make no professions!"
+
+"That is right!" sternly said Berthe Louison. "Let our casual
+association be one of a mere money interest. We can find each other
+out easily. You have no motive to injure me, your own interest now
+and always lies the other way. I only wish to have some one at hand
+when I am ready to face the embryo Sir Hugh Johnstone!"
+
+"You are bold!" slowly said Alan Hawke. "If I should denounce you
+to Johnstone, himself! If he should be warned--"
+
+"I hold him and his long cherished dream, the Baronetcy, in my
+hand," the brown-eyed beauty frankly cried. "I should not burn my
+ships in Europe! Even if I were to be betrayed, the purpose of my
+life will be carried out. I should leave here behind me the safest
+of anchors in other well-paid agents. Your rash meddling would only
+ruin your own money interests and not hurt my plans."
+
+"Then we are to make an offensive and defensive alliance without
+trust or faith in each other?" agnostically remarked Hawke.
+
+"Just so!" answered Madame Louison. "I can make it to your interest
+to serve me well, better than the man whom I wish to face. You know
+India--you happen to know Delhi. Your possible adversary is an old
+civilian, rich, retired, and unable to rake up trouble for you in
+military circles. I will do my work alone, but I shall want your
+aid, and I will pay you liberally. I will go up to Lausanne. You
+will find me at the Hotel Faucon. Bring up some route maps of India.
+We will go out as soon as possible. Do you wish any present money?"
+
+Alan Hawke reddened as he shook his head.
+
+"Then, Major Hawke, if you will take the first passing carriage,
+we will meet as soon as you have succeeded. Send me a telegram of
+your coming." The adventurer's low bow of silent assent terminated
+the strange breakfast scene, and at the gate of the vine-clad garden
+he turned and saw her seated there alone, with her head bowed in
+a reverie.
+
+"Damme if she is made of flesh and blood!" mused the Major, as he
+drove back to the Hotel National. That very evening he revenged
+himself upon the callous-hearted stranger, by a reckless flirtation
+with the Misses Phenie and Genie Forbes, still of Chicago. It was
+not a matter of concern to any one but Paterfamilias Forbes that
+the Major indulged in a stolen moonlight excursion upon the lake
+in charge of two extremely prononcee Daisy Millers. The Major's
+slumbers, however, were of the lightest, for the face of the
+chance-met directress of his immediate future haunted his uneasy
+dreams. He was a model of respectable gravity, however, when he
+presented himself before Mademoiselle Euphrosyne Delande, at her
+Institute, when the bells clanged ten in the morning. Major Hawke
+at once impressed the sleek door-opener, Francois, by the ultra
+refinement of his demeanor, and the suave elegance of his French.
+"Evidently the one necessary Adam in this Garden of undeveloped
+young Peris," thought Hawke, as he gazed around the cheerless room,
+with its globes, busts of departed sages, topographical maps, and
+framed samples of the "Execution" of the jeunes personnes, with
+brush and pencil.
+
+"Looks breachy, that fellow--they all have to sneak out to drink,
+and for les fetifs plaisirs! He may be made useful. I'll have a shy
+at him," mused the Major, now on his mettle. Francois stood there
+expectant of a tip, when he announced the regrets of Mademoiselle
+Delande, that class duties would detain her for a few moments.
+
+"Would Monsieur kindly pardon, etc.?"
+
+"Am I right in inferring that the ladies, are the daughters of the
+famous Professor Delande?" the Major hazarded, with a wild guess.
+Before the votary of Minerva finally descended, Francois had artfully
+"yielded up" much valuable information to the gravely interested
+visitor. The attendant was the richer by a five-franc piece when
+he retired to vigorously fall upon the Major's hat and brush it in
+an anticipatory manner.
+
+It was but a half an hour later when Alan Hawke had concluded his
+deftly worded compliments upon the justly famed Institute, and had
+subjugated the still susceptible spinster by his adroitly veiled
+flatteries. The easy aplomb with which he introduced the forgotten
+commission of Captain Anstruther was aided by the presentation of
+that gentleman's visiting card, and the charms of an interesting
+word sketch of Delhi and its surroundings.
+
+The sound of distant girlish voices punctuated the refined murmur
+of the ensuing conference, which was an exposition of Mademoiselle
+Delande's grand manner! Hawke adroitly soothed the natural uneasiness
+of the cunning Swiss spinster as to her sister's comfort, safety, and
+the surety of Hugh Johnstone's fabulously liberal money inducement
+to retain Miss Justine in his service for a year. The flattered
+woman fell easily into Alan Hawke's net, and she freely dilated
+upon the singular eccentricities of the Indian magnate as to his
+daughter's education.
+
+There was a breaking light now illumining the strange childhood of
+a girl, nurtured by proxy, and kept in ignorance of her brilliant
+future and vast monetary inheritance.
+
+"In fact, I have never seen the honored Mr. Hugh Fraser," concluded
+Miss Euphrosyne. "Nadine was brought to us a child of three by the wife
+of Professor Fraser, since deceased! And, by special arrangement,
+she was taken by us, and her whole girlhood has been passed in
+our charge. We have never seen her uncle, Professor Fraser, whose
+duties at Edinburgh University chained him down. It was her own
+father's written and positive direction that no one, whomsoever,
+should be admitted to converse with his child. And so Justine and
+myself have formed her entirely!"
+
+Hawke's keen eyes glowed for a moment, in a secret satisfaction.
+"I have you, my lady! They wished to keep you away from this young
+Peri, formed upon such heroically antique models." Major Hawke
+gazed upon the leather-faced visage of the slaty-eyed woman, whose
+age none might venture to guess. An artless admiration of the
+absent Miss Justine's photographed charms, caused a faint glow to
+flicker upon the ancient maiden's cheek. When Alan Hawke drew forth
+a hideous carbuncle and Indian filigree bracelet (an old relic
+of bazaar haunting), the thin lips of the preceptress parted in a
+wintry smile.
+
+With modest urging, he soon overcame the Roman firmness of Mademoiselle
+Euphrosyne, and, wonder of wonders, was honored by an invitation
+to dine with the austere Genevan maiden. The happy Major was soon
+triumphant at all points, and Francois was hastily dispatched to
+the Photographic Atelier to order a half dozen copies of the card
+portrait which displayed to Alan Hawke the rosebud face of the
+Veiled Beauty of Delhi. The adventurer made haste to excuse himself
+for interrupting the flow of the Parnassian stream, and walked
+backward from the presence of the poor old woman whom he had duped,
+as if she were a queen.
+
+It was an easy matter for the Englishman to waylay and intercept
+the returning man-at-arms of this castle of cosmopolitan beauty.
+Francois had duly availed himself of his lengthened absence,
+and his thick tongue and swimming eye spoke of potations of the
+Kirsch-wasser dear to the Swiss heart. Major Hawke impressed the
+servitor with the necessity of bringing the pictures down to his
+rooms upon the morrow, and then the Major judiciously duplicated his
+five-franc piece. The happy butler winked with an acute divination
+of the Major's purpose and went unsteadily back to the whirlpool
+of learning. The Major cheerfully went on his own way to meet Miss
+Genie Forbes, with whom he had established a private understanding
+as to a runaway visit to the Cathedral, to be followed by an
+impromptu breakfast. "I can stand the old Gorgon's dinner," mused
+the happy adventurer, "after a tete-a-tete with Miss Genie, and as
+for Francois, I will also waste a bottle of good Cognac on him. I
+think that I will start into this strange partnership with a better
+stock of family history than even this remarkably self-possessed
+young woman, who seems to be the heiress of some old family vendetta."
+
+The Major laughed as he heard the mills of the gods grinding out a
+golden grist of the future. But lifted up beyond the impulses of
+his itching palm the sight of the delicate, girlish face of the
+Rosebud of Delhi had caused him to dream the strangest dreams. "Why
+not?" he murmured as he wandered back to the hotel and privately
+indulged in a petit verre before his rendezvous with Miss Genie,
+the belle of the West Side. Major Alan Hawke was in "great form"
+as he piloted the bright-eyed, willful Chicago girl through the dim
+religious light of the Cathedral. His mocking history of the gay
+life and racy adventures of Bonnivard, when posing as the rollicking
+Prior of St.  Victor in the wild days of his youth, greatly amused
+the nervous American heiress.
+
+"I should say that he was a holy terror," laughed Miss Genie, "and I
+don't blame the Bishop of Geneva and the Duke of Savoy for making
+him do his six years in that dark old hole at Chillon! He was
+a gay boy, you bet, and with his three wives and his lively ways,
+I reckon the Genevans were blamed sorry they ever let him out. He
+seems to have been a free thinker, a free liver, and a free lover!"
+
+"And yet," mused Alan Hawke, "his writings to-day are the pride
+of Genevan scholars; his library was the nucleus of the Geneva
+University; his defiant spirit broke the chains of Calvin's narrowness,
+and his resistant, spiritual example caught up has made Geneva the
+home of the oppressed, the central, radiant point of mental light
+and liberty for the world! Geneva since 1536 has harbored the
+brightest wandering Spanish, French, English, and Irish youth! Even
+grim Russia cannot reclaim from the free city its wayward exiles.
+France, in her distress, has found an asylum here for its helpless
+nobles and expelled philosophers. I willingly take my hat off to
+brave little Switzerland, where Royal Duke, proscribed patriot,
+mad enthusiast, bold agnostic, and tired worldling can all find an
+inviolate asylum under the majestic shadows of its mountains--by
+the shores of its dreaming lakes!" Alan Hawke dropped suddenly from
+the clouds as the practical Miss Genie led the way to the breakfast
+rendezvous, cheerfully demonstrating her own bold ideas of social
+freedom by remarking:
+
+"Say! what's the matter with a little day's run up to Chillon?
+Phenie is game for anything! You just get that other English Lord
+and we will dodge Popper and Mommer."
+
+"I am sorry to say that my friend has left suddenly, bound for
+London," laughed the Major, gazing admiringly at this pretty feminine
+Bonnivard.
+
+"That's awful bad luck!" gloomily remarked Miss Genie. "He was a
+regular dandy, and I liked him--but," she said, with a thirsty peck
+at a glass of champagne, as they waited for the breakfast, "Phenie
+will then have to give that long-legged Italian fellow the tip. The
+Marquis of Santa Marina! He's not much, but better than nothing at
+all. We'll have a jolly day!"
+
+Major Hawke was mystified at the daring personal independence of
+the sprightly young heiress. She was a social revelation to him,
+and the sunny afternoon was not altogether thrown away, for they
+carelessly rambled over the proud old town together, doing all
+the sights. They visited the stately National Monument, the Jardin
+Anglais, the Hotel de Ville, the Arsenal, the Muse'e Foy, the
+Botanic Gardens, and the Athende. He gazed upon the fresh face of
+the rebellious young American social mutineer with an increasing
+wonder as they wandered alone on the Promenade des Bastions, and
+was simply astounded when he vainly tried to take advantage of a
+shady corner in the Musee Ariana to steal a kiss from the wayward
+girl's rosy lips. Miss Genie "formed herself into a hollow square"
+and calmly, but energetically, repulsed him.
+
+"See here! Major Hawke!" she coolly said, "get off the perch! I
+don't care for any soft sawder! I'm a pretty good fellow in my way,
+but I know how to take care of myself!"
+
+In fact, Major Alan Hawke at last recognized the existence of
+a species of womanhood which he had never before met. Miss Genie
+was frankly unconventional, and yet she was both hard-headed and
+hardhearted. When he carefully dressed himself for the intellectual
+feast of Mademoiselle Delande's "refined collation," he dimly
+became aware that the role of unpaid bear leader to the Chicago
+girl simply amounted to being an unsalaried valet de place! "As for
+compromising that devil of a girl," he growled, "she could have
+given the snake in the Garden of Eden long odds and beaten him
+hollow, in subtlety." This view of the impeccability of the Chicago
+epidermis was confirmed later when Hawke returned from the "Institute"
+at the decorous hour of ten that evening. He was thoroughly happy,
+for the sly Francois was ready to meet him at the door, whispering:
+
+"I will be at your rooms at ten, and bring you the photographs. I
+have a couple of hours of freedom then."
+
+Mademoiselle Euphrosyne's pale, anemic nature had bloomed out under
+the graceful attentions of the gallant officer, and gradually she
+expanded, little by little unfolding the desiccated leaves of her
+tranquil past, and, yielding, as of old, to the charm of youth and
+good looks, the faded spinster told him all.
+
+"I will sell my precious knowledge, bit by bit, to Madame Berthe,"
+he ruminated. "Evidently the Louison dares not face this stony-faced
+Swiss Medusa. The felites histoires of Francois will fill up my
+mental notebook." Major Hawke then sat down at ease in the cafe
+of the Hotel National to indite a dispatch of spartan brevity to
+"Madame Louison" at the Hotel Faucon, Lausanne. "The Cook's Agency
+tell me that the London draft will be paid to-morrow. Francois
+will deliver me the photographs, and relate his selected historical
+excerpts, and then I will be ready to have a duel of wits with
+Madame Berthe." So he simply telegraphed to Lausanne:
+
+"Successful--arrive to-morrow night." He then dispatched the head
+porter with the telegram, and while enjoying his parting brandy and
+soda, was suddenly made aware of the near proximity of Mr. Phineas
+Forbes of Chicago, who was anxiously drinking cocktail after
+cocktail in a moody unrest. The lank Chicago capitalist waved his
+tufted chin beard dejectedly as he answered the Briton's casual
+salutation. "I'm worried about the girls," he simply said. "They're
+off on the lake, with the Marquis de Santa Marina and that French
+chap, the Count de Roquefort. I don't more than half like it." The
+hour was late, and the heavy father glued his eyes upon the darkened
+window pane. "Is Madame Forbes with them?" murmured the Englishman.
+
+"Oh, Lord, no!" simply said the Illinois capitalist. "The girls
+are used to going out alone with their gentlemen friends, but I'm
+afraid that these two damned useless foreigners will upset the boat
+and drown my two girls. I wouldn't care a rap if they were alone.
+But these Dago noblemen are no good--at least that's my experience.
+I indorsed a draft for one of them that Mommer and the girls dragged
+up to the house last year. Came back marked 'N. G.'--I wish to God
+the girls wouldn't pick up these fellows."
+
+Alan Hawke hazarded the inquiry "Why do you permit it?"
+
+The Chicago pork jammer thrust his hand in his pockets and whistled
+reflectively. "How the deuce can I help it?" he reflectively
+answered, "Mother and the girls go in for high society. What'll you
+have? You can talk French to this fellow. Now, order up the best
+in the house," Alan Hawke laughed and charitably divided the hour
+of long waiting with the simple-hearted old father. At half-past
+twelve, with a rush and a flutter, the two young falcons sailed into
+the main hallway and effusively bade adieu to their limp cavaliers,
+who slunk away, in different directions, when they observed the
+disgruntled parent and the heartily amused Briton.
+
+"So they brought you home safely?" calmly remarked Hawke, as he
+watched the happy father gathering his chickens unto his wing.
+
+"We brought them home safe," cutely remarked Miss Phenie. "Those
+fellows are heavenly dancers, but they are not worth shucks in a
+boat. I wish we had had you out with us. I like Englishmen!" with
+which frank declaration Miss Phenie and Miss Genie whisked themselves
+away to bed, Miss Genie leaning over the banister to jovially cry
+out:
+
+"Don't you go away till we fix up that Chillon trip." Major Hawke
+and Phineas Forbes, Esq., drank a last libation to the friendly
+god Neptune, the old man huskily remarking:
+
+"Say, Major, those are two fine girls, and they will have a million
+apiece. I want 'em to be sensible and marry Chicago men, but, they
+both go in for coronets and all that humbug." The laughing Major
+extricated himself from the social tentacles of the honest old boy,
+mentally deciding to play off Miss Genie against Mad-ame Berthe
+Louison.
+
+"I will give these strange girls 'a day out.' It may reduce the
+nez retrousseeoi my mysterious employer." And so he dreamed that
+night that he was an assistant presiding genius of the great pig
+Golgotha, where Phineas Forbes was the monarch of the meat ax.
+"Right smart girls, and you bet they can take care of themselves,"
+was the last encomium of their self-denying parent which rang in
+Alan Hawke's ears as he wandered away into the Land of Nod.
+
+"They are a queer lot," laughed the happy schemer, as he woke next
+day to his closing labors at Geneva. "Now, for my check cashing,
+then, Monsieur Francois, a farewell visit to Miss Euphrosyne, and
+a secret council with the fair Genie," He merrily breakfasted, and
+was more than rewarded for his Mephistophelian entertainment of
+Francois. The sly Figaro "parted freely," and when he slunk back
+to the "Institute" he was the richer by fifty francs. Major Hawke
+was the happy possessor of the coveted photographs, and a private
+address of Francois, artfully informing that person that he was going
+to London, and on his return, in a few months, desired a cicerone
+in the hypocritically placid town. Francois's eyes gleamed in a
+happy anticipation of more Cognac and many easily earned francs.
+"Now, Madame Berthe, I think I have the key of the enigma! I see
+a year's assured comfort before me, for I can play the part of the
+Saxon troops at Leipzig," the schemer joyously ruminated.
+
+His farewell to Miss Delande impressed that thrifty dame with
+the golden fortunes which had descended upon her sister. "Should
+you return to India, Major," she sibillated, "I will give you
+a confidential letter to Justine, for I know there is no one more
+fitted to remain in charge of sweet Nadine than my dear sister!"
+The Major blushingly accepted the honor, and directed the letter to
+be sent at once to Morley's Hotel, for, as he mysteriously whispered,
+
+"The Foreign office may send me back to India--in fact, I may be
+telegraphed for at any moment, and your sister will surely find a
+fast friend in me."
+
+"Easily gulled!" laughed Alan Hawke. "I will sweeten' upon Miss
+Justine; those thin lips indicate the auri sacra fames. These
+miserly Swiss sisters may aid me to approach the veiled Rose Bird."
+His delight at fingering the crisp proceeds of Anstruther's check
+sent him to the Ouchy steamer in the very happiest of moods,
+and, his cup was running over when the birdlike Miss Genie Forbes
+descended upon him to announce a meeting on the morrow at Montreux.
+
+"We can do the castle, and essay the airy railroad at Territet
+Glion, have a jolly dinner on the hill, and come home on the last
+boat! You be sure to meet Phenie and me." The astounded Major
+murmured his delight and surprise. "Oh! Popper will let us go
+up there. He likes you--he says that you are a thoroughbred. So,
+we'll cut the other fellows and come alone. Say, can't you scare
+up another fellow like yourself for Phenie?" Whereat Alan Hawke
+laughed, and promised to secure an eligible "fellow" among the
+migratory Englishmen hovering around Lausanne-Ouchy, and he pledged
+a future friendship with the patient Phineas Forbes, who lingered
+in the cafe, engulfing cocktails, while "Mother and Phenie were out
+shopping." The vivacious Genie had confided to her callous swain
+that she had watched him as he lingered on Rousseau's Island.
+
+"I rather thought that you were sick and distressed, you looked
+so peaked like, and I was mighty near speaking to you. I was just
+bound to meet you." And upon this frank declaration, Alan Hawke
+kissed her firm white hand, agreeing to her plans, and the glow of
+prosperity shone out upon his impassive face, as he glided away to
+meet the strange woman whom he distrusted. "I hold the trump cards
+now, my lady!" he cried, as he watched Miss Genie's handkerchief
+fluttering on the quay. Major Alan Hawke wasted no time in his
+three hours' voyage to Lausanne-Ouchy in carefully preparing for
+his interview with Madame Berthe Louison. He abandoned the idea of
+trying the "whip hand," remembering how suddenly he had descended
+from the "high horse." "Bah! She is about as sentimental as a
+rat-tail file.  However, she is good for my passage to India, at
+any rate, and, the nearer I am to old Johnstone and this pretty
+heiress to be, the better my all-round chances are." So, he contented
+himself with watching the pictured shores of Lake Leman glide by,
+and wondering if he might not turn aside safely to the chase of the
+bright-eyed, sharp-featured, Miss Genie Forbes. He had profited by
+Phineas Forbes's frank disclosures, and yet the Madame Sans Gene
+manners of the heiresses rather frightened him. He was aware from
+the amatory failure in the dim old cathedral that Miss Genie was
+armed cap-a-fie. "Those American girls, apparently so approachable,
+are all ready to stand to arms at a moment's notice." And so, he
+drifted back in his day dreams toward the Land of the Pagoda Tree,
+with Ouchy and Chillon. He studied the beautiful face of the lonely
+child from the school-girl photograph, and decided, in spite of
+hideous frocks and a lack of conventional war paint, that she was
+a rare beauty.
+
+"Yes! She will do--with the money. All she needs is the art to show
+off her points, and that is easily gained. The recruits in Vanity
+Fair easily pick up the tricks of society, and old Hugh's money and
+prospective elevation will surely draw suitors around like flies
+swarming near the honey." The boat gracefully glided in to the port
+of Ouchy before Major Hawke's day dream faded away.
+
+A flattering dream which led him on to a future gilded by Sir Hugh
+Johnstone's money. He longed to ruffle it bravely with the best.
+To hold up his head once more in official circles, and to smother
+the ugly floating memories ef a renegade who had served those English
+guns under the fierce Sikkim hill tribes against his one-time fellow
+soldiers. "I must have that money, with or without the girl! There
+must be a way to it! I will cut through the barriers to get it!"
+There was a steely glitter in his blue eyes as he murmured: "Now
+for the fox's hide! She shall have her way--for a time! My play
+comes on later, when the deal is with me!"
+
+He sprang lightly ashore, and was chatting with the gold-banded
+porter of the Hotel Faucon, when a lovely face, thrilling in its
+awakened emotion, met his glance at the window of a carriage. He
+dispatched his luggage to the Faucon, and sprang lightly in the
+carriage when the omnibuses had departed for the Lausanne plateau.
+Alan Hawke was carefully differential in his greeting and he meekly
+answered all the rapid queries of his mysterious employer.
+
+"You have closed up your own private affairs?" she briskly queried.
+
+"All is ready for the road in one day more. I have a private social
+engagement for to-morrow," he replied. "But I brought you all the
+sailing dates and the detailed information you requested."
+
+"You obtained the pictures safely, then, and with a prudent caution,"
+anxiously demanded Madame Louison.
+
+"You shall know all soon. I hope that I have satisfied you!" he
+said, handing her a packet, failing to tell her that he had kept
+two pictures of the far-away girl for his own private use. They were
+now near the plateau where the Hotel Faucon shows its semi-circular
+front to the splendid panorama unrolled before its windows.
+
+An afternoon concert was in progress at the Casino, near the local
+museum. "We will stop here for a few moments," said the excited
+woman. "You can go on alone, and walk over to the hotel and secure
+your own rooms. Then send your card up to me in the usual manner.
+To-night we will go out separately and meet for a conference. We
+can arrange all our business." The Major bowed submissively, and
+assisted the lady to alight.
+
+Madame Louison dismissed her carriage, and the confederates-to-be
+entered the afternoon concert room. A superb orchestra was playing
+the finishing bars of the last number on the program, and the audience
+had dwindled away to a few knots of demure residents.  Following
+his passive policy, the adventurer sat silently, stealing oblique
+glances at his companion as she nervously unfolded the wrappings of
+the coveted pictures. There was a gasp, a low moan, as the woman's
+head fell back. Alan Hawke's strong arms were clasped round her, as
+she leaned back helplessly in her fauteuil. But a smile of secret
+triumph was on his face as he quickly bore the helpless form to an
+anteroom at once opened by the frightened ushers. Berthe Louison's
+face was corpse-like in its pallor, as she lay there upon a divan,
+her fingers still clutching the photograph.
+
+"There is a physician near by," hazarded a sympathetic woman who
+had crowded into the room. The music had stopped with a crash.
+
+"Summon him at once!" energetically ordered Hawke. "Some brandy--quick!"
+he cried, listening to her agonized words, "Valerie!  My God! It
+is Valerie herself! My poor sister!" In a few moments an elderly
+man parted the assembling loiterers. His bustling air of command
+soon dispelled the loiterers. A woman attendant was bending over
+the still senseless woman as the spectacled medico seized Alan
+Hawke's arm. "Has your wife ever had a previous heart attack?" he
+gravely asked, as he opened his lancet case. Major Hawke shook his
+head, and gazed pityingly upon the beautiful pallid face before
+him.
+
+"Can I be of any use to Monsieur?" demanded the chef d'orchestre
+in evening grand tenue, his baton still in his hand.
+
+There was a glance of wondering astonishment as the Englishman faced
+the speaker. "Wieniawski--Casimir, you here?" The other dropped his
+voice as the physician ripped up the sleeve of the patient's gown.
+
+"Major Hawke, I thought you were still in Delhi? Your wife--"
+faltered the artist, as he listened to a low moan when the lancet
+blade entered the ivory arm of the sufferer. Then, with a backward
+step, he pressed his hands to his brows. "My God! It is Alixe
+Delavigne!" he brokenly said. But Hawke sprang to his side and
+quickly drew him from the room.
+
+"Not a word! Not a single word to any one! Where are you stopping?
+I will come to you tonight!" the excited man sternly said, his firm
+hand still clutching the musician's arm.
+
+"Here, at the Casino! Come in after ten! I will await you! But
+where did you meet her?" the Polish violinist cried, speaking as
+if in a dream.
+
+"You shall know all later! I must get her to the hotel!" He returned
+to the physician's side, who authoritatively cried, "Now an easy
+carriage and to the Faucon, you said?" In half an hour, Berthe
+Louison was sleeping, a nurse at her side, while Alan Hawke counted
+the moments crawling on till ten o'clock.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+AND AT DELHI WHAT AM I TO DO?
+
+
+
+
+
+Major Alan Hawke was the "observed of all observers," in the cosy
+salon of the Grand Hotel Faucon, when the sympathetic hotel manager
+interrupted a colloquy between the handsome Briton and the Doctor.
+"A mere syncope, my dear sir. Perhaps--even only the result of
+tight lacing, or inaction. Perhaps some sudden nerve crisis. These
+are the results of the easy luxury of an enervating high-life. All
+these social habits are weakening elements. Now, fortunately, your
+wife has a singularly strong vital nature. You may safely dismiss
+all your fears. Madame will be entirely herself in the morning."
+
+"Can I be of any service?" demanded the genial host, secretly urged
+on by a coterie of curious, womanly sympathizers in silk and muslin.
+
+"I am the trustee of Madame Louison, in some important business
+matters, and not her husband," gravely remarked the Major. "I only
+came up here to confer with her upon some matters of moment." Both
+the listeners bowed in silence.
+
+"Then, my dear sir, you can be perfectly reassured," the physician
+briskly concluded, tendering his card. "My professional conscience
+will not allow me to make even a single future visit, as doctor,
+to the charming Madame Louison. Should Madame awake in other than
+her normal health and spirits, I should be professionally at fault."
+
+Major Hawke then led the doctor aside and pressed a five-pound
+note upon him. "Madame is of a wonderfully strong constitution.
+An heiress of nature's choicest favors," the happy Galen floridly
+said, as he took his leave.
+
+"So she is," grimly assented Hawke.
+
+The gossipy boniface was already spreading such meager details of
+the sudden seizure as he had been able to pick up, and, the words
+"Polish noblewoman," "Italian marchesa," "French countess," were
+tossed about freely in the light froth of the conversation in the
+ladies' drawing-room.
+
+Meanwhile, Alan Hawke was smoking a meditative cigar alone, while
+pacing the old Cantonal high road before the Faucon. "I think I will
+remain on picket here," he mused. "This fiddler fellow, Wieniawski,
+must not meet her. She must be led on to leave here at once.
+Constitution, nerve, aplomb; she has them all. She should have been
+born a man. What a soldier! One of nature's mistakes--man's mental
+organization, woman's soft, flooding emotions, and beauty's fiery
+passions."
+
+"I must pump Casimir. He will be safely nailed to the platform
+by his duties, from eight to ten. I will not leave her a moment,
+however, till he has the baton in his hand. I will then watch
+him until ten--meet him down there, and, if he meets her after we
+separate for the night, he is a smarter Pole than I take him for.
+And now I must go and frighten her away from here."
+
+Major Hawke was quick to note all the outer indications of man's
+varying fortunes. He had so long buffeted the waves of adversity
+himself that he was a past master of the art of measuring the depth
+of a hidden purse. He recalled the brilliant Casimir Wieniawski
+of eight years past--the curled darling of the hot-hearted ladies
+of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and Singapore. In a glance of cursory
+inspection Alan Hawke had noted the doubtful gloss of the dress suit;
+it was the polish of long wear, not the velvety glow of newness.
+There was a growing bald spot, scarcely hidden by the Hyperion Polish
+curls; there were crows'-feet around the bold, insolent eyes, and
+the man's smile was lean and wolfish when the glittering white teeth
+flashed through the professional smirk of the traveling artist.
+The old, easy assurance was still there, but cognac had dulled the
+fires of genius; the tones of the violin trembled, even under the
+weakening but still magic fingers, and the splendid sapphire and
+diamond cluster ring of old was replaced by a too evident Palais
+Royal work of inferior art.
+
+"Poor devil! It is the downward fluttering of the wearied eagle!"
+mused Alan Hawke. "Women, roulette, champagne, and high life--all
+these past riches fade away into the gloomy pleasures of restaurant
+cognac, dead-shot absinthe, and the vicarious smiles of a broken
+soubrette or so! And all the more you can be now dangerous to me,
+Monsieur Casimir Wieniawski, for the old maneater forgets none of
+his tricks, even when toothless."
+
+Casimir, the handsome Pole, glib of tongue, the heir to a thousand
+minor graces, reckless in outpouring the wine of Life, had truly
+gone the downward way with all the abandon of his showy, insincere
+race. Hawke well knew the final level of misery awaiting the
+wandering, broken-down artist here in a land where really fine
+music was a mere drug; where the orchestra was only a cheap lure
+to enhance the cafe addition. The "Professor" was but a minor staff
+officer of the grim Teutonic Oberkellner of the Brasserie Concert.
+
+"But how shall I muzzle this Robert Macaire of the bow?" cogitated
+Hawke, as he anxiously eyed the two windows of Madame Louison's
+rooms, and then sternly gazed at the open front doors of the Hotel
+Faucon.
+
+A light broke in upon his brain. "There is the golden lure of the
+Misses Phenie and Genie Forbes, of Chicago, U. S. A. Those madcap
+girls will be easily gulled. They arrive to-morrow at nine. A few
+stage asides, as to the stock romance of every Polish upstart, will
+do the trick!"
+
+"Russian brutality, fugitive Prince, Siberian wanderings, romantic
+escape, killed the Russian general who burned his chateau; all
+that sort of thing will enchant these. This may occupy Casimir and
+leave me free. When the devil is idle he catches flies, and under
+the cover of this rosy glow of romance I will get away to India,
+but only after Madame Alixe Delavigne goes. I can afford to put in
+ten pounds on Casimir to loosen his lying tongue. In vino veritas
+may apply even to a gallant and distinguished Pole. If I can get the
+true story of Alixe Delavigne's life, then I have the key of the
+Johnstone mystery. Ah! There is now a duty signal for me!" The
+Major smartly approached the main entrance of that cosiest of Swiss
+family hotels, the Faucon, as the anxious face of a woman nurse
+appeared.  "Madame veut bien voir Monsieur!" simply announced the
+servant.  Major Hawke brushed by her with a nod and quickly mounted
+the stair.  To his utter surprise, on entering Madame Berthe
+Louison's apartment, the signs of an approaching departure were
+but too evident. A stout Swiss maiden was busied stolidly packing
+several trunks in an indiscriminate haste, while the fair invalid
+herself sat at the center table poring over an opened Baedeker
+and the outspread maps brought on by her "business agent." Hawke's
+murmured astonishment was at once cut short by the decisive notes
+of Berthe Louison's flutelike voice.
+
+"We have no time to waste, Major!" she said, with an affected
+cheerfulness. "I am all right now. There is an eleven-thirty train
+for Constance. I will take that, reach Munich, and get right over
+to Venice by the Brenner Pass, and thence go down to Aricona, and
+Brindisi. You can return to Geneva, and, by Mont Cenis and Turin
+you will reach Brindisi before me. So, I leave to-night; you can
+go up to Geneva to-morrow night. No one will possibly suspect our
+business connection in this way. I will have time to see you depart
+for Bombay, before I take the steamer for Calcutta. I have marked
+off the sailings. This little occurrence here to-night has brought
+us both too much under the eyes of other people."
+
+"Bah!" said the astounded Major. "No one knows anything of us here.
+We are of no importance."
+
+"You think so?" mused the woman, as if careless of his presence.
+"And yet I have seen a face here, rising out of a past that is long
+dead and buried. Now, are you ready to meet me at Brindisi?"
+
+Alan Hawke blushed even through the sun-browned complexion of the
+Nepaul days, as the clear-eyed woman, faintly smiling, discerned
+his "hedging" policy.
+
+"You will not be put to the slightest inconvenience." She opened
+a handsome traveling bag. The falcon-eyed Major Hawke observed the
+gleam of a pearl handled and silver chased revolver of serviceable
+make, and there was also a very wicked-looking Venetian dagger lying
+on the table, even then within the lady's reach! "Here is the sum
+of five hundred pounds in English notes," said Berthe. "That will
+neatly take you to Delhi, and there is fifty more to liquidate
+my bill, and pay the medical expenses. I am not desirous that the
+landlord should know of my departure. You may bring all my trunks
+on. I will be waiting for you at the 'Vittorio Emmanuele' at
+Brindisi. Please do telegraph to me from Turin of your arrival."
+
+Cool globe-trotter as he was, Alan Hawke was speechless. "Shall I
+not see you safely on board the Constance train?" he muttered.
+
+"The nurse will attend to all that; money will do a great deal,"
+the lady said. "I will send her back from Constance. Please do
+ring the bell." The Major was obedient, and he listened in dumb
+astonishment, as Madame Louison ordered a very dainty supper for two,
+with a bottle of Burgundy and a well-iced flask of Veuve Cliquot.
+When the door had closed upon the gaping servant, the lady merrily
+laughed:
+
+"Pray take up your sinews of war, Major. I shall consider you as
+retained in my service, if I am obeyed."
+
+Alan Hawke turned and faced the puzzling "employer" with a half
+defiant question: "And when shall I know the real nature of my
+duties?" as he carefully folded up the welcome bundle of notes,
+without even looking at them.
+
+"Major, you are not an homme d'affaires. Do me the favor to count
+your money," laughed the mocking convalescent. "Thank you," continued
+the lady as he obeyed her. "Now I will only detain you here till
+ten o'clock. Then you must disappear and not know me again until
+we meet at the Hotel Vittorio Emmanuele at Brindisi. Should any
+accident occur, you are to take the Sepoy for Bombay direct and go
+on to Delhi. Leave me a letter at Suez and also one at Aden, care
+P. and O. Company. I will ask at each of these places. I will go
+direct to Calcutta, and will then meet you at Delhi. Arriving at
+Delhi, you may telegraph to me care Grindlay & Co., Calcutta."
+
+"I wonder if she bled Anstruther," inwardly growled Hawke, as he
+recognized the name of that social butterfly's bankers. But the
+lady only sweetly continued: "I have some business in Calcutta. You
+can write to me at the general postoffice at Allahabad, and leave
+your Delhi address there. I shall probably telegraph for you to
+come down and meet me there."
+
+Major Hawke, neatly entering the lady's directions in a silver-clasped
+betting book, murmured lazily without lifting his eyes: "You seem
+to know a great deal about Hindostan."
+
+"I have made a careful study of it for years--long years," said
+the woman with a telltale flush of color, as the servants entered
+with the impromptu feast.
+
+They were left alone, at an imperious signal, and Madame Louison
+bade Hawke regale himself en garcon. The Major paused with suspended
+pencil, as he quietly approached the decisive question: "And at
+Delhi, what am I to do?"
+
+"You are to take up your old friendship with Hugh Fraser--this
+budding baronet," replied Berthe calmly. She was pouring out a
+glass of the wine beloved of women, but her hand trembled as she
+hastily drank off the inspiring fluid. "All this is bravo--mere
+bravo! She's a very smart woman, and a cool customer!" decided the
+schemer, who had filled himself up a long drink. He took up at once
+the object-lesson. They were simply to be comrades--and nothing
+more.
+
+"I will obey you to the very letter," he said simply, for he was
+well aware the woman was keenly watching him.
+
+"Then that is all. There is nothing more," soberly concluded his
+companion. "The letters at Suez and Aden are, of course, to be
+mere billets de voyage. The correspondence at Allahabad may cover
+all of moment. Can you not give me a safe letter and telegraph
+address at Delhi?"
+
+"Give me your notebook," said Alan Hawke, as he carefully wrote
+down the needed information: "Ram Lal Singh, Jewel Merchant, 16
+Chandnee Chouk, Delhi."
+
+"There's the address of my native banker; and as trusty a Hindu as
+ever sold a two-shilling strass imitation for a hundred-pound star
+sapphire. But, in his way he is honest--as we all are." And then
+Alan Hawke boldly said: "How shall I address you at Allahabad?"
+
+The flashing brown eyes gleamed a moment with a brighter luster
+than pleasure's glow. "You have my visiting card, Major," the woman
+coldly said. "I travel with a French passport, always en regie."
+
+"By God! she has the nerve!" mused Alan Hawke, as he hastily said:
+"And now, as we have settled all our little preliminaries, when am
+I to know whether you trust me or not?"
+
+He was pressing his advantage, for her precipitate departure would
+rob him of the expected effect of Casimir Wieniawski's disclosures.
+"If I find you en ami defamille, at Delhi, so that you can
+confidentially approach Sir Hugh Johnstone, the ci-devant Hugh
+Fraser, your task will be soon set for you, and your reward easily
+earned; but under no circumstances are you to make the slightest
+attempt to a confidential acquaintance with this wonderful Nadine.
+That is my affair." The tone was almost trifling in its lightness,
+but Alan Hawke recognized the hand of iron in the velvet glove.
+
+"And now, Sir," coquettishly said Madame Berthe Louison, "you have
+been a squire of dames in your day. Tell me of social India, for,
+while I shall get a good maid out at Calcutta, I must depend upon
+Munich, Venice, and Brindisi for my personal outfit. I know the
+whole United Kingdom thoroughly. The Englishman and his cold-pulsed
+blonde mate at home are well-learned lessons. The Continent, yes,
+even Russia, I know, too," she gayly chattered; "but the Orient
+is as yet a sealed book to me, and I would be helpless in Father
+India, without the womanly gear appropriate to the social habits
+of your countrywomen."
+
+"You have lived in England?" briefly demanded Alan Hawke, in some
+surprise at her frank admissions.
+
+"Yes, too long!" sternly answered Madame Louison, who was enjoying
+a cigarette, as she signed to the maid to leave them alone. "I
+detest the foggy climate," she added, a little late to temper the
+bitterness of the remark.
+
+"I will lull this watchful feminine tiger," the Major secretly
+decided, as he began a brilliant sketch of the social life of the
+strange land of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. "I presume, of course,
+that you do not care to appear with a fifty-pound Marshall & Snell
+grove outfit, as if you were the wife of an Ensign in a marching
+regiment. I will give you the real life our women lead out there.
+You could have secured a splendid London outfit by a little time
+spent in making the detour."
+
+"I wish to appear en Francaise, my true character," smiled Berthe.
+"I never could sacrifice my Gaelic taste to the hideous color mixtures
+and utilitarian ugliness of the English machine-made toilette. An
+Englishwoman can only be trusted with a blue serge, a plain gray
+traveling dress, or in the easy safety of black or white.  They are
+not the 'glass of fashion and the mold of form.' Now, Sir, let me
+see how you have profited by your wandering in Beauty's gardens on
+the Indus and Ganges?"
+
+Alan Hawke knew very well at heart what the quickwitted woman would
+know. He sketched with grace, the natural features, the climatic
+conditions, the bizarre scenery of the million and a half square
+miles where the venerable Kaisar-i-Hind rules nearly two hundred
+millions of subjugated people. He portrayed all the light splendors
+of Mohammedan elegance, the wonders of Delhi and Agra, he sketched
+the gloomy temple mysteries of Hinduism, and holy Benares rose up
+before her eyes beneath the inspiration of his brilliant fancy.
+
+The ardent woman listened with glowing eyes, as Hawke proudly referred
+to the wonderful sweep of the sword of Clive, which conquered an
+unrifled treasure vault of ages, annexed a giant Empire, and set
+with Golconda's diamonds the scepter of distant England. The year
+1756 was hailed by the renegade as the epoch when England's rule
+of the sea became her one vitalizing policy--her first and last
+national necessity--for the Empire of the waves followed the pitiful
+beginning in Madras.
+
+Temples, groves, and mosques peopled with the alien and warring
+races were conjured up, the splendid viceregal circle, the pompous
+headquarter military, the fast set, staid luxury-loving civilians,
+and all the fierce eddies and undercurrents of the graded social
+life, in which the cold English heart learns to burn as madly
+under "dew of the lawn" muslin as ever Lesbian coryphe'e or Tzigane
+pleasure lover.
+
+The burning noons, the sweltering Zones of Death, the cool hills,
+the Vanity Fair of Simla, the shaded luxury of bungalow life, and
+the mad undercurrent of intrigue, the tragedy element of the Race
+for Wealth, the Struggle for Place, and the Chase for Fame. Major
+Alan Hawke was gracefully reminiscent, and in describing the
+social functions, the habits of those in the swim, the inner core
+of Indian life under its canting social and official husk, he brought
+an amused smile to the mobile face of his beautiful listener. He did
+not note the passage of time. He could now hear the music floating
+up from the Casino below. He had answered all her many questions.
+He described pithily the voyage out, the social pitfalls, the
+essence of "good Anglo-Indian form," and he was astonished at the
+keenness of the questions with which he was plied by his employer.
+
+"You have surely traveled in India," he murmured, when his relation
+flagged.
+
+"So I have, by proxy, and, in imagination," laughed Madame Berthe
+Louison, as she demurely held up her jeweled watch. "Ten minutes
+more, and then, Sir, I shall give you your ordre de route. For,
+I must go quietly. I trust to your experience and good judgment.
+There is nothing to say here. There will be no letters. My bankers
+have their orders. You must simply pay our bill, and depart quietly
+via Geneva. May I ask if you wish any more money? Some personal
+needs?"
+
+Major Hawke shook his head. "You may rely on me to meet you, and to
+faithfully obey you," he gravely said. There were unspoken words
+trembling on his lips, which he fain would have uttered. "By
+Heavens! She is a witch!" he murmured, in a repressed excitement,
+as he walked quietly down the hallway to keep his tryst with Casimir
+Wieniawski. For Berthe Louison had at once divined the cause of
+his unrest.
+
+"You think that I should tell you more? Why should I tell you
+anything? We are strangers yet, not even friends. You may divine
+that I trust no man. I have had my own sad lessons of life-lessons
+learned in bitterness and tears. I go out to your burning jungle
+land, with neither hope to allure, nor fear to repel. The whole
+world is the same to me. That I have a purpose, I admit; and even
+you may know me better by and bye! Till then, no professions, no
+promises, no pledges. I use you for my own selfish purposes, that
+is all; and you can frankly study your own self-interest. We are
+two clay jars swept along down the Ganges of life. For a few threads
+of the dark river's current, we travel on, side by side! You have
+frankly taken me at my word! I have taken you at yours! There
+is a written order to settle my affairs and remove my luggage. Of
+course, should you meet with any accident, telegraph to the Vittorio
+Emmanuele, at Brindisi. Money," she said, almost bitterly, "would
+be telegraphed; and so, I say"--he listened breathlessly--"au
+revoir--at Brindisi!" she concluded, giving him her hand, with a
+frank smile.
+
+As Alan Hawke descended the stair, he growled. "A woman without a
+heart, and--not without a head!" As he calmly answered the manager's
+polite inquiry for Madame's health, the "heartless woman" whom he
+had left was lying sobbing in the dark room above--crying, in her
+anguish, "Valerie! My poor, dead Valerie! I go to your child!"
+
+But, none suspected her departure, when the trimly-clad woman
+glided out of the entrance of the Hotel Faucon, at eleven o'clock.
+The maid was in waiting on the circular place in front with
+a carriage, and the key of the apartment lay in a sealed envelope
+on Alan Hawke's table, which proves that a few francs are just as
+potent in Switzerland as the same number of shillings in London,
+or dollars in New York. It was a clear case of "stole away."
+
+When Major Alan Hawke leaned over the supper table at the Casino,
+pledging Madame Frangipanni's bright eyes in very fair cafe champagne,
+he nervously started as he heard the wailing whistle and clanging
+bells of the through train for Constance. He forgot the faded
+complexion, the worn face, the chemically tinted hair and haggard
+eyes of the broken-down Austrian blonde concert singer, in the
+exhilaration of Berthe Louison's departure.
+
+For he had not lost Professor Casimir Wieniawski from sight a moment
+since the hour of ten, and that "distinguished noble refugee" was
+now in a maudlin way, murmuring perfunctory endearments in the ear
+of the ex-prima donna, who tenderly gazed upon him in a proprietary
+manner. Alan Hawke had judged it well to ply the champagne, and,
+at the witching hour of midnight, he critically inspected Casimir's
+condition. "He is probably about tipsy enough now to tell all he
+knows, and, with an acquired truthfulness. I will, therefore, bring
+this festive occasion to a close." Whereat the watchful Lucullus
+of the feast artfully drew Madame Frangipanni aside.
+
+"I have to go on to London, Chere Comtesse," he flatteringly said,
+"you must give me Casimir for a couple of hours to-night, to talk
+over the old times."
+
+He lingered a moment, hat in hand, as he chivalrously sent Madame
+Frangipanni home in a carriage. The poor old singer's bosom was
+thrilled with a sunset glow of departing greatness, as she lingered
+tearfully that night over the memories of the halcyon days when the
+officers of Francis Joseph's bodyguard had fought for the honors
+of the carriage courtesies of the Diva. Eheu fugaces!
+
+Closeted together, the minor guests having been artfully dispersed,
+Major Alan Hawke and his friend recalled the olden glories of
+Wieniawski's Indian tour. It was with a jealous hand that Hawke
+doled out the cognac, until Casimir abruptly said: "And now, mon
+ami, tell me what has linked you to Alixe Delavigne?" Alan Hawke
+had keenly studied his man, and found that the limit of the artist's
+drinking capacity seemed to be infinity, and so he leaned back and
+coldly scrutinized the musician's shabby exterior. "I think that
+I can risk it now," he mused, and then, in a crisp, hard voice,
+he suddenly said: "I don't mind parting with a twenty-pound note,
+Casimir, if you will tell me all you know about that beauty. You
+need it now--more than I. I am to be the judge of the value of your
+story, however. Mark me, I know the main features, but I also know
+that you have met her in the old days." The broken-down artist
+flushed under the changed relation of guest and paid tool.
+
+He uneasily stammered, as he filled a brandy glass, "As a loan--as
+a loan!" But Hawke was sternly business-like in his reply.
+
+"Don't make any pretenses with me. You are hard down on your luck,
+and you know it. This is a mere matter of business." He unfolded a
+bundle of notes and carelessly tossed two ten-pound notes over to
+Casimir, who seized them with trembling fingers. The pitiful sum
+represented to the artist two months of his meager salary. Here
+was absinthe unlimited, a little roulette, a new frock for Madame
+Frangipanni, perhaps even a dress coat for himself.
+
+"How old do you think Alixe is?" unsteadily began the artist.
+
+"I should say about twenty-five," gallantly replied the Major.
+
+"We will premise that she is thirty-three," confidently began the
+musician, "or even thirty-five. When I was a young fool at Warsaw,
+eighteen years old," he babbled. "I was the local prodigy. My
+first essays in public were, of course, concerts, and I was soon
+the vogue. And, later, asked as an artistic guest to the chateaux
+of the nobility in Poland, Kowno, Vitebsk, Wilna, Minsk, Grodno
+and Volhynia. I was a poet in thought, a lover of all womankind in
+my dreams, and a conspirator in the inmost chambers of my defiant
+Polish nature."
+
+"They made me the cat's-paw of adroit adventurers who were filling
+their pockets from wealthy Polish sympathizers in France and America,
+and some of them were Russian paid spies. I braved all the risks.
+I was the secret means of communication of the highest circles of
+our cult of Rebellion. Fool that I was, wandering from province to
+province, I lived the life of a mad enthusiast. The proud memories
+of Poland were mine, the spirit of her music, arts, and poetry had
+cast its witchery over me. Her history, the tragedy of a crownless
+queen of sorrows, had transported me into a dreamy idealism. I was
+soon the confidant of our seductive mobile Polish beauties. Sinuous,
+insincere, changeful, passionate, and burning with the flames
+of Love and Life, I was, at once, their idol and their plaything,
+their hero, and their willing slave.
+
+"For then, the spirit of old Poland rang out in my numbers, and
+I waked the quivering echoes of woman's heart at will. It was in
+seventy-three that I was sent on a special mission to Prince Pierre
+Troubetskoi's splendid chateau at Jitomir in Volhynia. The crafty
+Russians were watching us even there, and were busied in assembling
+troops secretly, at Kiev and Wilna. To another was given the proud
+place of secret spy over the higher circles of Wilna, while my
+duty was to watch Jitomir and Kiev. Troubetskoi was a bold gallant
+fellow, an ardent Muscovite, and had secretly returned from a
+long sojourn in Paris. He was in close touch with the Governors of
+Volhynia, Kiev, and Podolia, and we feared his sword within, his
+Parisian connections without. An evil star brought me into his
+household as his guest. For nearly a year I was kept vibrating
+between the points of danger to us, my personal headquarters being
+at the Chateau of Jitomir. And there I lived out my brief heart-life,
+for there I met Valerie Troubetskoi. No one seemed to know where
+Pierre had found her, but later I learned her story from her own
+lips.
+
+"That is, all of the story of a woman's heart-life which is ever
+unveiled to any man! She was beautiful beyond--compare, her wistful
+tenderness shining out as the moon, softer than the fierce noonday
+glare of the passion-transfigured faces of our Polish beauties. For
+they loved, for Love's own sake, and Valerie Troubetskoi offered
+up the chalice of her own heart in silent sadness. I never saw so
+lovely a being."
+
+"Did she look like that?" suddenly demanded Hawke, thrusting a
+photograph before the haggard eyes of the broken artist. He gasped,
+and tears gathered in his lashes. "Valerie, herself, and, as I knew
+her only before her fatal illness had marked her down. Did Alixe
+give you this?" He clutched at it with his trembling hands.
+
+"Go on," harshly said Alan Hawke, "the hour is late!"
+
+The Pole buried his face in his thinned hands, and then brokenly
+resumed: "The old story--the only one you know. She was about my
+own age; Troubetskoi was nearly always away; perhaps he thought
+to trap all my traitorous circle through me, or else he was in the
+secret service of the hungry Russian eagle. Valerie roamed silently
+through the great halls of Jitomir, saddened and lonely, for their
+union was childless. My heart spoke to her own in my music; she
+knew the prayer of my soul, though my lips were silent. For I madly
+adored her. Then, then, I was a man! My life belonged to Poland,
+my soul to art, but my heart was a sealed temple of love, a temple
+where Valerie, the beloved, the secretly worshiped, sat alone on
+her throne.
+
+"One day a woman, radiant in youth, and reflecting Valerie's own
+beauty, was brought to the chateau by Troubetskoi, who had journeyed
+on to Vienna. It was Alixe Delavigne, the woman whom I saw last with
+you. A month later Valerie called me to her side: 'My poor Casimir,'
+she said, as I knelt at her feet, 'I am dying! The struggle will
+not be a long one. I know the secret of your boyish heart. Your
+eyes have spoken and your music has reached my heart. Your love is
+written in your songs without words. When you have forgotten me,
+there is Alixe; she is alone upon earth. Let me seal your heart to
+hers, and even in death I shall feel that I love you both.' Then,"
+the artist sobbed, "I lost my head. I told her all in mad, burning
+words. She raised her eyes to mine, and softly said: 'I shall see
+you no more unless Alixe is with us, for I love Pierre and he loves
+me. When I am gone, Alixe will be the only one who knows the secret
+of my life.'
+
+"It was two months later--for I would not leave her side, even Pierre
+Troubetskoi could not see her passing away, for it was a mysterious
+malady--when a sudden alarm brought me to my senses. My secret
+society work was done, and yet I lingered there, at the very steps
+of the scaffold. Alixe Delavigne burst into my room at midnight.
+
+"'Hasten!' she cried. 'Even now the Cossacks are surrounding the
+house!' She let me out through the secret passage of the old Chateau.
+A cloak was thrown over me by the Intendant. He was a Pole--and one
+true to the old blood. Alixe pressed a purse upon me.  An address
+in Paris was whispered. 'I will write! Go! For Valerie's sake, go!'
+
+"Forty-eight hours later I crossed the Galician frontier at Lemberg
+disguised as a Polish peasant. My guardian, the Intendant, turned
+me over to our friends in the valley of the Styr. After six months of
+wandering, I finally reached Paris in safety. There were sorrowful
+letters awaiting me. Valerie was hidden forever in the yawning
+tombs of the gloomy old chapel of Jitomir, and Alixe herself wrote
+of Pierre Troubetlskoi's generous blinding of the pursuit. I was,
+however, prosecuted and hunted. I fled to America, for all our
+plans of revolt were miserably wrecked--and by Polish traitors!
+
+"Two years later, I learned from a fellow refugee that Pierre
+Troubetskoi had been killed by accident in a great forest battle.
+And to Alixe Delavigne, all the wealth which would have been
+Valerie's was left by the lion-hearted man who awoke too late to
+the early doom of his beloved.
+
+"I knew naught of the family history save that the sisters were
+the daughters of Colonel Delavigne, a gallant French officer, who
+was murdered by the Communists in seventy-one." Alan Hawke was now
+sternly eyeing the musician, who abruptly concluded: "I have never
+met Alixe Delavigne since. I dare not return to Poland. My own
+course has been steadily downward, and, beyond knowing that she
+still possesses the splendid domains of Jitomir, we are strangers
+to each other. Polish refugees have told me that she has always
+administered the vast estate with liberal kindness to all. And now
+you will tell me of her?" The tremulous hand of Wieniawski raised
+a brimming glass of brandy to his lips. He stared about vacantly
+when Hawke said:
+
+"Madame Delavigne left Lausanne this evening on a special mission.
+Her life is a sealed book to all, and a mere business interest has
+drawn us together." The Englishman went callously on: "There are
+a couple of mountainously rich American girls coming down here
+to-morrow at nine o'clock to spend the day at Chillon with me. I
+need a running mate. Will you then meet me at the Montreux Landing?
+You can have a day off, and these young fools are fat pigeons,
+ardent, and enthusiastic." Hawke saw the hesitation on the man's
+face.
+
+"You can say to Madame Frangipanni that you are with me and that
+I will explain later at the dinner." With a glance at his watch,
+Alan Hawke rang for the Oberkellner. He was extending his hand in
+goodnight, when the refugee cried imploringly, "I must see her once
+more! Tell me of her journey!" and Major Hawke deliberately lied
+to the poor vaurien artist, the wreck of his better self. "The
+through train to Paris is her only address. I presume that Madame
+Delavigne will spend some time in a sanitarium after this heart
+attack, and she has my banker's address. It is only through them
+that we meet to arrange some affairs of business. Whether maid, wife,
+or widow, I know not, for you know what women are--sealed books to
+their enemies, and to their husbands and lovers--only enigmas!
+
+"But fail not to meet me. I'll give you a pleasant day. You will
+find the two Americans both gushing and susceptible." Then as
+Major Alan Hawke stepped lightly away to the sedately closed Hotel
+Faucon, Casimir Wieniawski staggered back into the cafe.
+
+His fit of passionate sorrow was brief, for in a half hour he was
+the king of a mad revel, where his meaner sycophants divided Alan
+Hawke's bounty. The cool Major strode along happy hearted to his
+rest, quietly revolving the plan of campaign.
+
+"There was then a sealed chapter in Valerie Troubetskoi's life.
+And the key of that is in Berthe Louison's keeping. Now, my fair
+employer, it is diamond cut diamond. I think that I have done a
+fair day's work." And he thanked his lucky stars for the precipitate
+flight of his mysterious employer. "She evidently feared the noble
+Casimir following upon the trail. Strange--strange pathways! Strange
+footprints on the sands of Time! It is a devilish funny world,
+but, after all, the best that we have any authentic account of."
+And so he slept the sleep of the just, for he was making the woes
+of others the cornerstones of his newer fortunes.
+
+Major Hawke arose with the lark, by a previous arrangement with the
+Hotel Bureau. His face was eminently businesslike in its gravity,
+as he summoned the porter and dispatched all his luggage to the
+care of the Chef du Gare, Geneva. "Business of extreme importance
+awaiting upon Madame's complete recovery had caused her to depart
+to consult an eminent specialist. Thank you, there will be no
+letters," said the Major, as he pocketed both receipted bills. He
+amused himself while watching for the morning boat, as the mountain
+mists, lifting, revealed the glittering lake, in sending a very
+carefully sketched letter to Mademoiselle Euphrosyne Delande, No.
+123 Rue du Rhone, Geneva. This letter was of such moment that it
+went on to London, to be posted back duly stamped with good Queen
+Victoria's likeness. A very careful Major!
+
+The lofty semi-official tone, in which the writer spoke of a possible
+return to India "under the auspices of the Foreign Office," was
+well calculated to fill the spinster's bosom with the flattering
+unction that a mighty protector had been raised up for the adventurous
+Justine, now supposed to be environed with all the glittering snares
+of society, as well as enveloped in the mystic jungle.
+
+A week later, when Euphrosyne Delande laid down the pen and abandoned
+her unfinished "Lecture Upon the Influence of the Allobroges, Romans,
+Provencal Franks, Burgundians, and Germans Upon the Intellectual
+Development of Geneva," she read Alan Hawke's letter with a thrill
+of secret pride.
+
+The smooth adventurer had written: "If I have the future pleasure
+of meeting Mademoiselle Justine Delande I only hope to find a
+resemblance to her charming and distinguished sister. As my movements
+are necessarily secret, pray write only in the utmost confidence
+to Mademoiselle Justine. I hope to soon return and enjoy once more
+the hospitalities of your intellectual circle." The address given
+for India was "Bombay Club." Miss Euphrosyne gazed up at the stony
+lineaments of Professor Delande, her marble-browed and flinty-hearted
+sire, locked in the cold chill of a steel engraving.  He was
+as neutral as the busts of Buffon, Cuvier, Laplace, Humboldt, and
+Pestalozzi, which coldly furnished forth her sanctum. She thought
+of the eloquent eyed young Major and sadly sighed. She proceeded
+to enshrine him in her withered heart, and then wrote a crossed
+letter of many tender underlinings to her distant sister.  And thus
+the pathway was made very smooth for the artful wanderer, who had
+already stepped upon the decks of the Sepoy.
+
+Major Hawke had dispatched an excellent breakfast before he stepped
+into the carriage to be whirled away to Montreux. His bridges
+were burned behind him. There was not a vestige of Madame Berthe
+Louison left to give the needy Pole a clue. "They are separated,
+and Anstruther and the Swiss schoolmistress are harmless. I have
+only my play to make upon the lovely Justine, and to retake up
+my old friendship with Hugh Fraser. Then I am ready to bit by bit
+unravel the story of Valerie Delavigne's child--the Veiled Rose of
+Delhi."
+
+"Between a father with a secret to keep, and this strange woman
+with a purpose, there is a pretty girl and a vast fortune at issue,
+besides the prospective pickings of Madame Berthe Louison." These
+musings of the Major led him up to the question of his employer's
+false name, as he swept down to the nearby Montreux station. "She
+evidently had traced the child to Switzerland, and was upon a still
+hunt to find out the home of the growing heiress, and,--for what
+purpose? Ah! One day after another," he pleasantly exclaimed, as
+he saw the artist awaiting him. "Peu apeu I'oiseau fait son nid."
+He had already evolved a scheme to permanently separate Casimir
+Wieniawski from his own beautiful employer, who was now dashing
+along well on her way toward Munich. Alan Hawke was startled at the
+distinguished appearance of the musician. An aristocratic pallor
+refined his face, he was neatly booted and gloved, the elegant
+lines of the Pole's supple figure were displayed in a morning frock
+coat, and his chapeau de soie was virginal in its gloss.
+
+"Some of my own twenty pounds," mused Alan Hawke, as he gayly sprang
+out and saluted his dupe. "Ah! There you are. You look to-day the
+old Casimir. Let us have a few last words before the boat arrives."
+
+Hardened as he was, Alan Hawke was surprised at the childlike
+lightness of the Pole's manner when they encountered the fresh
+young beauties who were already the cynosure of all eyes upon the
+morning boat. The storm of emotion had spent itself, and while
+Alan Hawke squired, the aggressive Miss Genie, Casimir Wieniawski
+was bending over the slightly dreamy and more romantic Miss Phenie!
+They distributed themselves in open order, as they strolled along
+toward the drawbridge of that most hospitable of old horrors,
+Chillon Castle.
+
+It was a day of days, and the artful Hawke laughed as he smoked his
+cigar upon a rustic bench in the castle Garden. Miss Genie was at
+his side, pouting, petulant, provokingly pretty and duly agnostic
+as to the Polish prince.
+
+A week later, Alan Hawke stood on the deck of the Sepoy, as that
+reliable vessel steamed out of Brindisi harbor for Bombay. He was
+watching a lace handkerchief, waved by a graceful woman, standing
+alone upon the pier. The adventurer drew a silver rupee from his
+pocket, and then gayly tossed it into the waves, crying, "Here's
+for luck!" as he watched the slender, distant, womanly figure move
+up the pier. There lay the Empress of India with steam now curling
+from her stacks, ready to follow on to Calcutta. "I have not broken
+her lines yet," murmured Major Hawke as he paced the deck, "but
+I have her pretty well surrounded, cunning as she is!" and so he
+complacently ordered his first bottle of pale ale.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE VEILED ROSEBUD OF DELHI.
+
+
+
+
+
+The October winds were whirling the pine needles down the mountain
+defiles in the bracing Alpine autumn, as Alan Hawke sped on past
+Suez, gliding on through the stifling furnace heat of the Red Sea,
+past Mocha, and dashing along through the Bridge of Tears, to Aden.
+He left at Suez, and also at the Eastern Gibraltar of haughty Albion,
+the brief letters for his mysterious employer, and he mentally
+arranged the social gambit of his reappearance at Delhi in the nine
+days before the Sepoy steamed into the island-dotted bay of Bombay.
+
+Sternly shunning, on his arrival, the local sirens, whose songs of
+old fell so sweetly upon his ear, the determined Major sped away at
+once for Allahabad. He was on shaking social quagmires at Bombay.
+There were sundry little threads of the past still left hanging
+out in the shape of stray urban indebtedness, and he now scorned to
+throw away a single one of the crisp Bank of England notes showered
+upon him by Fortune. He was growing sadly wise. He had lately mused
+over the old motto, "Lucky at cards--unlucky in love!" The cool
+provision of the funds at Lausanne by Berthe Louison, her separate
+route to Delhi, her business-like coldness in their strangely frank
+relations, all these things proved to him that he was to be only
+an intelligent tool; not a trusted friend in the little drama about
+to open at the old capital of Oude.
+
+Alan Hawke had already abandoned the idea of any sentimental
+advances upon Alixe Delavigne. "Strange, strange," he murmured; "a
+woman can sometimes easily be flattered into a second conjugation
+of the verb 'To Love,' but an internal previous evidence of man's
+unreliability can do that which no personal sorrow can effect.
+The key to this woman's behavior is in the story of her sister's
+shadowed life.
+
+"The hiatus from Hugh Fraser to Pierre Troubetskoi covers the tragedy
+of Valerie Delavigae's life, the death blow was then struck, and
+the central figure is the child. So, with the strangely acquired
+fortune at her beck and call, Alixe Delavigne has consecrated
+herself to that most illogical of human careers--a woman's silent
+vengeance! That achieved, will the furnace fires of her stormy
+heart be lit by the hand of passion?"
+
+He ruminated sagely over these matters as he sped on over the Great
+Indian Peninsula Railway. The western Ghauts were now far behind
+him and their dark basalt crags. Bombay, Hyderabad, Berar, the
+Central Provinces, Central India, and the southern prong of Oude
+was reached. He was, however, no whit the wiser when he reached
+the Ganges and hastily sought the telegraph station at Allahabad.
+But he felt like a prince in the direct line of succession with his
+net eight hundred pounds still to the good. His first care was to
+telegraph to Madame Berthe Louison, to the care of Grindley, at
+Calcutta: "Waiting at Allahabad for your letters, and news of your
+safe arrival." While rushing past the Vindhia Mountains he had
+encountered several of his old Indian acquaintances. The mere hint
+of a secret governmental employ of gravity satisfied the languid
+curiosity of the qui hais. For a week he lingered in the "City of
+God," and daily haunted the post and telegraph offices.
+
+He had sent on to the Delhi Club a note for the maw of the local
+gossips, and also had dispatched a skillfully constructed letter
+to the unsuspecting Hugh Johnstone. With a veiled flattery of the
+old civilian's wisdom and experience, he referred to his desire to
+consult him as to a secret journey in the direction of the Pamirs.
+The opportune windfall of Anstruther's ecarte and Berthe Louison's
+liberal advance enabled Major Alan Hawke to maintain a dignified and
+easy port as he wandered through Allahabad. Strolling by the waters
+of the Ganges and Jumna, he invoked anew the blessings of the
+goddess Fortuna, as he gazed out upon the majestic heaven descended
+stream. The daily tide of travel toward Delhi brought on each day
+some familiar faces, and yet Alan Hawke lingered gently, declining
+their traveling company. "Waiting orders," he said, with the sad,
+sweet smile of one enjoying a sinecure. His swelling outward port
+thoroughly proved that the days were gone when he was to be scanned
+before the morning salutation. Les eaux sout basses, the impecunious
+Frenchman mourns, but there was a swelling tide bearing Alan Hawke
+onward now.
+
+A hearty welcoming letter from the ci-devant Hugh Fraser was
+a good omen, for rumor of a thousand tongues had already invested
+the returning Major with an important secret mission. His epistolary
+seed planted in Delhi had brought forth fruit as rapidly as the
+magic of the Indian conjuror's mango-tree trick. It was already
+rumored even in Allahabad that "Hawke had dropped upon a decidedly
+good thing." The Major was busied, however, in analyzing the motives
+of Alixe Delavigne, in her change of name, her separate journey,
+her choice of the Calcutta route, and the inner nature of her
+projected enterprise.
+
+"A woman in her position, easy as to fortune, will stoop to none
+of the arts of the blackmailer; she could choose a life of soft
+luxury, for she is yet in the bloom of vigorous early womanhood.
+To her the personality of Hugh Fraser is surely nothing. There
+are but two objects of attack--his proposed social elevation, the
+nattering title, and the peace of mind and future of the daughter,
+this lovely veiled Rose! Love, a natural love, even for the stranger
+child, would ward away the blow; but only an unslaked vengeance
+would point the shaft! The reproduction of her sister's face seemed
+to touch her to her very bosom's core. There is some fixed purpose
+in this cold-hearted woman's coming! Not a lingering annoyance, but
+some coup de main, a bolt to be launched at Hugh Johnstone alone!"
+
+"I do not know how I can break her lines, unless she shows me
+some weak point," he mused. "But either her fortune or Johnstone's
+shall yield me a heavy passing toll. And, there is always the girl!
+There, I would have to meet Berthe Louison as a determined enemy!"
+In recognizing the fact that his employer must make the game at
+last, that she must lead out and so uncover herself, he saw his
+own masterly position between the two prospective foes.
+
+"I can play them off the one against each other, at the right time,
+and, if they fight each other, with the help of Justine Delande,
+I may even make a strong running for the girl. I think I now see
+a way!" He felt that his wandering days were over. The dark days
+of carking cares, of harassing duns, of frequent changes of base,
+driven onward by the rolling ball of gossip and innuendo.
+
+He felt strangely lifted up in the familiar scenes of his years
+of wanderings. For he was at home again. Alixe Delavigne, however
+carefully watched for her eastern adventure, was socially helpless
+in a land of strange alien races, of discordant Babel tongues, of
+shifting scenes, a land as unreal as the visions of a summer night.
+
+But to Alan Hawke all this Indian life was now a second nature. The
+scenes of Bombay recalled his once ambitious youth, the days when
+he first delightedly gazed upon the wonders of Elephanta, and
+the gloomy grottoes of Salcette. From his very landing he had set
+himself one cardinal rule of conduct, to absolutely ignore all the
+lighter attractions of native and Eurasian beauty, and to let no
+single word fall from his lips respecting the sudden occultation
+of Miss Nadine Johnstone--this new planet softly swimming in the
+evening skies of Delhi. He felt that he was beginning a new career,
+one in which neither greed nor passion must betray him. It was the
+"third call" of Fortune, and he had wisely decided upon a golden
+silence. "If I had only met the favored Justine, instead of that
+withered Aspasia, Euphrosyne, then, the girl's heart might have
+been easily made mine," was the unavailing regret of the handsome
+Major. "If I could have come out with them," he sighed. He well knew
+the softening effect upon romantic womanhood of a long sea voyage
+where the willing winds sway the softer emotions of the breast, and
+the trembling woman is defenseless against the perfidious darts of
+Cupid.
+
+"My time will come," he murmured as the train rushed along through
+the incense breathing plantations. A richer nature than foggy
+England was spread out before him in treacherous Hindostan with its
+warring tribes, its dying creeds, its dead languages, its history
+sweeping far back into the mists of the unknown. For every problem
+of the human mind, every throe of the restless heart of man is worn
+old and threadbare in Hindostan, with its very dust compounded of
+the wind-blown ashes of dead millions upon millions. Gross vulgar
+Gold reigns now as King on the broad savannas where spice plantations
+and indigo farms vary the cotton, rice, and sugar fields. Wasted
+treasures of dead dynasties gleam out in the ornamentation of the
+temples abandoned to the prowling beast of prey. And riches and ruin
+meet the eye in a strange medley. Dead greatness and the prosaic
+present.
+
+Modern bungalows, where the faltering conqueror watches the
+tax-ridden ryots dot the landscape, and an overweighted official
+system brings its haughty military, its self-sufficient civilians,
+its proud womanhood, to drain the exhausted heart of India. And
+the ryot groans under many taskmasters.
+
+Lingering with a restless heart, in Allahabad, Alan Hawke roused
+himself as at a bugle call, when he received a telegram announcing
+the safe arrival of the Empress of India at Calcutta.
+
+"La danse va commencer," he muttered, as he read the brief words
+of his employer: "Go on to Delhi, await me there. Telegrams to you
+there at private address. Leave letters." The signature "Lausanne"
+was a new spur to his well-considered prudence. And, so, the next
+day, Major Hawke sedately descended at Delhi.
+
+There was nothing to distinguish Hawke from any other well-to-do
+European, as he stood gazing around the station, in his cool
+linens, his pith helmet and floating puggaree. The prudent air of
+judicious mystery lately adopted sat easily upon him as his eye roved
+over the familiar scenes of old with a silent gleam of recognition,
+he followed a confidential attendant who salaamed, murmuring "My
+master awaits the sahib whom he delights to love and honor."
+
+"There is one card I must play at once," murmured Hawke, as the
+carriage sped along. "Mademoiselle Justine Delande must be my secret
+friend! I wonder if Euphrosyne really swallowed the bait! If she
+has fallen into the trap and written to her sister, then--all is
+well!"
+
+His eyes roved over the familiar scene of the broad Chandnee Chouk,
+sweeping magnificently away from the Lahore gate to the superb
+palace. The sun beat down with its old ferocious glare on shop and
+bazaar. Grave merchants lolled over their priceless treasures of
+gold and silver work, heaped up jewels and bullion-threaded shawls
+for princely wear. Under the awnings lingered the familiar polyglot
+groups, while beggary and opulence jostled each other on every
+hand.
+
+"It's the same old road in life!" murmured Alan Hawke, "whether
+called Inderput, Shahjehanabad, or Delhi--the same old game goes
+on here forever, here by the sacred Jumna!"
+
+He was dreaming of the artful part which he had to play in the fierce
+modern race for wealth. "They used to fight for it like men in the
+old days," he bitterly murmured. "Now, the only gold that I see
+before me is to be had by gentlemanly blackmail! Right here--between
+old Hugh Johnstone and this flinty-hearted woman avenger--lies
+my fortune. And I swear that nothing shall stop me! I will be the
+prompter of the little play now ready for a first rehearsal!" His
+eyes lighted up viciously as he was swept along past the great
+marble house, gleaming out in the shady compound, where the Rosebud
+of Delhi was hidden.
+
+"Cursed old curmudgeon! To lock the girl up!" muttered the handsome
+young rascal. "Old Ram Lal must do a bit of spying for me!" Hawke
+could see on the raised plateau of marble steps all the evidences
+of the sumptuous luxury of the haughty Briton, "who toils not,
+neither does he spin." But, the dozen pointed arches on each face
+of the vast palace house of the budding baronet showed no sign
+of life. The clustered marble columns stretched out in a splendid
+lonely perspective, and the square inner castellated keep rose up
+in the glaring sun, but with closed and shaded windows. Dusky shapes
+flitted about, busied in the infinitesimal occupations of Indian
+servitors, but no graceful woman form could be seen in the witching
+gardens where a Rajah might have fitly held a durbar.
+
+"I'll warrant the old hunks has Bramah locks and Chubb's burglar
+proofs to fence this beauty off!" growled the Major, as he sank back
+in the carriage. "I fancy, though, that a liberal dose of Madame
+Louison's gold, judiciously administered by me, in her interest,
+to Justine Delande, may open the way to the girl's presence! The
+mother's story may serve to win the girl's heart. If I can only busy
+old Hugh and the Madame in watching each other, then I can handle
+Justine."
+
+"Yes," the satisfied schemer concluded, "the old man's game is the
+bauble title. Berthe Louison's must be some studied revenge. She is
+above all blackmail. I know already half the story of this clouded
+past. Madame Alixe Delavigne must yield up the other half, bit by
+bit. By the time she arrives, my spies will have posted me. I will
+have opened rny parallels on the Swiss dragon who guards the lovely
+Nadine. Now to make my first play upon the old nabob."
+
+Major Alan Hawke had studied skillfully out his gambit for an attack
+upon Hugh Johnstone's vanity. When he descended at the hospitable
+doors of his secret ally, Ram Lal Singh, he plunged into the seclusion
+of a luxurious easy toilet making. A dozen letters glanced over,
+a comforting hookah, and Alan Hawke had easily "sized up" the
+situation. For Ram Lal's first skeleton report had clearly proved
+to him that the coast was clear. "Thank Heavens there are as yet
+no rivals," Hawke murmured. "Neither confidential friend of the old
+boy, no dashing Ruy Gomez as yet in the way." Hawke viewed himself
+complacently in the mirror. He was severely just to himself, and
+he well knew all his own good points. "Pshaw!" he murmured, "any
+man not one-eyed can easily play the Prince Charming to a hooded
+lady all forlorn, a mere child, a tyro in life's soft battles of
+the heart. I must impress this pompous old fool that I know all
+the intrigues of his proposed elevation. He will unbosom, and both
+trust and fear me. These pampered civilians are as haughty in their
+way as the military and be damned to them," mused Hawke, cheerfully
+humming his battle song, those words of a vitriolic wit:
+
+"General Sir Arthur Victorious Jones, Great is vermillion splashed
+with gold."
+
+"This old crab has quietly stolen himself rich, and now forsooth
+would tack on a Sir Hugh before his name. Ah! The jewels! I
+must delicately hint to him that I am in the inner circle of the
+cognoscenti."
+
+And then Alan Hawke cheerfully joined his obese and crafty friend
+and host, Ram Lal Singh. For an hour the soft, oily voice of the
+old jewel merchant flowed on in a purring monologue. The ease and
+mastery of the Conqueror's language showed that the usurer had well
+studied the masters of Delhi. Sixty years had given Ram Lal added
+cunning. A crafty conspirator of the old days when the mystic
+"chupatties" were sent out on their dark errand, the sly jewel
+merchant had survived the bloody wreck of the throne of Oude, and
+from the place of attendant to one of the slaughtered princes,
+dropped down softly into the trade of money lender, secret agent,
+and broker of the unlawful in many varied ways.
+
+It was Ram Lal's easy task to purvey luxuries to the imperious
+Briton, to hold the extravagant underlings in his usurious clutches,
+to be at peace with Hindu, Moslem, Sikh, Pathan, Ghoorka, Persian,
+and Armenian, and to blur his easy-going Mohammedanism in a generous
+participation in all sins of omission and commission. A many-sided
+man!
+
+Alan Hawke heaved a sigh of easy contentment when he had brought
+the chronique scandahuse of Delhi down to the day and hour.
+
+"You say that she is beautiful, this girl?"
+
+"As the stars on the sea!" nodded Ram Lal.
+
+"And the Swiss woman?"
+
+"Never leaves her for a minute. They see no one, for all men say the
+old Commissioner will take her home, to Court when he is gazetted!"
+
+"None of the great people go there?" keenly queried Hawke.
+
+"Not even the fine ladies," laughed Ram Lal. "The old fellow may
+have his own memories of the past. He trusts no one. The girl is
+only a bulbul in a golden cage and with no one to sing to." Hawke
+cut short Ram Lal's flowery figures.
+
+"Does the Swiss woman trade with you?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes, she buys a few simple things--my peddlers take the Veiled
+Rose many rich things. The old Sahib is very generous to the child.
+And the dragon loves trinkets, too!" Then Alan Hawke's eyes gleamed.
+
+"She knows your shop here?"
+
+"Perfectly," replied Ram Lal, "and comes alone--on the master's
+business. You know I had many dealings with Sahib Hugh Fraser in
+the old days," mused the jeweler. "He always admits my men. I have
+valued gems for him for twenty years."
+
+"Good!" cried the happy Major. "I want to send a man now to her
+with a note. I am going to put up at the United Service Club, but
+I must see this woman first. I don't like to send a letter, though.
+If I had any one to trust--"
+
+The merchant promptly said: "I will go myself! They are always in
+the garden in the afternoon. I can easily see her alone."
+
+"First rate! Then I will give you a message," answered Hawke. "I
+must see her to-morrow early, for old Hugh will surely ask me to
+tiffin. And, Ram, you must at once set your best man on to watch
+all that goes on there. I have a good fat plum for you now--to set
+up a neat little house here for a friend of mine who is coming, and
+you shall do the whole thing!" The merchant's dark eyes glistened.
+"A new officer of rank?" he queried.
+
+"It's a lady--a friend of mine--rich, too, and she wants to live
+on the quiet! She will stay here for some time!" The oily listener
+had learned a vast prudence in the days when he trod the halls of
+the last King of Delhi, so he held his peace and wondered at the
+suddenly enhanced fortunes of that star of graceful wanderers,
+Allan Hawke!
+
+"I'll go over to the club now and get a room! Send all my things
+over!" said the Major. "I wish to let Hugh know that I am here.
+I will give you the directions about the house to-morrow. Make no
+mistake with this message now!" Whereat Alan Hawke repeated a few
+words which would awake the slumbering curiosity in the woman-heart
+of the lonely Justine Delande!
+
+"Now, I will return and await your success," concluded Hawke as
+he read over a dozen times Madame Berthe Louison's long dispatch,
+ordering him to prepare her pied de terre in Delhi. "Gad! Milady
+means to do the thing in style," he murmured. "She is a deep one,
+and she must have a pot of money!" He lit a cheroot and sauntered
+away to show up officially at the club. Major Hawke soon became aware
+that nothing succeeds like success. Not only did all the flaneurs
+of the Chandnee Chouk seize upon him, but, from passing carriages,
+bright, roguish eyes merrily challenged him as the hot-hearted
+English Mem-Sahibs whirled by.
+
+Rumor had magnified the importance of Major Alan Hawke's secret
+service appointment, and the wanderer was astounded when the highest
+official of the Delhi College gravely saluted him.
+
+"By Gad! I believe that I am really becoming respectable!" laughed
+the delighted major. His uncertain past seemed to be fast fading
+away in the glow of the skillfully hinted official promotion. "I
+wonder now if old Ram Lal has a hold on my canny friend, Hugh Fraser
+Johnstone--Sir Hugh to be! Perhaps they are like all the rest of
+us--rascals of the same grade, but only in different ways. The old
+jewel matters! I must look to this and watch Ram Lal!" The returned
+Anglo-Indian carelessly nodded to the group of men gathered in the
+club's lounging-room as he entered. Designedly, he loudly demanded
+to know if his traps had arrived. "Left all my odds and ends in
+store," he murmured to a friend, as he called for a brandy pawnee.
+"Beastly bore! Must wait orders here for some time!"
+
+Skilled at tossing the ball of conversation to and fro, Major Alan
+Hawke, while at luncheon, artfully planted seeds here and there,
+to be neatly dished up later for that incipient baronet, Hugh
+Johnstone. And yet a graceful shade of dignified reserve lent
+color to his rumored advancement, and the schemer leaned over the
+writing table with quite a foreign-office air as he indited his
+diplomatic note of arrival to his destined prey.
+
+With a grave air he selected his rooms and accommodations to suit
+his swelling port, and even the club stewards nodded in recognition
+of the tidal wave of Alan Hawke's mended fortunes.
+
+With due official gravity the man "who had dropped into a good
+thing," disappeared, to allow the gilded youth of Delhi to carry
+the gossip to mess and bungalow. It was a welcome morsel to these
+merry crows!
+
+It was late when the handsome Major returned to find a small pyramid
+of notes on his table and many letters in his box. He was in the
+highest good humor, for the wary Ram Lal had most diplomatically
+acquitted his task of opening a secret communication.
+
+"Just as I thought," laughed the Major, as he sipped his pale
+ale in Ram Lal's spacious room of pleasaunce. "They all protest,
+woman-like, but they all come!"
+
+The watchful Swiss exile's heart fluttered tenderly in the far-off
+Lotos land at the arrival of a secret friend of her sage sister.
+She longed for the morning to meet her new friend. Alan Hawke's
+irresistible attractions had pointed the praises which flowed
+smoothly over the double crossed letter which had preceded him!
+The oily Ram Lal, a veteran observer of many an intrigue, scented
+a budding rose of romance in the Major's adroit coup, and the
+arrival of the only lady whom Alan Hawke had ever socially fathered
+in Delhi.
+
+"In three days I will be all ready! So you can telegraph to-night,"
+reported the merchant, when the Major carefully went over all the
+details of the proposed temporary establishment of the disguised
+Alixe Delaviarne.
+
+"Very good!" approvingly answered the dignified confidant and patron.
+"See here, Ram Lal! You have only to serve me well in these little
+private matters, and you shall handle all the coming Mem-Sahib's
+money business here! She wants to be quiet. I am to direct all her
+private matters! Not a word, however, to old Hugh!" The two men
+separated, Hawke with the knowledge that one of Ram's men had already
+glided into the swarming household entourage of Hugh Johnstone's
+stately home, and the spy was on every movement of the strange
+interior, which defied the Delhi beaux.
+
+"Not a bad day's work," mused Hawke, as he dined in solitary state.
+The hospitable bidding of the wealthiest civilian of Delhi to tiffin
+on the morrow brought him in touch with Alixe Delavigne's proposed
+victim once more. The delighted rascal mused: "I will surely have
+letters from her to-morrow, possibly even a telegram of her arrival.
+When the silly Swiss woman is the partner of an innocent secret,
+she is mine to control! Then the chase for a few lacs of rupees
+begins!"
+
+Major Hawke was somewhat startled at the little avalanche of
+welcoming cards and notes. "Bravo! this will throw old Hugh off
+the track a bit also. The simple duty of piquing local curiosity
+shall open all hearts, hearths, and homes to me!" And then, Alan
+Hawke joyously realized how easily the light-headed world can
+be fooled to the top of its bent by the hollow trick of a bit of
+mystery play.
+
+"This falls out rightly," he mused. "I will take up all the threads
+of my old society life and Madame Berthe Louison may deign to
+confide a bit in me the first half of the story forced from her,
+then I will guess out all the missing links of the chain. Once
+domiciled here, she is helpless in my hands, for I can either gain
+her inner secrets, or boldly checkmate her. And the veiled Rose of
+Delhi?"
+
+Alan Hawke dreamed not of the sorrows of the restless heart beating
+in that virginal bosom. He paced the veranda of the Club gravely
+preoccupied till the midnight hour. Long before that, Justine
+Delande had sought her rooms in a feeble flutter of excitement over
+the harmless assignation of the morrow. There was a stern old man
+pacing his splendid hall alone, with an unhappy heart, that night,
+for Hugh Johnstone saw again in the sweet uplifted eyes of his
+beautiful child the old unanswered question!
+
+He stood long gazing out upon the unpitying stars, while above
+him, lonely and lovely, Nadine recked not the queenly splendor of
+her magnificent apartment. Glittering wealth, splendid train of
+servants, the golden future stretching out before her, all this
+she noted not, for, even in the gray, colorless life of the pension
+school at Geneva, soft-eyed Hope whispered to her of a gentle and
+gracious mother! Loved--gone before, but not lost--and, here in
+the land of gaudy Asiatic splendors, a strange land of wonderment
+and fairy riches, she sobbed alone in her heart anguish:
+
+"He will not speak! He tells me nothing! A marble palace this,
+but never a home!" The timid girl had seen no beloved woman's face
+upon the fretwork of the walls of this Aladdin's castle. And, in
+her own frightened heart, she remembered the ashen pallor of her
+father's face when she had faltered out the burning question of
+her yearning heart--the question of long years! The past was still
+a blank to her, while on this same night, crafty Alan Hawke in
+Delhi, and, in far Calcutta, a woman, pacing her boudoir in sad
+unrest, were both busied with the story of the vanished mother whom
+the Rose of Delhi had never seen!
+
+Alixe Delavigne, lonely and resolute, was thinking of her departure
+on the morrow, to face the man who had locked his dead past in
+his own marble heart, in his grand marble palace. Her busy days at
+Calcutta had astounded the senior manager of Grindlay & Co. The old
+banker marveled at the strange commissions and imperative orders of
+his beautiful business client, but many years had taught him much
+of the incomprehensibility of womanhood! Whereupon he marveled in
+silence, and bowing with his hand upon his heart, assured the lady
+of his absolute discretion, and the unbroken honor of the house.
+"Some very queer little life histories go on out here in India!"
+mused the old banker, as he handed the lady her special letter to
+the Delhi agents of the great house which house which he directed.
+"As beautiful as a statue, as firm as a flint! Where have I seen
+a face like hers?" mused the old man, as he sought his rest.
+
+The "beautiful statue" was steadfastly gazing at the picture of
+the young Rose of Delhi, in her lonely boudoir. "She shall learn
+to love her! To love her--through me! And this man of iron shall
+yield! He shall hear my prayer! For, if he does not, then, he
+shall be struck to the heart--blow for blow! And Fate shall pass
+her over! I swear it by that lonely grave in far away Jitomir!"
+There were kisses rained upon the pictured face smiling up at her,
+the face which had called back to her the dead past, and then the
+"beautiful statue" tore aside her gown. She gazed upon a folded
+paper which had long lain upon her throbbing heart. "This shall
+speak for me--at the last! His pride shall bend! He shall not break
+the child's heart!  For the mother's sake, I swear it! She shall
+love and be loved!" and as she spoke, in far away Delhi sweet
+Nadine stirred in her sleep, and smiled, with opening arms, for
+the phantom mother she fondly sought seemed to clasp her now to a
+loving breast!
+
+In the Delhi Club there was high wassail below him, while Major
+Alan Hawke restlessly paced his spacious rooms above, watching the
+lonely white moon sail through the clearest skies on earth. The quid
+mines had all observed the patiently haughty air of the returned
+Major, and even the chattering club stewards marveled at the sudden
+efflorescence of Hawke Sahib's fortunes.
+
+"Devilish neat-handed fellow, Hawke," growled old Major Bingo Morris,
+over his whist cards. "Close-mouthed fellow! Always wonder why he
+left the service! Neat rider! Good hand with gun and spear!  He
+ought to be in our Staff Corps! He knows every inch of the northern
+frontier!" The old Major glared around, inviting further comment.
+
+"Fellow in Bombay tells me he went a cropper about some woman
+or other, ten years ago," lisped a rosy young lieutenant who was
+spreading the golden revenues of a home brewery over the pitfall-dotted
+path of a rich Indian sub.
+
+"Right you are!" sententiously remarked Verner of the Horse Artillery.
+"He went a stunning pace for a while, and at last had to get out.
+Big flirtation--wife of commanding officer! Hawke acted very nicely.
+Said nothing--sacrificed himself. That's why the women all like
+him. Very safe man. But, he's a shy bird now." They dissected his
+past, guessed at his present, but could not read his future!
+
+And then and there, the man who knew it all, told of the mysterious
+governmental quest confided to Major Alan Hawke. "You see, he has
+a sort of roving commission in mufti, to counteract the ceaseless
+undermining of the Russian agents in Persia, Afghanistan and in
+the Pamirs. We always bear the service brand too openly. It gives
+away our own military agents. Now, Hawke's a fellow like Alikhanoff,
+that smart Russian duffer! He can do the Persian, Afghan, or
+Thibetan to perfection! He has been on to London. Some morning he
+will clear out. You'll hear of him next at Kashgar, or in Bhootan,
+or perhaps he will work down into China and report to the Minister
+there. He is a Secret Intelligence Department of One, that's all!"
+
+"That's all very irregular for Her Majesty's Service," growled an
+envious agnostic.
+
+"Bah! Secret Service has no rules, you know," said the man who knew
+it all, thrusting his lips deeply into a brandy pawnee.
+
+And so it was noted that Alan Hawke was a devilish pleasant fellow,
+a rising man, and one who had certainly dropped into an extremely
+good thing. The tide of Fortune was setting directly in favor
+of the man who, pacing the floor upstairs, unavailingly tormented
+himself with the subject of the missing jewels.
+
+"If I could only get a hold on Hugh Johnstone!" mused the adventurer.
+"Berthe Louison knows nothing of these old matters. She only seeks
+to approach the child. And she will be here to watch me in a day or
+so. Ram Lal, the old scoundrel! Does he know? If he did, he would
+bleed the would-be Baronet on his own account. But he may not know
+of the golden opportunity, and the old wretch always has many irons
+himself in the fire. Hugh Fraser was a canny Scot in his youth.
+Sir Hugh Johnstone is a horse of another color. If old Johnstone
+has the jewels, why does he not yield them up? Perhaps he wants
+the Baronetcy first, and then his memory may be strangely refreshed."
+
+As the wanderer strode up and down the room like a restless wolf,
+he returned in his memories to the strange intimacy of Hugh Fraser
+and Ram Lal. "I have it!" he cried. "I will kill two birds with
+one stone. My pretty 'employer' shall furnish the golden means to
+loosen old Ram Lal's tongue. This Swiss woman is fond of gewgaws,
+he tells me. I will let Ram Lal 'squeeze' the Madame's household
+accounts to his heart's content. If the Swiss woman is susceptible,
+she can be delicately bribed with jewels paid for by my haughty
+employer's money, and my feeding this 'bucksheesh' out to Ram Lal
+liberally may bring him to talk of the old days. I must give Hugh
+Johnstone the idea that I am inside the official secrets as to the
+affair of the Baronetcy. Fear will make him bend, if he is guilty,
+and I will alarm Ram Lal at the right time. If they have any old
+bond of union, the ex-Commissioner may turn to me for help, and
+all this will bring me nearer to the still heart-whole woman who
+is hidden in that marble prison. I will make my strongest running
+on the Swiss woman.  Once the bond of friendly secrecy established
+between us, she can be fed, bit by bit, for then she dare not break
+away."
+
+Ram Lal Singh was the last watcher in Delhi who coveted a glimpse
+that night into the dim future. The old schemer sat alone in his
+favorite den in rear of the shop. His round, black eyes surveyed
+complacently his faithful domestics, sleeping on the floor at the
+threshold of the doors of the four rooms opening into the central
+hall of his shop. A single clap of his hands, and these faithful
+retainers were ready to rise, tulwar in hand, and cut down any
+intruder.
+
+The old jewel merchant's eye roved over the medley of priceless
+bric-a-brac in the main hall. The spoils of temple and olden palace
+cast grotesque, soft, dark shadows on the floor, under the glimmer
+of the swinging cresset lamp filled with perfumed nut oil. Seated
+cross-legged, and nursing the mouth-piece of his narghileh, Ram
+Lal pondered long over the sudden appearance of the rehabilitated
+Major Hawke, and the coming of the rich Mem-Sahib who was to be a
+hidden bird in the luxurious nest already awaiting its inmate.
+
+Ram Lal was vaguely uneasy, as he glanced at the pretty pavilion
+in his own compound, where languid loveliness awaited his approach.
+He resigned himself with a sigh to his lonely schemes. He rose and
+with his own hand, poured out a draught of the forbidden strong
+waters of the Feringhee.
+
+Dropping down upon the cushions, he reviewed the whole day's doings.
+"It is not for him, for Hawke Sahib, this bungalow of delight is
+made ready! And the old Sahib is to know nothing. Can it be a trap
+for him? I am to watch the old man for Hawke Sahib. This woman
+who comes. They say here he will go soon away, over the sea to the
+court of the Kaisar-I-Hind. He is rich, why does he linger? And
+perhaps not return.
+
+"All these long years of my watch thrown away! For, never a single
+one of the sacred jewels has he shown me! They have never seen the
+light since the awful day in Humayoon's Tomb. Has he the jewels?
+Does he hide them? Has he buried them? Has he sent them away? If
+he has them, then he dies the death of a dog. The jewels of a king
+to be the spoil of a low tax-gatherer! The King of Kings.
+
+"But why does he not go? I have watched him for years.
+
+"There is some reason! Hawke Sahib shall tell me all! He must tell!
+He needs my help!" The old man's slumbers were haunted with the
+olden memories of a day of doom, the day when the bodies of the
+sacred Princes of Oude lay naked in the glaring sun as they were
+despoiled after Hodson's pistol had done its bloody work. "They may
+have taken them all from him, these English are greedy spoilers,"
+muttered the crafty old man, as his head fell upon the silken cushions
+with a curse. He was a rebel still, as rank as Tantia Topee.
+
+In the splendid marble palace of Hugh Johnstone, the startled Justine
+Delande was awake long before the dawn, thinking only of the meeting
+of the morning, her bosom heaving with its first questionable
+secret, but Major Alan Hawke smiled as he leisurely breakfasted
+later, reading a telegram just received. "On my way.  Will come to
+private address. Send servants to Allahabad to join me.  Silence
+and discretion.--Lausanne."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A DIPLOMATIC TIFFIN.
+
+
+
+
+
+Major Alan Hawke had designedly breakfasted in the stately seclusion
+of his rooms, and as he came gravely sauntering into the Club
+ordinary, was at once beset by a friendly chorus, as he carelessly
+glanced over the morning letters which attested his progress toward
+the social zenith. He, however, gazed impatiently at the club-house
+door, where a neat pair of ponies awaited him, with servants deftly
+purveyed by the subtle Ram Lal. His two body servants were also
+afrites of the same sly Aladdin. His swelling port duly impressed
+his old friends.
+
+The man "who had dropped into a good thing" gently put aside sundry
+hospitable proffers, politely laughed away several tempting bargains
+as to horses, carriages, furnished bungalows, and offers of racing
+engagements, hunting bouts, and "private" dinners. "Waiting orders,
+d'ye see!" he gently murmured. "Not worth while to set up anything!"
+And then, with the air of a martyr, he disappeared, the ponies
+springing briskly away, leaving all baffled conjecture behind.
+The curious men who were left discussing a flying rumor that Major
+Hawke was authorized to raise a Regiment of Irregular Horse for
+a special expeditionary secret purpose, wrangled with those who
+maintained that a brilliant local civil-service vacancy would be
+theatrically filled by the man who now bore a brow of mystery. The
+advent of this prosperous Hawke had made the great social deeps of
+Delhi to boil like a pot. His mission was one of those things no
+fellow could find out.
+
+Laughing in his sleeve, the object of all this sudden curiosity
+made a number of detours, and adroitly followed a native servant
+down an obscure rear street, after dismissing his pony carriage.
+The equipage was busied during the earlier hours of the day in
+leaving the visiting cards of the returned soldier of fortune in
+certain quarters well calculated to attract social notice.
+
+Threading the spacious gardens in rear of Ram Lal's establishment,
+the artful Major entered the jewel merchant's abode without the
+notice of the morning gossips of the Chandnee Chouk. "All right,
+now," he laughed, as he bade the sly merchant set a private guard
+to prevent all intrusion upon their privacy. "I think that I have
+thrown these fellows off the track very neatly!" he laughed. "No
+one knows of your rear entrances at the club, I am sure!" It suited
+the luxurious old jewel merchant to hide the opulence of his secret
+life, and to veil the graceful lapses of his private code from the
+sober austerities of a dignified Mohammedanism.
+
+"Look alive now, Ram Lal!" said Hawke, briskly, as he handed his
+confederate the telegram from Berthe Louison. "You see that the
+lady will arrive here tomorrow night! Some one must go down to
+Allahabad for her! Are you all ready for her coming?"
+
+"Perfectly!" smiled Ram Lal. "The Mem-Sahib could give a dinner
+of twenty covers in an hour after her arrival! You know that the
+bungalow was fitted up for--" he bent his head and whispered to
+Major Hawke, who laughed intelligently and viciously.
+
+"All right, then! Here is the address in Allahabad, where the lady
+is to wait for her conductors. She seems not to wish me to come down.
+I will be at the bungalow, then, on your arrival! I will give you
+a letter for her," said Hawke. Ram Lal's eyes gleamed in anticipation
+of the fat pickings of the Mem-Sahib. He pondered a moment over
+the case.
+
+"Then, I will go down myself," complacently said Ram Lal, with an
+eye to future business. "You can tell her to trust to me in all
+things. She shall travel like a queen!"
+
+"That is better, and so I will telegraph to her, at Allahabad,
+this afternoon, that I have sent you to meet her! Have a covered
+carriage awaiting her here, and no one must be allowed to follow
+her to her hidden nest. It is the making of your fortune with her!"
+cried Hawke, as he lit a cheroot.
+
+"Trust to me, Sahib!" answered the wily jewel merchant, relapsing
+into an expectant silence. He already connected the arrival of the
+beautiful foreigner with the destiny of the opulent man whom he
+had revengefully watched for twenty years. Hugh Fraser Johnstone
+had heaped up a fortune, but it was not yet successfully deported
+to England.
+
+"And the Swiss woman, when may I see her; this morning?" demanded
+the adventurer, as he dropped into a cool, Japanese chair.
+
+"My man will bring you the news of her coming!" answerd the oily
+old miscreant. "I told him to watch her, and run on to warn me!"
+Ram Lal was a wily old Figaro of much experience.
+
+"Good! Then go 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 brief breathing spell by the
+fates as the Major settled his plans.
+
+It did not seem so very hard, this first fall from maidenly grace,
+when Major Alan Hawke, entering the little armory chamber, politely
+led the startled woman to a seat, with a graceful self-introduction.
+
+"I should have recognized you any where, Mademoiselle Justine,"
+deftly remarked the Major, "by your resemblance to your most charming
+sister. You have, I hope, received some private letters from her,
+with regard to my visit?" The Swiss gouverriante faltered forth
+her affirmative answer, while secretly approving the enthusiastic
+judgment of her distant sister upon this most admirable Crichton of
+English Majors. "Then," said Hawke, alluringly, "we must be very good
+friends, you and I, for we are alone together, among strangers, in
+this far-away land!" Then he calmly dropped into an easy discourse,
+in which Geneva and Sister Euphrosyne punctuated the graceful flow
+of his friendly chat. There was nothing very sinful in the debut
+of this little intrigue.
+
+"Let us always speak French!" said Alan Hawke, with a quiet, warning
+glance at the closed door. "These same soft-eyed Hindostanees are the
+very subtlest serpents of the earth. The only way to do, is never
+to trust any of them!" The Major was busied in carefully taking
+a mental measurement of Mademoiselle Justine, who, still well on
+the sunny side of forty, was really a very comely replica of her
+severer intellectual sister. Justine Delande still lingered in that
+temperate zone of life where a fair fighting chance of matrimony
+was still hers. "If a ray of sunshine ever steals into the flinty
+bosom of a Swiss woman, there maybe a gleam or two still left here,"
+mused the Major, most adroitly avoiding all reference to Justine's
+rosebud charge, and only essaying to place her entirely at her
+ease.
+
+But, in proportion as he gracefully labored, the frightened governess
+began to realize the danger of her situation.
+
+"I hope that no one will observe us," she said, speaking rapidly
+and under her breath. "Mr. Johnstone is so eccentric, so haughty,
+and so very peculiar!" Her distress was evident, and the gallant
+Major at once hastened to allay her fears.
+
+"I have already thought of that. My old friend, Ram Lal, has a
+lovely garden in rear of his house and there we will be entirely
+unobserved. For I have so much that I would say to you." It was with
+a sigh of relief that the frightened woman hastily passed through
+Ram Lal's spacious snuggery in rear of his jewel mart and was soon
+ensconced in a little pagoda, where Major Hawke seated himself at
+her side and skillfully took up his soft refrains.
+
+In half an hour they were thoroughly en ban rapport, for the
+graceful Major Hawke adroitly conversed with his laughing eyes
+frankly beaming upon the lonely woman. He had drawn a long breath
+of relief when he ran over the letter which the delighted Justine
+frankly submitted to him for his inspection. The fair Euphrosyne's
+secret advices justified his warmest anticipations. He had conquered
+her heart.
+
+"I will not delay you longer this morning," he said at last, with
+an artful mock confidence. "I am infinitely grateful to you for so
+kindly coming to meet me here. And it is only due to you to tell
+you why I begged you to come here to-day. The nature of my important
+official duties is such that I am not permitted to exhibit my
+real character to any one here as yet. I am charged with some very
+delicate public duties which may force me to linger here for some
+time, or perhaps disappear without notice, only to return in the
+same mysterious manner. But in me you have a stanch secret friend
+always. I have already written to your charming sister, and I expect
+to receive from her letters which will be followed by letters to
+you from her. And I shall write to-day and tell her of your goodness
+to me." Miss Justine Delande's eyes were downcast. Her agitated
+bosom was throbbing with an unaccustomed fire, and the desire to
+be safely sheltered once more in Hugh Johnstone's marble palace
+was now strong upon her.
+
+Hawke paused, still keeping his pleading eyes fixed upon the
+fluttering-hearted woman's face. "Miss Nadine sees absolutely no
+one!" murmured the governess, "and, of course, I never leave her.
+It is a very exacting and laborious position, this charge which I
+now fill, and of course the life is a very lonely one, though Nadine
+is an angel!" enthusiastically cried Miss Justine.
+
+"And so," earnestly said Major Alan Hawke, "I am absolutely prevented
+from seeing you, unless you will trust yourself to me, and come
+here again." The frightened woman cast a glance at the unfamiliar
+loveliness of the secluded garden, with the hidden kiosques, sacred
+to Ram Lal's furtive amours.
+
+"I dare not!" she said, with trembling lips. "I would like to come,
+but--"
+
+"Listen!" said Alan Hawke, softly taking her unresisting hand, "I
+will confide in you. I must, even to-day, go to Hugh Johnstone's
+house. He has bidden me to a private interview. And he gives
+a tiffin in my honor. I have known him in past years. He does not
+as yet know of my official position. My duties are secret. My very
+honor forbids me to divulge it. I dare not openly acknowledge an
+acquaintance with you, with your sister. It rests with you that
+we meet again, for my sake, for your own sake, for your sister's
+sake.  I cannot lose you for a mere quibble."
+
+There was a genuine alarm in Justine Delande's voice as she started
+up, crying out, "You come to us to-day?"
+
+"Precisely!" gravely said Major Hawke, as he tried a long shot.
+"Both Captain Anstruther and myself have the gravest secret duties
+in connection with Hugh Johnstone's future. He soon may be Sir Hugh,
+you know. And I dare not divulge to him my own delicate functions
+in this matter. Now you understand me at last," said Hawke, warmly
+pressing Justine Delande's hand. "I feel that I must not lose you,
+because I have my duty to perform, and I trust my honor to you. All
+will be well if you will only favor me with your womanly kindness,
+and trust to me as frankly as I to you. We must meet to-day at Hugh
+Johnstone's as absolute strangers. We must also remain strangers
+to all appearances for a time," he said at last. The Swiss spinster
+gazed up at him piteously.
+
+"May I not even tell Nadine?" she faltered.
+
+"Ah!" carelessly said Alan Hawke, "she is a mere child; I shall
+probably never see her. It is you alone that I would trust. Will
+you not come here again? I dare not, for your own sake, detain you
+longer now." The timid woman glanced hurriedly at her watch.
+
+"I have been here already too long, and I must go! And there is so
+much I would say to you!" She was almost handsome in her blushing
+confusion.
+
+"Then you will come again, here? Ram Lal is my old factotum!" the
+young Major pleaded.
+
+"I will come!" the half-subjugated woman whispered under her breath.
+"But when?" Her eyes were meekly downcast and her faltering voice
+trembled.
+
+"The day after to-morrow, at the same time," said Alan Hawke, his
+heart leaping up in a secret victory, "but no living soul must ever
+know of it. I will be here in the pagoda, waiting for you. Ram Lal
+will wait for you himself and admit you. Do you promise?" he said,
+with a glance which set her pallid cheeks aflame.
+
+"I promise! I promise! Let me go, now!" gasped the excited woman.
+With stately courtesy, the Major then led her back into the jewel
+merchant's luxurious lounging-room.
+
+"Wait here for a single moment!" he whispered as he quickly poured
+out a glass of cordial. And, then, returning in a few moments, he
+clasped upon the woman's wrist a bracelet of old Indian gold, whose
+flexible links glittered with the fire of a row of old Indian mine
+stones. Justine Delande sat mute, as if dreaming.
+
+"Our little secret is now all our own!" he pleasantly murmured.
+"Remember! Should we meet at the marble house, you do not know me!
+Can you trust yourself? You must--for my sake! This will help you
+to remember our first meeting."
+
+"You may depend upon me, whenever you may wish to call upon me,"
+she whispered. "I will come!" and then she fled away, with soft,
+gliding steps, to regain the safety of her own room before the
+trying hour of tiffin.
+
+Major Alan Hawke closed the door, and laughed softly as he threw
+himself into a chair. "They are all the same!" he mused. "Not a
+bad morning's work! For she will never tell our little secret! And
+she will surely come again! She may be my salvation here! Madame
+Louison, I now debit you just thirty pounds!" laughed Major Alan
+Hawke, as he deftly blew a kiss in the direction of Allahabad. "You
+shall pay for this bracelet, and much more! You shall pay for all!
+And I'll set this soft-hearted Swiss woman on to watch you, and you
+shall pay her well, too! Now, for my old friend, Hugh Johnstone!"
+He waited in a most happy frame of mind till his carriage bore him
+to the club for an elaborate Anglo-Indian toilet.
+
+There was a crowd of eager gossips secretly tracking him who watched
+him roll away in state to the marble house.
+
+"By Jove! I believe that he is the coming man!" said old Captain
+Verner. "I wonder if this handsome young beggar is really going in
+for the Veiled Rose of Delhi. Just his damned luck!" And then the
+loungers left the club window and drank deeply confusion to the
+would-be wooer's stratagems.
+
+All unconscious of their busy curiosity, the gallant Major Alan
+Hawke calmly descended at the marble house, with a secret oath now
+registered to ignore the very existence of Nadine Johnstone, "The
+old man is always harping on his daughter," he mused. "I must throw
+this old beggar off his guard thoroughly to-day, once and for all.
+He must never think that I, too, am 'harping on his daughter.'
+
+"But only let me get to the core of this old secret of the jewels,
+and I will find a way to frighten the baronet-to-be until he opens his
+miserly old heart." And so the wary guest sought his old friend's
+presence. When Major Alan Hawke's neat trap drew up before the
+marble house there was an officious crowd of Hindu underlings in
+waiting to welcome the expected guest.
+
+Casting his eyes around the wide hall gleaming with its superb
+trophies of priceless arms, with a quick glance at the crowd of
+sable retainers, Major Hawke realized in all the barren splendors
+of the first story the absence of any womanly hand. As he followed
+the obsequious house butler into a vast reception room, he murmured:
+
+"A diplomatic tiffin, I will warrant! The old fox is sly." He wandered
+idly about the Commissioner's sanctum, admiring the precious loot
+of years, displayed with an artfully artless confusion. On the
+walls, a series of beautiful Highland scenes recalled the Land o'
+Lakes. Pausing before a sketch of a stern old Scottish keep of the
+moyen age, Major Alan Hawke softly sneered: "Oatmeal Castle! The
+family stronghold of the old line of the Sandy Johnstone's, nee
+Fraser." And, picking up the last number of the Anglo-Indian Times,
+he then affected a composure which he was far from feeling.
+
+"Damn this sly Scotsman! Why does he not show up?" was the chafing
+soliloquy of the Major, now anxious to seal his re-entree into
+Delhi society with the open friendship of the most powerful European
+civilian within the battered walls of the wicked city. He needed
+all his nerve now, for Hugh Fraser Johnstone was a past master of
+the arts of dissimulation.
+
+In fact, the mauvais quart d'heure was really due to the innate
+womanly weakness of Mademoiselle Justine Delande. This guileless
+Swiss maiden had been carried off her feet by the romantic episode of
+the morning. Her cool palm still tingled with the meaning pressure
+of the handsome Major's hand! She had hastened away to her own
+apartment, as a wounded tigress seeks its cave for a last stand!
+The concealment of the diamond bracelet was a matter of necessity,
+and, with a beating heart, she buried it deep under the poor harvest
+of paltry Delhi trinkets which she had already gathered, with a
+mere magpie acquisitiveness.
+
+Alan Hawke had builded better than he knew, when he selected this
+same bauble. He had been guided by a chance remark of Ram Lal's.
+"Give her that," said the crafty old jeweler. "She has priced it a
+dozen times since her first coming here." It was the Ultima Thule
+of personal decoration to her. The Swiss governess reserved the
+secret delight of donning the glittering ornament until she was
+positive that no tell-tale spy had observed her innocent assignation
+with her sister's chivalric friend. "He must be rich and powerful,"
+she murmured as she fled from her room to play the safety game
+of being found with the heiress when her Prince Charming should
+arrive. Miss Nadine Johnstone failed not to observe the unusual
+color mantling her sedate friend's cheeks.
+
+"You look as if you had received some good news. Is the mail in?"
+queried Miss Johnstone.
+
+"Not yet. I hastened back, for I forgot to take my watch and was
+belated. I fear I am late, even now, for tiffin," demurely replied
+the Swiss maiden, dropping for the first time in her life into
+the baleful arts of the other daughters of Eve. She had broken the
+ice of propriety in which her past life had been congealed and an
+insidious pleasure now thrilled her quickened veins, as she felt
+herself possessed of a secret, one linking her to an attractive
+member of the dangerous sex, and a hero of romance, a very Don Juan
+in seductive softness. Her knees trembled at a sudden summons to
+report to the Master of the marble house, forthwith.
+
+Her bosom heaved with a vague alarm as she timidly descended
+the grand stair, and was conducted to the private snuggery of the
+Commissioner adjoining his own apartments. "Does he know aught of
+the meeting?" she questioned herself, in the throes of a sudden
+fright. She was somewhat reassured as she observed the carriage
+drawn up in the compound and, by hazard, caught a glance of Alan
+Hawke's graceful martial figure, as he stood regarding her intently
+from the safe shelter of the darkened reception-room. Her heart
+bounded with delight as her Prince Charming smilingly placed his
+finger on his lip.
+
+A sense of manly protection, never felt before, gave her the strength
+of ten as she then glided along boldly to face her gray-headed
+master. For now she knew that she had a champion at her side, a
+man professionally brave, both resolute and charming. Her promise
+to meet Alan Hawke again at the jeweler's now took on a roseate
+hue.
+
+"I must surely keep my plighted word at all risks," she murmured
+to herself. For the sage reflection that she owed a sacred duty
+to her sister's friend, now came to comfort her, in her heart of
+hearts. It was almost a pious duty which lay before her now. And
+so she became brave in the knowledge of the innocent secret shared
+between herself and the handsome official visitor.
+
+To her delight and relief she found it an easy task to face Hugh
+Johnstone, after that one reassuring glance. Her stern employer
+failed to pierce the muslin fortifications of her guilty bosom and
+discern the moral turpitude lurking there. She stole a last anxious
+glance at her still plump wrist where the diamond bracelet had
+softly clasped her flesh, and then softly sighed in relief as the
+master calmly said:
+
+"Miss Justine, I have a gentleman of some distinction to entertain
+to-day at tiffin. An official visitor. I would be thankful if you
+would do the honors. Will you kindly join us in the reception room
+in half an hour, and I will present Major Hawke, my old friend. He
+has just returned from England."
+
+"And Miss Nadine?" meekly demanded the happy woman. The old
+Commissioner's brow darkened, as he shortly said: "My daughter will
+be served in her rooms, as usual on such formal occasions. These
+interlopers are no part of her life. We may soon leave for Europe,
+and she is therefore better off to remain a stranger to these
+merely local acquaintances. It is very unlikely that we shall ever
+re-visit India! Will you see her and say that I purpose driving
+out with her later?"
+
+No woman in India was as happy, at that particular moment, as the
+Genevese, who merely bowed in silence, and glided softly away,
+having escaped the levin-bolt of Hugh Johnstone's wrath, ever
+ready, lurking under his bushy, white eyebrows. It was the work of
+a moment for her to fulfill her simple task as messenger, and this
+done, she burned to hide herself in her own coign of vantage, for
+certain new-born ideas of personal decoration were crystallizing
+in her excited brain. For the first time in her life, she would be
+fair to man's views; so as to justify the partner of her momentous
+secret in the complimentary remarks which, even now, made her ears
+tingle in delight.
+
+"Do you know aught of this Major Hawke who comes to-day?" wearily,
+said the listless girl. "Some one of these red-faced old relics of
+my father's early life, I suppose!" The Rose of Delhi was gazing
+wistfully out upon the wilderness of beauty in the tangled gardens,
+sweeping far out to where the high stone wall shut off the glare
+and flying dust of the Chandnee Chouk.
+
+"Certainly not, Nadine!" softly said the governess. "This is only
+a peopled wilderness to me!" Her heart smote her as the girl, with
+a sudden lonely sinking of the heart, threw her arms around the
+neck of her startled companion.
+
+"I am so unhappy here--so wretched, this is but a gleaning white
+stone prison, Justine! I stifle in this wretched land! Why did my
+father bring me here to die by inches?" There was no pretense in
+her stormy sobs.
+
+"We are soon going home, Darling!" cried the affrighted Swiss. "Just
+now your father told me that we were all to leave India forever,
+and at once." And so, gently soothing the unhappy girl, orphaned in
+her heart, Justine Delande escaped to the first essay of her life
+in high decorative art. "There is some strange mystery of the past
+in all this! He has a heart of flint, this old tyrant!" murmured
+Justine, as with fingers trembling in haste she completed a toilet,
+which later caused even old Hugh Johnstone to growl "By Gad! This
+Swiss woman's not half bad looking!" A last pang, caused by the
+keen secret sorrow of not daring to wear her diamond bracelet,
+was effaced by the rising tide of indignation in Justine Delande's
+awakened heart. There were strange emotional currents fitfully
+thrilling through her usually placid veins as she stole a last glance
+at herself in the mirror. "A tyrant to the daughter. I warrant that
+in the old days he broke the mother's heart! He never mentions her!
+Not a picture is here--nothing--not even a memento, not a reference
+to the woman who gave him this lovely child! Her life, her death,
+even her resting place, are all wrapped in the selfish and brutal
+silence of a selfish tyrant! He should have been only a drill
+sergeant to knock about the half-crazed brutes who stagger under
+a soldier's pack over these burning plains!" It suddenly occurred
+to her that in some mysterious way Major Alan Hawke's coming would
+contribute to the rescue of the captive Princess.
+
+Justine Delande really loved her beautiful charge with all the
+fond attachment of a mature woman for the one rose blossoming in
+her lonely heart. Their gray passionless lives had run on together
+since Nadine's childhood, as brooks quietly mingle, seeking the
+unknown sea! She now felt the wine of life stirring within her,
+and, seizing upon another justification for her dangerous secret
+association with Alan Hawke, she murmured: "I will tell him of all
+this. He has high influence with the Home Government. This Captain
+Anstruther on the Viceroy's staff is certainly his firm friend.
+We must leave here and return to dear old Switzerland. Perhaps the
+Major himself knows the secret of the family history!"
+
+And there was a meaning light in her eyes as she stole back to
+Nadine's room when the silver gong sounded, and throwing her arms
+around the girl, whispered: "We are going home soon, darling! Be
+brave and trust to me! I will find out the story of the past and
+tell you all, my darling!" Justine Delande unwound the girl's arms
+from round her neck, while honest tears trembled in her eyes.
+
+The low cry: "My mother! My darling mother! He never even breathes
+the name!" had loosened all the tide of repressed feeling long pent
+up in Justine Delande's heart.
+
+"Trust to me! You shall know all, dearest! I am sure that Euphrosyne
+knows, and we shall see her soon!" So with an added reason for
+their second meeting, Miss Justine descended the grand marble stair,
+murmuring: "He shall tell me all he knows; he can search the past
+here! He can help me, and he must--for Nadine's sake!"
+
+And as he bowed low before her in courteous acknowledgment of the
+master's presentation, Alan Hawke caught the lambent gleam of the
+newly awakened fires in Justine Delande's eyes. "She is another
+woman," he mused. With one silent glance of veiled recognition,
+Alan Hawke returned to his diplomatic fence with the wary old nabob
+who sat at the head of the glittering table. He was in no doubt
+now as to the second meeting at Ram Lal Singh's shop, for Justine
+Delande's eyes promised him more than even his habitual hardihood
+would have dared to ask. "What the devil's up now?" he mused,
+"Something about the girl, I warrant. I suppose that the old brute
+has exiled her here for safety." And then and there, Alan Hawke
+swore to reach the side of the Veiled Rose of Delhi, though the
+cold gray eyes of the host never caught him off his guard a moment
+in the two hours of the pompously drawn-out feast. Both the men
+were keenly watching each other now.
+
+It had been no mere accidental slip of the tongue which guided
+Alan Hawke in his greeting of the old ex-Commissioner when Hugh
+Johnstone entered the reception-room, a study in gray and white,
+with only the three priceless pigeon-blood rubies lending a color
+to his snowy linen. "Upon my word, Sir Hugh, you are looking younger
+than I ever saw you," said the visitor gracefully advancing.
+
+"You're a bit premature, are you not, Hawke?" dryly said the civilian,
+opening a silver cheroot box, once the property of a Royal Prince
+of Oude. Hugh Johnstone motioned his visitor to be seated, and
+keenly watched the younger man.
+
+"I am on the inside of the matter," soberly said Alan Hawke. "It
+was an open secret when I left London, and I've heard more since.
+A brief delay only,--a matter of a few months--no more."
+
+"Take a weed! They serve in half an hour!" abruptly said Hugh
+Johnstone, as if anxious to change the subject. The old man then
+strode forward and closed the door. Then, turning sharply upon his
+visitor, frankly demanded, "Now, tell me why you are here?"
+
+"That depends partly upon your affairs," said Hawke, meeting his
+questioner's gaze unflinchingly. "I may have something to say to
+you about the Baronetcy, by and bye." He paused to notice the keen
+old Scotchman wince under the thrust, "but, in the mean time, I am
+merely waiting orders here, and I want you to post me about the
+condition of affairs up there." He vaguely indicated with his thumb
+the far-distant battlement of the Roof of the World. Hugh Johnstone
+rang a silver bell, and muttered a few words in Hindostanee to an
+attendant. "I must know more from Calcutta before I can explain
+just where I stand," said the renegade soldier, with caution.
+
+Before the silver tray loaded with ante-prandial beverages was
+produced, Hugh Johnstone quietly turned to his guest. "Did you see
+Anstruther in London?" he demanded, with a scarcely veiled eagerness.
+
+"We were together some days," very neatly rejoined the now confident
+Major. "In fact, I'm to operate partly under his personal directions.
+We are old friends."
+
+"I wonder when he will return?" dreamily said Johnstone, as if the
+subject was growing annoying in its bold directness.
+
+"I believe that he has a long leave--a furlough of a year," lightly
+answered the Major. "In fact, I am to carry on some official matters
+for him in his absence, but he is wary and non-committal."
+
+"What is his English address?" abruptly said Johnstone, as they
+bowed formally over their glasses.
+
+"I do not know," frankly returned Hawke. "I am to send all reports
+to headquarters in Calcutta."
+
+"Are you going down there soon?" asked the old nabob, with a growing
+uneasiness.
+
+"Not unless I am sent for by the Viceroy," quietly said the Major,
+with a listless air, gazing around admiringly on the magnificence
+of the apartment.
+
+"I will give you a letter to my nephew, Douglas Fraser, when you
+do go," said Johnstone. "He is a fine youngster, and he will have
+charge of all my Indian affairs, if I go home. He is in the P. and
+O. office. I would like you to know him."
+
+"I did not know that you had any family connection here," replied
+the Major with a start of innocent surprise.
+
+"Only this boy," hastily replied the incipient baronet, "and my
+daughter. She is, however, a mere child--a mere child. I have seen
+the leaves of the family tree wither and drop off one by one." The
+host then stiffly rose, and formally said, "Let us go in!"
+
+"You are good for a score of years yet," jovially remarked Major
+Hawke, as he gazed at the well-preserved outer man of his uneasy
+entertainer. "The harpoon is deeply fixed in the old whale," mused
+Hawke, as he followed Hugh Johnstone. "He begins to flounder now."
+
+Conscious of the mental alarm which Hugh Johnstone could not altogether
+conceal, Major Hawke had simply bowed, in his grand manner, when
+the host presented his guest to Mademoiselle Delande.  "I will let
+the old beggar lead out," mused Hawke. "This royal spread is an
+excuse for any amount of silence." And the Anglo-Indian renegade
+gazed admiringly at the thousand and one adjuncts of a blended
+English comfort and Indian luxury.
+
+"Ever been in Geneva?" suddenly demanded Hugh Johnstone, with a
+glance at his two companions.
+
+"He's an uneasy old devil. He is trying to trap me now," thought
+Hawke, who innocently replied: "Long years ago, when I was a mere
+lad. I'm told the town has been vastly improved by the Duke of
+Brunswick's legacy. I've not seen it in later years."
+
+"Miss Delande is a Genevese," remarked the host.
+
+"I congratulate you, Mademoiselle," politely said the Major. "It
+is a famous city to date from."
+
+It was evident that the spinster was held in reverent awe of her
+employer, for she guarded a judicious silence, as with a formal
+bow she at last left the table at the graciously permitting nod
+of Hugh Johnstone. There was a cold and brooding restraint, which
+had seemed to cast a chill even over the sultry Indian midday, but
+Justine's smile was bright and winning as she faintly acknowledged
+with a blushing cheek Major Hawke's gallantry as he sprang up and
+opened the door for the retiring lady. "She will come, she will
+come," gayly throbbed the Major's happy heart.
+
+Alan Hawke was now thoroughly on his guard. He had never lifted an
+eyebrow at the mention of Miss Johnstone. He had dropped Justine
+Delande like a plummet into the lake of forgetfulness, and watched
+Hugh Johnstone's listless trifling with the dainties of the superb
+collation. The raw-boned old Scotsman leaned heavily back in his
+chair.
+
+His bony hands were thin and claw-like, his bushy white beard
+and eyebrows gave him a "service" aspect, while his cold blue eye
+gleamed out pale and menacing as the Pole star on wintry arctic
+seas. His broad chest was sunken, his tall form was bent, and a
+visible air of dejection and unrest had replaced the sturdy vigor
+of his early manhood. He was sipping a glass of pale ale in silence
+when Hawke neatly applied the lance once more. "It must be a great
+change for you to leave India, Johnstone, but you need rest, and a
+general shaking up. You have a good deal to leave here. I suppose
+your nephew--"
+
+"He's a good lad, but a stranger to me, Hawke," broke in the host.
+"The fact is, I am as yet undecided. I go home for my daughter's
+sake; it's no place for her out here," he sternly said. "You know
+what Indian life is?"
+
+Hawke bowed, and mutely cried, "Peccavi." He had been a part of it.
+"I'm waiting for the action of the Government. This Baronetcy. I
+must talk with you about it. I might have had the Star of India.
+You see, it's an empty honor. And I hate to break away for good,
+after all. Do you know anything from Anstruther? He was up here,
+you know."
+
+"I have him now!" secretly exulted Hawke, as he said gravely, "You
+know what duty is, I cannot speak as yet, but you can depend on me
+as soon as my honor will permit--"
+
+"Yes, yes, I know," said Hugh Johnstone, with a sigh, rising from
+the table. "You must make yourself at home here. In fact, I am
+thinking of sending my daughter back to Europe. Douglas Fraser can
+have them well bestowed; that is, if I have to remain and fight out
+this Baronetcy affair, then I could put you up here." Alan Hawke
+bowed his thanks.
+
+They had wandered back to the reception-room. With an affected surprise
+the Major consulted his watch. "By Jove! I've got a heavy official
+mail to prepare, and I'm to dine to-day with Harry Hardwicke, of
+the Engineers. General Willoughby wants a private conference with
+me, and Hardwicke is the only confidential man he has. He gets his
+Majority soon, and Willoughby will lose him on promotion. A fine
+fellow and a rising man."
+
+"See here, Hawke! Come in to-morrow and dine with me at seven. I
+want to have a long talk with you," said the uneasy host.
+
+"You may absolutely depend on me, Sir Hugh," heartily answered the
+visitor, with a fine forgetfulness as to the title. When he rode
+away, Major Hawke caught sight of a womanly figure at a window above
+him, watching his retreat in due state, and there was the flutter
+of a handkerchief as his carriage drove around the oval. "I wonder
+if Ram Lal knows about the jewels. I must buy him out and out,
+or make Berthe Louison do it unconsciously for me," so mused the
+victorious renegade. "He is afraid of me! Now to dispatch Ram Lal
+to Allahabad.  I must only see Berthe Louison, at night, in her own
+bungalow, for my shy old bird would take the alarm were we seen
+together. What the devil is her game? I know mine, and I swear
+that I will soon know hers. I have him guessing now. I must hunt
+up Hardwicke and call on old Willoughby to keep up the dumb show.
+Johnstone may watch me--very likely he will. He is afraid of some
+coup de theatre." He drove in a leisurely way back to the Club and
+sported the oak after giving Ram Lal his last orders.
+
+"I think I hear the jingle of gold 'in the near future,' as the
+Yankees say; and, Miss Justine, you shall open the way to the veiled
+Rose of Delhi for me, while Berthe Louison tortures this old vetch.
+Place aux dames! Place aux dames!" he laughed.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+"A DEVIL FOR LUCK."
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE MYSTERIOUS BUNGALOW.
+
+
+
+
+
+If the fates favored Major Alan Hawke upon this eventful day, for
+as he was contentedly awaiting the news of Ram Lal's departure for
+Allahabad, the card of Captain Harry Hardwicke, A. D. C., and of
+the Engineers, was sent up to him. With a neat bit of Indian art,
+old Ram Lal had sent the carriage around to report, as a mute signal
+of his own departure. It was a flood tide of good fortune!
+
+In ten minutes, the Major and his welcome guest were spinning along
+in the cool of the evening, toward the deserted ruins of the old
+city of Delhi! As they passed through the Lahore gate, Hardwicke's
+pith helmet was doffed with a jerk, as a superb carriage passed
+them, proceeding in a stately swing. Major Alan Hawke bowed low as
+he caught the cold eye of the would-be Sir Hugh Johnstone.
+
+"Who are the ladies, Hardwicke?" laughed the Major, as he saw the
+young officer's face suddenly crimson. "For a man who won the V.
+C.  in your dashing style, you seem to be a bit beauty-shy!" They
+were hardly settled yet for their cozy chat. Hardwicke lit a cheroot
+to cover his evident confusion.
+
+"I know" he slowly answered, "that one of them is Miss or Madame
+Delande, old Fraser's house duenna--I will still call him Fraser,
+you see--the other is the mystery of Delhi. Popularly supposed
+to be the old boy's daughter, and his sole heiress, Miss Nadine,"
+concluded the young aid-de-camp. "The old curmudgeon keeps her
+judiciously veiled from mortal ken. No man but General Willoughby
+has ever exchanged a word with her. The dear old boy--his memory
+does not go back beyond his last B. and S.--he can't even sketch her
+beauty in words. And she is as hazy, even to the Madam-General--our
+secret commanding officer. There is a continuous affront to society
+in this old monomaniac's treatment of that girl."
+
+"You would like to storm the Castle Perilous, and awaken the
+Sleeping Beauty?" archly said Hawke, as they rolled along under a
+huge alley of banyan trees.
+
+"Not at all," gravely said Hardwicke. "She is only a girl, like other
+girls, I presume; but, this old fool is only fit for the old days,
+when the kings of Oude flew kites and hunted with the cheetah; or,
+half drunken, dozed, lolling away their lives in these marble-screened
+zenanas, with the automatic beauties of the seraglio. Our English cannon
+have knocked all that nonsense silly.  Here is a high-spirited,
+Christian English girl, shut up like a slave. It's only the
+unfairness of the thing that strikes me." Hawke eyed the blue-eyed,
+rosy young fellow of twenty-six with an evident interest. Stalwart
+and symmetrical in figure, Hardwicke's frank, manly face glowed in
+indignation.
+
+"You've won your spurs quickly out here," said Hawke. "You have not
+been long enough in India to case-harden into the cursed egotism
+of this hard-hearted land, and remember, age, crawling on, has
+indurated old 'Fraser-Johnstone.' He was never an amiable character.
+What do the ladies of the city say of this strange social situation?
+I never knew that the old beast had a daughter till to-day."
+
+Captain Hardwicke wearily replied: "They all hold aloof, of course,
+after some very rough rebuffs, as I believe the old boy will clear
+out for good when he gets his baronetcy. It's possible that the
+girl is half a foreigner after all," mused Hardwicke. "The duenna
+is surely a continental."
+
+"Yes; but she seems to be a very nice person. I was there to-day
+at tiffin," finally said Major Hawke,
+
+"She had very little to say, and cleared out at once. I did not
+see Miss Johnstone." They fell into an easy, rattling chronicle of
+things past and present, and before the two hours' ride was over,
+the astute Major felt that he had divined General Willoughby's
+object in sending his pet aid-de-camp to reconnoitre Hawke's lines
+and pierce the mystery of his rumored employment.
+
+"I suppose that you will come up and duly report to the Chief,"
+rather uneasily said Captain Hardwicke, as they neared the Club on
+their return. Hawke cast a glance at the superb domes of the Jumma
+Musjid towering in the thin air above them, as he slowly answered:
+
+"I am only here on a roving secret commission. I shall call, of
+course, and pay my personal respects to His Excellency, the General
+Commanding. I am an official will-o'-the-wisp, just now, but my
+blushing honors are strictly civil, and, by the way, in expectancy.
+Where does your promotion carry you?"
+
+"Oh, anywhere--everywhere," laughed Hardwicke. "I may be sent home.
+I'm entitled to a long leave--there's my wound, you know. I've only
+stayed on here to oblige Willoughby." It was easy to see that the
+frank, splendid young fellow was but awkwardly filling his role
+of polite inquisitor, for they talked shop a couple of hours over
+a bottle at the Club, and Hardwicke at last took his leave, no whit
+the wiser.
+
+"If he did not post me as to the heiress, at least, old Willoughby
+gets no valuable information," laughed the Major, that night. "The
+boy seems to be ambitious and heart-whole. Old Johnstone will soon
+clear out to the Highlands, I suppose, with this hidden pearl."
+But Major Hawke laughed softly when the morning brought to him a
+personal invitation to dine "informally" with General Willoughby.
+"Wants to know, you know," laughed the Major. "All I have to do is
+to keep cool and let him drink himself jolly, and so, answer his
+own questions."
+
+"That Hardwicke is an uncommonly fine young fellow." So decided
+the Major as he splashed into his morning tub. There was one man,
+however, in Delhi who now viewed Hawke's presence with a secret
+alarm, amounting to dismay. It was the stern old miserly Scotsman
+who had paced his floor half the night in a vain effort to
+reassure himself. "What does he know? I must have old Ram Lal watch
+him," mused Hugh Johnstone. "I was a fool not to have cleared out
+from here months ago, before these spies were set upon me. First,
+Anstruther; now this fellow, Hawke, and, perhaps, even Hardwicke.
+If it were not for the old matter I would go to-morrow, and let the
+Baronetcy go hang--or find me in the Highlands. But, I must make
+one last attempt to get them out. I must--" and the old man slept
+the weary sleep of utter exhaustion.
+
+Before the nabob awoke, Captain Henry Hardwicke, swinging away
+on his morning gallop, had reviewed the strange attitude of Major
+Hawke. "He is very intimate with Hugh Johnstone, and he is a man
+of the world, too. I will yet see this charming child, when the
+ban of her prison seclusion is lifted." He vaguely remembered the
+one timid and girlish glance of the beautiful dark eyes, when he
+had been presented, pro-forma, to the Veiled Rose upon that one
+memorable state visit. He then rode out of his way to gaze at the
+exterior of the great marble house, and was rewarded by the sight
+of a graceful woman walking there under her governess's escort in
+the dewy freshness of the early morn.
+
+He doffed his helmet as Miss Justine paused among the flowers,
+and then Miss Nadine Johnstone looked up to see the graceful rider
+disappear behind the fringing trees.
+
+"That was Captain Hardwicke, was it not?" asked the lonely girl.
+Miss Justine was busied in dreaming of her meeting of the morrow.
+
+"Yes, it was," she absently replied.
+
+"They tell me that he nobly risked his life to save his wounded
+friend," dreamily continued Nadine. "He gave back to a father the
+life of an only son at the risk of his own. How brave--how noble."
+And Justine gazed at her charge in surprise, as the beautiful Nadine
+bent her head to greet her sister flowers.
+
+The resolute Major Hawke, at his cheerful breakfast, was busied with
+thoughts of the coming arrival of Hugh Johnstone's secret foe. "I
+must have money from her at once to swing Ram Lal's Private Inquiry
+Bureau and to mystify these quid nuncs here. For I must entertain
+the clubmen a bit. It's as well to begin, also, to pot down a bit
+of her money for the future. She shall pay her way, as she goes."
+And, with a view to the further cementing of his rising social
+pyramid, he planned a very neat little dinner of half a dozen of
+the most available men whom he had selected as being "in the swim."
+"The next thing is to discover what the devil she really wants of
+old Johnstone! She must show her hand now, and then soon call on
+me for help."
+
+He gazed at his little memorandum of "pressing engagements." "A
+pretty fair book of events. First, old Johnstone's dinner--more
+of the boring process--then to welcome my strange employer, and,
+after that, Mademoiselle Justine! Later, I'll have my own little
+innings with General Willoughby, and, finally play the gracious
+host while Ram Lal watches Madame Louison's cat-like play upon her
+victim.  Money I must have, her money first, to pay the piper,"
+he laughed, which proposed liberality was destined to doubly bribe
+the wily old jewel merchant. At that very moment Ram Lal, securely
+hidden away in the native compartment of the train, rushing on from
+Allahabad toward Delhi, was dreaming of the long-deferred triumph
+of a life!
+
+"If he has them--if they can be traced--they shall be mine if
+every diamond gleams red with his heart's blood! Perhaps these two
+strange people have brought them. Who knows? They are rich; it may
+be the jewels!" And Ram Lal dreamed of a tripartite watch upon the
+three principal figures of the opening drama. "The jewels were a
+king's ransom. But I shall know all," he softly smiled, for every
+attendant of the beautiful recluse now burning to meet her advance
+spy was a sworn confederate of Ram Lal in a dark brotherhood whose
+very name no man even dared to lisp! And so the long, blazing day
+wore away, bringing the hunter and the hunted nearer together. The
+mysterious bungalow was now alive with the slaves of luxury, while
+Alan Hawke secretly inspected the last finishing touches, for he,
+alone, was master of the private entrance once used by a man whose
+glittering rank had lifted him presumably above all human weaknesses!
+
+Major Hawke departed for the Club in a very good humor, after his
+hour of inspection of the jewel box bungalow now ready for his
+fair employer. It was a perfect cachette d' amour, and its superb
+gardens, so long deserted, were now only a tangled jungle of luxuriant
+loveliness! The light foot of the beauty for whom this Rosamond's
+Bower had been prepared had wandered far away, for a substantial
+block of marble now held down the great man, who had in the old
+days found the welcome of his hidden Egeria so delicious in this
+long-deserted bungalow. For the dead Numa Pompilius slept now with
+his fathers, in far away Merrie England, and--as is the wont--the
+mortuary inscriptions on his tomb recorded only his virtues. But
+both his virtues and failings were of no greater weight now to a
+forgetful generation, which knew not the departed Joseph, than the
+drifted leaves in the garden alleys where the romance of the old
+still lingered in ghostly guise! "There were no birds in last year's
+nest," but the mysterious bungalow had been hastily arranged for
+the lovely successor to the vanished queen of a cobweb Paradise.
+The bungalow, itself, was adroitly constructed with a special
+reference to seclusion as well as comfort. An Indian Love's Labyrinth.
+
+"Just the very place!" murmured Alan Hawke, as he hastened away to
+dress for the diner de famille, with his timorous secret foe, Hugh
+Johnstone. "I wonder if my canny friend, in his humble days as Hugh
+Fraser, ever assisted at lespelits diners de Trianon here?
+
+"Probably not, for friend Hugh was ever apter in squeezing the
+nimble rupee than in chanting sonnets to his mistress's eyebrow.
+How the devil did he ever catch a wife, such as Valerie Delavigne
+must have been? Either a case of purchase or starvation, I'll
+warrant!"
+
+Ram Lal Singh was growing dubious as to the perfect sweep of his
+hungry talons over Madame Louison's future expenditures. He had
+noted, with some secret alarm, a grave-faced, sturdy Frenchman,
+still in the forties, who was cast in the role of either courier
+or butler for the beautiful Mem-Sahib, whose loveliness in extenso
+he so far only divined by guess-work.
+
+In the stranger lady's special car there was also, at her side, a
+truculent Parisienne-looking woman of thirty, whose bustling air,
+hawk-like visage, and perfect aplomb bespoke the confidential
+French maid. "I must tell Hawke Sahib of this at once," mused Ram
+Lal. "We must, in some way, get rid of these foreign servants."
+The man had a semi-military air, heightened by the sweeping scar--a
+slash from a neatly swung saber. This purple facial adornment was
+Jules Victor's especial pride. In these days of "ninety" he often
+recurred to the stroke which had made his fortune in the dark reign
+of the Commune.
+
+As a wild Communard soldier he had risked his life vainly to save
+the aged Colonel Delavigne from a furious mob, for the red rosette
+in the old officer's buttonhole had cost him his life in an awkward
+promenade, and this sent the orphans, Valerie and Alixe Delavigne,
+adrift upon the mad maelstrom of Paris incendie. While Ram Lal
+glowered in his dissatisfaction, Madame Berthe Louison complacently
+regarded her two secret protectors on guard in the special car. For
+the strange turn of Fortune's wheel, which had left Alixe Delavigne
+alone in the world, and rich enough to effect her special vengeance
+upon her one enemy, had given to Jules Victor and his wife Marie
+a sinecure for life as the personal attendants of the soi-disant
+Madame Berthe Louison.
+
+Marie was but a wild-eyed child of ten when Jules had picked her
+up in the flaming streets of Paris, and they had graduated together
+from the gutters of Montmartre into the later control of Madame
+Louison's pretty little pied d' terre in Paris, hard by Auteuil,
+in that dreamy little impasse, the Rue de Berlioz. Neither of these
+attendants were faint-hearted, for their young hearts had been
+attuned early to the wolfish precocity of the Parisian waif. And
+they had followed their resolute mistress in her weary quest of
+the past years.
+
+Berthe Louison smiled in a comforting sense of security, as she
+gazed listlessly out upon the landscape flying by.
+
+The two servants, modestly voyaging out to Calcutta, on a telegraphic
+summons, to embark at Marseilles, had preceded the Empress of India
+by ten days. So, neither friendless, nor without untiring devotion,
+was the wary woman who had thus secretly armed herself against any
+"little mistake" on the part of Major Alan Hawke. Certain private
+instructions to the manager of Grindlay & Co., at Calcutta, had
+caused that respectable party to open his eyes in wonder.
+
+"Of course, Madame, our local agent at Delhi will act in your
+behalf, with both secrecy and discretion. I have already written him
+a private cipher letter in regard to your every wish being fulfilled."
+
+Such is the potent influence of a letter of credit, practically
+approaching the "unlimited."
+
+"If I could only use Jules in the double capacity of gentleman and
+factotum, I would dress him up a la mode and let him approach Hugh
+Johnstone," mused the beautiful tourist, but I must be content to
+use this cold-hearted adventurer Hawke, for he has at least a surface
+rank of gentleman, and, moreover, he knows my enemy! I must keep
+Jules and Marie every moment at my side, for some strange things
+happen in India by day as well as by night. Sir Hugh may dream of
+some 'unusually distressing accident' as a means of safely ridding
+himself of a long slumbering specter."
+
+"Of course, this sly jeweler is Alan Hawke's spy! A few guineas
+extra, however, may buy his 'inner consciousness' for me," she
+mused. And so it fell out that Ram Lal Singh was destined to drop
+into the secret service of both Hawke and the fair invader! And,
+as yet, neither of his intending employers could divine the dark
+purposes of the oily rascal who had stealthily watched Hugh Fraser
+for long years to slake the hungry vengeance of a despoiled traitor
+to the last King of Oude.
+
+Major Hawke found the tete e tete dinner with Hugh Johnstone a mere
+dull social parade. There was no demure face at the feast slyly
+regarding him, for while the two watchful secret foes exchanged
+old reminiscence and newer gossip, Justine Delande was cheering
+the lonely girl, whose silent mutiny as to her shining prison life
+now reached almost an open revolt. It was a grateful relief to the
+Swiss woman, whose agitated heart was softly beating the refrain:
+"To-morrow! to-morrow! I shall see him again!" She feared a
+self-betrayal!
+
+While the governess mused upon the extent of her proposed revelations to
+the handsome Major, that rising social star had adroitly exploited
+his long tete e tete with Captain Hardwicke to his host, and
+gracefully magnified the warmth of General Willoughby's personal
+welcome.
+
+"You see, Johnstone," patiently admitted the man who had dropped
+into a good thing, "They all want to delve into the secrets of my
+mission here. You, of all men," he meaningly said, "cannot blame
+me for throwing the dust into their eyes. I detest this intrusion,
+and so in sheer self-defense I am going to give a formal dinner
+to a lot of these bores, and then cut the whole lot when I've once
+done the decent thing." Circling and circling, and yet never daring
+to approach the subject, old Hugh Johnstone warily returned to the
+suspended baronetcy affair, at last revealing his secret burning
+anxieties. But when Alan Hawke heard the train whistles, announcing
+the arrival of his beautiful employer, he fled away from the
+smoking-room in a mock official unrest.
+
+"I am expecting dispatches from England, and also very important
+detailed secret instructions. I've had a warning wire from Calcutta."
+
+He had broken off the se'ance brusquely with a design of his own,
+and he rejoiced as Hugh Johnstone brokenly said: "Let me see you
+very soon again. I must have a plain talk with you." The old nabob
+was in a close corner now. There had been a few bitter queries
+from the half-distracted girl which showed, even to her stern old
+father, that his position was becoming untenable.
+
+"Damn it! I must either talk or send her away," he growled when
+left alone. "I've half a mind to telegraph Douglas Fraser to come
+here and convoy this foolish young minx home to Europe. She may
+grow to be a silent rebel like her mother." His scowl darkened.
+"And yet, where to send her? I ought to go with them. Can I trust
+the Delandes to find a safe place to keep her till I come?" He was
+all unaware that his daughter Nadine was now a woman like her bolder
+sisters of society, but it was true. The chrysalis was nearing the
+butterfly stage of life and beating the bars with her wings.
+
+The secret exultation of Justine Delande in her shadowy hold on
+Major Alan Hawke caused her to furtively lead Nadine Johnstone to
+the head of the great stairway, when Hawke made his adieux.
+
+"He is a handsome young officer," timidly whispered the girl,
+shrinking back out of sight. "What can he have in common with my
+father? I thought he was some old veteran." And the awakened heart
+of Justine Delande bounded in delight. She would have joyed to tell
+Nadine of her own romantic budding friendship, but a wholesome fear
+tied her tongue, and she was only happy when caressing the diamond
+bracelet that night, which encircled her arm, while with dry and
+aching eyes she waited for the dawn.
+
+While Hugh Johnstone paced the veranda of his lonely marble palace
+that night, a prey to vague fears, and unwilling to face the accusing
+eyes of his daughter, Major Alan Hawke, with a sudden astonishment,
+stood mute before the splendid woman who received him in the
+mysterious bungalow. There was scant ceremony of greeting between
+them, for Berthe Louison impatiently grasped his hands.
+
+"He is here, and the girl, too," she said, with blazing eyes. She
+stood robed as a queen before her secret agent. "Where were you?
+You left me here to wait in a torment of anxiety."
+
+"I have just come from his dinner table," quietly said the startled
+Major. "They are both here, and well. I am already intimate at the
+house, but I have not seen the girl. I feared being followed or I
+would have met you at the train." He marveled at her royal beauty.
+She was conscious now of the power of wealth, and some hidden fire
+glowed in her veins. "What can I do for you? He watches me. I can
+only come at night."
+
+"Ah!" the lady sternly said, "we must then play at hide and seek!"
+
+Ringing a silver bell twice, Madame Louison sank into a chair. Alan
+Hawke started up, inquiringly, as Jules and Marie entered the room
+from an ante-room, whose door was left ajar.
+
+"Jules! Marie!" calmly said Madame Louison. "This gentleman is my
+secret business agent. He will call here in the evenings very often.
+He has pass keys of his own, and you need not announce him. He is
+the only person who has the right to be in my house--at all times."
+The husband and wife bowed in silence and, at a gesture from their
+mistress, departed silently, having mentally photographed the
+newcomer.
+
+Gazing in open-eyed astonishment, the surprised Major faltered,
+"Who are these people? Why did you do this strange thing?"
+
+"To assure myself of safety," quietly smiled Berthe Louison. "They
+are my personal servants, whom I brought on from Calcutta, and I
+have reason to believe that Jules is both alert and courageous. He
+is a veteran of the Tonquin war, and that pretty scar was a present
+from the Black Flags. They were selected by one who knows the wiles
+of my desperate enemy Johnstone."
+
+"Now, Major Hawke, let us to business" calmly continued Berthe,
+secretly enjoying Alan Hawke's dismay. "Tell me your whole story.
+Only the events since your arrival here. The rest counts for nothing.
+We are all on the ground here and I propose to act quickly.  I
+learned some matters in Calcutta which have greatly enlightened
+me." The facile tongue of the renegade was slow to do the bidding
+of his unready brain. "Damme! But she's a cool one!" the ex-officer
+concluded, as he caught his breath. But, conscious of her watchful
+eye, he related all his adventures, with a judicious reserve as to
+Justine Delande. The burning eyes of Berthe Louison were steadily
+fixed upon the relator's face, and she was coldly noncommittal when
+Hawke paused for breath and a mental recapitulation. The Major now
+gazed upon her immovable visage. There was neither joy nor sorrow,
+neither the flush of anger nor the trembling of rage, awakened by
+the businesslike presentment of the social facts. "She is a human
+icicle," he mused. "She has some deadly hold on him!"
+
+"Can you trust this Ram Lal Singh?" the woman demanded in a
+business-like tone. Alan Hawke nodded decisively.
+
+"He knows Hugh Fraser Johnstone well?" queried Berthe.
+
+"They have been companions in the mixed line or Delhi since the
+mutiny," earnestly replied Hawke, slowly concluding: "And Ram Lal
+has been Johnstone's broker in selecting his almost unequaled Indian
+collection. Ram is a thief, like all Hindus, but he is square to
+me.  I hold him in my hand. You can trust to him, but only through
+me!" Berthe Louison raised her eyes and then fixed a searching
+glance upon Alan Hawke, as if she would read his very soul.
+
+"And, can I trust you?" she said, almost solemnly.
+
+"You remember our strange compact, Madame," coldly said Alan
+Hawke.  "Here, face to face with the enemy, I expect to know what
+is required of me--and also what my future recompense will be."
+
+"Ah, I forgot," mused the strange lady of the bungalow. "You have
+the right to teach me a lesson, in both manners and business. I
+forgot how sharply I had drawn the line, myself. Well, Sir, I will
+trust to you without any assurance on your part." She rang the
+silver bell at her side, once, and the silent Jules appeared, as
+attentive as Rastighello in the boudoir of the Duchess of Ferrara.
+"My traveling bag, Jules," said the lady, in a careless tone. There
+was a silence punctuated only by Alan Hawke's heavy breathing,
+until the silent servitor returned, bowing and departing without
+a word, as he placed the bag at Madame Louison's side. With
+a businesslike air, the lady handed Alan Hawke a sealed letter,
+addressed simply:
+
+HUGH FRASER JOHNSTONE, ESQ., DELHI.
+
+Near at hand, in the opened bag, the watchful Major saw the revolver
+and dagger once more which he had noted, at Lausanne.
+
+"Let Ram Lal deliver that personally to the would-be Baronet,
+to-morrow morning at eight o'clock. He is to say nothing. There will
+be no reply," measuredly remarked the strange woman whose life as
+Alixe Delavigne had brought to her the legacy of an undying hatred
+for the man whom she was about to face. "This will bring Hugh
+Johnstone to me at once!"
+
+"That is all?" stammered Alan Hawke, as he received the document,
+respectfully standing "at attention."
+
+"No, not quite all!" laughed Berthe Louison. "Pray continue a career
+of judiciously liberal social splendor here, an external 'swelling
+port' just suited to a man whose feet are planted upon a financial
+rock. But do not overdo it! It might excite Hugh Johnstone's alarm.
+Here is five hundred pounds in notes. There will be no accounts
+between us."
+
+"And, I am to do nothing else?" cried Hawke, in surprise. "I fear
+to have you meet this man alone! He is rich, powerful, and crafty.
+The nature of your business, I fear, is that of deadly quarrel.
+Remember, this man is at bay. He is unscrupulous. I fear for you!"
+
+The renegade spoke only the truth. For dark memories of Hugh Fraser's
+bitter deeds in days past now thronged upon his brain.
+
+"Fear not for me." cried Berthe Louison, springing up like a tigress
+in defense of her cubs. "Do you know that his life would be the
+forfeit of a lifted finger? Do you take me for a blind fool?" she
+raged. "Do you know the power of gold? Ah, my friend, there are
+unseen eyes watching my pathway here, and may God have mercy upon
+any one who practices against me, in secret! Any 'strange happening'
+to me would be fearfully avenged! As for this flinty-hearted brute,
+he would never even reach that threshold alive, if he dared to
+threaten! Go! Leave him to me. Come here to-morrow night. I shall
+have need of your cool brain and your ready wit! My only task was
+to find him and the girl together."
+
+"And if I am questioned about you? If anything occurs?" persisted
+Alan Hawke.
+
+"Simply ignore my existence; if we meet we are strangers!" gasped
+Berthe, who had thrown herself on a divan. "Obey me without
+questioning my motive! Each night you will receive orders for the
+next day, should I need your secret hand! Go now! I am tired! I
+must be ready to meet this man!"
+
+Alan Hawke had reached the door, but he turned back. "And as to
+Ram Lal? What shall I do?" The woman's eyes flashed fire.
+
+"Leave him also to me! I will handle him! A few rupees--will serve
+as his bait. Stay! You say that this Swiss woman, Justine Delande,
+is sympathetic, and seems to be a worthy person?" She was scanning
+his impassive face with steely glances now.
+
+"She is younger than her sister Euphrosyne," gravely said Alan
+Hawke, "and not without some personal attractions. Her older sister
+adores her. Even this old brute, Johnstone, seems to treat her with
+great respect and deference."
+
+"There is the only danger to us! Watch that woman! Mingle freely
+in the Johnstone household," said Berthe, wearily, "but never cast
+your eyes toward Nadine. Never even hint to this Swiss governess
+that you have seen her sister. After they return to Europe it is
+another thing. Silence and discretion now. Good night. Come to-morrow
+night at ten o'clock; all will be quiet, and you can steal away
+from the Club in safety."
+
+Major Alan Hawke stole away to the hidden entrance like a thief
+of the night. He started as he saw the menacing figure of Jules
+Victor glide swiftly after him to the secret opening in the wall.
+The servitor spoke not a single word, but watched the business
+agent disappear. "I must watch this damned Frenchman," he mused,
+feeling for his packet of notes and loosening his revolver. "He
+may be set on by this she devil to watch Ram Lal." And then Hawke
+gayly sought the jewel merchant, lingering an hour in the very room
+where he was on the morrow to meet the heart-awakened Justine. Old
+Ram Lal grinned as he accepted the letter. He was happy, for he
+heard the jingling of golden guineas in the near future. "You have
+nothing to do with me, Ram Lal," laughed the Major. "The lady will
+give you your orders, only you are to tell me all for both our
+sakes. I will see you rewarded," and again Ram Lal grinned in his
+quiet way.
+
+When Alan Hawke's head was resting on his pillow he suddenly became
+possessed with a strange new fear. "By God! I believe that she has
+been here before; she seems to be up to the whole game."
+
+Alan Hawke's steps hardly died away in the hallway before the beautiful
+Nemesis made a careful inspection of her splendid reception-room.
+The splendors of its curtained arches, its fretted ceiling, and
+its frescoed walls were idly passed over, for the woman only made
+an exhaustive survey of its geometrical arrangement. Marie Victor
+was in waiting at her side, and the mistress and maid were soon
+joined by Jules. Throwing open the door of a little adjoining
+cabinet, Madame Louison whispered a few private directions to the
+ex-Communard. "Do this at once yourself; none of the blacks are to
+know. I trust none of them!" imperatively commanded Berthe. "Marie
+will receive him. You are to be here at nine o'clock, and be sure
+to let no one of these yellow spies observe you. Now, both of you.
+Here is the rearrangement of the furniture. This will be your first
+task in the morning. You can both use the whole household for these
+changes. They are to obey you in all. Let all be ready when I have
+breakfasted. Now, Marie, I will try and rest. Jules, inspect and
+examine the house; then you can take your post for the night at my
+door. Have you exhausted every possibility of any trickery in the
+sleeping room?"
+
+"There's but the one door, Madame. Trust to me. I have sounded every
+inch of the walls, and even examined the floor." Jules Victor's
+romantic nature thrilled with the possibilities of the little life
+drama to come.
+
+Berthe Louison departed to rest upon her arms the night before the
+battle. Much marveled the swarming band of Ram Lal's creatures that
+no human being was suffered to approach the Lady of the Bungalow
+but her two white attendants. Berthe Louison had not reached the
+idle luxury of employing a dozen Hindus in infinitesimal labors
+near her person. For she fathomed easily Ram Lal's devotion to
+Major Alan Hawke.
+
+The presence of keen-eyed Marie Victor's brass camp-bed in My
+Lady's sleeping-room was a source of wonder to the velvet-eyed spy
+who was Ram Lal's especial "Bureau of Intelligence." "Strange ways
+has this Mem-Sahib," murmured the Hindu when he craved to know if
+the Daughter of the Sun and Light of the World desired aught. "I
+will then have two to watch. The waiting woman has the eye of a
+tiger."
+
+A personal verification of the fact that Jules Victor was encamped for
+the night, en zouave, on a divan drawn before the only door joining
+the boudoir and sleeping-room, caused the sly spy to greatly marvel,
+for the scarred face of the French social rebel was ominously
+truculent, and a pair of Lefacheux revolvers and a heavy knife lay
+within the ready reach of this strange "outside guard."
+
+In the dim watches of the first night in Delhi, the same barefooted
+Hindu spy learned by a visit of furtive inspection, that a night
+light steadily burned in the boudoir where Jules was toujours pret.
+The sneaking rascal crept away, with a violently beating heart,
+fearing even the rustle of his bare feet upon the mosaic floor.
+
+And all this, and much more, did he deliver with abject humility
+to Ram Lal Singh, when that worthy appeared the next day to crave
+his mysterious patron's orders. It seemed a tough nut to crack,
+this tripartite household arrangement.
+
+The dawn found Madame Berthe Louison as alertly awake as bird and
+beast stirring in the ruined splendors of old Shahjehanabad. Long
+before the anxious Justine Delande arose to deck herself furtively
+for her tryst with Alan Hawke, Berthe Louison knew that all her
+orders of the night before were executed.
+
+"You are sure that you can see perfectly, Jules?" said the anxious
+woman.
+
+"I command the whole side of the room where you will be seated,"
+replied the Frenchman, "and the ornaments and carved tracery cover
+the aperture. Marie has tested it and I have also done the same,
+reversing our positions. Nothing can be seen."
+
+"Good! Remember! Nine o'clock sees you at your post! You are
+prepared?" The woman's voice trembled.
+
+"Thoroughly!" cried the alert servitor, "Only give me your signal!
+I must make no mistake! There's no time to think in such cases!"
+He bent his head, while his mistress, in a low voice gave her last
+orders. Jules saluted, as if he were the leader of a forlorn hope.
+
+"And now for the first skirmish!" mused Berthe Louison, as she
+personally examined some matters, of more material interest to her,
+in the reception-room.
+
+The rearrangement of the furniture seemed to be satisfactory, and
+Madame Berthe Louison composedly busied herself with the arrangement
+of a writing case, and a few womanly articles upon the table which
+she had chosen as her own peculiar fortification. A few moments
+were wasted upon trifling with a well-worn envelope, now carefully
+hidden in her bosom. This maneuver passed the time needed for
+a stately carriage to sweep up from the opened grand gate of the
+bungalow to the raised veranda steps. "There he is!" she grimly
+said. "Now, for the first blood!"
+
+A man who was shaking with mingled rage and fear hastily strode
+across the broad portico, as Berthe Louison glided away from the
+curtained window and confidently resumed her own chosen chair. Her
+bosom was heaving, her eye was fixed and stern, and she steadily
+awaited her foe, for one last warning whisper had reached her hidden
+servitor.
+
+When Marie Victor threw open the double doors of the reception
+room, on its threshold stood the towering form of the man whom
+Alixe Delavigne had known in other years as Hugh Fraser, the man
+whose pallid face told her that he knew at last that he was under
+the sword of Damocles! Clad in white linen, his sun helmet in his
+hand, steadying himself with a jeweled bamboo crutch-handled stick,
+the old Anglo-Indian waited until Berthe Louison's voice rang out,
+as clear as a silver bell: "Marie! I am not to be interrupted."
+she calmly said. "You may wait beyond, in the ante-room!"
+
+The woman who had emerged from the dark penumbra of a dead Past,
+to torture the embryo Baronet, gazed silently at the stern old man
+glowering there.
+
+Striding up to her, the insolent habit of years was, strong upon
+him, as he hoarsely said: "What juggling fiend of hell brings you
+here?"
+
+Without a tremor in her voice, the lady of Jitomir replied:
+
+"I came here to undo the work of years! To teach an orphaned girl
+to know that a love which hallows and which blesses, can reach her
+from the grave in which your cold brutality buried the only being
+I ever loved! She shall know her mother, from my lips, and not
+wither in the gray hell of your egoism. I have searched the world
+over, and found you, at last, together!"
+
+"By God! You shall never even see her face, you she-devil!" cried
+the infuriated old man, nearing the defiant woman. "You were
+the go-between for your worthless sister and that Russian cur,
+Troubetskoi!"
+
+"You lie! Hugh Fraser, you lie!" cried Berthe, in a ringing voice.
+"You crushed the flower that Fate had drifted within your reach!
+You turned her into the streets of London to starve! You robbed
+her of her child, all this to feed your own flinty-hearted tyrant
+vanity!  She was divorced from you by a Royal Russian Decree, before
+she married the man whose heart broke when she was laid in the
+tomb. She rests with the princes of his line, and her tomb bears
+the name of wife!"
+
+The old nabob crept nearer, growling:
+
+"You shall never see the child's face!"
+
+Then, Alixe Delavigne sprang up and faced him: "There she is! on
+my heart! Just what her mother was, before you sent her to an early
+grave. Valerie died hungering for one sight of that child's face!"
+Throwing the picture of Nadine Johnstone on the table, the lady
+of Jitomir said: "Pierre Troubetskoi left to me the wealth which
+makes me your equal. I fear you not! I shall see Nadine to-morrow!"
+
+"Never!" roared Hugh Johnstone, now beyond all control. "I defy you!
+Beware how you approach my threshold!" His eyes were murderous in
+their steely blue gleam, and, yet, he met a glance as steady as
+his own.
+
+"Listen," said Berthe Louison, sinking back into her chair, "I
+will tell you a little story." Hugh Johnstone was now gazing at the
+photograph, which trembled in his hand. "Once upon a time a man
+secreted a vast deposit of jewels, really the spoil of a deposed king,
+and, rightly, the property of the victorious British Government!"
+The photograph fell to the floor as the old man sprang up from the
+chair, into which he had dropped. "This paper, the receipt for the
+deposit, once delivered to the Viceroy of India--and the Baronetcy
+which is to be your life crown is lost for ever." The old man's hands
+knotted themselves in anger. "The lying story that the deposit was
+stolen by an underling will bring you, Hugh Johnstone, to the felon's
+cell! You shall live to wear the convict's chain! The Government
+is partly aware of the facts. It rests for me to give the Viceroy
+the receipt for your private deposit. The private bank vault
+in Calcutta has hidden your shame for twenty years. You know the
+condition of your settlement with the Government. Now, shall I see
+my sister's child? I hold your very existence here--in the hollow
+of my hand!" The dauntless woman drew forth a yellowed envelope from
+her breast. There was a smothered shriek, a crash and a groan, as
+Jules Victor, springing from his concealment, hurled the infuriated
+man to the floor!
+
+With a knee on the panting nabob's breast, he hissed:
+
+"Move, and you are a dead man!"
+
+"Take the paper, Madame," calmly said the victorious Jules. Then
+Alixe Delavigne laughed scornfully.
+
+"Let the fool arise. The contents are only blank paper. The document
+is where I can find it for use. Remain here, Jules," concluded
+the triumphant woman, as she replaced the photograph in her bosom.
+"Take the envelope--you know it, Hugh Fraser. I stole it the night
+you drove the sister I loved from our miserly lodgings in London."
+The furious onslaught had failed, and the old nabob was only a
+cowering, cringing prisoner at will. He dared not even cry out.
+
+Hugh Johnstone groaned as his eyes turned from the woman, now laughing
+him to scorn, to the stern-faced Frenchman, who was covering the
+baffled assailant with the grim Lefacheux revolver.
+
+"Send this man away. Let us talk, Alixe," muttered the astounded
+Johnstone. Then a mocking laugh rang out in the room.
+
+"I am in no hurry now. I can wait. I like Delhi, and I shall find
+my way to Nadine's side, and she shall know the story of a mother's
+love. One signal from me, by telegraph, and the document goes to
+the Viceroy. So, I fear you not, my would-be strangler! It is for
+me to make conditions! Listen! I will send my carriage and my man
+to your house to-morrow morning at ten. You will have made up your
+mind then. I have friends all around me, here, at Allahabad, and
+in Calcutta. If you practice any treachery on me you die the death
+of a dog, even here, in your robber nest!"
+
+"I will come! I will come!" faltered Johnstone.
+
+"Ah!" smiled the lady. "Jules, show Sir Hugh Johnstone to his carriage."
+And then turning her back in disdain, she vanished without a word.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE PRICE OF SAFETY.
+
+
+
+
+
+When nabob Hugh Johnstone's carriage dashed swiftly down the crowded
+Chandnee Chouk, on its return to the marble house, the driver and
+footman, as well as the slim syce runners, were alarmed at the
+old man's appearance when he was half led, half carried out of his
+luxurious vehicle. The staggering sufferer reached his rooms and
+was surrounded by a bevy of frightened menials, while the equippage
+dashed away in search of old Doctor McMorris, the surgeon par
+excellence of Delhi. A second butler had hastily darted away to
+the Delhi Club with an imperative summons for Major Alan Hawke,
+who had, unfortunately, left for the day.
+
+With a shudder of affright Mademoiselle Justine Delande had slipped
+into a booth on the great thoroughfare, only to feel safe when she
+glided into Ram Lal Singh's jewel shop, to be swiftly hurried into
+the rear reception room by the argus-eyed merchant, who had noted
+the swiftly passing carriage. Her womanly conscience was as tender
+as her heart.
+
+"Lock the door, Ram Lal!" cried Alan Hawke, "We will be in the pagoda
+in the garden. Let no one pass this door, on your life!" When they
+were alone, Major Alan Hawke led the trembling woman away to to
+the hidden bower, where Ram Lal had hospitably spread a feast of
+India's choicest cakes and dainties.
+
+Only there, in that haven of safety, dared the excited Justine to
+falter. "If you knew what I have suffered! He drove almost over
+me as I crossed the Chandnee Chouk, and I had a struggle to leave
+Nadine. There is the curse of an old family sorrow there. The father
+and daughter are arrayed against each other."
+
+"Forget it all, my dear Justine," murmured Alan Hawke. "Here you
+are hidden now and perfectly safe with me. Never mind those people
+now.  Let us only think of each other. You were simply matchless
+in your behavior at the house."
+
+"Oh, I fear him so! I fear that hard old man!" whispered the timid
+woman, as she dropped her eyes before Alan Hawke's ardent glances.
+He had noted the growing touch of coquetry in her dress; he measured
+the tell-tale quiver of her voice, and he smiled tenderly when she
+shyly showed him the diamond bracelet, securely hidden upon her
+left arm.
+
+"I put this on to show you that I do trust you," she murmured.
+"And I wear it every night. It seems to give me courage." The happy
+Major pressed her hand warmly.
+
+"Let it be a secret sign between us, an omen of brighter days for
+all of us. Stand by me and I will stand by you to the last. We will
+all meet happily yet by the beautiful shores of Lake Leman!"
+
+In half an hour, Justine Delande was completely at her ease, for
+well the artful renegade knew how to circle around the dangerous
+subject nearest his heart--the secret history of Nadine Johnstone's
+mother. He had dropped easily into the wooing and confidential
+intimacy which lulled Justine Delande into a fool's paradise of
+happy content.
+
+She was sinking away and now losing her will and identity in his
+own, without one warning qualm of conscience. For Alan Hawke's
+dearly bought knowledge of womankind now stood him in great stead.
+
+"One single familiarity, one questionable liberty, and this cold-pulsed
+Heloise would fly forever. She must be left to her day dreams and
+to the work of a sweet self-deception," he artfully mused. They
+were interrupted but a moment, when Ram Lal Singh glided to the
+door of the pagoda.
+
+"I must now go to the bungalow to see Madame Louison and have her
+approve her horses and carriage. She has sent word that she will
+drive this afternoon. And," he whispered breathlessly, "Old Johnstone
+is very sick. He has sent all over the city to find you, and now
+his own private man bids me go there at once. He must have me, if
+he can't find you."
+
+Major Hawke mused a moment. "Give me the keys! Put your best man on
+guard to watch for any intruders! Go first to the Mem-Sahib! Keep
+your mouth shut! Remember about me and--" He pointed to the governess,
+now timidly cowering in a shadowy corner. "Let the old devil wait
+till you are done with her! Pump the old wretch! Find out what he
+wants! Say that I went off for a day's jaunt!" Alan Hawke smiled
+grimly as he seated himself tenderly at Justine Delande's side. "Old
+Hugh did not last long! They must have had their first skirmish.
+If he is a coward at heart, she will rule him with a rod of iron.
+What is her hold over him? I warrant that the jade will never tell
+me. She will fight him to the death in silence, and try to hoodwink
+me. We will see, my lady! We will see!"
+
+"Now, Justine," softly said the renegade, "tell me all of the story
+of this strange father and daughter! Ram Lal has reconnoitered! We
+are safe! Both Hugh and his daughter are at home!"
+
+The reassured governess frankly opened her heart to her wary listener.
+It was an hour before the recital was finished, and Miss Justine
+was gayly chatting over the impromptu breakfast, when the details
+of these last stormy days at Delhi were described. "I cannot make
+it all out. She is certainly his legitimate daughter. He is crafty,
+covetous, miserly, and yet he lives in a scornful splendor here.
+Both my sister and myself look forward to learning the whole story
+through my visit here. Of course, on our arrival, Nadine and myself
+wondered not at the gloomy solitude of the marble house. But the
+affronts to society, the practical imprisonment of this girl, this
+chilling silence as to her mother, have roused her brave young
+heart. Not a picture, not a single memento, not even a jewel, not
+a tress of hair, not even a passing mention of where that shadowy
+mother lies buried!" the Swiss woman sighed. "He is a brute and
+tyrant--a man of a stony heart and an iron hand!"
+
+"You have never been made his confidante?" earnestly asked the
+Major.
+
+"Never!" promptly replied Justine. "Beyond a grave courtesy and
+the curt answers to our reports, with liberal payment, we know no
+more now than when the prattling child of four was brought to us.
+
+"She has no childish memories of her own. I have overheard all the
+unhappy scenes of the last month. There are the tearful prayers of
+Nadine, then the old man's harsh threats, and then only his cold
+avoidance follows. Strange to say--gentle and warm-hearted, formed
+for love, and yearning to know of the dear mother whom she has fondly
+pictured in her dreams, Nadine Johnstone has all the courage of a
+soldier's daughter, and her fearless bravery of soul is as inflexible
+as steel. She returns frankly to the contest, and his only refuge
+is the wall of cold silence that he has built up between them!"
+
+"Has he tried to punish her in any way--to intimidate her?" eagerly
+cried the Major.
+
+"Not yet," answered Justine. "She tells me all, and he knows it.
+I can see that his eyes are fixed on me now with a growing hatred.
+He fears that I uphold her in this duel of words, of answerless
+questions.
+
+"He has threatened her roughly with sending her away to some place,
+to 'come to her senses,' alone, and--" the frightened woman said,
+"That is what I fear--some sudden, rough brutality. He despairs
+of making her love him. If she were suddenly removed--and I cast
+adrift on the world, alone, here, he would, I suppose, send me back
+to Switzerland. He can do no less, but I would lose her forever
+from my sight. I know that he hates me, and we have always hoped
+that he would make us a handsome present, on her marriage. Euphrosyne
+and I have been as mothers to her." There were tears in the woman's
+anxious eyes now. She was startled as Hawke bounded to his feet.
+
+"By God!" he cried, forgetting himself. "That's just his little
+game! It must never be! See here, Justine! I have reason to think
+that you are right. He may try to spirit her away and separate
+her forever from you and Euphrosyne. He would cut off the only two
+friends who could connect her with this strange past. Yes, that's
+his little game! And--" he slowly concluded, controlling himself,
+"I have reason to think he may go about it at once. He is afraid
+of me, also, about some old official business. Now, I will watch
+over your interests. The least this old miser can do is to give
+you a neat little home in Geneva, as a final recompense."
+
+Justine Delande's eyes sparkled in gratitude. The acute Major had
+easily learned from the garrulous Francois that the "Institut Pour
+les Jeunes Dames" was an intellectual property only; the fine old
+mansion belonging to a rich Genevese banker. Major Alan Hawke was
+now busied in writing upon a few leaves torn from his betting book.
+
+"Listen to me!" he gravely said. "Promise me that you will never
+let these papers leave you a moment."
+
+"I will carry them in my passport case, around my neck," murmured
+Justine. "My money in notes, and a few articles."
+
+"Good!" energetically cried Hawke. "I will write the same to
+Euphrosyne, and send it by 'registered post' to-day."
+
+"Here!" he suddenly cried, "Just pencil a few words to her to say
+that you are with me, and that we understand each other; that our
+interests are to be one; and that she must keep the faith and help
+us both, for both our sakes. I will mail it so that old Johnstone
+will be powerless to injure any of us three." He gave her another
+leaflet from his book, and detached a golden pencil from his watch
+chain.
+
+There was a crimson flush upon her cheek, as she vainly essayed to
+write. Her hand trembled, and then with a sob, her head fell upon
+her breast; with an infinite art, the triumphant renegade soothed
+the excited woman, and, it was only through her happy tears that
+she saw him, before her there, duplicating the secret addresses.
+
+"Now, Justine; my Justine!" softly said Alan Hawke. "Here is a secret
+address in Allahabad, and a secret address in London. If this man
+decides to send Nadine away, he will do it secretly in some way.
+There are several seaports open to leave India. You will be, of
+course, sent out of Hindostan with her. It would be just his little
+game, however, to separate you at the first foreign port, to pay
+you off royally, and then--neither you nor Euphrosyne would ever
+see Nadine again. There is something hanging over him that he would
+hide from her. He fears me, also, for my official power. Remember,
+now!  No matter whatever happens you can always find a way to
+telegraph to me. If I am in India, here to Allahabad; if in Europe,
+to London.  Now, Euphrosyne will know always where I am. Telegraph
+me the whereabouts of Nadine Johnstone, or, where you are forced
+to leave her, telegraph the vessel you are on, and her destination,
+and, I swear to you, by the God who made me, I will track her down,
+and we three shall find a way to reach her later. He would like to
+lock her up in a living tomb, if he found it to be to his interest.
+A cheap private asylum in Germany, or some low haunt in France,
+perhaps hide her away in Italy as a pretended invalid. The man is
+mad--simply mad--about this baronetcy, and in some strange way the
+girl stands between him and it. Do you promise?"
+
+"I promise you all!" faltered the excited woman. "Let me go now.
+Let me go home, Alan," she murmured, and there were no heart secrets
+between them any more, as the blushing woman, still trembling with
+the audacity of her own burning emotions, was led safely to the
+door of the jewel mart.
+
+"Be brave, be brave, dear Justine," he whispered. "Old Johnstone
+has sent for me. You shall have your home yet; I guarantee it.
+I shall be frequently at the house in the next few days. Remember
+to control yourself, and to watch the sly game of this old brute.
+I will stay here and send off at once our first letter to Euphrosyne.
+This girl will have a million pounds. You and your sister must not
+be robbed of the recompense of nearly twenty years of tenderness.
+Cleave to her, heart to heart, and tell me all. I will make you
+both rich!"
+
+"Trust me to the death! I understand all now," whispered Justine,
+her breast heaving in a new and strange emotion, flooding her chilly
+veins as with a subtle fiery elixir.
+
+"Then go, but, dear one, be here two days from now at the same
+time.  Should any accident happen, Ram Lal will then come and bear
+to you my message. You can trust him. I will stay here and send
+this registered letter from here at once. Then, Hugh Johnstone
+has three loving guardians to outwit before he can hide away your
+beautiful nursling!"
+
+"For you." he softly whispered, as he slipped a little packet into
+her hand, when she stole out of the shop, after Alan Hawke had
+judiciously reconnoitered.
+
+"Dear, simple soul!" contentedly reflected Major Hawke, as he
+busied himself with the important letter to the staid Euphrosyne.
+"She has given me her heart, in her loving eagerness to defend that
+child, and the key to the whole situation. It would be just like
+this old brute to spirit the girl away to baffle Madame Berthe
+Louison. That is, if he dare not kill or intimidate her. And that
+I must look to.  I think that I see my way to that girl's side now.
+God, what a pot of money she will have!"
+
+When Alan Hawke had finished his boldly warm letter to Euphrosyne,
+he sealed it and sent it to the post by Ram Lal's footman. The
+world looked very bright to him as, enjoying a capital cheroot, he
+studied for a half hour a wall map of India. "There's a half dozen
+ways to spirit her out of the Land of the Pagoda Tree. I must watch
+and trust to Justine. To-night I may or may not know what this
+devil of a Berthe Louison is up to. Will she try to take the girl
+away? That would be fatal."
+
+"Hardly--hardly," he decided, as he mixed a brandy pawnee. He
+gazed around at Ram Lal's sanctum, in which the old usurer received
+the Europeans whom he fleeced in his nipoy-lending operations. "A
+pretty snug joint. Many a hundred pounds have I dropped here." It
+was neatly furnished forth with service magazines, London papers,
+army lists, and all the accessories of a London money-lender's
+den. When the receipt for his registered letter was laid away
+in his pocket-book, Alan Hawke calmly ordered his carriage. "I'll
+take a brush around town and show them that I am out of all these
+intrigues," he decided. It was six hours later when he drew up at
+the Club, having passed Madame Berthe Louison's splendid turnout
+swinging down the Chandnee Chouk. On the box the alert Jules, in
+a yager's uniform, sat beside the dusky driver, and, even in the
+dusk, he could see the neat French maid seated, facing her mistress.
+"By God! She has the nerve of a Field Marshal! She will never hide
+her light under a bushel!" he had gasped when Madame Louison, at
+ten feet distant, gazed at him impassively through her longue vue,
+and then calmly cut him. He was soon besieged by a crowd of gay
+gossips at the Club upon dismounting from his trap.
+
+"Tell us, Hawke, who is the wonderful beauty who has taken the
+Silver Bungalow," was the excited chorus.
+
+"How the devil should I know, when you fellows do not," good-humoredly
+cried Alan Hawke, as the Club steward edged his way through the
+throng.
+
+"There's a message for you, Major," said the functionary. "Mr. Hugh
+Johnstone is quite ill at his house, and has been sending all over
+for you."
+
+"Ah! This is grave news" ostentatiously cried Hawke. "I'll drive
+over at once." And then he fled away, leaving the gay loiterers
+still discussing the lovely anonyma whose advent was now the one
+sensation of the hour. "Who the devil can her friends be?"
+
+"She plays a bold game," mused the startled Major.
+
+On her return to the marble house, Justine Delande had been welcomed
+by the anxious-eyed apparition of Nadine Johnstone, who burst into
+her room in a storm of tears. "I have been so frightened," she
+cried as she clasped her returning governess in her trembling grasp.
+
+"My father has just had a terrible seizure--an attack while riding
+out on business. He will see no one but Doctor McMorris, and besides,
+he has the old jewel merchant searching all over Delhi for Major
+Hawke. You must not leave me a moment, Justine."
+
+"Is he better?" demanded Justine, with guilty qualms.
+
+"He is resting now, but he will not be quieted till he sees this
+strange man," answered the disconsolate girl.
+
+"How beautiful she is," mused the Swiss woman, as Nadine Johnstone
+sat with parted lips relating the excitements of the morning. The
+wooing Indian climate was fast ripening the exquisite loveliness
+of eighteen. Her dark eyes gleamed with earnestness, and the rich
+brown locks crowned her stately head as with a coronal of golden
+bronze.  The roses on her cheeks were not yet faded by the insidious
+climate of burning India, and a thrilling earnestness accented the
+music of her voice.
+
+"What can we do, Nadine?" murmured Justine Delande.
+
+"Nothing," sighed the motherless girl. "But when this Major Hawke
+comes, you must, for my sake, find out all you can. Ah! To leave
+India forever!" she sighed. Her marble prison was only a place of
+sorrow and lamentation.
+
+Major Hawke's flying steeds reached the marble house, after a
+circuit to Ram Lal's jewel mart. Without leaving his carriage, he
+called out the obsequious old Hindu. The dusk of evening favored
+Ram Lal in his adroit lying.
+
+He gave a brief account of Hugh Johnstone's strange morning seizure,
+forgetting to divulge to Hawke that the old nabob had already bribed
+him heavily to watch the inmate of the Silver Bungalow, and report
+to him her every movement. Nor, did the Hindu divulge his secret
+report to Madame Berthe Louison, after her ostentatious public
+carriage promenade. He further hid the fact that Madame Louison had
+deftly pressed a hundred pounds upon him, in return for a daily
+report of the secret life of the marble house. But he smiled blandly,
+when Major Hawke hastily said "Will he die?"
+
+"No; he is all right! He was over there with the Mem-Sahib this
+morning, and something must have happened."
+
+"What happened?" imperiously demanded Hawke.
+
+"I don't know," slowly answered Ram Lal.
+
+"Don't lie to me, Ram Lal," fiercely said the Major. "I have a
+fifty-pound note if you will find out."
+
+"He is going there to-morrow," slowly said Ram.
+
+"All right, watch them both. I'll be back here. Wait for me." And
+then at a nod the horses sprang away.
+
+"Fools! Fools all!" glowered Ram Lal, as he straightened up from
+his low salaam. "I'll have those stolen jewels yet. Now is the time
+to gain his confidence. He is an old man, and weak, and, cowardly."
+
+When Major Hawke entered the great doors of the marble house, he
+was gravely received by Mademoiselle Justine Delande. "He has been
+asking every ten minutes for you," she said. "I am to show you at
+once to his rooms."
+
+"Now, what's this? what's all this?" cheerfully cried the Major as
+he entered the vast sleeping-room of the Anglo-Indian. Old Johnstone
+feebly pointed to the door, and motioned to his attendants to leave
+the room. He was worn and gaunt, and his ashen cheeks and sunken
+eyes told of some great inward convulsion. He had aged ten years
+since the pompous tiffin. "I'm not well, Hawke! Come here! Near to
+me!" he huskily cried. And then, the hunter and the hunted gazed
+mutely into each other's eyes.
+
+"What's gone wrong?" frankly demanded the Major. The old man scowled
+in silence for a moment.
+
+"I have no one I dare trust but you," he unwillingly said. "You
+know something of my position, my future. I want to know if you
+have ever met this woman who has taken the Silver Bungalow--a kind
+of a French woman. There's her card." Old Johnstone's haggard eyes
+followed Hawke, as he silently studied the bit of pasteboard.
+
+"Madams Berthe Louison," he gravely read. And, then, with a
+magnificent audacity, he lied successfully. "Never even heard the
+name," he murmured.
+
+"Fellows at the Club speaking of some such woman today. Pretty
+woman, I supppose a declasste." Hawke, lifted his eyebrows.
+
+"No, a she-devil!" almost shouted old Hugh. "Now, I want you to
+watch her and find out who her backers are. She is trying to annoy
+me. Be prudent, and I'll make it a year's pay to you." Hawke's greedy
+eyes lightened as he bowed. "But never mention my name. Come here
+as often as you will. Go now and look up what you can. I'll see you
+to-morrow, in the afternoon. Don't scrape acquaintance with her.
+Just watch her. I'm going there to-morrow morning myself."
+
+"You?" said Hawke.
+
+"Yes," half groaned the old man, turning his face to the wall.
+"Come to-morrow afternoon. Spare no money. I'll make it right.
+Don't linger a minute now."
+
+Major Alan Hawke was gayly buoyant as the horses trotted back to
+Ram Lal Singh's, where he proposed to await the hour of ten o'clock.
+"I fancy, my lady, that you, too, will pay toll, as well as Hugh
+Johnstone," he murmured. "You shall pay for all you get, and pay
+as you go." He cheerfully dined alone in Ram Lal's little business
+sanctum, and listened to the measured disclosures of the Hindu in
+return for the fifty-pound note.
+
+"It's to-morrow's interview that I want to know about," quietly
+directed the major, whereat Ram Lal modestly said:
+
+"I'll find a way to let you know all."
+
+"That's more than she will, the sly devil," said Hawke, in his
+heart, as he leaned back in the consciousness of "duty well done."
+
+In the Silver Bungalow, Alixe Delavigne sat in her splendid
+dining-room, under the ministrations of her Gallic body-guard. Her
+eyes were very dreamy as she recalled all the fearful incidents
+of the annee terrible. The flight from Paris after their father's
+death, the escape to England, the refuge at a Brighton hotel--the
+sudden projecture of Hugh Fraser athwart their humble lives. When
+the returned Indian functionary abandoned all other pursuits and
+plainly showed his mad craving to follow Valerie Delavigne everywhere,
+then the younger sister had learned of his rank, of his long leave
+and wealth and future prospects. The man was most personable then.
+He was of a solid rank and a brilliant civil position, and the
+penniless daughters of the dead Colonel Delavigne were now reduced
+to a few hundred francs. The hand of Misery was upon them, poor
+and friendless. Alixe, with a shudder, recalled the two years
+of silence, since the ardent Pierre Troubetskoi had whispered to
+beautiful Valerie Delavigne in Paris: "I go to Russia, but I will
+soon return and you must wait for me!"
+
+Day by day, when the skies grew darker, Valerie Delavigne had gazed
+with a haunting sorrow in her eyes, at her helpless sister. Some
+strange possessing desire had urged Hugh Fraser on to woo and win
+the helpless French beauty, whom an adverse fate had stranded in
+England. The mute sacrifice of the wedding was followed by the two
+years of Valerie's loveless marriage. It was an existence for the
+two sisters, bought by the sacrifice of one and Troubetskoi never
+had written!
+
+Sitting alone, waiting for the morrow, to face Hugh Fraser once more,
+Alixe Delavigne recalled, with a vow of vengeance, that sad past,
+the slow breaking of the butterfly, the revelation of all Hugh Fraser's
+cold-hearted tyranny, the sway of his demoniac jealousy--jealous,
+even, of a sister's innocent love. And that last miserable scene,
+on the eve of their projected voyage to India, when the maddened
+tyrant discovered Pierre Troubetskoi's long-belated letter, returned
+once more to madden her. Fraser had simply raged in a demoniac
+passion.
+
+For the mistake of a life was at last revealed when that one letter
+came! The letter addressed to the wife as Valerie Delavigne, which
+had followed them slowly upon their travels, and, by a devil's
+decree, had fallen, by a spy-servant's trick, into Hugh Fraser's
+hands. It mattered not that the coming lover was even yet ignorant
+of the miserable marriage. The envelope, with its address, was
+missing, when the long pages of burning tenderness were read by
+the infuriated husband. "I have been buried a year in the snows
+of Siberia," wrote Pierre, "upon the secret service of the Czar.
+I was ill of a fever for long months upon my return, and now I am
+coming to take you to my heart, never to be parted any more." The
+address of his banker in Paris, all the plans for their voyage to
+Russia, even the tender messages to the sister of his love--all
+these were the last goad to a maddened man, whose raging invective
+and brutal violence drove a weeping woman out into the cheerless
+night. He deemed her the Russian's cherished mistress. With a
+shudder Alixe Delavigne recalled the white face of the discarded
+mother, whose babe slumbered in peace, while the half-demented
+woman fled away to the shelter of the house of an old French nurse.
+
+The morrow, when Hugh Fraser bade her also leave his house
+forever, was pictured again in her mind, and the insolent gift of
+the hundred-pound note, with the words, "Go and find your sister!
+Never darken my door again!" She had taken that money and used it
+to save her sister's life.
+
+The darkened sick-chamber, the flight across the channel, and the
+rugged path which led Valerie, at last, to die in peace in Pierre
+Troubetskoi's arms--all this returned to the resolute avenger of
+a sister who had died, dreaming of the little childish face hidden
+from her forever, "He shall pay the price of his safety to the
+uttermost farthing, to the last little humiliation," she cried,
+starting up as Alan Hawke stood before her, for the hour of ten
+had stolen upon her. "Nadine shall love her mother, and that love
+shall bridge the silent gulf of Death!"
+
+"You have been agitated?" he gently said, for there were tell-tale
+tears upon her lashes. "Tell me, is it victory or defeat?"
+
+"I shall see my sister's child, to-morrow," the Lady of Jitomir
+bravely said. "And he--the man of the iron heart--shall conduct me
+to his house in honor." There was that shining on her transfigured
+face which made Alan Hawke murmur:
+
+"There is a great love here--greater than the hate which demands
+an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."
+
+He waited, abashed and silent, for his strange employer's orders
+of the day.
+
+"Is there anything I can do for you to-morrow?" said Alan Hawke.
+"Do you find your arrangements convenient for you here in every
+way?" The respectful tone of his manner touched Berthe Louison's
+heart. He was beginning to win his way to her regard by judiciously
+effacing himself.
+
+"I am entirely at home, thanks to your thoughtful provision," she
+smiled. "There is nothing to-night. Have you seen Johnstone?" Her
+dark eyes were steadfastly fixed upon him now.
+
+"Yes; he sent for me. He is very much agitated and, I should say,
+he is almost at your mercy. But beware of an apparent surrender on
+his part. He is--capable of anything!"
+
+"I know it. I am on my guard," slowly replied Berthe Louison. She
+saw that Alan Hawke had spoken the truth to her--even with some
+mental reservations. "To-morrow morning will determine my public
+relations with Hugh Johnstone. Come to me to-morrow night, and do
+not be surprised if we meet as guests at Hugh Johnstone's table.
+You must only meet me as a stranger. I may leave here for a few
+days, and then I will place you in charge of my interests in my
+absence."
+
+The Major gravely replied:
+
+"You may depend upon me wherever you may wish to call upon me."
+
+"Strange mutability of womanhood," he mused a half hour later as
+he left the lady's side. "There is a woman whom I should not care
+to face tomorrow morning if I were in Hugh Johnstone's shoes."
+It was the renegade's last verdict as he slept the sleep of the
+prosperous.  The Willoughby dinner and his own feast now occupied
+his attention, for his mysterious employer had bade him to eat,
+drink, and be merry.
+
+At ten o'clock the next day the "gilded youth" of the Delhi Club
+all knew that Hugh Johnstone had betaken himself to the Silver
+Bungalow, in the carriage of the woman whose beauty was now an
+accepted fact.  Hugely delighted, these ungodly youth winked in
+merry surmises as to the relationship between the budding Baronet
+and the hidden Venus.  Even bets as to discreetly "distant
+relationship," or a forthcoming crop of late orange blossoms were
+the order of the day. But silent among the merry throng, the handsome
+Major, making his due call of ceremony upon General Willoughby,
+denied all knowledge of the designs of either of the high contracting
+parties.
+
+In due state, escorted by the alert Jules Victor, Hugh Johnstone
+entered the Silver Bungalow, to find his Cassandra silently awaiting
+him. There was no memory of the happenings of the day before in
+her unconstrained greeting. The door of the strategic cabinet was
+ajar, but the tottering visitor had no fears of an ambush. For
+Madame Alixe Delavigne calmly said: "Jules, you may remain within
+call, in the hall."
+
+The old nabob's heart leaped up in a welcome relief at this command.
+His wrinkled face was of the hue of yellowed ivory, and his cold
+blue eyes were weak and watery, as he heavily lurched into a chair
+facing his hostess. Courage and craft had not failed him, for
+already Douglas Fraser was speeding on to Delhi from Calcutta, the
+sole occupant of a special train. In the long vigil of the night,
+Hugh Johnstone had evolved a plan to ward off the blow of the sword
+of Fate! But watchfully silent he awaited his enemy's conversational
+attack.
+
+"Damn her! I will outwit her yet!" he silently swore.
+
+"Before you give me your answer, Hugh Fraser," said the calm-voiced
+woman, "I wish to tell you again what, in your mad jealousy, you
+would not believe. I swear to you that Pierre Troubetskoi's letter,
+written to my dead sister, was written in ignorance of her marriage
+with you. The frightful scenes of the carnage of Paris had tossed
+us to and fro, and the careless destruction of the envelope, addressed
+to my sister under her maiden name, prevented me from proving her
+innocence as a wife. Pierre Troubetskoi had long known my father,
+who had been an attache in Russia. He was Valerie's knightly suitor.
+And he fell into the estates which now burden me with wealth, while
+absent upon the Czar's secret affairs. My gallant old father was
+sacrificed to the frenzy of the time; his soldier's face betrayed
+him, his rosette of the Legion doomed him, Troubetskoi's letter
+to our father demanding Valerie's hand was returned to the writer,
+through the Russian Legation, a year later, after the reorganization
+of the Paris Post-office. I do not ask you to believe this, but by
+the God of Heaven, it is my warrant for forcing myself to the side
+of my dead sister's child. She shall yet have every acre and every
+rouble that Pierre Troubetskoi would have given to this child whom
+you hide. My sister died with her empty arms stretched to Heaven,
+imploring God for her child. And now, what terms will you make
+with me. In the one case, an armed peace; in the other, "war to
+the knife!"
+
+"What would you have?" he stubbornly muttered. "You seek my ruin."
+
+"I do not!" solemnly answered Berthe Louison. "God has blasted
+your life in denying you the love of your own child. You rule her
+by fear. You, in your selfish passion, once reached out your strong
+hand and crushed this girl's mother, a poor, fragile flower, in
+her girlhood. Valerie believed Pierre to be dead or false when she
+timidly crossed the threshold of the wedded home which you made
+a prison for her! You only care for this bubble Baronetcy and for
+your heaped-up hoards. The tribute of the shrieking ryot! Now, here
+are my terms: I will go down with you to Calcutta, and deliver over
+to you there the receipt for the deposit of jewels which holds back
+your coveted honor. You may do with them as you will! A visit to
+the Viceroy will at once clear the path. Tell any story you will
+of their recovery. An underling's unfaithfulness or the loss of the
+paper. You may remove them and surrender them as you will. Perhaps
+a fanciful discovery of their hiding-place here, their surrender by
+Hindu thieves, frightened at last; any of these conventional lies
+will clear your official record of the olden stain. Long years ago
+I would have treated with you, but I wanted to find the child. You
+hid her away from me. I found you out by chance in your changed
+name and new official residence."
+
+"And your terms?" demanded Johnstone. He saw, with lightning cunning,
+a pathway leading him out of his troubles. The vigil of the night
+before had borne its fruit already.
+
+"That I have free access to your house and home. That I shall be
+the honored guest at your table. That I shall be left in no dubious
+social standing here. That I may see your daughter, learn to know
+her, and you may prudently arrange the story I am to tell her later.
+As Madame Berthe Louison, a tourist of wealth, an art dilettante, a
+French woman of rank and position, your social guaranty will keep
+the pack of human wolves away from my retreat here. I have my papers
+to prove all this."
+
+"When must this be? Before I receive the jewels? Before my title
+to the baronetcy is perfected? What guaranty have I?" he replied.
+
+"My honor alone! I pledge you now that I will not make myself
+known to Nadine until you have received the jewels and the Crown
+has obtained its long sequestered property. We are to come back
+here together. The future relations can be decided upon when I have
+satisfied my natural affection; when your innocently besmirched
+record has been righted." Hugh Johnstone's silvered head was bowed
+for a long interval in his trembling hands. "You will not betray
+me to the authorities, when all is done? Your lips shall be sealed
+as to the past?" Alixe Delavigne bowed in silence. "Then I accept
+your terms upon one condition only: That until we return from Calcutta,
+you will only see Nadine in my presence or in that of Mademoiselle
+Delande, her governess. It is only fair. When you have restored to
+me the jewels, you can then concert with me upon a plan to enlighten
+Nadine, with no scandal to me, no heart-break to her. The slightest
+gossip as to a family skeleton reaching the Viceroy or the home
+authorities would lead to my public disgrace."
+
+Alixe Delavigne paced the room in silence for a few moments, while
+Hugh Johnstone's eyes were fixed upon the opened cabinet whence
+Jules Victor had so fiercely sprung forth as a champion.
+
+"Be it so!" sternly replied Alixe Delavigne. "And may God confound
+and punish the one who breaks the pact."
+
+"When do you wish to come? When can you go to Calcutta? I would like
+to hasten matters," demanded the old nabob, with his eyes averted.
+The beautiful woman paused, and after a moment replied:
+
+"To-morrow, come here and bring me to your house to dine. This
+afternoon you may call here and drive me over Delhi in your carriage.
+This will set a public seal upon our acquaintance. My maid can
+accompany us. This done, I will go to Calcutta with my two European
+servants, as you wish. You can take the train on either the preceding
+or the following day. It will avoid both spies and gossip."
+
+"I will go before you and await you!" eagerly said Hugh Johnstone,
+rising. "I will ask another person to dine with us to-morrow, and
+this evening I will prepare my daughter for the dinner, so that
+your coming will be no surprise to her. Shall I bring my carriage
+here at four to-day?"
+
+"I will await you," gravely said Alixe Delavigne, as she bowed in
+answer to her guest's formal signal of departure.
+
+An hour later Jules Victor reported to his mistress: "We drove to
+the telegraph office, where I awaited the gentleman for some time,
+and then we repaired to his home."
+
+There was a disgruntled man whose curses upon his kinsman's changing
+moods were both loud and deep when Douglas Fraser received a telegram
+that night at Allahabad. "Is the old man crazy?" he demanded, as he
+read the words: "Wait at Allahabad for me. Keep shady. With you in
+three days. Telegraph your address." The canny young Scot thought
+of a coming legacy and obeyed the head of his clan.
+
+Madame Berthe Louison, as Delhi was destined to know her, lingered
+long over her afternoon driving toilet. There was a recurring fear
+which made her tremble. "Would Hugh Johnstone divulge the facts as
+to the jewels to the Viceroy, and so gain his free rehabilitation-and
+then defy her? No-no! He never would dare!" she answered. "My agents
+are even now watching that bank. The bank would never give up the
+sealed packages contents unknown, save on surrender of the carefully
+drawn receipts." And then Berthe remembered her own secret work at
+Calcutta. The Grindlays knew of the surreptitious attempts made by
+the plausible Hugh Fraser to withdraw the deposit long before the
+baronetcy episode. And Berthe laughed, in memory of her capture
+of the receipts in the old days at Brighton, while looking for the
+stolen letter.
+
+Long before that rising star of fashion, Major Alan Hawke, returned
+from General Willoughby's delightful dinner upon the day of Hugh
+Johnstone's crafty surrender, he knew that Hugh Johnstone had astounded
+Delhi by a personal exploitation of the Lady of the Silver Bungalow.
+
+"By Gad! Hawke!" roared old Brigadier Willoughby, with his mouth
+full of chutney, "Johnstone is going the pace! First he produces
+a daughter, a hidden treasure, and now this wonderfully beautiful
+French countess."
+
+"I suppose, General," lightly said the Major, "the old nabob will
+marry and retire to Europe on his coming baronetcy."
+
+"Likely enough!" sputtered Willoughby. "You lucky young dog. I
+suppose you are in the secret?"
+
+But neither that night, nor two days later, at Major Hawke's superb
+dinner at the Delhi Club, did the jeunesse doree of the old capital
+extract an admission from that mysterious "secret service" man, Major
+Alan Hawke. "You cannot deny, Hawke, that you dined at the marble
+house with the beauty whom we are all toasting," said a rallying
+roisterer. "And--with the Veiled Rose of Delhi!" said another,
+still more eagerly.
+
+"It is true, gentlemen" gravely said Major Hawke, "that I was invited
+to dinner at the marble house, but Madame Louison is a stranger to
+me, and I believe a tourist of some rank. It was merely a formal
+affair. I believe that she brought letters from Paris to Hugh
+Johnstone." Late that night Alan Hawke laughed, as he pocketed
+his winnings at baccarat. "Three hundred pounds to the good! I'm a
+devil for luck!" And he sat down in his room to think over all the
+events of a day which had half turned his head. Warned by Justine
+Delande that Madame Louison was bidden to dine with Hugh Johnstone,
+Alan Hawke closely interrogated her. She evidently knew and suspected
+nothing. "Ah! Berthe plays a lone hand against the world," he
+smiled.
+
+His mysterious employer had merely bidden him be ready to meet her
+there, without surprise. There was as yet no lightning move up on
+the chess board, and in vain he studied her resolute, smiling face.
+"All I can tell you," murmured Justine to her handsome Mentor, in
+the seclusion of Ram Lal's back room, "is that this Madame Berthe
+Louison comes to spend the day in looking over Hugh Johnstone's
+art treasures. Nadine and I are to meet her, with the master. Do
+you know aught of her?"
+
+"Nothing, dear Justine," unhesitatingly lied Alan Hawke. "Watch
+her and tell me all."
+
+"I will," smilingly replied the Swiss. "I have a strange fear that
+Hugh Johnstone has known her before, that he intends to marry her,
+and then to send us two, Nadine and I, away to a quiet life in
+Europe." Whereupon Alan Hawke laughed loud and long.
+
+"She is only a bird of passage, some wealthy globe wanderer, perhaps
+even a sly adventuress. No, old Johnstone will not tempt Fortune."
+
+"He has been so unusually amiable," agnostically said Justine. "Of
+course he could hide such a design easily from Nadine, who knows
+nothing of love."
+
+"She will learn! She will learn--in due time," laughed Hawke.
+"There is but one thing possible. This whole pretended visit may
+be a sham--she may even be the belle amie of this old curmudgeon."
+
+"I will watch all three of them! You shall know all!" murmured
+Justine, as she stole away, not without the kisses of her secret
+knight burning upon her lips.
+
+"What a consummate actress!" mused Alan Hawke, when, for the first
+time, since Nadine Johnstone's arrival, a formal dinner party
+enlivened the dull monotony of the marble house. The round table,
+set for five, gave Hugh Johnstone the strategic advantage of
+separating his secret enemy from his blushing daughter. Hawke demurely
+paid his devoirs to Madame Justine Delande, with a finely studied
+inattention to either the guest of the evening or the beautiful
+girl who only murmured a few words when presented to her father's
+only visitor. "I wonder if Justine, poor soul, will see the
+resemblance?" It had been a triumph of art, Madame Berthe Louison's
+magnificent dinner toilette, those rich robes which effaced the
+opening-rose beauty of the slim girl in the simplicity of her rare
+Indian lawn frock. Rich color and flowers and diamonds heightened
+the splendid loveliness of the woman who "looked like a queen in
+a play that night."
+
+Alas, for Justine Delande, she was so busied with her mute telegraphy
+to Alan Hawke that she never saw the startling family likeness of
+the two women so eagerly watched by Hugh Johnstone. But the keen-eyed
+Alan Hawke saw the girl's fascinated gaze. He noted her virginal
+bosom heaving in a new and strange emotion. He marked the tender
+challenge of her dreamy eyes as Berthe Louison's loving soul spoke
+out to the radiant young beauty only held away from her heart by
+the stern old skeleton at the feast.
+
+The long-drawn-out splendors of the feast were over, and the ladies
+had, at last, retired. Hawke observed the stony glare with which
+Johnstone whispered a few words of command to Justine Delande, when
+the two men sought the smoking-room.
+
+The door was hardly closed upon them when the coffee and cigars
+were served, when Johnstone, striding forward, locked the door.
+
+"See here, Hawke!" abruptly said the host "I want you to serve me
+to-night, and to stand by me while this she-devil is in Delhi. I've
+got to run down to Calcutta on business for a few days. She will
+not be here. She has some business of her own down there, also.
+First, find out for me, for God's sake, all about her. How she came
+here; where she hides in Europe; who her friends are. When you are
+able to, you can follow her over the world. I'll foot the bill, as
+the Yankees say.
+
+"Now, to-night, I wish you to take your leave conventionally.
+Get away at once, and go immediately and telegraph to Anstruther
+in London. No, don't deny you are intimate with him. I know it.
+Telegraph him that I am in a position, now, to trace out and restore
+those missing jewels. The secret of their hiding is mine at last.
+Here's a hundred pounds. Don't spare your words. Within a month
+they will be in the hands of the Viceroy. I have to play a part to
+get them--a dangerous part. I pledge my whole estate to back this.
+But I must have my Baronetcy so that I can leave India, for I fear
+the vengeance of the devils who robbed the captured Princes of
+Oude.
+
+"Once in England, I am safe. I'll not leave till I get the Baronetcy,
+and the jewels will not be delivered up until I get it. I am closely
+watched here."
+
+Hawke's eyes burned fiercely. "And if I was to take the train and
+tell the Viceroy this?" he boldly said.
+
+"Then I would say that you had lied--that is all."
+
+"What do I get?" coolly demanded Hawke.
+
+"Five thousand pounds the day that I get my Baronetcy," quietly
+replied Johnstone.
+
+"I'll not do it," hotly cried Hawke. "You might say I lied," he
+sneered. "I want it now!"
+
+The two men glared at each other in a mutual distrust. Hugh Johnstone
+pondered a moment, and said deliberately:
+
+"I'll give you five accepted drafts for a thousand pounds each, when
+I return from Calcutta, on Glyn, Carr & Glyn, my London bankers,
+dated thirty days apart. That will make you sure of your money,
+and me, sure of my Baronetcy. Will you act?" Hawke knocked the ash
+off his Havana lightly.
+
+"Yes, if you give me a thousand pounds cash bonus now! I am
+deliberately misleading Anstruther to help you. And I risk my own
+place to do it."
+
+"All right," said Johnstone as he left the room, and in a few
+moments returned with a check-book. "There's your thousand pounds.
+Now listen. Not a word to old General Willoughby. He is a meddlesome
+old sot. I shall slip away quietly. To deceive the Delhi scandal-mongers
+you must call here every day in my absence.  Mademoiselle Delande
+will receive you. My daughter, of course, sees no one in my absence.
+And you can inform Delhi secretly, guardedly, that Madame Berthe
+Louison is an art enthusiast, a Frenchwoman of rank and fortune,
+and one who, in her short stay, only studies the wonders of old
+Oude. I don't want this damned pack of local lady-killers--the
+lobster-backs--to get after her. Do you understand? I'll have
+further use for you. I may retire to Europe.  You can trust the
+Swiss woman. I will give her my orders."
+
+"All right! I will go and telegraph as soon as I can make my adieux.
+When do you start for Calcutta?" Hawke asked warily.
+
+"The moment you get Anstruther's reply," decisively replied Johnstone.
+"I'll be away for a couple of weeks in all!" Hawke turned paler
+than his wont, but he mused in silence and cheerfully finished
+his coffee and cognac. In half an hour, he left an aching void in
+Justine Delande's bosom, but some subtle magnetism had so drawn
+Berthe Louison and the heart-stirred Justine together that Hugh
+Johnstone was happy, when, with courtly gallantry, he escorted the
+beauty, who had set Delhi all agog, to her garden-bowered nest.
+
+"Have I kept my compact?" said Berthe, as they stood once more in
+her "tiger's den."
+
+"You have, madame!" said Hugh Johnstone. "I have been considering
+all. I will leave secretly for Calcutta in two or three days. You
+had better follow me in a week. I have some private business there.
+I will ask my friend, Major Hawke, to show you the environs. You
+can trust him. Telegraph me to Grindlay's Bank, Calcutta, of your
+arrival. I will meet you. Our business transacted, we can return
+together on the same train. All will then be safe." His own secret
+preparations were all made.
+
+"I agree to all," said Berthe. "And, as to Nadine?"
+
+Johnstone turned with blazing eyes, "You are to see her each day,
+at her own home, in the presence of Justine Delande. She will have
+my orders. Remember our compact! All your future association with
+her depends on your prudence. I will not be betrayed or openly
+disgraced!" His face was as black as a murderer caught in the act.
+
+"I remember!" said the beauty of the Bungalow.
+
+"To mystify the fools here, if I will bring my daughter and take
+you for a drive, each day at four, till I go," said Johnstone.
+"And, then, I'll have Hawke show you the city." He bowed, and at
+once disappeared, leaving his enemy laughing. But he grinned.
+
+"If she knew that I go to meet Douglas Fraser, my lady would pass
+an uneasy night! I hold the trump cards now!"
+
+Major Alan Hawke smiled grimly the next day, when he presented to
+Hugh Johnstone a neatly got up cipher, answering dispatch in code
+words which had cost Ram Lal just half of the bribe which Hawke
+gave him for the sly Hindu telegraph clerk.
+
+"Ah! Anstruther was prompt!" said the neatly tricked nabob, when
+Hawke translated:
+
+"Intelligence gratifying. Name approved and on list. Appointment
+sure!" Three days later, Delhi missed Hugh Johnstone from the
+afternoon drives, which showed Madame Louison and Nadine to an
+eager bevy of Madame Grundys. But the envied of all men was Major
+Alan Hawke, escorting Madame Louison for a week over the storied
+plains of the Jumna.
+
+When Madame Berthe Louison and her two body servants took the
+Calcutta train, local society jumped to its sage conclusion.
+
+"Old Hugh will lead the beautiful Countess to the altar, while
+Major Alan Hawke will bear off the Rosebud of Delhi, and so become
+the richest son-in-law in India." But the handsome Alan Hawke,
+each morning lingering with Justine Delande in the grounds of the
+marble house, never saw the face of Nadine Johnstone. The beautiful
+girl breathlessly awaited her new-made friend's return. But stern
+old Hugh Johnstone, at Calcutta, laughed as he thought of his own
+secret coup de main.
+
+"Wait! Wait till I return!" he gloated. "She is powerless now!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+HARRY HARDWICKE TAKES THE GATE NEATLY.
+
+
+
+
+
+In the few days succeeding Hugh Johnstone's still unsuspected
+departure, the dull fires of a growing jealousy burned and smouldered
+in Captain Harry Hardwicke's agitated heart. The old nabob had
+neatly slipped away in the night, on a special engine, and the
+Captain heard all the growing tattle of Delhi, as to the social
+activity at the marble house. The open hospitable board of General
+Willoughby rang with the very wildest rumors. Alan Hawke seemed to
+be the "Prince Charming" of the hidden festivities.
+
+Hardwicke, on the eve of his Majority, now darkly moped in his
+rooms, undecided to apply for a long home leave, unwilling to leave
+Delhi, and even afraid to ask his general for any positive favor
+as to a future station. Club and mess bandied the freest tattle as
+to old Hugh Johnstone's lovely "importation." Men eyed the prosperous
+Major Alan Hawke on his rising pathway with a growing envy. There
+was a smart coterie who now firmly believed that the Major's
+only "secret business" was to marry the Rose of Delhi, and then,
+departing on an extended honeymoon, leave the "Diamond Nabob," as
+the ci-devant Hugh Fraser was called, free to proclaim Madame Berthe
+Louison, queen of the marble house, and sharer of his expected
+dignity, the crown of his life, the long-coveted Baronetcy. When
+old Major Verner growled:
+
+"That's the scheme, Hardwicke! My Lady of France makes the condition
+that the young heiress shall be settled first. Gad! What a lucky
+dog Hawke is!" Then, Harry Hardwicke suddenly discovered that he
+loved the moonlight beauty of his dreams--the fair veiled Rose of
+Delhi.  Hawke rose up as a darkly menacing cloud on his future.
+
+His morning rides were now but keen inspections of the Commissioner's
+garden, and, lingering on the Chandnee Chouk, he knew, by experiments,
+conducted with a beating heart, just where Justine Delande was wont
+to wander in the lonely labyrinth, with her lovely young charge.
+A low double gate, a break in the high stone wall, often gave him
+glimpses of the two women in their morning rambles and, with a
+softened feeling, born of her own secret passion for Hawke, Justine
+Delande watched a fluttering handkerchief often answer Captain
+Hardwicke's morning salute.
+
+"Tell me, Justine," said Nadine, the morning after Hugh Johnstone had
+stolen away, "Why does my father not ask Major Hardwicke to visit
+us? He is to be promoted for his superb gallantry, he is so brave--so
+noble! He certainly has as many claims to honor as this--this Major
+Hawke--whom my father has made his confidant. I don't know why,
+but I don't like that man!"
+
+"What do you know of Major Hardwicke, as you call him?" cried
+Justine in wonder at Miss Nadine's growing interest.
+
+"Ah!" the agitated girl cried with blushing cheeks, "Mrs. Willoughby
+told me how he dragged his wounded friend out of a storm of Afghan
+balls, and gave her back the child of her heart. It was General
+Willoughby who got him his Victoria Cross. And, she says that he
+is a hero, he is so gentle and manly--so gifted--a man destined
+to be a commanding general yet." The guilty Swiss woman dared not
+raise her eyes to watch the fleeting blushes on Nadine's cheeks.
+
+"It is time, high time we leave India," she mused, and then, the
+thought of separation from Alan Hawke chilled her blood. "Let us go
+in," she said. "The grass is damp yet." Captain Hardwicke's argus
+eyes, love inspired, were now daily fixed on the marble house. He
+scoured Delhi and amassed a pyramid of detached fragmentary gossip
+in all his alarm, but one star of hope cheered him. Though Major
+Hawke was known as the only cavalier of Madame Louison, save the
+old nabob, now supposed to be ill at home; though Hawke drove out
+for a week with the lovely countess--to the great surprise of the
+local society, the handsome renegade had never once been seen in
+public with Miss Nadine Johnstone. Stranger still, the star-eyed
+Madame Berthe Louison had never accompanied the young heiress in
+the regular afternoon parade en voiture. "There's a mystery here,"
+mused the lover. "Old Hugh and the Major appear daily with the
+Frenchwoman, but Nadine Johnstone has never been seen alone with
+anyone save her father, or this Swiss duenna. Hawke is making slow
+progress there, if any." Meeting old Simpson, the nabob's butler,
+Captain Hardwicke tipped him with a five-pound note. The old retired
+soldier grinned and opened his confidence.
+
+"The Major! Bless your stars!" gabbled Simpson, "She's a straightaway
+angel, and not for the likes of him! Major Hawke has a dark spot
+or two in his record--away back!" grumbled Simpson, "No, Captain!
+Major Hawke has never set eyes on her for a single moment, but the
+one night of that dinner. By the way, it is the only one we ever
+gave!" The butler swelled up proudly.
+
+"That night she never lifted her eyes, nor spoke even a word to
+him.  He comes to see the Guv'nor on business, an' mighty private
+business it is. They're locked up together often."
+
+"And, this marrying? The stories are now told everywhere?" queried
+Hardwicke, blushing, but desperately remembering that "all is fair
+in love and war." He, an incipient Major, a V. C.--"pumping" an
+old private soldier.
+
+"Rank rot!" frankly said the butler, "They're all strangers. The
+French countess is only sight-seeing here and buying out old Ram
+Lal's shop. The old thief! She brought letters to the Guv'nor!
+That's all! He's no special fancy to her, and he set Major Hawke
+on just to do the amiable. The Guv'nor's far too old to beau the
+lady around. Marry?--not him! And Miss Nadine's just as silent as
+a flower in one of them gold vases. All she does is to look pretty
+and keep still, poor lamb. Her music, her books, her flowers, her
+birds.  And as to Major Hawke and this Madame Louison--I've the
+Guv'nor's own orders they are never to see Miss Nadine. That is,
+Hawke not at all, and the lady only when Miss Delande is present!
+Them's my solid orders, and the old Guv'nor put my eye out with a
+ten-pound note--the first I ever got from him. No, Captain! You've
+done the handsome by me, and I give you the straight tip--wasn't
+I in the old Eighth Hussars with your father when we charged the
+rebel camp at Lucknow? I've got a tulwar yet that I cut out of the
+hand of a 'pandy' who was hacking away at Colonel Hardwicke."
+
+"How did you get it, Simpson?" cried the young Captain.
+
+"I got arm and all! Took it off with a right cut! You may know,
+Cap'n, that we ground our sabers in those old days! No, sir! Miss
+Nadine's for none of them people, and Hawke is only in the house for
+business. He's a deep one--is that same Hawke," concluded Simpson,
+pocketing his note.
+
+Captain Hardwicke began to see the light dawning. "Alan Hawke has
+then some secret business scheme with the old money grubber that's
+all," mused the young engineer officer, happy at heart. "I'll
+fight a bit shy of him. His scheme may take the girl in. So, old
+Johnstone's away a few days. Perhaps settling his affairs before
+his departure. I think," the lover mused, "I will follow them to
+Europe, if they go, and, if they stay, Willoughby will ask for my
+retention, and, after all, 'faint heart never won fair lady.' Hawke
+is not an open suitor. If the old man should ever marry this French
+beauty, I may find the pathway open to Nadine Johnstone's side!"
+
+So, with a "fighting chance," Captain Hardwicke determined that Miss
+Nadine should know his heart before long, and have also a chance
+to know her own mind. "The fact is, the old boy has lived the life
+of a recluse, that's all, but I'll find a way to pierce the shell
+of his moroseness. There's one comfort," he smiled, "No other fellow
+is making any running."
+
+In these swiftly gliding days of absence, Ram Lal Singh and the
+watchful Major Alan Hawke conferred at length over narghileh and
+glass. A sullen discontent had settled down on Hawke's brow when
+Berthe Louison publicly departed upon her business trip with not
+even a fragmentary confidence.
+
+"Wait for my return, and only watch the marble house," said the
+Madame. "Do not be foolish enough to attempt to call on Miss Nadine.
+I heard Johnstone tell the Swiss woman not to allow you to follow
+up any social acquaintance with his daughter. 'I want Nadine to
+remain a girl as yet,' growled the old brute. Now, the Swiss woman
+may be able to give you some information."
+
+"I'll do what I can," carelessly replied Alan Hawke, but his eyes
+gleamed when she said:
+
+"Do not sulk in your tent. On my return I shall have need of you.
+You can prepare to go into action then."
+
+"Where shall I address you at Calcutta?" demanded Hawke. "Something
+might happen."
+
+"Ah," smiled Berthe Louison. "Nothing will happen. Not a line, not
+a telegram; send nothing, come what will! I return here soon, and,
+besides, Old Johnstone might watch and intercept it. Remember, we
+do not know each other. It would be a fatal mistake to write." And
+so she went quietly on her way. The house was locked, the Indian
+servants having the Madame's orders to admit no one, on any pretense.
+"Damn her!" growled Alan Hawke, when the door was shut in his face.
+"She feared I would give her away to Johnstone. No address! Not a
+line or a telegram! Only wait--only wait!"
+
+Ram Lal infuriated him later with the news that nothing could
+be learned from the baffled spies of the household in the Silver
+Bungalow as to the first or second interwiew of Johnstone and
+the resolute Alixe Delavigne. "Money will not do it! Not a lac of
+rupees. The Frenchman and woman never leave her day or night. He is
+on guard with weapons and a night light at her door, and the maid
+sleeps in the room.
+
+"And she has other secret helpers!" groaned the baffled Ram Lal.
+"She is writing and receiving letters all the time. And yet none
+of these come or go by the post. She does not trust you, Major,"
+said the jewel merchant, with a cruel gleam of his dark eyes. "I
+believe that she is some old love of Sahib Johnstone. They have
+deep dealings. She has bought a great store of jewels and trinkets
+from me."
+
+"Hell and fury! I've been duped!" cried Hawke. "I see it. That
+damned Frenchman takes and brings the letters! But who is her local
+go-between? Perhaps the French Consul at Calcutta, or some banker
+here! I can't buy them all. She only needs me in case of a violent
+rupture with Johnstone. Damn her stony-hearted impertinence!"
+
+And he mentally resolved to sell her out and out to the liberal old
+nabob. "He might then give his daughter to me for peace and safety.
+But I've got to do the trick before he finds out the falsity of
+Anstruther's so-called telegram. And, first, I must have something
+to sell. She is the devil's own for sly nerve, is my lady."
+
+"She is too smart for us, as yet," soothingly said Ram Lal. "But
+wait; wait till they return! Pay me well and I will find out all
+that goes on. I can always get into the marble house at night.
+At any time, I may spy on old Johnstone and get the secret there.
+I have a couple of men of my own in his house. They know where to
+leave a door, a window, an opened sash for me. And at the Silver
+Bungalow, I can go in and out secretly by day and night. She would
+not know. You would not wish anything to happen to her?" The old
+jewel merchant's voice was darkly suggestive.
+
+"No! Devil take her!" cried Hawke. "What I want to know is hidden
+in her crafty head and stony heart. Death would bury it forever.
+Nothing must happen either to her or to him. It would spoil the
+whole game. Don't you see, Ram Lal, there's money in this for you
+and me just as long as we keep them all here under our hands. If
+they separate--even if one goes to Europe--you can watch one and I
+the other. You can always frighten money out of old Johnstone if
+we tell each other all, and I can follow that woman over Europe and
+dog her till she is driven crazy. She will fear me just as long as
+old Hugh Johnstone is alive, for I could sell her out to him. No
+one else cares. They must both live to be our bankers. Now tell
+me, why did either or both of them go to Calcutta--what for?" Ram
+Lal figuratively washed his hands in invisible water.
+
+"Running water, passing silently, leaves no story behind, Sahib,"
+he said, simply. "We have not caught our eels yet. But they are
+both coming back into our eel pot." And as the days dragged on
+Alan Hawke beguiled the time with the most energetic inroads into
+Justine Delande's heart.
+
+"Some one must break the line of the enemy," darkly mused Alan Hawke,
+as in the unrestrained intimacy of their long, morning rides, he
+influenced the Swiss woman's heart, love-tortured, to a greater
+passionate surrender.
+
+"It maybe all in all to me, in my secret career, your future
+fidelity," he pleaded. '"It will be all in all to you, and to your
+sister. There will be your home, the friendship of an enormously
+rich woman! The girl will have a million pounds! And you and I,
+Justine, shall not be cast off, as one throws away an old sandal."
+The cowering woman clung closer daily to the man who now molded
+her will to his own.
+
+The absence of Johnstone and Madame Louison seemed confirmation of
+the rumors of coming bridals.
+
+"They will come back, as man and wife!" growled old Verner, to
+Captain Hardwicke, "and then, look out for a second bridal! Hawke
+and the heiress!" But Harry Hardwicke only smiled and bided his
+time. His daily morning ride led him to the double gateway, to at
+least nearby the isolation of the lovely Rose who was filling his
+heart with all beauty and brightness.
+
+Major Alan Hawke had withdrawn himself into a stately solitude at
+the Club. His evenings were spent with Ram Lal, and his mornings
+with the deluded Justine, who dared not now write to the calm-faced
+preceptress in Geneva how far the tide of love had swept her on.
+In the long afternoons, Major Hawke was apparently busied with
+the "dispatches" which duly mystified the Club quid mines, as they
+were ostentatiously displayed in the letter-box. No one but Ram
+Lal knew of the abstraction from the mail, and destruction of these
+carefully sealed envelopes of blank paper. But the thieving mail
+clerk in their secret pay, laughed as he consigned them later to
+the flames.
+
+The astute Major was not aware that he was being daily watched by
+secret agents representing both the absent ones whom he desired
+to dupe. But a daily letter was dispatched by a local banker to
+a well-known Calcutta firm, which reached Madame Louison, and old
+Hugh Johnstone, busied at his lawyers, or sitting alone at night with
+Douglas Fraser in Calcutta, smiled grimly, when he, too, received
+his data as to Hawke's progress. A growing coldness which had cut
+off Hardwicke's friendship seemed to interest Hugh Johnstone. "I
+suppose that old Willonghby thinks Hawke is spying upon him. Just
+as well!"
+
+There had been a lightning activity in the old man's movements
+before Madame Louison arrived in Calcutta. He was fighting for his
+future peace and his coveted honors. The lawyer with whom he spent
+his first day was astounded at the peculiar nature of the last will
+and testament which the old nabob ordered him to draft at once.
+"The steamer, Lord Roberts, goes to-morrow, and I wish a duplicate
+to be deposited here in the bank, under your care, as I shall write
+to my senior executor regarding it."
+
+The nabob's remark, "Make your fees what you will. I give you carte
+blanche!" had silenced the remonstrances which rose to the lawyer's
+lips. "I know what I am doing, Hodgkinson," said Hugh Johnstone.
+"Blood is thicker than water! I can trust nothing else. These two
+men as executors will exactly carry out my wishes. In naming a
+guardian by will, for my daughter, I do not forget that she is yet
+a child at eighteen, and, at twenty-one, she may be the destined
+prey of many a fortune hunter! As for my directions and restrictions,
+I know my own mind!"
+
+When Hugh Johnstone, Esq., of Delhi and Calcutta, had seen the fleet
+steamer, Lord Roberts, sail away for London, bearing a carefully
+registered document addressed to "Professor Andrew Fraser, St. Agnes
+Road, St. Heliers, Jersey, Channel Islands, England," he could not
+remember a detail forgotten in the voluminous letters of positive
+orders now also on their way to his distant brother. He smiled
+grimly as he entered the P. and O. office, and, after a private
+interview with the manager, called his nephew, Douglas Fraser, away
+to a private luncheon. They had first visited the one bank, which
+Johnstone trusted, and there deposited a sealed document to the
+order of "Douglas Fraser, executor." The young man had been alarmed
+at his stern old uncle's curtness, on the return trip from Allahabad,
+his strange manner and his grim silence. But he was simply astounded
+when his nabob relative quietly said:
+
+"I have obtained a six months' leave of absence for you! Let no one
+know of your movements. Leave your rooms and baggage just as they
+are. I will now move in there, and put one of my servants in charge
+while you are gone. I have made my will and named your father as my
+executor and the guardian of my daughter, and you are to succeed,
+in case of his death! There will be a small fortune for you both
+in the fees, and neither of you are forgotten in the will! I have
+drawn two thousand pounds in notes for you, and here is a bank draft
+on London for three thousand more!" The young man was sitting in
+open-mouthed wonder, when the nabob sharply said: "Now! Have your
+wits about you!  I bear all the expenses here, and your office pay
+goes on. You will be promoted on your return. The manager of the
+P. and O. is my lifelong friend."
+
+"What am I to do?" gasped the young man, fearing his uncle was
+losing his wits.
+
+"You are to disappear from Calcutta to-night. Go without a word to
+a living soul! You are neither to write to a soul in India, nor open
+your mouth to a human being, in transit. You are to go by Madras,
+take the first steamer to Brindisi, and then hurry by rail to Paris
+and Granville, and to St. Heliers. You will find your detailed
+orders there with your father. Then stay there, await my orders
+from here, not leaving your father's side, a moment. Now, I tell
+you again, your future fortunes depend upon your exact obedience!
+I will give you my private wishes after we have had luncheon. The
+only thing that you will have in writing is an address to which I
+wish you to cable each day after you land at Brindisi, until you
+turn over your business to your father. You may cable also from
+Aden and Port Said."
+
+The luncheon was "a short horse and soon curried." For a half an
+hour Hugh Johnstone earnestly whispered to his nephew, whose face
+was grave and ashen. At last the old man concluded, "Here is a letter
+to use at Delhi. There will be a telegram already in the hands of
+the two parties intended.
+
+"'Remember! You are to go, but once, from here to your lodgings.
+Then simply disappear! Take nothing but a mackintosh, an umbrella,
+and your traveling bag. Buy at Madras what you want. Here's a
+couple of hundred pounds. You will find the engine at the station
+now in waiting for you. The whole line is open for you. Do your
+Delhi work at night. The train will be made up for you the very
+moment you arrive at Delhi. I give you just one day to connect with
+the Rangoon at Madras. You are not for one single moment to lose
+your charge from sight till on the steamer. From Brindisi, the
+directions I have given cover all. Here is an envelope for the
+Swiss woman which will make her your friend. Now go, Douglas! This
+is the foundation of your fortune. If you succeed, you will have
+all I leave behind in India. In case of any trouble in India,
+telegraph instantly to this address, and I will join you at once.
+Memorize this address, and destroy it then! Telegraph to me from
+Delhi, but only when you start. And, when you sail from Madras,
+only the name of the steamer.  The trainmen will do the rest. They
+have their orders already. Is there anything else?"
+
+The young man pulled himself together. "It's like the Arabian
+Nights!"
+
+"Go ahead, now, and show yourself a man!" cried Hugh Johnstone,
+almost in anguish. "I do not wish to see you again until you have
+earned your fortune! One last word: You are to make no explanations
+whatever!"
+
+The young envoy grasped his kinsman's hands, crying: "You may count
+on me in life and death! I'll do your bidding."
+
+Old Johnstone drank a bottle of pale ale and composedly smoked
+a cheroot, after he had watched the stalwart, rosy young Briton
+stride away on his strange journey. A robust, frank-faced, fine
+young fellow of twenty-six, with the fair brow and clear blue eyes
+of the "north countree," was manly Douglas Fraser.
+
+Toiling resolutely to rise, step by step, in the service of the
+Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company, he had never dreamed of
+the sudden favor of his rich kinsman, and yet, loyal as the good
+Sir James Douglas, he silently took up his quest.
+
+"I can't understand the old gentleman." he mused as he hurried
+a half an hour later into the station, though prudently selected
+by-streets. "There may be some old official entanglement hanging
+over him yet. Some reason why he would quit India quietly, or perhaps
+some one who owes him a grudge. At any rate I'll do my duty to him
+like a man--to him and to the others--like a gentleman."
+
+Hugh Johnstone measuredly betook his way to Douglas Fraser's
+lodgings.
+
+Before the old man was settled on Douglas's cozy wicker lounge,
+the pilot engine was tearing away with the young voyager, who had
+simply stepped out of his own life to make a sudden fortune.
+
+"Now, damn you, Alixe Delavigne," hoarsely muttered the old man,
+when alone, "I will see you to-morrow! You shall rule me until I
+get these two coffers out of the bank, and until our home-coming at
+Delhi. Then, you jade," he growled, "Ram Lal shall do the business
+for you, even if it costs me ten thousand pounds!" which proves
+that an old tiger may be toothless and yet have left to him strong
+claws to drag his prey down. "Money will do anything in India or
+anywhere else!" the old nabob growled, forgetting that even all the
+yellow gold of the Rand or the gleaming diamonds of the Transvaal
+will not avail to fill the burned-out lamp of life!
+
+The prolonged absence of the embryo Sir Hugh Johnstone was a
+matter of public comment in Delhi, while the knowing ones winked
+significantly at the almost triumphal departure of Madame Berthe
+Louison, whose special car and ample retinue made her a modern
+European Queen of Sheba. "Tell you what, fellows," said "Rattler"
+Murray, otherwise known as "Red Eric, of the Eighth Lancers," "the
+old Commissioner will return superbly 'improved and illustrated'
+with her, a new edition of the standard old work. You see, there's
+a French Consul-General at Calcutta, and then and there the
+matrimonial obsequies will be performed. But I'll give him just a
+year's life," and the gay lieutenant struck an attitude, quoting
+the menacing jargon in "Hamlet":
+
+"In second husband, let me be accurst; None wed the second, but
+who killed the first."
+
+"What infernal rot you do gabble, Murray!" suddenly cried Alan Hawke,
+dropping a double barrier of the newest Times, as he prepared to
+leave the clubroom in disgust. "Hugh Johnstone was only called down
+to Calcutta on some important financial business some days ago, and
+he went there simply to rearrange some of his large investments.
+Madame Louison is only a stranger here, a tourist traveling
+incognito, and connected with some of the best noble families of
+France." With great dignity Major Hawke stalked away to his rooms,
+leaving the club for a long drive in disgust.
+
+By the next evening Madame Berthe Louison had been discovered to be
+a noble relative of the Comte de Chambord, "traveling incognito,"
+and then the clacking tongues of gossip rose up in a shrill chorus
+of greater intensity. Immense investments of the Orleans fortunes
+in Indian properties to be managed by Major Alan Hawke were discovered
+to be the object of her Indian tour, with wise old Hugh Johnstone
+as an infallible financial adviser. But Alan Hawke smiled his
+superior smile and said nothing.
+
+All this and more soon reached the ears of Capt. Harry Hardwicke,
+whose fever of gnawing curiosity and romantically born love was now
+strong upon him. A second conference with his old friend Simpson
+enlightened the engineer officer upon many things, as yet "seen
+in a glass darkly." He began to fear that Alan Hawke was growing
+dangerous as the secret juggler in the strange social situation
+at the marble house. With the vise-like memory of an old soldier,
+Simpson had retained various anecdotes not entirely to the credit
+of the self-promoted Major Alan Hawke, and had partly supplied the
+hiatus between the sudden disappearance of the desperate lieutenant,
+a rake gambler and profligate, and the return of the prosperous and
+debonnaire Major en re'traite. "Don't let him work too long around
+Miss Nadine, Major Hardwicke," said the wary Simpson. "Sly and quiet
+as he seems, he's surely here for no good. I know him of old. He's
+forgotten me, though."
+
+That night, the night when Berthe Louison, in her special car was
+nearing Calcutta, at last, Captain Hardwicke was haunted in his
+dreams by the sweet apparition of Nadine Johnstone, and her lovely
+arms were stretched appealingly to him. It was the early dawn when
+he awoke, and sprang blithely from his couch. "If that graceful
+shade crosses my path to-day, I'll speak to it in the flesh--though
+a dozen Hawkes and a hundred crusty fathers forbid," he gayly cried,
+for his entrancing dream had given him a strangely prophetic courage.
+
+In the ambrosial freshness of the morning, a long gallop upon his
+pet charger, "Garibaldi," restored the equilibrium of the young
+officer's nerves. He had neatly taken the strong-limbed cross-country
+horse over a dozen of the old walls out by the Kootab Minar, and
+with the reins lying loosely on Garibaldi's neck, he rode back to
+the live city by the side of its two dead progenitors.
+
+The bustle and hum of awaking Delhi interested him not, for a fond
+unrest led him down to the great walled inclosure of the marble
+house.
+
+"Shall I see her to-day? Will she be in the garden?" he murmured
+in his loving day-dream.
+
+The springy feet of the charger dropped noiselessly on the lonely
+avenue and already the double carriage gate was in sight. An instinct
+of martial coquetry caused Harry Hardwicke to gather up his reins
+and straighten lightly into the military position of eyes right.
+He was watching the gate of Paradise, a Paradise as yet forbidden
+to him.
+
+Yes. There was the gleam of white robes shining out across the
+friendly gate.
+
+Standing under a huge spreading camphor tree, a graceful form was
+there, clear cut against the dark foliage, and seeming to float
+upon the tender green of the dewy grass. A nymph--a goddess, shyly
+standing there, was shading her eyes with one slender hand and
+gazing down the path toward the golden East which was bringing to
+the Lady of his dreams, a flood of golden sunlight and her secret
+adorer, the man whose lonely young heart had throned her as its
+queen. Hardwicke raised his head quickly as a wild shriek sounded
+out upon the still morning air.
+
+The lover with one agonized glance saw the outspread arms of Justine
+Delande, and heard again a voice which had thrilled his soul in
+loving memory. It appealed for aid. Nadine was shrieking for help.
+
+With one glance, the young soldier gathered his noble steed. There
+was but twenty yards for the rally and the raise, but the game
+old "Garibaldi" dropped as lightly on the other side of the closed
+carriage gate as any "blue ribbon" of the Galway "Blazers."
+
+There was a moment, but one fleeting moment, given to the lover
+to see the danger menacing the woman whom he loved. His heart
+was icy, but his hand was quick. There, a few feet only from the
+horribly fascinated girl, a cobra di capdlo rising and swaying in
+angry undulations. The huge snake was angrily hissing with a huge
+distended puffed hood swelling menacingly over the dirty brown
+body.  "Standfast!" yelled Hardwicke in agony.
+
+There was a gleam of steel, the rush of a charger's feet, and as
+man and horse swept by the fainting girl--the swing of a saber, and
+the heavy trampling of iron-clad hoofs! Only Justine Delande saw
+the flashing saber cleaving the air again and again, as Hardwicke
+gracefully leaned to his saddle bow, in the right and left cut on
+the ground. And Garibaldi's beating hoofs soon completed the work
+of the circling sword.
+
+And then as the Swiss woman broke her trance and turned to run
+toward the house, the young horseman leaped lightly to the ground.
+"Go on, go on!" he cried. "The other snake is not far off!" When
+Simpson and the frightened domestics rushed out to the veranda in
+a panic, they only saw before them a graceful youth with his strong
+arms burdened with the senseless form of the woman he loved--the
+woman whose life he had saved!
+
+And, dangling from his right wrist, by the leather sword-knot, hung
+the saber which Colonel Hardwicke had swung in the mad onslaught
+on the mutineers' camp at Lucknow.
+
+"Here, Simpson! Send for Doctor McMorris!" cried Hardwicke, as a
+dozen willing hands sprang to aid him. "Bring brandy, ammonia, and
+oil!" There was a bamboo settee on the veranda. It received the
+precious burden which the soldier had held against his heart. "Carry
+her to her rooms! Gently, now!" commanded the captain. Seizing
+Justine by the arm, he said: "I think that I arrived in time. Go!
+Go! You will find me waiting for you here! Examine her at once!
+The hot iron and artery ligatures alone will save her if she was
+bitten!" His brow was knotted in agony.
+
+"You came between them!" gasped Justine. "The thing never reached
+her side!"
+
+"God be thanked! Go! Go!" cried Hardwicke. "I have my work to do
+here!" A black servant had already led the dancing Garibaldi out
+to the open safety of the graveled carriage drive. "Look to my
+horse!" cried Hardwicke. "See that he is not bitten!" and then he
+slowly walked over to where a dozen menials, with heavy clubs, had
+beaten the writhing cobra into a shapeless mass.
+
+"Come away, all of you!" cried the captain, in Hindustanee. "Run,
+some of you, and get the snake catcher!" Doctor McMorris, arriving
+on the gallop, had reported the absolute safety of the frightened
+girl, when Harry Hardwicke, leaning on his sheathed sword, watched
+a slim, glittering-eyed Hindu, followed by a boy bearing an earthen
+pot, who had noiselessly reconnoitered the vicinity of the great
+tree. The boy most keenly watched all the movements of his white-robed
+master, who, drawing a little fife from his red cummerbund sash,
+began to play a shrill, weird tune. A frightened household coterie
+watched from a safe distance the thirty-foot circle of herbage
+around the shade of the giant tree trunk. A shudder crept over the
+watchers as a huge brown head, with two white circles on the back
+of the neck, rose slowly out of the grass, and two red-hot gleaming
+eyes blazed out, as an immense cobra swelled out its fearfully
+disgusting hood, and, rising halfway, bloated out its loathsome
+head, swaying to and fro, to the strange music.  "There's the mate!"
+quietly whispered Hardwicke to Simpson. The snake now showed its
+greasy belly, like dirty stained marble, and the lithe boy, circling
+behind it, warily essayed to drop the red earthen pot over its
+head. But one of the excited servants, stealing up, had released
+a little mongoose, which now bravely darted upon its deadly enemy.
+
+Seven times did the active little animal dart upon the huge reptile,
+in a confusedly vicious series of attacks and close in a deadly
+conflict, and, when, at last, the snake charmer walked disgustedly
+away, the little ferret's sharp teeth were transfixed in the throat
+of its dead enemy.
+
+A handful of silver to the snake catcher and his boy sent them away
+delighted, while the wounded mongoose, having greedily sucked the
+blood of the dead cobra, wandered away in triumph, creeping on its
+belly into the rank grass in search of the life-saving herb which
+it alone can find, to cure the venom-inflamed wounds of the deadly
+"naja." The silent duel was over, and the bodies of the dreadful
+vipers were hastily buried.
+
+"I shall call this afternoon, at five, to ask Miss Johnstone
+if she has entirely recovered," gravely said Captain Hardwicke to
+Mademoiselle Justine Delande, when the still excited Swiss woman
+poured forth her congratulations to the young hero of this morning's
+episode. Hardwicke was standing with his gloved hand grasping the
+mettlesome "Garibaldi's" bridle. Justine Delande threw her arms
+around the neck of the noble horse and kissed his sleek brown
+cheek.  Then she whispered a few words to Captain Hardwicke, which
+made that young warrior's heart leap up in a wild joy.
+
+He laughed lightly as he said: "Keep this quiet. Pray do not allow
+Miss Johnstone to walk any more in the dewy grass. These deadly
+reptiles affect moisture, and, strange to say, they love the
+vicinity of human habitations. As for 'Garibaldi,' good old fellow,
+I'll bring him this afternoon, but I'll not take him again over
+the gate. It was a pretty stiff jump for the old boy." When Simpson
+escorted the happy Captain to the opened carriage gate, he threw
+up his wrinkled hand in salute.
+
+"You're your father's own son, Captain, and God bless you and good
+luck to you and the young mistress."
+
+There was no answer as Harry spurred the charger down the road, but
+Simpson pocketed a sovereign, with the sage prophecy that things
+were at last, going the right way.
+
+The watchful Hugh Johnstone was already in waiting, on this very
+morning, at the East Indian station in Calcutta, with a sumptuous
+carriage; for a telegram had warned him that the woman whom he
+dreaded, and had secretly doomed, was fast approaching. His heart
+was resolutely set upon the master stroke of his life, for a private
+audience with the Viceroy of India had been graciously granted him
+at two o'clock. "I am saved--if nothing goes wrong," he murmured,
+as the Delhi train trundled into the station.
+
+A steely glare lit up his eyes as he advanced with raised sun helmet
+to meet the Lady of the Silver Bungalow.
+
+In the train were one or two of the curious Delhi quid nuncs, who
+smiled and exchanged glances as the embryo Sir Hugh led the lady
+to the carriage.
+
+On the box Jules Victor sat bolt upright clasping a traveling bag,
+while Marie gazed at the swarming streets of Calcutta from her
+mistress's side. "She is on the defensive. I'll show her a trick,"
+old Hugh murmured, as he noted the servants' presence.
+
+A few murmured words exchanged between the secret foes caused Hugh
+Johnstone to sternly cry, "To Grindlay and Company's Bank."
+
+The dark goddess Kali, patron demon of Kali Ghatta, was hovering
+above them in the pestilential air as the carriage swiftly rolled
+along the superb streets of the metropolis born of Governor Charnock's
+settlement in sixteen eighty-six. The gift of an Emperor of Delhi
+to the ambitious English, Fort William had grown to be an octopus
+of modern splendor. Down the circular road, past the splendid
+Government House, they silently sped through the "City of Palaces."
+Berthe Louison never noted the varied delights of the Maiden Esplanade,
+nor, even with a glance honored Wellesley and Ochterlony, raised
+up there in marble effigy. Her face was as fixed as bronze, while
+Hugh Johnstone, right and left, saluted his countless friends.
+
+Men of the Bengal Asiatic, the Bethune, the Dai-housie, plumed
+generals, native princelings, gay aides-de-camp, grave judges, and
+university Dons eagerly bowed to the richest civilian in Bengal--the
+homage of triumphant wealth.
+
+Stared at from club windows, Johnstone, with proudly erect head,
+nodded to fashion's fools, crowding there all eager to catch a
+glimpse of the lovely Lady Johnstone in posse.
+
+For these last days of waiting had been only a mental torture to
+the nabob assailed by rallying gossipers. He was now counting grimly
+the moments till a telegram from Delhi should seal his safety for
+life.  And then, his dark and silent revenge!
+
+At Grindlay's Bank, Madame Louison quietly descended, leaning on
+the arm of Hugh Johnstone. There was hurrying to and fro on their
+appearance, and in ten minutes a second carriage received the
+disguised Alixe Delavigne, while the Manager of Grindlay's escorted
+her, under the eyes of her two guardians. The Golden Calf was the
+reigning god, even in these later days.
+
+With a dignified pace, the carriage of Hugh Johnstone led the way
+to the Bank of Bengal, where a private room soon hid the three
+principal parties from the gaze of the multi-colored throng of
+clerks and accountants. A conference of the gravest nature ensued,
+as both the Bank Managers jealously watched each other.
+
+Hugh Johnstone was as pale as a man wrestling with the dark angel
+when Madame Louison produced a faded document and a receipt of
+extended legal verbiage. The Manager of Grindlay's gazed, in mute
+surprise, when the highest dignitary of the Bengal Bank at last
+entered the room, followed by two porters bearing two brass-bound
+mahogany boxes of antique manufacture. Hugh Fraser Johnstone's
+stony face was carelessly impassive.
+
+"Pray examine these seals!" the newcomer said, "and, remember, Mr.
+Johnstone, that we exact your absolute release for the long-continued
+responsibility. Here is a memorandum of the storage and charges.
+You must sign, also, as Hugh Fraser--now Hugh Fraser Johnstone."
+
+Old Hugh Johnstone's voice never trembled, as he said, after a
+minute inspection:
+
+"I will give you a cheque." Then, dashing off his signature upon the
+receipt tendered by Madame Louison, he calmly said: "These things
+are only of a trifling value--some long-treasured trinkets of my
+dead wife's. May I be left alone for a moment?"
+
+The three silent witnesses retired into an adjoining room. In
+five minutes, Hugh Johnstone called the Bank Governor to his side.
+"There is your receipt, duly signed, and your cheque to balance,
+Mr.  Governor. We are now both relieved of a tiresome controversy.
+Will you please bring in the others?"
+
+With a pleasant smile, the flush of a great happiness upon his
+face, Hugh Fraser Johnstone remarked: "I desire to state publicly
+that Madame Louison and my self have, in this little transaction,
+closed all our affairs. I have given to her a quit-claim release of
+all and every demand whatsoever." With kindly eyes, Berthe Louison
+listened to a few murmured words from Hugh Johnstone. Bowing her
+stately head, she swept from the room upon the arm of the polite
+manager of Grindlay's.
+
+"Home," said the genial banker, as he deferentially questioned the
+Lady of the Silver Bungalow. "Do you honor us with a long visit?"
+he eagerly asked.
+
+"I return to-morrow evening, on the same train with the soon-to-be
+Sir Hugh. I only came here to attend to some business at the French
+Consulate and to adjust this trifling matter." Hugh Johnstone writhed
+in rage, as he saw the cool way in which Berthe Louison fortified
+her safety lines.
+
+Before they were in the shelter of the banker's superb mansion, Hugh
+Johnstone was double locked within the walls of Douglas Fraser's
+apartment.
+
+"I have two hours to work in" he gasped, after a nervous examination
+of the contents of the cases which had been placed at his feet in
+his carriage. "And, then, for the Viceroy! But first to the steamer
+and the Insurance Office!'"
+
+Not a human being in Calcutta ever knew the contents of the small
+steel strongbox which occupied the place of honor in the treasure
+room of the Empress of India on her speeding down the Hooghly. But
+a Director of the Anglo-Indian Assurance Company opened his eyes
+widely when Hugh Johnstone, his fellow director, cheerfully paid
+the marine insurance fees on a policy of fifty thousand pounds
+sterling.  "I am sending some of my securities home, Mainwaring,"
+the great financier said. "I intend to remove my property, bit
+by bit, to London. I do not dare to trust them on one ship." The
+director sighed in a hopeless envy of his millionaire friend.
+
+Hugh Johnstone's Calcutta agent was also solemnly stirred up when
+his principal gave him some private directions as to the custody
+of his private papers and a substantial Gladstone bag, consigned
+to the recesses of the steel vaults. "I go back with these papers
+to Delhi to-morrow night. Give me the keys of my private compartment
+till then. In a few months I may be called to London. Douglas Fraser
+will have my power of attorney."
+
+With a sunny gleam in his face, Hugh Johnstone then alertly sprang
+into his carriage, when he had finished his careful toilet, to meet
+the Viceroy of India. The two brass-bound mahogany cases were left
+standing carelessly open upon his table in Douglas Fraser's rooms,
+neatly packed with an assortment of toilet articles and all the
+multitudinous personal medical stores of a refined Anglo-Indian
+"in the sere and yellow."
+
+"Five pounds worth!" laughed Hugh Johnstone, as he closed the door.
+"Now, in one hour, my Lady Disdain, I can say 'Checkmate.' Ram Lal
+shall attend to you later--behind all your bolts and bars. He will
+find a way to reach you."
+
+It was a matter of profound speculation to the gilded youth of the
+Government House what strangely sudden friendship had blossomed to
+bring the august representative of the great Victoria, Kaisar-I-Hind,
+and Queen of England, as far as the middle of the audience room,
+in close colloquy with, and manifesting an almost affectionate
+leave-taking of, the silver-haired millionaire of Delhi.
+
+But that night the most confidential General "at disposal" received
+from the Viceroy some secret orders which caused the experienced
+soldier's eyes to open widely.
+
+"Remember! The personal interests of the Crown are involved here!" said
+the Viceroy. "Any mistake might cost me my Sovereign's confidence
+and you your commission, perhaps a Star of India!" he laughed, with
+an affected lightness.
+
+In far-away Delhi, as the sun faded away into the soft summer twilight,
+Harry Hardwicke was sitting at the side of Nadine Johnstone, while
+her stern father secretly exulted in distant Calcutta. He had
+already mailed by registered post a set of duplicated receipts and
+insurance policies for his last shipment addressed to "Professor
+Andrew Fraser" and his mind was centered upon some peculiarly
+pleasurable coming events to take place in the Marble House. But
+the dreamy-eyed girl watching the man who had so gallantly saved
+her life, thought only of a love which had stolen into her heart
+to wake all its slumbering chords to life, and to loosen the sweet
+music of her singing soul! They were alone, save for the bent
+figure of Justine Delande at a distant window, and the spirit of
+Love breathed upon them silently drew them heart to heart.
+
+Here now, before the divinity so fondly worshiped, Harry Hardwicke
+lost his soldier's ready voice. "Say no more! You need rest, Miss
+Nadine! I shall only call to-morrow to assure myself of your perfect
+recovery. When your father returns I shall do myself the honor to
+ask his formal permission to visit you later." There was a sigh
+and a sob as Nadine Johnstone took her silent lover's hands and
+pressed them in her own, bursting into happy tears.
+
+"I owe you my life--my father shall speak, but in my own heart I
+shall treasure your splendid bravery forever!" Her tall young knight
+stooped over the little hands, kissed them, and was turning to go,
+when the maiden slipped off a sparkling ring. "Wear this always for
+my sake; I can say no more till we meet again!" And, bending low,
+Captain Hardwicke stepped backward, as from a queen's presence,
+leaving her there, weak, loving, and trembling in a strange delight.
+
+As he rode slowly homeward in the evening's glow, he passed Major
+Alan Hawke dashing away to the railway station in a carriage.
+Traveling luggage told the story of a sudden jaunt. A wave of the
+hand and the secret-service man was gone. Hawke growled: "Damned
+young jackanapes, I'll fool you, too; but what does old Johnstone
+want?" He was reading a telegram just received: "Come to meet me
+at Allahabad. Have brought the drafts. Want you for a few days down
+here."
+
+At ten o'clock next morning, Simpson, his voice all broken, his
+old eyes filled with tears, dashed into Captain Hardwicke's office.
+"Dead?" cried the young soldier, springing up in a sudden horror.
+"No. Gone over night--both the women--God knows where, but they
+left secretly, by the Master's orders!" And then Hardwicke sank
+back into his chair with a groan. But, at Allahabad, Major Alan
+Hawke was raving alone in a helpless rage. There was no Johnstone
+there, and Ram Lal Singh had telegraphed him: "The daughter and
+governess went away in the night by the railroad--special train.
+A man from Calcutta took them away."
+
+"You shall pay for this, you old hound!" he yelled, "Yes, with your
+heart's blood.'"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+ALAN HAWKE PLAYS HIS TRUMP CARD.
+
+
+
+
+
+When the Calcutta train rolled into Allahabad, two days after Harry
+Hardwicke's crushing surprise, Major Alan Hawke, the very pink of
+Anglo-Indian elegance, awaited the dismounting of the returning
+voyagers. He had passed a whole sleepless night in revolving the
+various methods to play oft each of his wary employers against each
+other, and had decided to let Fate make the game.
+
+"The devil of it is, I'm not supposed to know anything of the
+flitting!" he mused, after digesting Ram Lal Singh's carefully
+worded telegrams. All the light in his shadowy mental eclipse was
+the positive information that a special train had been made up for
+Bombay at the station, "on government secret service."
+
+"The old man is preparing to fight, now," he decided. "His 'wooden
+horse' is within Berthe Loiuson's camp. If she is not wary, she
+may never leave India, Johnstone can be very ugly. But what must
+I do?  Shall I warn Berthe, now? If I do, she will both doubt me
+and make a scene. Old Johnstone will then know at once that I have
+betrayed him." An hour's cogitation led Alan Hawke to decide to
+let the "high contracting parties" fight it out themselves at Delhi.
+
+"I'll secretly join the winner and then bleed them both. I must be
+unconscious of all. Johnstone's money I want first, then, Berthe
+must pay me well for my aid." With an exquisite nosegay of flowers,
+he awaited the slow descent of the social magnates. A second telegram
+from Johnstone had warned him that the wanderers were on the same
+train. "He is a cool devil!" mused Hawke.
+
+Radiant in beauty, pleasantly smiling, and watched by her French
+bodyguard, Madame Louison swept into the grand cafe room upon the
+arm of Hugh Johnstone, who deftly exchanged a silent glance of
+warning with the artful Major. The first intimation of Johnstone's
+craft was the fact that Alan Hawke found he could not manage to see
+Madame Louison alone, even for a single moment. There was a veiled
+surprise in her beautiful brown eyes, when the nabob led Hawke a
+few tables away for a conference in full view of the beauty, who
+was surrounded with a cloud of obsequious attendants. "As we have
+but one hour, Madame, pray at once, order a repast for us all. I
+must have a few words with Hawke." Johnstone was as smiling as a
+summer sea.
+
+"We were delayed a day by my own private business," genially cried
+the nabob. "What's new in Delhi?"
+
+It was the crowning lie of Hawke's splendidly mendacious career
+when he carelessly said, "Nothing. I supposed, of course, that you
+had grave need of me here."
+
+"So I have," earnestly replied Johnstone, as the station master
+bustled up, scraping and bowing, with a bundle of letters and several
+telegrams. "Just look over these five drafts on Glyn, Carr & Glyn's,
+while I look at the letters," whispered Johnstone, handing Hawke
+an official looking envelope. Even while the adventurer carefully
+scanned the bills of exchange, he saw a gleam of devilish triumph
+in the old man's eyes as he opened the telegrams, and with affected
+carelessness shoved his letters in his pocket. "See here, Hawke!
+You can even earn a neat 'further donation' if you will play your
+part rightly. General Abercromby, as personally representing the
+Viceroy, arrives here to-morrow night to adjust my accounts finally.
+He will be a week or so at Delhi. I want you to represent me and
+receive him here. I've telegraphed back to Abercromby that you
+will bring him up in a special car. He does not want old Willoughby
+to think he is nosing around Delhi. Now, do the handsome thing.
+Abercromby knows you. Here is a pocket-book. Lose a few fifty-pound
+notes to the old boy on the train. Amuse him, mind you, and set
+him up well! The car will be well stocked. I leave my two men here
+to wait on you and him. That's all. I want to go off 'in a blaze
+of glory,' as the Yankees would say. I will meet you at Delhi.
+Abercromby comes to my house. Can I depend on you? And, not a
+single word about the Baronetcy. The Viceroy has graciously sent
+a special dispatch to England."
+
+"All right. Let us join the Madame," said Hawke, with an
+uneasy feeling of a coming tropical storm, "I'm glad to be out of
+it," mused Hawke. "If Abercromby stays a week, both parties will
+defer hostilities until he goes. If that soft-hearted Swiss fool
+only telegraphs! By God, I would have liked to have had one final
+tete-a-tete. She can make my fortune yet."
+
+The flying minutes glided easily away, with Hugh Johnstone's old-time
+gallantry artfully separating the two secret conspirators against
+his peace. Alan Hawke lunched gayly, with but one lurking regret--a
+futile sorrow that he had not bent Justine Delande to his will.
+There was no dark pledge between them, no secret bond of a man's
+perfidious victory, no soft surrender, the seal of a woman's
+dishonor.
+
+"Will she telegraph?" the adventurer asked himself with a beating
+heart and a burning brain. "If so, then I hold them both in my
+hands, and the game is mine." When the train drew out, the Major
+watched the disappearing forms of the mortal enemies in a secret
+wonder. "Have they made it up? Will they marry after all?" he
+growled, and yet he laughed the idea to scorn. "And yet fear, as
+well as love, has tied the nuptial knot before," he mused.
+
+A new proof of Johnstone's craft was afforded him after he had, in
+a leisurely way, verified the regularity of his windfall in good
+London exchange, signed by the millionaire upon his home bankers,
+and duly stamped. A mental flash of lightning showed him how he was
+"sewed up," for Johnstone's all too polite servants shadowed him,
+alternately, in his every movement. He even dared not visit the
+secret telegraph address. "Old scoundrel!" raged Alan Hawke. "I
+will only get the first news after the fair and probably in a storm
+from Berthe. The denouement may occur with me languishing here in
+Capua.  Suppose that this she-devil would bolt? Where would I land
+then?" He was most sadly rattled.
+
+In the Delhi train, Hugh Johnstone busied with his late London
+papers, slyly smiled as he studied a route map and railway time
+table. He had received a single telegraphed word, dated Madras,
+and wisely left unsigned, but that one word was the keynote of his
+coveted victory--"Arrived."
+
+"Ah! my lady," he mused, casting his eyes in the direction of Madame
+Louison's cozy private compartment. "To-morrow at Delhi, if Douglas
+Fraser is true to his trust, there will be the message which tells
+of a 'bark upon the sea,' which bears away forever all the brightness
+of your life--away from you, yes, forever! And Hawke, this smart
+cad, is powerless now, and both of them are outwitted.  The Baronetcy
+is safe the very moment that Abercromby's work is done. I've paid
+Hawke now, and he has been very naturally brought down here, out of
+the way. Madame! Madame! Now to settle accounts with you the very
+moment that Abercromby has reported back from Calcutta. I think I
+will just have a good old-fashioned talk with Ram Lal Singh. I need
+his evidence to hoodwink this old cask of grog, Abercromby. I must
+blow off' his vanity in great style."
+
+While Berthe Louison slept, while old Hugh Johnstone plotted,
+while Ram Lal Singh fumed at Delhi, and Harry Hardwicke "mourned
+the hopes that left him," Major Alan Hawke retired to the Nirvana
+of a long afternoon siesta. There was a little departing detachment on
+this golden afternoon at Madras--two frightened women, now gladly
+seeking the shelter of their cabins, as the fleet steamer Coomassie
+Castle turned her prow toward Palk Strait. The terrible ordeal
+of "passing the surf" had appalled them, and the exhausted Nadine
+Johnstone at last fell asleep with her arms clasped around her
+sad-hearted governess. A hundred times had they read over together
+the old nabob's telegram: "Going home from Calcutta to settle the
+Baronetcy appointment. Will meet you in Europe." Nadine's letter
+from her stern father bade her implicitly trust to her new-found
+kinsman, Douglas Fraser. The old nabob's judiciously private letter
+had filled Justine Delande's sad heart with one twilight glow of
+happiness. A comforting cheque for one thousand pounds was contained
+therein.
+
+The words: "Your salary and expenses will be paid by me in Europe.
+This is only a little present. Another may await you and your
+sister, if you fulfill your trust, that no man, not even Douglas
+Fraser, meets my daughter alone until you give her back to me. He
+is but my traveling agent. Nadine is in your hands alone. I have
+so written to her." With a breaking heart Justine Delande kissed
+her beloved gage d'amour, the diamond bracelet, murmuring: "Alan!
+Alan!  To part without even a word!" She lay with tear-stained eyes,
+watching the low shores of Madras fade away, and listened to the
+sleeping girl's murmur: "Harry! Harry! I owe you my life!" Even the
+maid mourned a dashing Sergeant-Major! With a desperate courage,
+trying to fan the spark of love, which had slowly crept into her
+lonely heart, Justine Delande had timidly bribed a stewardess,
+going on shore for some last commissions, to telegraph to the secret
+address at Allahabad the words: "Madras steamer Coomassie Castle,
+Brindisi."
+
+The signature, "Your Justine," brought a grim smile to Alan Hawke's
+face, the next night, when on the arrival of General Abercromby, he
+stationed Hugh Johnstone's secret spies on duty with the redoubtable
+Calcutta warrior. "By God! She is both game and true!" cried Hawke.
+"Here is my fortune, and Justine shall share my spoils yet!" As the
+special train rolled out into the starlit night the old nabob, in
+a paroxysm of delight, read in the marble house words telegraphed
+by the happy-hearted Douglas Fraser, now taking up his endless deck
+tramp on the Brindisi bound steamer. The young Scotsman, ignorant
+of all intrigue, was relieved to know that he had laid the firm
+foundation of his future fortunes. His last shore duty was done
+when he had wired to his urgent relative in Delhi the glad tidings:
+"All right. Coomassie Castle. Orders strictly obeyed."
+
+Even the astute Alan Hawke failed, after many days of futile private
+research, to trace the route of the train which had pulled out of
+Delhi in the dead of night, beat the record to Allahabad, and then,
+turning off apparently for Bombay, had curved, on a loop, to the
+Madras line, and surpassed all speed records on the Indian Peninsula.
+Even when he telegraphed to Ram Lal's friends at Madras, he could
+obtain no definite trace, the railway officials were silent,
+and the travelers had sought no hotel in Madras. Hugh Johnstone's
+well applied money had smothered all inquiry. Even the driver and
+stokers of the special train never knew who so generously presented
+them with a ten pound note apiece. "Some secret service racket,"
+they laughed over their ale. Not a tremor of a single muscle betrayed
+Major Alan Hawke when he delivered over his official charge, Major
+General Abercromby, to Hugh Johnstone in the golden glow of Delhi's
+morning. "I've kept your interests in view," he whispered. "The
+old boy's just two hundred pounds richer. And, you may be sure,
+he wanted for nothing. I know all his damned old tiger and mutiny
+stories by heart. I'm going up to the Club for a good long sleep.
+My compliments to the ladies," lightly said Alan Hawke, as he
+gracefully declined Hugh Johnstone's invitation to breakfast.  Then
+Johnstone bore off his purple prize, set in red and gold.
+
+The wide ripple of excitement caused by General Abercromby's reported
+arrival had crowded the railway station. Hugh Johnstone chuckled,
+"Evidently Hawke knows nothing," as the two old friends drove away
+in splendid state. But Major Hawke, an hour later, at his Club, was
+suddenly interrupted in a cozy breakfast by the most unceremonious
+entrance of Major Harry Hardwicke, whose promotion was at last
+gazetted. "Hello! I see you're a Major now. Lucky devil!  What can
+I do for you, Hardwicke?" cried Alan Hawke, eyeing the haggard and
+worn-looking young officer with a strange dawning suspicion of the
+truth. "Did he know, too, of the Hegira?"
+
+Major Hardwicke threw himself down in a chair, curtly saying: "You
+can tell me who effectuated this lightning disappearance act of
+Madame Delande and young Miss Johnstone."
+
+"You speak in riddles to me, Hardwicke," coolly said the wary Major.
+"I've just come in from Allahabad with General Abercromby, who is
+here to settle old Johnstone's accounts. I know nothing of what
+you refer to. I expected to meet both the ladies at dinner to-day."
+
+"Then I will not uselessly take up your time, Major Hawke," gloomily
+rejoined Hardwicke, as he picked up his sword, and, with a cold
+formal bow, quitted the room.
+
+"I must watch this young fool," growled Alan Hawke. "Thank my
+lucky stars, the woman is far away! But, he's well connected, has
+a brilliant record, and is a V. C. now for Berthe Louison and the
+fireworks! But, first, old Ram Lal! They bowled the old boy out! I
+suppose that he has already told Alixe Delavigne that she has been
+outwitted. I hold the trump cards now! No single word without its
+golden price! I must not make one false step! As to the club men,
+I only join in the general wonder." He made a careful and very
+studied toilet and sauntered out of the club en flaneur, and then
+stealthily betook himself to the pagoda in Ram Lal's garden, where
+his innocent dupe had so often waited for him with a softly beating
+heart.
+
+"I'm glad the girl is gone," mused Alan Hawke. "If she were here,
+the chorus hymning Hardwicke's perfections might set her young heart
+on fire." He was, as yet, ignorant of the tender bond of gratitude
+fast ripening into Love. For, Love, that strange plant, rooted in
+the human heart, thrives in absence, and, watered by the tears of
+sorrow and adversity, fills the longing and faithful heart, in days
+of absence, with its flowers of rarest fragrance and blossoms of
+unfading beauty. Nadine Johnstone, speeding on over sapphire seas,
+had already conquered the tender secret of the simple Justine
+Delande's heart; and in her own loving day-dreams:
+
+"Aye she loot the tears down fa' for Jock o' Hazeldean!"
+
+"I must see him again! I must see him!" she fondly pledged her
+waiting heart. With the serpent cunning of a loving maiden, she
+brooded like a dove with tender eyes, and so in her heart of hearts,
+determined to draw forth from her stalwart cousin, Douglas Fraser,
+the secret of their future destination. And the honest fellow became
+even as wax in her hands; while the gloomy Hardwicke, in far-away
+Delhi, eyed the parchment-faced Hugh Johnstone in mute wonder,
+at the long official reception in the Marble House. "Will he not
+vouchsafe to me even one word of thanks?" thought the young man,
+in an increasing wonder.
+
+But, Ram Lal Singh, when Major Alan Hawke drew him into the sanctum
+behind the shop, showed a dark face, seamed with lines of care.
+"There will be some terrible happening!" muttered the smooth old
+Mohammedan.
+
+He had good gift of the world's gear, and now preferred the role of
+fox to lion. "She knows nothing as yet. I waited till I could see
+you. I dared not to tell her. She only fancies that this official
+visit of the General-Sahib from Calcutta will, of course, take up
+all their time at the marble house. But she begs me to watch them
+all, and she has given me some little presents--money presents."
+Hawke winced, but in silence. His employer trusted him not. Here
+was proof positive.
+
+"How in the devil's name did they get away without you knowing of
+it?" demanded Hawke. "If you are lying to me, Ram Lal, we may lose
+both our pickings from this fat pagoda tree. You see old Johnstone
+may slip away after the girl. He may leave here with Abercromby."
+
+The jewel merchant's eyes gleamed with a smoldering fire. "Johnstone
+Sahib will not leave Delhi. It is in the stars! He has too much here
+to leave. There are many old ties which bind. No, he will not go
+like a thief in the night." Hawke was surprised at the old rascal's
+evident emotion.
+
+"Then tell me what you think about the disappearance of these
+women," said Hawke, watching him keenly.
+
+"I have seen all my friends in the station, even the mail clerks,
+telegraph men, and all," began Ram Lal. "A train 'on government
+service'--a special--came in that night from Allahabad at ten o'clock.
+Then two small trains were kept in waiting for some hours; one left
+for Simla before daylight, and the other drew out for Allahabad.
+There was a crowd of ladies, officers' ladies, and some children
+and servants in the waiting-room. They like to travel at night in
+the cool shade. No one knew them. Now, at Allahabad, the east-bound
+train could branch off either for Calcutta, Madras, or Bombay."
+
+"So you know not which way these women fled?" The old merchant
+seemed absolutely at sea. As Hawke shook his head the story was
+soon finished.
+
+"My men at the marble house tell me that a strange young man arrived
+at ten o'clock. He was admitted by Simpson, the private man of
+Johnstone Sahib. The Swiss woman talked with him alone a half hour
+in the library, and then Johnstone's daughter came down there,
+but only for a few moments. My men watched him writing and reading
+papers in the library; then they all went away."
+
+"That is all. I slipped into the house when Simpson went away
+next day. He often goes out to drink secretly, and he has a pretty
+Eurasian friend or two, besides, down in the quarter." Ram Lal
+winked significantly. "I went all over the upper part of the house
+myself. The women's rooms were left just as if they had gone out
+for a drive along the Jumna. If they took anything it was only
+a few hand parcels. Now you know all that I know. No one ever saw
+the strange man before. And these people are gone for good, that is
+all.  Go now to the Mem-Sahib at the Silver Bungalow. I fear her.
+But tell me what I must say to her." The old man was evidently in a
+mortal fear. "There is that French devil--that old soldier. He is
+a fighting devil, that one, and the woman a tiger. The lady herself
+is a tiger of tigers!"
+
+"Say nothing, Ram Lal," soothingly said Hawke. "Leave it all to me.
+I see it. Old Johnstone has sent the girl to the hills to keep her
+away from the young fellows who will crowd the house, while this
+General Abercromby is here. There'll be drink and cards, and God
+knows what else."
+
+"I know," grinned Ram Lal. "I knew old Johnstone in the old days,
+a man-eater, a woman-killer, a cold-hearted devil, too! What does
+he do with this General?" The jewel merchant's eyes blazed.
+
+"Oh! Buying his new title with some official humbug or another. I
+don't know. Perhaps he is really settling his accounts," laughed
+Hawke.
+
+"I have a little account of my own to settle with him! I will see
+him at once! He, too, may slip away and follow his girl to the
+hills," quietly said Ram Lal. "I know his past. He is never to
+be trusted--not for a moment--as long as he is alive!" Alan Hawke
+stared in wonder at Ram Lal, who humbly salaamed, when he closed:
+
+"See the woman over there--come back, and tell me what I must do
+or say. You and I are comrades," the jewel seller leeringly said,
+"and we must lie together! All the world are liars-and half of the
+world lives by lying." with which sage remark the old curio seller
+betook himself to his narghileh.
+
+In a half an hour, Major Alan Hawke was wandering through the garden
+of the Silver Bungalow with Alixe Delavigne at his side. Behind
+them, at a discreet distance, sauntered Jules Victor, his dark
+eyes most intently fixed upon the promenaders. Madame Delavigne
+was pleased to be cheerfully buoyant. She had silently listened
+to Hawke's recital of the probable causes of General Abercromby's
+visit. "I could see that Johnstone evidently wished to occupy us
+both at Allahabad. Your conduct was discretion itself! Have you
+seen him yet? Or the ladies?" She eyed her listener keenly.
+
+"No, Madame," frankly said Hawke. "There is all manner of official
+junketing on here now. I am not, of course, to be officially included,
+as I am not on the staff of either the visiting or commanding
+general. I must wait until I am invited--if I am!" he hesitatingly
+said. "You know that my rank is--to say the least--shadowy!" The
+lady passed over this semi-confession in silence.
+
+"It is not like Johnstone to let Nadine meet all the gay coterie
+which will fill the great halls," mused Madame Delavigne. "I
+suppose that the dear child will have a week of 'marble prison'
+in her rooms, with only the governess. I think I shall let General
+Abercrornby leave before I call. What do you advise? Johnstone has
+always ignored the ladies of Delhi!"
+
+"I really am powerless to counsel you," said Major Hawke gravely,
+"as I am outside of the circle. I would watch this man keenly. He
+bears you no good will. And now--what shall I do? Did your business
+at Calcutta bring me the summons to action?" There was no undue
+eagerness in his voice. He was gliding into a safe position for
+the future eclaircissement.
+
+"Not yet. But it will come! It will come--as soon as this General
+goes. For I now will demand the right to drop Berthe Louison, and
+to be my own self. To be Alixe Delavigne to one bright, loving human
+soul only, in this land of arid solitudes, of peopled wastes. The
+land of the worn, scarred human nature, which, blind, creedless,
+and hopeless, staggers along under the burden of misery under the
+menace of the British bayonet."
+
+"When do you leave it?" quietly asked the cautious Major.
+
+"When my work is done!" the resolute woman replied. "I am here
+for peace or war! We have only crossed swords! I do not trust this
+man a moment! He is capable of any foul deed! Now, you must keenly
+watch the clubs, the social life. Find out all you can! Come to me
+here every night at ten. If I suddenly need you, then I will send
+Ram Lal!"
+
+"By day or night I am ready!" gravely said Major Hawke. "I do not
+like to intrude upon you," he hesitatingly said.
+
+"You will win your spurs yet in my service!" said Alixe. "The real
+struggle is to come yet. I am only knocking at the door of Nadine's
+heart. And the old nabob is but half conquered."
+
+Major Hawke, with a bow, retired and wended his way to the Club,
+where he spent an hour in preparing a careful letter to Euphrosyne
+Delande. It was a careful document, intended to prudently open
+communication with Justine through the Halls of Learning on the
+Rue du Rhone, Geneva, but a little sealed inclosure to Justine was
+the grain of gold in all the complimentary chaff. "Her own heart,
+poor girl, will tell her what to do," said Hawke, as he departed
+and registered the letter himself.
+
+The passing cortege of General Abercromby, returning the visit of
+the local chief, excited Hawke's attention. He caught a glimpse
+of the silver-haired millionaire whom two widely different natures
+had denounced that day as "being capable of anything."
+
+"And so old Ram Lal has it 'in for him,' too! What can he mean?"
+
+With a sudden impulse Major Hawke drove back and made a formal
+call upon the ladies at the Marble House. He was astounded when old
+Simpson, with a grudging welcome, openly announced that the ladies
+were permanently not at home. "Gone to the hills for a month or
+two," curtly replied the veteran servant, and then, on a silver
+tray, the butler decorously handed to Major Alan Hawke a sealed
+letter. "I was to seek you out at the Club, sir, as this letter
+is important. I take the liberty to give it to you now. It was the
+master's orders: 'That I give it into your own hands!'"
+
+Major Alan Hawke's face darkened as he read the curt lines penned
+by Hugh Johnstone himself. With a smothered curse he thrust the
+letter in his pocket. "Both of them are trying to keep me in the
+dark, I'll let Madame Berthe Louison run her own head into the trap.
+Then, when she pays, I will talk, but not till then." The careful
+lines stated that for a week the writer would be greatly engrossed
+with private matters, and at home to no one. "I will send for you
+as soon as I am able to see you, upon some new business matters."
+
+The last clause was significant enough. "He prepared this to give
+me a social knockout!" coolly said the renegade. "All right! But
+wait!  By Gad! I fancy I'll take a cool revenge in joining Ram Lal
+and Berthe Louison. Suppose that the old duffer were put out of the
+way?  Could I then count on Justine, and my wary employer? There is
+a storm brewing, and breakers ahead. I must soon get my 'retaining
+fee' from the lady of the Silver Bungalow or I may lose it forever!
+And I will let her uncover the empty bird's nest herself! She
+must not suspect me!" And yet the curt letter of the old civilian
+wounded him to the quick. "What does this jugglery mean? He ought
+to fear me, by this time, just a little! He intends to crush Berthe
+Louison by some foul blow, and then will he dare to begin on me?
+I will double forces with Ram Lal. That's my only alliance!" The
+Major's soul was up in arms.
+
+When the splendid reception at General Willoughby's was over, Hugh
+Johnstone cautiously approached Major Hardwicke. "I am just told
+that General Abercromby will remain and dine 'en famille' with his
+old brother in arms. Will you drive with me to my house? I have
+something of a private nature to say to you. I can give you a seat
+in my carriage." Major Hardwicke bowed and, obtaining his conge,
+sat in expectant waiting until the two men were comfortably seated
+in Johnstone's snuggery in the deserted mansion. They talked
+indifferently over Abercromby's arrival till Simpson announced
+dinner.
+
+"I would like you to dine with me, Major Hardwicke," said the old
+Commissioner, "for I have something now to say to you." He rang a
+silver bell, and, whispering to Simpson, faced his young visitor,
+who had bowed in acceptance. The butler returned in a few moments
+with a superb Indian saber, sheathed in gold, and shimmering with
+splendid jewels. He stood, mute, as Johnstone gravely said: "I
+learned from Simpson, on my return from Calcutta, of your prompt
+gallantry in aiding my daughter in her hour of peril." He continued,
+"Simpson alone, was left to tell me, as I have sent the child away
+to the hills for a couple of months. For reasons of my own, I do
+not care to have a motherless girl exposed to the indiscriminate
+hubbub of merely official society. The young lady will probably
+not remain in India. I therefore sent them all away before this
+official visit, which would have forced a child, almost yet a
+school girl, out into the glare of this local junketing," he said
+with feeling.
+
+"Take this saber, Major. It was given up by Mir-zah Shah, a Warrior
+Prince, in old days, so the legend goes. It is the sword of a king's
+son. It will recall your own saber play so neatly conceived, and,
+as a personal reminder, wear this for me! It is a rare diamond, which
+I have treasured for many years. And its old Hindustanee name was
+'Bringer of Prosperity.'" Hardwicke bowed, and murmured his thanks.
+
+The nabob slipped a superb ring from his finger, and then, as if
+he had relieved his mind forever of a painful duty, dismissed the
+subject, almost feverishly entertaining his solitary guest at the
+splendid feast which had been prepared for General Abercromby. It
+was late when the strangely assorted convives separated. "I will now
+send Simpson home with you, in my carriage," solicitously remarked
+Johnstone, as the hour grew late. "There is a prince's ransom on
+that sword--and, you did not bring your noble charger! You must
+treat him well for my sake--for my daughter's sake!"
+
+"Will Miss Johnstone return soon?" said the heart-hungry lover,
+catching at this last straw.
+
+"It is undetermined! I may send them home in a few months. But,
+if I have any little influence left, 'at Headquarters,' that shall
+always be exerted for you. I am always glad to meet you, your
+father's son, for Colonel Hardwicke was a true soldier of the olden
+days--brave, loyal, and beyond reproach."
+
+The lover's beating heart was smothered in this flowing honey.  "Ah!
+I must trust to Simpson!" he mused. "The old man is a sly one!"
+
+Politely bowed out by the stern, lonely old man, Major Hardwicke
+departed, his conversational guns spiked with the deft compliments,
+as the mighty clatter of the returning General filled the courtyard
+of the Marble House.
+
+In the soft, wooing stillness of the night, Simpson, at the young
+Major's side, found time to whisper: "Never let the Guv'nor see
+us together! He's a sly one! There's a honey-baited trap in this!
+The girl's been spirited off to Europe! I only know that--but, as
+yet, no more."
+
+"What do you mean? Is he lying to me?" gasped Hardwicke, with a
+sinking heart.
+
+"Rightly said!" huskily whispered Simpson. "Seek for her--London
+ways--I'll find it out soon where she is, and I'm just scholar
+enough to write! Give me your own safe London address! I heard ye
+would soon take yer long leave. Bless her sweet soul! I'll tell ye
+now! She whispered to me: 'Tell him--tell Major Hardwicke--he'll
+hear from me himself, even if I was at the very end of the earth!
+and give him this!'" The frightened servant thrust a little packet
+into the officer's hand. "It was the only chance she had."
+
+"That Swiss woman watched her every moment, and the man--the one
+the father sent from Calcutta. There was a telegram to her. I gave
+it to her myself! Major, my oath--they're on the blue water, now!
+I'll watch and come to you! Don't leave Delhi till I post you!"
+
+"You're a brave fellow, Simpson. Keep this all quiet," softly said
+Major Hardwicke. "I'll follow your advice, and I'll not leave here
+till I know more from you. I'll follow her to Japan, but I'll see
+her again."
+
+"That's the talk, Major!" cried the happy old soldier, who felt
+something crisp in his hand now. "Distrust old Hugh! He'll lie to
+ye and trap ye! Watch him! He's capable of anything." The carriage
+then stopped with a crash and Hardwicke sprang out lightly. "Make
+no sign! Trust to me! I'll come to ye!" was Simpson's last word.
+
+Before Simpson had discovered in the marble house the pleasing
+figures on a ten-pound note, Harry Hardwicke, striding up and down
+his room, in all the ecstasy of a happy lover, had kissed a hundred
+times a little silver card case--a mere school girl's poor treasure,
+but priceless now--for within it was a hastily severed tress of
+gold-brown hair, tied with a bit of blue ribbon. A scrap of paper
+in penciled words brought to him "Confirmation stronger than Holy
+Writ." "I will write or telegraph when not watched. Do not forget.
+--Nadine."
+
+The words of the old servitor returned to the soldier in a grim
+warning. "He is capable of anything."
+
+"So am I," cried Harry as his heart leaped up. "I will find her were
+she at the North Pole. He cannot hide her from me. Love laughs at
+locksmiths!"
+
+If the would-be Sir Hugh Johnstone had heard the three verdicts of
+the hostile critics of his being "capable of anything," he might
+have laughed in defiance, but after several friendly "night caps"
+with the slightly jovial General Abercromby, it might have seriously
+disturbed the host to know what hidden suspicions the Viceroy's
+envoy had brought back from a very secret conference with that
+acute old local commander, Willoughby.
+
+"It sounds all very well, Abercromby, my old friend," said Willoughby,
+"but Johnstone, or old Fraser, as we call him, is a hitman shark!
+Without a list or some general details, he will surely rob the
+crown of one-half the jewels, you may be sure. His cock and bull
+story of their recovery is too pellucid. It's Hobson's choice,
+though. That or nothing. He, of course, slyly claims to have only
+lately made this bungling accidental recovery. If the return is a
+really valuable one, then all you can officially do is to accept
+it.  But be wary! I can give you some friendly aid here, when you
+get all the returned treasure. I'll give you a captain's guard here.
+Bring all here at once. We, you, and I, will seal it up, and I'll
+have old Ram Lal Singh secretly come here and value them. He's the
+best judge of gems in India, and he was once an official in the
+Royal Treasure Chamber of the old King of Oude. Less than fifty
+thousand pounds worth as a return would be a transparent humbug,
+and besides you can delay your signature for a day or so, till you
+and I, after listing the gems, see this old expert and have him
+examine them in our presence. No one need know of it but you and
+I, and His excellency, the Viceroy. As for Hugh Johnstone, he is
+simply capable of anything. I told the Viceroy's aid, Anstruther,
+so. And I'll be damned glad to get Johnstone out of my bailiwick,
+that I will."
+
+With which vigorous "flea in the ear," General Willoughby dismissed
+his startled comrade to the society of his crafty old host. And,
+that night, strange dreams of unrest haunted the "modern Major
+General" in the marble house, while singularly gloomy misgivings
+weighed down the brave-hearted Berthe Louison, now heart-hungry for
+a sight of the doubly beloved child of the dead lady of Jitomir.
+She woke in the hot and clammy night to cry "No, no! He would never
+dare to! She is here! I shall go boldly and. demand to see her
+to-morrow!" Her womanly intuition told her the lines were broken.
+
+And so, robed in fashion's shining armor, Alixe Delavigne counted
+the moments, until at four o'clock of the next afternoon her carriage
+waited in the bower-decked oval of the marble house. A gloomy frown
+settled upon her face, as the impassive Hugh Johnstone approached
+her carriage, sun helmet in hand. She scented treachery now! There
+were a dozen brilliant young officers longingly gazing at this sweet
+apparition in the gloomy gardens. Even General Abercromby strutted
+out and displayed himself in the foreground, as Johnstone leaned
+over and gravely whispered to the pale-faced beauty:
+
+"My daughter has been sent away from the city for her health! Her
+absence is indefinite. I will see you when General Abercromby leaves
+here in a week, and explain all. No, not before. It is impossible."
+
+With a sudden motion of her hand to Jules, Alixe Delavigne leaned
+back, half fainting, upon her cushions. Her agitated heart was now
+beating in a wild tumult of rage and baffled hatred! "Home!" she
+cried, and then, as the marble house was lost to view, she harshly
+cried: "To Ram Lal's first! To the jewel store!"
+
+There was a brooding death in her eyes when she sternly said to
+the merchant: "Send him to me at once! Send Hawke! Go! Waste not
+a moment!"
+
+And then she swore an oath of vengeance, which would have made Hugh
+Fraser Johnstone shudder, as he sat drinking champagne cup with
+his guest. "One for you, my lady!" he had laughed, grimly, as the
+woman whom he had tricked drove swiftly away. And the grim fates
+laughed too, spinning at a shortening life web.
+
+Major Alan Hawke was interrupted in his cosy nest at the Club by
+the hasty advent of Ram Lal. The old jeweler had for once abandoned
+all his Oriental calm, and he trembled as he muttered. "She demands
+you at once. I brought my own carriage. Go to her quickly. There
+will be a great monsoon of quarrel now. But her face looks as if
+she was stricken to the death, and something will come of all this.
+You must watch like the crouching cheetah!"
+
+"What has happened?" anxiously cried Hawke.
+
+"She has just found out the women are gone! She went up to the
+marble house this afternoon, and saw the old Sahib Johnstone. He
+did not even bid her to leave her carriage. One of my men ran over
+at once and told me. She drove to the shop on her way homeward and
+sent me here." The black Son of Plutus scuttled away, as if in a
+mortal fear. "I do not dare to face her--in her angry mood," was
+Ram's last word. He was only accustomed to baby-faced Hindu women
+of the "langorous lily" type, who hung on his every word--the mute
+slaves of his jaded passions. "This one is a tigress!" he sighed,
+as he fled from the Club.
+
+"Ah! My lady is a bit rattled," mused Hawke as the carriage sped
+along. "Now is the time to catch her off her guard." And so he made
+himself sleek and patient, with the surface varnish of his "society
+manner," when Jules Victor, with semi-hostile eyes, ushered him into
+the presence of Alixe Delavigne, still in her robes of "visitation
+splendor."
+
+"What is this devil's work done in my absence? This spiriting away
+of Nadine!" cried Alixe, grasping Hawke's wrist with a nervous clasp,
+which made the strong man wince. "This juggling in my absence?"
+Her eyes were sternly fixed on him in dawning suspicions.
+
+"Madame," calmly said Alan Hawke, "if you had trusted to me, this
+would not have happened. But you have chosen to make an enigma of
+yourself, from the first. I am not tired of your moods, but I am of
+your cold disdain, your contemptuous slighting of my useful mental
+powers. You left me with no orders. I warned you that he was
+capable of anything. See how he has treated me," he continued, with
+a well-dissembled indignation. "He called me away to Allahabad to
+be bear-leader to Abercromby, and the brute has just shown me the
+door, to-day, openly saying that his daughter has gone to the Hills.
+I believe that he lies! I know that he does! If you had deigned
+to trust me, I would have followed on her track to hell itself,
+but you chose to play the woman--the catlike toying with men! Damn
+him! I owe him one now! If he had openly entertained me in this
+brilliant visit, I might have re-entered the staff service--in a
+week. And, you threw all my experience away in not trusting to me."
+
+Alixe Delavigne looked up, with one piercing glance, as she sealed
+a note. "Go openly to him--to Johnstone! Bring him back at once with
+you! He dare not disobey this! I will denounce him, now, to-day!
+to both the generals, and go to the Viceroy myself! I care not what
+excuse he makes! BRING HIM!"
+
+"And so I cut the last tie that binds me to a future reinstatement
+for you, a callous employer, and am left adrift without an anchor
+out for the future! You know that this man is a director of the
+Bank of Bengal! A multi-millionaire! He will chase me from India!
+I might trace the girl to her hiding-place for you! She has surely
+been sent home by sea!" Alixe Delavigne was gliding up and down the
+room as noiselessly as a serpent. She abruptly stopped her march.
+
+"I will find her in Europe! What do you require to follow my orders
+for three months? To wait here and then to take the road or to join
+me in Europe! I pay all expenses and incidentals. What will make
+you reasonably sure against fate--in advance?"
+
+Alan Hawke dropped his eyes. Gentleman once, he was ashamed of the
+sordid implied threat of abandonment.
+
+"Five thousand pounds!" he whispered. The stony-faced woman dashed
+off a check.
+
+"Bring that man to me at once!" she cried, "and then go down to
+Grindlay's agency here, and get your money! Go openly!"
+
+"Shall I come back with him?" demanded Hawke.
+
+"No, bring him here, and then excuse yourself."
+
+Alixe Delavigne watched the carriage dash away. Hawke was on his
+mettle at last, and he brutally enjoyed the little tableau, when
+Hugh Fraser Johnstone impatiently tore open "Madame Berthe Louison's"
+note. Hawke observed significantly that he had been shown into a
+small room, suited to semi-menial interviews. The additional slight
+maddened him. The clash of glasses and shouts of a gay crowd of
+military convives rose up in a merry chorus within. Across that
+banquet hall's draped doors the thin, invisible barrier of "Coventry"
+shut out the bold social renegade. "She'll have to wait, Hawke!"
+roughly said Hugh Johnstone, moving toward the door.
+
+"By God! she shall not wait a minute, you damned old moneybags!"
+cried the ruined soldier, who had long forfeited his caste--his
+cherished rank. "You treated her like a brute to-day! She is a
+lady, and you can't play fast and loose with her! You insulted me
+by closing your damned door and sending me your offensive letter.
+Go to her now! If you do not, I'll send my seconds to you, and
+if you don't fight, by Heaven, I'll horsewhip you like a drunken
+pandy!" and the fearless renegade barred the door.
+
+"Don't be a fool, Hawke," faltered Johnstone. "She has taken the
+whole thing the wrong way. I'll join you in a moment. I've got
+these men on my hands. What did she tell you?"
+
+"Nothing!" harshly cried Hawke, "and I wash my hands of you and
+her.  Settle your intrigues as you will!"
+
+Not a word was spoken, as Alan Hawke gravely opened the door to
+Madame Berthe Louison's reception room. Hugh Johnstone's yellow
+face paled as the Major breaking the silence, coldly said: "Madame!
+I have broken a friendship of fifteen years to-day! Please do consider
+me a stranger to you both after today!" And then he walked firmly
+out of the house with a warning glance to Jules Victor, lingering
+in the long hall.
+
+The quick Frenchman saw in Hawke's gesture the secret sign of
+a hidden friend, and he threw up his hand in a Parisian gesture
+of gratitude and comprehension, and failed not to report to his
+mistress, who saw Hawke's fine method with a secret delight.
+
+Hawke drove to Grindlay's agency, where, in a private room, he
+promptly cashed his check.
+
+"I'll take it in Bank of England notes!" he quietly said as the
+clerk lifted inquiring eyes. "I am going to transact some business
+for the lady."
+
+"Now, I can defy Fate!" he exulted, when he was safe out of the bank.
+"She will trust me now, and old Johnstone will fear me. A case of
+vice versa!" And, as he drove to the Club, he murmured, "I will
+never leave this fight now! Damme! I'll just go in and get the
+girl!  Just to spite the old coward!"
+
+Within the dreaming shades of the gardens hiding the Silver Bungalow,
+there was no sign of clamor. The beautiful little jewel-box of a
+mansion was apparently deserted, but a duel to the death was going
+on within the great white parlor where Hugh Johnstone stood raging
+at bay. He leaped up in a mad outburst of passion, when Alixe
+Delavigne cuttingly broke the silence. The old nabob knew that the
+desperate woman in her reckless mood feared nothing.--
+
+"You have lied to me! You have tricked me! You have sent that girl
+away to Europe to hide her forever from me! I kept my pact, and,
+you deliberately lied!" She stood before him like an avenging
+fury, quivering in a passion which appalled him. But secure in his
+skillfuly executed maneuver, he reached for his hat and stick.
+
+"I defy you! I have no answer to your abuse! Draw off your fighting
+cur, Major Hawke, or I'll grind you and him in the dust!" The old
+man was frantic under the insult. He moved toward the door.
+
+"Stop! You go to your ruin!" cried the irate woman. "Will you give
+me full access to your daughter?"
+
+"Never! My Lady! Go and lord it over your whipped hounds in
+Poland--hide in your estates the price of the double shame of two
+most accommodating Frenchwomen!"
+
+"By the God who made me" she hissed, "I will bar your Baronetcy
+forever! I will find out that girl, and she shall learn to love
+me and despise your hated name and memory! It is open war now!
+and,--mark you--liar and hound, these two generals, the Viceroy,
+and, all India shall soon know what I know!" Then, with a clang
+of her silver bell, she called Jules Victor to her side. "Jules,"
+she said, "If this person ever crosses the threshold of my door
+again, shoot him like the dog he is!"
+
+And then the black-browed Frenchman, holding open the door, hissed
+"ALLEZ!" as Hugh Johnstone saw for the last time the marble face
+of the woman who had doomed him to shame.
+
+"Go and send Ram Lal to me at once!" sternly said Berthe Louison.
+"Then to Major Hawke. Tell him that I want him to dine with me,
+and I shall need him all the evening. Order my carriage for five
+o'clock!"
+
+Alan Hawke had played his best trump card, and played it well, for
+the woman who had doubted him, gloried in his courage and hardihood.
+"I can trust him now!" she murmured when she drove to the Delhi agency
+of Grindlays and, two hours later, astounded the local manager by
+the executive rapidity of her varied business actions.
+
+"What's in the wind?" murmured the bank manager. "A sudden flitting!"
+He had been ordered to detail two of his best men to accompany
+Madame Louison to Calcutta, in a special car leaving at midnight.
+"Telegraph to your head office in Calcutta of my arrival.  Major
+Alan Hawke will represent me here, under written orders to be left
+with your Calcutta manager. Send this on in cipher." She handed
+him a long dispatch to his chief.
+
+Madame Berthe Louison was seen in Delhi, in public, for the last
+time, as she gazed steadily at the brilliant throng on the lawns
+of the marble house. A fete Champetre had brought "all of Delhi"
+together, and the conspicuous absence of "the French Countess" was
+the reigning sensation. The tall, bent form of Hugh Fraser Johnstone
+was prominent reigning as host, under a great marquee. Neither of
+the great generals were there, however, for Simpson had drawn Major
+Hardwicke aside to whisper: "A captain's guard came here to-day
+and took an enormous treasure in precious stones up to Willoughby's
+Headquarters!" and the two commanders were even then busied in
+listing the recovered loot, with a dozen yellow-faced Hindus and
+several confidential staff officers. "It's the last act, Captain
+darlin'," said Simpson. "Old Hugh has given me secret orders to
+get ready to go on to London. He only takes his personal articles.
+Young Douglas Fraser will come here and manage the Indian estates."
+
+"Who's he?" eagerly cried Hardwicke.
+
+"The fellow who carried the women away--the old man's only nephew."
+
+"Ah! now I see!" heavily breathed Hardwicke. "I will take the
+previous boat, and wait for the old man at Brindisi! Post me! I'll
+keep mum!"
+
+"Depend on me for my life itself," said Simpson; "but be prudent!
+I don't want to lose my life pension. He's been a good master to
+me.  We've grown old together!" sighed the gray-headed soldier.
+
+The frightened Ram Lal Singh was driven around Delhi this eventful
+day like a hunted rat. Suddenly summoned to General Willoughby's
+private rooms, escorted by a sergeant, who never left him a moment,
+the old Mohammedan was ushered into the presence of the two generals,
+who pounced upon him and showed him a great, assorted treasure in
+diamonds, pearls, pigeon rubies, sapphires, and emeralds of great
+size and richness. They were all duly weighed and listed, and
+duplicate official invoices lay signed upon the table.
+
+"You were Mirzah Shah's Royal Treasure Keeper? Tell me. Are all
+his jewels here? The treasure that disappeared at Humayoon's Tomb
+before Hodson slew the princes in the melee?"
+
+Ram Lal saw the frowns of men who had blown better men than himself
+from the guns in the old days, and he had a vivid memory of those
+same hideous scenes.
+
+"They are about half here in weight and number; about a quarter of
+the value. There is a hundred thousand pounds worth missing!" said
+the jewel dealer, gazing on the totals of numbers and weights.
+"The historic diamonds, the matchless pearls, the never-equaled
+rubies--all the choicest have been abstracted, and by a skillful
+hand!"
+
+"Go, then!" cried Willoughby. "Seal this in your breast! Speak to
+no one or you'll die in jail, wearing irons! Here!" A hundred-pound
+note was thrust into his hand, and he was whirled away to his shop.
+
+"Ah! The gray devil! he has stolen and hidden the best! I will watch
+him like a ghoul of Bowanee, and they shall be mine! He would turn
+tail now and steal away!" Ram Lal laughed an oily laugh, and going
+to an old cabinet, took out a heavy kreese. "The poisoned dagger of
+Mirzah Shah!" he smiled. "After many years!" It was Hugh Johnstone
+himself who sought Ram Lal in his pagoda that afternoon, and, after
+making some heavy purchases, finally drew out a list of jewels.
+
+"I wish you to certify, Ram Lal," he cautiously said, "that these
+are all the jewels of Mirzah Shah, that you handled as 'Keeper of
+the Prince's Treasure,' before the Meerut mutineers rushed down
+upon us." Slowly peering over the paper, the crafty Ram Lal said:
+
+"You forget, Sahib, that I was sent away to Lucknow and Cawnpore,
+by Mirzah Shah, with letters to Nana Sahib and Tantia Topee. I was
+shut out of Delhi till after the British were camped on the Windmill
+Ridge, and for months I never saw the royal jewels! Every moon the
+list was made anew. The mollahs and moonshees and treasurers took
+jewels for the Zenana every moon, and for the gifts of the princes.
+I could not testify to this!" The old man was on his guard.
+
+"I will pay you well, Ram Lal. It is my last little matter to
+settle with the authorities! Then my accounts are closed forever!
+As Treasurer you could do this!" Old Hugh Fraser Johnstone was
+ignorant of the veiled scrutiny of his stewardship.
+
+Ram Lal raised his head, at last, with something like defiance.
+"The better half is gone--the rarest--the richest! True, the princes
+may have divided them, they may have bribed their mutineer officers
+with some, but, a true list may be in the hands of these Crown
+officers here. They captured all the Palace papers. Now, I did not
+open them at Humayoon's Tomb. You know," he faltered, "how they
+passed through your hands!"
+
+Hugh Johnstone, for the last time tried to threaten and bully. "I
+will have you punished. I paid you well--you must lie for me! We
+both lied then."
+
+"Then the curse of Allah be upon the liar who lies now," solemnly
+said Ram Lal Singh. "I will not sign! I have the savings of years
+to guard. You will go away and the Crown will come upon me for the
+missing gems. I was absent five months from the Palace when you
+were in Brigadier Wilson's Camp! I will offer my head to these
+generals, but I will not sign! The Kaisar-I-Hind is just, and I will
+tell all!" With an oath of smothered rage, Hugh Johnstone strode
+away.
+
+"I must try and make a royal present to Willoughby's wife,--a timely
+one--and lose a half a lac of rupees to Abercromby. They may find
+a way to pass the matter over." He dared not press Ram Lal to a
+public exposition of all the wanderings of Mirzah Shah's jewels.
+"If I had not told them that fairy tale, I might hedge; but it's
+too late now.  I will go down to Calcutta, see the Viceroy, and
+then clear out for good. And I must placate Alan Hawke. I was a
+fool to ignore him.  But, to make an enemy of him, on account of
+that damned woman, would be ruin. He chums with Ram Lal. He might
+cable to Anstruther."
+
+In fact Alan Hawke's bold social revolt had imposed on Johnstone.
+"He might help to cover all up if I induced Abercromby to get him
+back on the staff once more. I was a fool to slight him." Hugh
+Fraser Johnstone was dimly conscious that his own line of battle was
+wavering, and that his flanks were unguarded--his rear unprotected.
+"I will only trust my homeward pathway to Simpson, and my health
+is a good excuse for clearing out for good. I can easily locate
+on the Continent--in Belgium, or Switzerland--and out of reach of
+any little trouble to come. They've no proof. This fellow has no
+list, thank Heaven. I'll slip down to Ceylon and catch the first
+boat there to Suez. Then ho for Geneva!"
+
+But Ram Lal Singh's slight defenses fell instantly before the golden
+battering-ram of Madame Berthe Louison's direct onslaught. "I was
+busied in the bazaars, buying jewels," he expostulated, when Jules
+Victor led him into Madame Louison's boudoir. Even then Major Hawke
+was curiously noting the dismantled condition of the reception-room,
+where Johnstone had at last thrown off the mask.
+
+"I leave Major Hawke here to close all my business, Ram Lal," she
+said. "I go to Calcutta. I may be gone for some months. But I have
+watched you and him. You are close friends--very close friends. Now,
+remember that I pay him and I pay you. I wish you to give me--to
+sell me--the list of the jewels which Johnstone took away from
+you and hid, when he was Hugh Fraser." The old scoundrel began to
+protest. Berthe Louison rang her silver bell. "Jules!" she said, "I
+wish you to go to General Willoughby with this letter, and tell him
+to send a guard here to arrest a thief who has government jewels."
+
+Ram Lal was on the floor at her feet, groveling, before she grimly
+smiled, as he held out a paper, quickly extracted from his red sash.
+"That will do, Jules." The Frenchman stood without the door. "You
+will not run away. You are far too rich, Ram Lal. And you will be
+watched every moment. Sign and seal the list, and date it to-day."
+The old craven begged hard for mercy. "Here is a hundred pounds.
+Hawke will pay you four hundred more when I am safely on the sea,
+but only then! He will close all my bills. Remember, I shall come
+back again. And," she whispered a word, "he will watch you closely."
+The jeweler sealed the document, and scribbled his certificate.
+"Not one word of my business, not even to Hawke, on your life,"
+she said.  "I shall come again! And General Willoughby will throw
+you in prison on a word from me."
+
+Major Alan Hawke was astounded, after an hour's yielding to the
+social charm of Madame Alixe Delavigne, when the happy woman led
+him away from the dinner table. "Now for a half-hour's business
+chat," she gayly said. "No, no notes. We shall next meet at No.
+9 Rue Berlioz, Paris. You will receive my sealed directions from
+Grindlay's agent here, with funds to settle my affairs. I go to-night
+to Calcutta, and thence to Europe. Obey my orders. You will get
+them, sealed, from the agent here. You can come on, by Bombay, when
+I cable to you. I will cable direct here to Grindlay's. They'll
+not lose sight of you," she smiled.
+
+"And my relations with old Hugh?" he gasped in surprise.
+
+"Just watch him and follow him on to Europe. Neither you nor he can
+do me any harm, but your reward for your manly stand to-day will
+reach you in Paris. I knew of it."
+
+"Shall I not see you to the train?" Hawke stammered.
+
+"Ah!" she smiled, extending her hand warmly, "I have a double
+guard and my servants. I will be met at Calcutta, and I go on my
+way safely now to work a slow vengeance!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A CAPTIVATED VICEROY.
+
+
+
+
+
+There were several "late parties" in sumptuous Delhi, on the evening
+when Madame Berthe Louison drove quietly to the railway station at
+two o'clock. A little knot of tired officials were still on duty,
+and when some forerunner had given a private signal, a single car,
+drawn by a powerful locomotive, glided out of the darkness.
+
+In a few moments a dozen trunks and a score of bags and bundles
+were tossed aboard the baggage van. Five persons stepped nimbly
+aboard, and then with no warning signal, the Lady of the Silver
+Bungalow was borne out into the darkness, racing on toward Calcutta
+with the swiftness of the wind.
+
+Jules Victor, vigorous and alert, after several cups of cafe noir,
+well dashed with cognac, disposed his two Lefacheux revolvers in
+readiness, and then betook himself to a nap. His bright-eyed wife
+was in the compartment with her beautiful mistress, and ready to
+sound a shrill Gallic alarm at any moment. She gravely eyed the
+two escorting officials of the bank. Marie said in her heart that
+"all men were liars," and she believed most of them to be voleurs,
+in addition. Jules, when the little train was whirling along a-metals
+a score of miles away from Delhi, relaxed his Zouave vigilance, and
+bade a long adieu to Delhi, in a vigorous grunt. "Va bane! Sacre
+Canaille!"
+
+There was silence at the railway station when the head agent
+wearily said, "I suppose the Bank is moving a lot of notes back to
+Calcutta!  They are a rum slick lot, these money changers!" When
+all was left in darkness, save where a blinking red and white line
+signal still showed, Ram Lal Singh crept away from the line of the
+rails. The rich jewel vender clutched in his bosom the handle of
+Mirzah Shah's poisoned dagger, the deadly dagger of a merciless
+prince.
+
+He had long pondered over the sudden demand made upon him by the
+Lady of the Silver Bungalow. And he greatly desired to re-adjust
+his relations with Hugh Johnstone and Major Alan Hawke. The daily
+usefulness of "Lying as a Fine Art" was never before so apparent
+to Ram Lal. He slunk away on foot to his own bit of a zenana.
+
+"I must try to deceive them both! Fool that I was not to see
+it before! These two Generals are her friends, of old! The secret
+protector of the wonderful moon-eyed beauty here is General
+Willoughby, and the other General will secretly help her down at
+Calcutta. She came up here, secretly, to see her old lover Willoughby,
+and that is why she would be able to have a guard arrest me. For
+she said just what they said about the prison. Willoughby goes down
+often to Calcutta! Ah! Yes! They are all the same, these English!
+Fools! Not to lock their women up, when they have once bought them,
+with a secret price! And now, Hawke must never know of this paper
+I gave her. She would find out, and then have the General punish me.
+Now I know why she went not to the great English Mem-Sahibs here!
+And these two great General Sahibs have had her spy upon this old
+man, Hugh Fraser--the man who would steal away with the Queen's
+jewels. They would have them. By Bowanee! I will have them first!
+For I can hide them where they never will find them! I will trade
+them off to the Princes, who know the old jewels of Oude.  They will
+give me double weight, treble value." Ram Lal crept into his hidden
+love nest, his skinny hand clutching the golden shaft of Mirzah
+Shah's dagger. "I might surrender them later and get an enormous
+reward from the Crown," he mused.
+
+At the Delhi Club, Major Alan Hawke, in a strange unrest, paced his
+floor half the night. "I stand now nearly eleven thousand pounds
+to the good, with outlying counties to hear from, as the Yankees
+say." He smiled, "that is, if the old fox does not stop these drafts.
+If he does, I'll stop him!" he swore. And yet, he was troubled at
+heart. "I know Alixe Delavigne will call me back and pay me well.
+How did she find out about my bold bluff to Johnstone? Some servant
+may have overheard, and she is a deep one. She may even have her
+own spies there!"
+
+"Justine, I can count on you to help me later. But, how to treat
+old Hugh?" His dreams of an army reinstatement came back to worry
+him.  "I might go to Abercromby and warn him about Johnstone. Damn
+it!  I've no proof as yet! Berthe Louison will fire the great gun
+herself." The renegade fell asleep, torturing himself about the
+needless breach with Johnstone. "All violence is a mistake!" he
+muttered, half asleep. "The angry old man will keep me away from
+the girl forever, and the old brute is going to Europe. I have
+spoiled one game in taking one trick too roughly."
+
+Another "late party" was at Major Hardwicke's quarters, where the
+loyal Simpson related to the lover all the gossip of Johnstone and
+General Abercromby, over their brandy pawnee and cheroots. Simpson
+was the eager servitor of the young engineer, whom he loved.
+
+General Willoughby had a little fit of "work" which seized upon him,
+and so he toiled till late at night, sending some cipher dispatches
+to the Viceroy. "I may make a point in this, perhaps a C. B.,"
+said the old veteran, who was sharper when drunk than sober. "I'll
+put a pin in Johnstone's game, and get ahead of Abercromby." This
+last old warrior had secretly vowed to force Hugh Fraser Johnstone
+to present him to the "little party in the Silver Bungalow." The
+Calcutta general was a Knight of Venus, as well as a Son of Mars,
+and had guarded memories of some wild episodes of his own there in
+the halcyon days of the great chieftain who had builded it. A gay
+young staff officer whispered:
+
+"Alan Hawke is the only one who really has the 'open sesame.' He
+knows that 'little party.' Didn't you see Johnstone hurry her away?
+The old nabob, too, is sly."
+
+"Ah!" mused the General. "I'll make Johnstone have Hawke here to
+breakfast. Devilish clever fellow--and he'll take me there!" Alas!
+for these rosy anticipations. The "little party" was already at
+Allahabad before the gouty general awoke from his love dream.
+
+And, last of all the "late parties" on this eventful night was Hugh
+Fraser Johnstone's little solitary council of war. He had, with
+a prescience of coming trouble, detailed two of his own keenest
+personal servants to watch the Silver Bungalow, from daylight,
+relieving each other, and never losing sight a moment of the hidden
+tiger's den. "I'll find out who goes and comes there! By God! I
+will!" he raged. After a long cogitation, he evolved a "way out" of
+his quarrel with Hawke. "Damn the fellow! I must not drive him over
+into the enemy's camp. I'll have him here--to breakfast, to-morrow.
+The jewels are safely out of the way now. For a few pounds he will
+watch this she-devil, and that yellow thief, Ram Lal, for me. My
+only danger is in their coming together. I'll get a note to him
+early." Seizing his chit-book, he dashed off in a frankly apologetic
+way a few lines. "There! That'll do! Not too much!" He read his
+lines with a final approval.
+
+"Dear Hawke: I've been worried to death with a lot of people thrust
+on me. Mere figure-heads. You must excuse an old friend--an old
+man--and Madame Louison is like all women--only a bundle of nerves.
+Come over to the house to-day at noon and breakfast with Abercromby
+and myself alone. I'll send you back to Calcutta with him on a
+little run. I appreciate your manliness in keeping out of my little
+misunderstanding with the Madame. By the way, a few words from
+Abercromby to the Viceroy would put you back on the Army Staff,
+where you rightly belong. Let bygones be bygones, and you can make
+your play on the General, It's the one chance of a life. Come and
+see me. J."
+
+"There! He will never show that!" mused Hugh Johnstone. "It touches
+his one little raw spot!" And calling a boy the old Commissioner
+dispatched the note, carefully sealed, to the Club. The last one
+to seek his rest in the marble house, old Johnstone was strangely
+shaken by the events of the day.
+
+Berthe Louison's threats, Ram Lal's stubborn refusal, and the useless
+quarrel with Hawke had unmanned him. He drank a strong glass of
+grog and then sought his room. "All things settle themselves at
+last! This thing will blow over! I wish to God that she was out of
+the way! I could then handle the rest!" For in his heart he feared
+the defiant woman.
+
+There were two men equally surprised when gunfire brought the
+"day's doings" on again in lazy, luxurious Delhi. Over his morning
+coffee, Major Alan Hawke thankfully cried: "I am a very devil for
+luck! This old skinflint is opening his bosom and handing me a
+knife. By God!  I'll have my pound of flesh!" He leaped from his
+couch as blithe as a midshipman receiving his first love letter
+from a fullgrown dame.  There was great joy in the house of Hawke.
+
+But when Simpson entered his master's room he was followed by a
+wild-eyed returning emissary, who waited till the old soldier had
+left the room. Hugh Johnstone suddenly lost all interest in the
+breakfast tray, the letters and his morning toilet, when the Hindu
+fearfully said: "They are all gone--the Mem-Sahib, the two foreign
+devils, and all their belongings!"
+
+Johnstone was on his feet with a single bound. "Gone! What do you
+tell me, you fool?" He was shaking the slim-boned native as if he
+were a man of straw.
+
+"They went to the railroad at two o'clock at night, the coachman
+told me. We only began our watch by your orders at daybreak. She
+had been then gone four hours." Johnstone foamed in an impotent
+rage.
+
+"Who is left in the house?" he roared.
+
+"Nobody, Sahib." tersely said the Hindu.
+
+"Get out and send me Simpson!" the old man sternly said. "Go back
+and watch that house till I have you relieved. Tell me everyone
+who goes in or out!"
+
+And then the horrible fear that Willoughby or Abercromby had
+deceived him, began to dawn upon his excited mind. "Simpson," he
+cried, "there's a good fellow! Take the first trap and get over
+to Major Hawke. Tell him that I must see him here, at once, on the
+most important business. He must come. Then get to Ram Lal, and
+bring him yourself to your own room. Let me know, privately, when
+he is there. Never mind my dressing. Send me a couple of the others.
+Is the General awake?"
+
+"Just coming down for his ride! Horses ordered in half an hour!"
+
+Simpson fled away, muttering, "Hardwicke must know of this!"
+
+Hugh Johnstone fancied that he was dreaming when he met his official
+guest, refreshed and jovial, but still under the spell of Venus.
+
+"See here, Hugh!" said the gallant Abercromby. "I want you to present
+me to that stunning woman over there, at the Silver Bungalow, you
+know. They tell me she's the Queen of Delhi. You old rascal, I'm
+bound to know her! Can't we have a little breakfast there, under
+the rose?" A last desperate expedient occurred to Johnstone. His
+baronetcy was in danger now.
+
+"There's but one man in Delhi can bring you within the fairy circle.
+That's Hawke--a devilish good officer too, by the way! Ought to be
+back on the 'Temporary Staff,' at least! He comes here to breakfast!
+I'll turn you over to him. He manages all the lady's private affairs.
+He is your man."
+
+General Abercromby turned a stony eye upon his host. "Does Willoughby
+go there?" he huskily whispered.
+
+"Never crossed the line! Hawke is far too shy. You see, Willoughby
+has not recognized Major Hawke's rank and past services!"
+
+"Ah!" said the jealous warrior. "If Hawke is the man you say he
+is, I can get the Viceroy to give him a local rank, in two weeks!
+Send him down with me to Calcutta!" and the gay old would-be lover
+jingled away on his morning ride.
+
+"This may be my one anchor of safety!" gasped the wondering Johnstone,
+as Alan Hawke came dashing into the grounds. In half an hour, the
+broken entente cordiale was restored, and Johnstone had slipped
+away and questioned the wary Ram Lal.
+
+"All I know is that the lady hired the house temporarily from me,
+I am agent for Runjeet Hoy, who owns it now. She went without a
+word, and gave me three hundred pounds yesternight, for her rent
+and supplies. I asked the Mem-Sahib no questions. She went away
+all by herself, in the middle of the night."
+
+"Ah! You know nothing more?" sharply queried Johnstone.
+
+"Of course not! I thought you, or Hawke Sahib, or General Wilhoughby,
+was a secret friend." Slyly said Ram Lal.
+
+"She owes you nothing? You do not expect her to return?" the nabob
+cried.
+
+"I think she has gone to Calcutta! She came from there."
+
+"Come to-night, privately, Ram Lal. I'll show you how to get
+in.  Just tap at my bedroom window three times. Come secretly, at
+eleven o'clock, and find out all you can. Wait in the garden till
+the house is dark. I'll pay you well," continued Johnstone, leading
+the old jeweler to his bedroom. "I will leave this one window
+unfastened. So you can come in! The room will be dark!"
+
+"The Sahib shall be obeyed!" said Ram Lal, salaaming to the
+ground, and he was happy at heart as he glided out of the garden.
+A ferocious smile of coming triumph gleamed in his dark face.
+"I have him now! He will never slip away in the night! But I must
+please him, and lie to him!" It was the chance for which he had
+vainly waited there many years, and Ram Lal prayed to great Bowaaee
+to aid him.
+
+"Hawke!" said Johnstone, when his astounded listener heard all of
+Johnstone's proposed infamy. "I have telegraphed to Allahabad and
+Calcutta. This strange woman has gone down there. Now, I want you
+to fall in with Abercromby. He will go down in a few days. Bring
+them together in any way you can. The General and the beauty. No fool
+like an old fool!" he grinned. "Watch them and post me! Abercromby
+is already well disposed to you. Make a play on him. He will get
+you a temporary rank from the Viceroy.
+
+"Your matchless knowledge of the Himalayas and the whole northern
+frontier will earn you a regular rank. Coddle Anstruther, too, and
+cling to the Vice-roy! I'll back you with any money you need. It's
+the one chance of a life!"
+
+"And what am I to do for you, Johnstone?" quietly said the delighted
+Hawke.
+
+"Just stand by me about this baronetcy, and bamboozle this damned
+foolish woman, while I slip quietly away to Europe! She is mercurial
+and vain. Abercromby will get her into the fast Calcutta set, after
+one necessary appearance at the Viceroy's! She is, after all, only
+a woman. You can catch them with a feather, if you can catch them
+at all! Once properly launched by Abercromby, you are a made man for
+life! He will not dare to 'go back on you!' as our Yankee cousins
+have it. The Viceroy will do anything for him!"
+
+"By God! Johnstone! I'm your man! Count on me in life and death!"
+warmly cried Hawke. The two men clasped hands.
+
+There was a clatter and a jingle. The old warrior was on his return.
+"Here he comes now! Fall in with his humor, and success to you at
+Calcutta," whispered Johnstone. There was the very jolliest breakfast
+imaginable at the marble house that day, and that same afternoon
+Major. Alan Hawke rode all over Delhi as volunteer aide to General
+Abercromby.
+
+Two nights later General Abercromby whispered to Hugh Johnstone, at
+a Grand Ball at Willoughby's Headquarters: "I've just had a telegram
+from the Viceroy to return at once. Your matter is now all right.
+I leave the property with Willoughby here. I'll go down in the
+morning, if you'll fix me up." And then, Johnstone signing to Major
+Alan Hawke, who had been the cynosure of all eyes, as he gracefully
+led Madame la Generate Willoughby through a lanciers, took the
+favorite of fortune aside.
+
+"Make your adieux! Get out of here! Settle all your little affairs!
+Send all your traps over to my house! General Abercromby wants to
+slip away quietly in the morning! No one is to know! And you go
+with him, at his urgent request."
+
+And that very evening at Calcutta, Alixe Delavigne would have
+laughed in triumph to know of Hugh Johnstone's strange eagerness
+to dispatch his amorous guest. For the lady--in the safe haven of
+the great banker's home--had just returned from a captivated Viceroy,
+who had instantly recalled Abercrornby by a dispatch to be "obeyed
+forthwith."
+
+"You, Madame, have laid me under an obligation which I can never
+forget," said the graceful statesman. The list of Ram Lal was in
+his hands now! And so Hugh Johnstone was highly pleased, and Madame
+Berthe Louison, still in her masquerade, was happy, and the watchful
+Commanding-General Willoughby was more than pleased; and the now
+doubly hopeful Major Alan Hawke rejoiced, while General Abercromby
+knew that the "little party" was waiting him in Calcutta. But most
+of all pleased was Ram Lal Singh, clutching in his dreams at the
+dagger of Mirzah Shah, lying there by his bedside. "He will be
+left alone, and he knows my signal--his own device--THREE TAPS AT
+HIS WINDOW! In Delhi there only lingered, sad and lonely, Major Harry
+Hardwicke, whose sighs were echoed back from afar by a starry-eyed
+girl watching the sandy shores of the Suez Canal.
+
+"I dare not telegraph to him till we reach Brindisi," mused the
+loving girl. "After that our path will be plain, and Justine MUST
+help me! Then he can follow me--if he loves me!" She faltered, hiding
+her blushing face. The only comforter of the lonely Hardwicke was
+"Rattler Murray." Red Eric, of the Eighth Lancers, had just fallen
+into a pot of money.
+
+"Take your long leave, my boy!" he cried. "I've been nine long
+years a Lieutenant! I'll have my troop before my leave is out!
+And there's a loving lass awaiting me! One I love--one who loves
+me--one you must know, for you must be the 'best man'!"
+
+"Wait, only wait a couple of weeks, Eric!" said the Major, whose
+eyes were now turned daily to Simpson. "Then I'll put in my own
+application, and we'll go home together."
+
+This bright hope was duly pledged in many a loving cup.
+
+General Abercromby was far away on the road to Calcutta when
+Major-General Willoughby sent, posthaste, for Major Harry Hardwicke
+of the Corps of Engineers. The puzzled Commanding General was racking
+his brains to find out if his old friend Abercromby had committed
+any fatal error during his somewhat bacchanalian visit on "special
+duty."
+
+"I'm glad he is gone" mused the stout-hearted, thick-headed old
+Commander, as he read, over and over, the Viceroy's cipher dispatch
+to the departed General.
+
+"Do nothing further! Turn over all property, on invoice, to General
+Willoughby, and report here forthwith. Hold no communication with
+Johnstone, and guard an absolute silence. Report in person, instantly
+on your arrival."
+
+"Something has surely gone wrong!" at last decided Willoughby. "Old
+Hugh Fraser Johnstone may have been too much for him. Strange, the
+Viceroy says nothing of him!" And then he read a second dispatch,
+with the Viceroy's orders to himself. "Notify Major Harry Hardwicke,
+Royal Engineers, to report in person, to the Viceroy for special
+duty, prepared to go in a week to England on duty. Absolute secrecy
+required. His leave application will be approved for any period,
+to take effect on his completion of duties assigned, in London.
+Special cipher orders will be sent to him this A.M. Deliver them
+and furnish him the code No. 2. No copies to be retained. Furnish
+Major Hardwicke with a captain and ten picked men to escort
+the property received by General Abercromby to Calcutta. Invoices
+to you to be signed by him. Property to be sent down in sealed
+pay-chests, with your seal and Major Hardwicke's. Report compliance,
+and telegraph in cipher No. 2 Hardwicke's departure for Calcutta.
+Special transportation has been ordered."
+
+"There, my boy, you have your orders!" an hour later said General
+Willoughby when Major Hardwicke reported. "I am glad to have the
+whole thing off my hands. Here is the double-ciphered code. You
+are to translate for yourself, and, remember, then destroy your
+translation. Remember, also, one single whisper of your destination,
+and you are a ruined man! Evidently the Viceroy is bent on trapping
+old Hugh Johnstone. Damn him, for a sneaking civilian! I never
+trusted him!" And the old General rolled away for his family tiffin.
+"I'll see you when you have translated the private orders. Thank
+God, the Viceroy keeps me out of this dirty muddle! You see, I
+have no power over Johnstone--he is a blasted civilian." Two hours
+later, the grateful old General found Hardwicke pacing up and
+down impatiently. "I ought only to tell Murray," he murmured, "if
+I could! He is going home to be married, and I am to stand up with
+him."
+
+"Just the thing!" gayly cried Willoughby. "Murray's captaincy is
+in the Gazette of to-day's mail. I will order him down with you,
+in command of the guard, and, at Calcutta, the Viceroy will release
+you from your promise, so as to let him know that you can meet
+him in London. His Excellency evidently wants to hoodwink all the
+gossips here, and, above all, to blind old Johnstone. Now, Harry,
+I feel like a brute to let you go without a poor send-off, but,
+by Heaven, the whole Willoughby clan will follow you in London,
+and pay off a part of our debt for that 'run-under fire' with my
+wounded boy. Name anything you want. Do you want any help to watch
+Johnstone?" The old General was eager.
+
+"Ah! I fear that I must attend to him, alone!" sadly said Major
+Hardwicke, whose heart was racked, for a fair, dear face now afar
+must soon be clouded with sorrow and those dear eyes weep a father's
+shame.
+
+"Call, day and night, for anything you want!" heartily said the
+loyal old father of the rescued officer. "The day before you go
+you must dine with us, alone, and Harriet will give you her last
+greeting."
+
+As the day wore away, there was a jovial rapprochement in the special
+car where General Abercromby and Major Hawke were gayly extolling
+Madame Berthe Louison's perfections. "Mind you, General, I am no
+squire of dames," said the Major. "You must make your own running."
+
+"Ah! my boy, you have earned your temporary rank as a Major
+of Staff, when you've introduced me. I flatter myself that I know
+women!" cried Abercromby as they cracked t'other bottle of Johnstone's
+champagne.
+
+"Take me to her, and then, I'll take you to the Viceroy. I guarantee
+your rank!"
+
+"It's a bargain!" cried the delighted Hawke. While Abercromby
+dreamed of the lovely lady of the Silver Bungalow, Major Alan Hawke
+leisurely examined a sheaf of letters from Europe which had been
+thrust in his pocket by Ram Lal at parting.
+
+"Victory!" he cried, as he read a tender letter from Euphrosyne
+Delande, in which she promised her absolute compliance with his
+every wish. "Justine has written to me herself," was the underscored
+hint that the three might join fortunes. "It's about time for that
+Madras boat to get to Brindisi," mused Hawke, as they ran into
+Allahabad, "There maybe telegrams here now." And, while General
+Abercromby jovially feasted, Hawke ran over to his secret haunt
+to which he had ordered Ram Lal to send any telegrams, for one day
+only, and then, the rest would be safe with Ram's secret agent in
+Calcutta. "My God! This is my fortune! Bravo, Justine!" cried Hawke,
+"True and quickwitted. I now hold Berthe Louison in my hand."
+
+He read the words--"Andrew Fraser, St. Agnes' Road, St. Heliers,
+Jersey." The dispatch was headed Brindisi, and signed "Justine."
+"A man might do worse than marry a woman as true and keen as that,"
+smiled Hawke. "I am a devil for luck!" And then he gayly drank
+Justine's health, in silence, when he joined the amorous Abercromby
+at the table.
+
+But the "devil for luck" did not know of a little scene at Brindisi,
+where the blushing Nadine Johnstone hid her face in her friend's
+bosom. "It is my life, my very existence, Justine!" she pleaded. "I
+will never forget you; we are both women, and my heart will break
+if you refuse!" And thus Justine Delande had learned at last of
+Nadine's easy victory over the frank-hearted cousin's prudence.
+
+"What's the wrong--to tell her?" he had mused, under the spell of
+the loving eyes. "We go straight through, and I am in charge till
+my father takes her out of my hands! Poor girl, it will be a grim
+enough life with him. Not a man will ever set eyes on her face
+without old Hugh's written order!" And it was thus that Justine was
+enabled to warn her own lover when she had slipped away and cabled
+by her mistress's orders to the young Lochinvar at Delhi:
+
+"Captain Harry Hardwicke, Royal Engineers, Delhi: Letters for you
+at Andrew Fraser's, St Agnes Road, St. Heliers, Jersey. Come."
+
+The Swiss woman shuddered as she boldly signed Nadine! And this
+same dispatch when received by the young officer, now busied with
+the Viceroy's mandate, brought the sunlight of Love back into his
+darkened soul! The minutes seemed to lengthen into hours until the
+special train was ready. At the risk of his military future, the
+Major gave to the faithful Simpson his London Club address. "If
+anything happens here, you must go to General Willoughby. Tell
+him what you want me to know. He will send it on, and give you
+a five-pound note. Remember! Simpson, you'll die in my service if
+you stand true!"
+
+"That I will, for your brave father's sake, and for the young lady's
+bright eyes! Bless her dear, sunny face! Tell her that I will work
+for her in life and death!" And when, in a few days the lengthened
+absence of Major Harry Hardwicke and Red Eric Murray was noted, the
+groups only conjectured a little junket to some near-by station,
+or a long shikaree trip. But Simpson and General Willoughby knew
+better. Simpson was a "lord" in these days, in the quarter, for
+Hardwicke had not left Delhi with a closed hand.
+
+And old Hugh Johnstone, greatly relieved at heart, was now busied
+in secretly arranging for his own flitting. "I'll run down to
+Calcutta, see the Viceroy, give Abercromby a splendid dinner, and
+then slip off home, on the quiet, via Ceylon. I'll send Douglas
+back when I get to Jersey, and then I can put those jewels where
+no human being can ever trace them! Once that brother Andrew has
+my full orders as to Nadine, I will bar this she-devil forever from
+her side! On the excuse of a leisurely contemplated tour, I can
+have the rich Jew brokers of Amsterdam and Frankfort, with their
+agents in Cairo and Constantinople, divide up the jewels among the
+foreign crown-heads.  I am then safe! safe! No human hand can ever
+touch me now," he gloated.
+
+There was a clattering of aides-de-camp and great official bustle
+at the Government House in Calcutta when General Abercromby reported
+to the great statesman Viceroy, dwelling in the vast palace, builded
+by the Marquis of Wellesley.
+
+General Abercromby, marveling at the abruptness of the Viceroy, was
+relieved to know that his "secret service" had been transferred to
+Major Hardwicke under the orders of Major-General Willoughby. His
+mind was intently occupied with the promised introduction to Madame
+Berthe Louison--"that little party"--and so he failed not to refer
+to the future value to the crown of Alan Hawke's services.
+
+"He is here with me, Your Excellency!" respectfully said Abercromby,
+who had already posted off his leporello to call in due form
+at the banker's mansion, where the disguised Alixe Delavigne had
+taken refuge. "Send him to me at once, General. I need him! I will
+give him the local staff rank of Major and immediate employment.
+Willoughby has also written to me especially about his wonderful
+knowledge of our northern lines. Stay! Bring him yourself, to-morrow,
+at ten o'clock."
+
+"Splendid! Splendid!" cried the love-lorn General, rubbing his
+hands, as he hastened away in his carriage to meet Alan Hawke! "I
+am ready for him, if he is ready for me! I wish she were at some
+one of the great hotels instead of being buried in the silver-gray
+respectability of the Manager's family circle. But--but--I will take
+her to the Viceroy. The bird shall then learn to test its wings.
+I will bring her out as a social star!"
+
+Major Alan Hawke, with a beating heart, recounted to Madame Berthe
+Louison all the occurrences in Delhi, when they were left alone
+in the great banker's vast parlors. "She is a puzzle, this strange
+woman!" mused Hawke, for a serene and stately triumph shone in her
+splendid eyes.
+
+Berthe Louison listened to all! "You will get your staff
+appointment," she smiled, "and I will help you! Bring your friend
+General Abercromby to see me here to-morrow evening! I will be amiable
+to him, for your sake, and for the sake of my future interests!"
+
+The grateful young man, now on the threshold of reinstatement, in
+a sudden impulse cried, "I can, now, give you Nadine Johnstone's
+hiding place! You can trust to me and I will prove it, now! It
+is--"
+
+"With Andrew Fraser, retired Professor of Edinburgh University,
+historian and philologist, ethnologist, etc.; St. Agnes Road, St.
+Heliers, Jersey," laughingly rejoined Berthe Louison.
+
+"You are a--witch, woman! A wonder!" cried the astounded adventurer.
+
+"Ah! You see that I have trusted you!" she smiled. "Now, do as I
+bid you, and you will rise in the service! Remember! You are to do
+just what I say! The bank here, or in Delhi, will give you always
+my directions. Remember! I shall not lose sight of you for a moment,
+though near or far! And money and promotion will reward your good
+faith! Go now! my friend," she kindly said, extending her hand.
+"Bring the General, here, tomorrow evening, at eight! I will be
+busied till then! There is nothing for you to do now!"
+
+The astonished schemer was in a maze as he dashed away to the
+Calcutta Club to meet General Abercromby. "She is a very devil and
+a mistress of the Black Art!" he mused. "I will stand by her," he
+admiringly cried, "as long as it pays me." It was the honest tribute
+of a grateful scoundrel's heart!
+
+While the happy Abercromby dallied with Major Hawke over a claret
+cup, an official messenger sought him out, at the Club. "There, my
+boy! You see that I am a man of my word!" cried the would-be lover.
+Alan Hawke's lip trembled as he tore open an envelope directed to
+him and marked: "On Her Majesty's Service." The first in many years.
+The walls spun around before his eyes when he read his provisional
+appointment, with an order to report forthwith, to the Chief of
+Staff, for private instructions. "Ah! I congratulate you, my boy!"
+heartily cried the happy General. "You are a very devil for luck!
+One toast to the Viceroy! I'll meet you here to-night!"
+
+The happiest man in India sped away to his newly opened gate of
+Paradise Regained, while afar in the sweltering September sun, the
+gleam of rifles and red coats told of an armed escort on the train,
+bearing Major Hardwicke and Captain Eric Murray, on to Calcutta,
+with the swiftness of the wind. Neither of the officers for a moment
+quitted their compartment, and two chosen sergeants, revolver in
+hand, watched certain sealed packages lying beside them all there
+in plain view. Major Hardwicke's soul was now in his quest!
+
+There was a gleam of romance in the great Viceroy's morning duties,
+while Major Hawke had hastened to the Chief of Staff's office.
+
+Madame Berthe Louison, escorted by her guardian, the bank manager,
+had placed upon the Viceroy's table a little document which he
+studied with great care. "You are sure that there is no mistake?"
+the statesman said, gravely interrogating the banker. "I will
+guarantee it, Your Excellency, with its face value, fifty thousand
+pounds." answered the financier. It was the memorandum of a policy
+of assurance for a sealed package, on the steamer Lord Roberts,
+sent by Hugh Fraser Johnstone to Prof. Andrew Fraser, St. Agnes
+Road, St.  Heliers, Jersey and now half way to England.
+
+"I will act, Madame, at once!" said the holder of a scepter by
+proxy. "You are to guard this secret, both, upon your honor. Send
+the dispatch, as you have proposed. My official action is to follow
+this up. I will let the game go on in silence just a little longer.
+And now--" the Viceroy led the lady aside, whispering a few private
+words, which left her a proud and happy woman. "My special aid
+will call at your residence as soon as it is dark. The consular
+officials at Aden, Suez, Port Said, and Brindisi will all have
+orders regarding you. I am ashamed that the prudence needed in the
+official side of this affair prevents me socially honoring you as
+I would.  The French Consul-General has given to me his official
+guaranty for you, which," he smiled, "was not needed. We shall meet
+again, and your conduct will not be forgotten."
+
+Alixe Delavigne bowed with the grace of a queen and never lifted
+her eyes until her sober mentor had brought her to the shelter of
+his home. Before they were seated at tiffin the wires bore away
+this dispatch, which astounded its recipient:
+
+"CAP. ANSON ANSTRUTHER, JUNIOR UNITED SERVICE CLUB,
+
+LONDON.
+
+Meet me at Morley's Hotel, London. Will telegraph you from Brindisi.
+Official dispatches to you explain.
+
+BERTHE LOUISON."
+
+When the stars lit up the broad Hooghly that night, a swift
+Peninsular and Oriental Liner drew away down the river, with a
+smart steam-launch towing at her companionway. The woman who said
+adieu to the Viceroy's aid and her grave-faced banker in her splendid
+rooms had read the brief words of Captain Anstruther, telling her
+that the electric Ariel was true to his trust. "All right. Both
+dispatches received. Welcome. Anstruther." The official staterooms
+were a bower of floral beauty, and the gallant aid murmured: "I
+hope that nothing has been forgotten. The whole ship is at your
+disposal. The Commander has the Viceroy's personal orders. And, I
+was to give you the letter and this package!" When the banker had
+exchanged the last words of counsel and advice, he said: "Trust
+me! I know Hawke of old! We will let him go up the ladder of life
+a little, while the other fellow comes down!"
+
+When the little steam-launch was a black blur on the blue waters,
+then Alixe Delavigne, standing alone at the rail, smiled as she
+saw the lean, straggling shores sweep by. "I fear that General
+Abercromby will deem me discourteous! But time, tide, and the P.
+and O. steamers wait for no elderly beau, however fascinating!"
+
+It is a matter of local history in Calcutta that General
+Abercromby's remark: "Hawke! we have been a pair of damned fools!
+We are outwitted!" found its way at last into the clubs, and the
+attack of jaundice, followed up by a severe gout, which "laid out"
+the sighing lover for long months, proves, as of old, that stern
+Mars cannot cope with the bright and all-compelling Venus! But
+Major Alan Hawke, of the Provisional Staff, hearkened wisely to the
+banker's words: "Don't be fool enough to think that you can trifle
+with Madame Louison's interests. The noble Viceroy has placed you
+on duty, at her own personal request, to give you a last chance to
+regain all the promise of your youth. One word from her, and--and
+you will be suspended or, dropped! You will get your military orders
+from the Viceroy and her wishes from me."
+
+Alan Hawke was paralyzed with astonishment the next day, when
+the Viceroy ordered him to proceed at once to Delhi, to report to
+General Willoughby, and to hasten to London, via Bombay, on completion
+of his secret service at Delhi."
+
+"I am a devil for luck!" muttered Hawke. "But even the tide of Fortune
+can drive along too fast!" He had lost his head, and forgotten all
+his pigmy plans. A stronger hand than his own was secretly guiding
+his onward path, upward to the old status of the "British officer!"
+"What the devil do they want of me in London?" he mused.
+
+And, chuckling over how easily he had made the lovesick Abercromby
+help him into his "military seat" once more, Alan Hawke betook himself
+forthwith to Delhi, to report to General Willoughby for instant
+service. When he descended at Allahabad, his undress uniform of a
+major of the Staff Corps brought down on him a storm of congratulations
+from old friends gathered there. "Sly old boy you were!" the service
+men laughed, over their glasses, while wetting his new uniform.
+"A man must not tell all he knows!" patiently replied Major Hawke,
+with the sad, sweet smile of a man who had dropped into a good
+thing.
+
+As he rolled along toward Delhi, he seriously cogitated "playing
+fair" in his new capacity. "Perhaps it will pay!" he mused. "But I
+will even up with that old hog, Johnstone!" He dared not contemplate
+now any substantial treason to Madame Alixe Delavigne. "She is
+a witch woman! She seems to have an untold backing! The Bankers,
+even, the Viceroy, and the French Consul-General, too. She could
+crush me!  I must serve My Lady Disdain, and I will fight and die
+in her army!" Arriving at Delhi, Major Alan Hawke's first visit was
+to Ram Lal Singh, as he prepared to "report forthwith," in "full
+rig," to the local Commander. There was a strange preoccupation
+in the old jeweler which baffled Hawke. Ram Lal only humbly begged
+to have all his lengthened accounts with Madame Berthe Louison
+arranged, and Alan Hawke, with a few words, calmed the Mussulman's
+fears.
+
+"I'll have it all attended to, to-morrow, when I look it over,"
+said the Major, hastening away to the Club. "Ram has been at
+the hashish, or bhang, or the betel nut, or some of his recondite
+dissipations--perhaps he has enjoyed an opium bout in the Zenana,"
+mused the new appointee, as he gayly "begged off" from a cloud of
+eager congratulations by promising to "blow off" the whole Delhi
+Club. "Business first, pleasure afterwards" said the resplendent
+Major Hawke, as he clattered away, a handsome son of Mars, to report
+to General Willoughby.
+
+Major Hawke was secretly delighted with his cordial reception.
+"Come to me to-morrow at ten, Major," said the Commander, "I will
+have your first instructions, but remember absolute secrecy. This
+is a very grave affair to both of us--your coming employment."
+
+"The tide of life is bearing me on, with a devilish rapidity, with
+favoring gales," the Major reflected. But beyond the clouds veiling
+the future he saw no farther shore.
+
+In the dim watches of the night for a week past, Simpson, secretly
+busied with preparing Hugh Johnstone's flitting, was perplexed at
+the sound of shuffling feet and whispered voices in the master's
+rooms opening into the splendid gardens. "Who the devil has
+he there? Some woman!" mused the old veteran servant. Simpson had
+his own little "private life" to wind up, and so he was charitably
+inclined. It was his custom when all was still to slip away "to
+the quarter" where some lingering cords were now slowly snapping
+one by one. The old servant noted with surprise a dark form gliding
+on his trail in several of these goings and comings. Being of a
+practical nature, the man who had faced the mad rebels at Lucknow
+only belted on a heavy Adams revolver, and concluded at last that
+some others of the household were busied in secret dissipation or
+nocturnal lovemaking. "No one man has a controlling patent on being
+a fool," mused Simpson. "Black and white, we're all of a muchness."
+And as he knew they might now leave at any moment he sped away to
+his last delightful nights in Delhi.
+
+On the night when Alan Hawke returned from Calcutta, the inky blackness
+of an approaching storm wrapped dreaming Delhi in an impenetrable
+mantle. Under the huge camphor tree where the cobra had risen in
+its horrid menace before the frightened girl, a dark figure waited
+till a man glided to his side. His head was bent as the spy reported
+"Simpson is gone to the quarter. Two of our men have followed him,
+and, if he returns, he will be stopped on the way." The only answer
+was an outstretched arm, and the whispered words, "Go, then, and
+watch."
+
+"It is the very night--the night of all nights!" muttered the watcher
+under the tree, and then, stealing forward, he tapped three times
+at the window where Hugh Johnstone stood with his heart beating
+high in all the pride of a coming triumph ready to open to the man
+who was settling hisprivate affairs.
+
+"No one shall know that I have stolen away," he mused. "Forever
+and in the night."
+
+A light foot pressed the floor as the expected one glided over the
+low window sill. There was a night lamp burning dimly in a shaded
+corner. "Put out the light. I must tell you something. We are both
+watched and spied on!" whispered a well-known voice.
+
+As Hugh Johnstone turned from the corner, in the darkness, there was
+a gurgling cry--a half-smothered groan--as Mirzah Shah's poisoned
+dagger was driven to the hilt between his shoulders. His accounts
+were settled, at last!
+
+An hour later, a dark form crept through the gardens toward the
+gate where Harry Hardwicke had rode in to the rescue. There was a
+silent struggle as two men wrestled in the darkness, and one fled
+away into the shadows of the night. It was the chance meeting of
+a spy and a murderer.
+
+And then Major Alan Hawke stooped and picked up a heavy dagger
+lying at his feet. "I have the beggar's knife," he growled. And,
+with a sudden intention, he vanished toward the Club, for the knife
+of Mirzah Shah was reeking, and Hugh Johnstone had gone out on his
+darkened path alone. He had left Delhi--forever.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+PRINCE DJIDDIN'S VISIT TO ENGLAND.
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+"DO YOU SEE THIS DAGGER?"
+
+
+
+
+
+Morning in Delhi! The fiery sun leaped up, gilding once more the far
+Himalayas and lighting the bloodstained plains of Oude. The golden
+shafts twinkled on the huge colonnade, the vast ruined arch, the
+crumbling walls, and the huge castled oval of Humayoon's tomb. In
+the dark night, the monsoon winds wailed over the wreck of Hindu,
+Pathan, and Mogul magnificence. The dark demons of Bowanee rejoiced
+at a new sacrifice to the gloomy goddess; and the straggling jungle
+was alive again.
+
+In the vacant caverns, whence the sons of Mohammed Bahadur were
+once dragged forth to die by daring Hodson's smoking pistols, their
+slaughtered shades grinned over the ghastly vengeance of the barren
+years.
+
+The huge dome of the mosque hung in air over the vacant palaces
+of the great Moguls, and the far windmill ridge, and the bastioned
+walls of Delhi were bathed in golden light, while Alan Hawke slept
+the sleep of exhaustion. And while Ram Lal Singh, secure in his
+zenana, calmly greeted the cool morning hour with a smiling face
+and a happy heart, in the lonely marble house, stern old Hugh Fraser
+Johnstone slept the sleep that knows no waking.
+
+The Chandnee Chouk awoke to its busy daily chatter, and old
+Shahjehanabad sought its pleasures languidly again, or bowed its
+shoulders once more under the yoke of toil.
+
+The faithful sought the Jumna Musjid for morning prayer, and the
+nonchalant British officials began to straggle into the vacant Hall
+of the Peacock Throne.
+
+Far away, the Kootab Minar, rising three hundred feet in air, bore
+its mute witness to the splendor of the vanished rulers of Delhi,
+the peerless Ghori swordsmen of Khorassan. But, even as the soldiers
+of the old Pathan fort had marched out into the shadowless night
+of death to join Ghori and Baber and Nadir Shah, so the spirit of
+the lonely old miser nabob had sought the echoless shore.
+
+When Simpson had unavailingly endeavored to awaken his master, the
+locked doors were burst in at last by the anxious servants, and
+they found only the tenantless shell of the mighty millionaire, as
+cold and rigid as the iron pillar which veils to-day its mystery of
+a forgotten past, when the jackals howl in the ruins of old Delhi.
+
+Then rose up a wild outcry, and the sound of hurrying feet. The
+alert old veteran servitor, with instinctive military obedience,
+dispatched two messengers, on the run, to notify General Willoughby
+and Major Alan Hawke. And then, with quick wit, he forbade the
+gaping crowd to touch even a single article.
+
+Not even the stiffened body, as it lay prone upon its face, was
+disturbed. Simpson stood there, pistol in hand, on guard until
+properly relieved, and as silent as a crouching rifleman on picket.
+The whole room bore the evidence of a thorough ransacking, and the
+disordered clothing of the nabob proved, too, that the body had
+been rifled. The mysterious nocturnal visits returned to Simpson's
+mind.  "Could it have been some once-wronged woman?" he mused while
+waiting for his "military superiors." For the simple old soldier
+scorned all civilian control. His keen eye had caught the strange
+facts of the fastened windows, the disappearance of the two mahogany
+boxes, and the startling absence of the key of the chamber door.
+
+"Whoever did this job knew what they came for and when to come!"
+mused Simpson. He gazed at the window sill. There was the mark of
+damp earth still upon it. "Just as I fancied!" growled Simp-son.
+"They came in at the window, and when their work was done, left
+by the door. There was more than one murderer in this job!" And,
+then, certain old stories of a mysterious Eurasian beauty returned
+to cloud the old man's judgment. "Was it robbery, or vengeance?" he
+grumbled. "The black gang are in this, but their secrets are safe
+forever! They are a close corporation--these devils!"
+
+With certain ideas of an endangered life pension, and a sudden
+yearning for the absent Hardwicke's counsel, stern old Simpson awaited
+the coming of his betters. And, the ghastly news of Johnstone's
+"taking-off" flew over Delhi to furnish a nine days' wonder.
+
+There was a great crowd gathered around the garden walls of the
+Marble House, as an officer of the guard galloped up with a platoon
+of cavalry. "The General will be here himself, soon! What's all
+this terrible happening?" said the young officer, as he took post
+beside Simpson. "You have done well!" the soldier said, on a brief
+report.  "Let nothing be touched. My guard will prevent any one
+leaving the grounds!" There was a sullen apathy as regarded the
+unloved old egoist.
+
+Major Alan Hawke sprang to his feet, hastily, as the excited Club
+Steward, forgetting all his decorum, banged loudly upon the staff
+officer's bedroom door. The young man was still in the dress of
+night, as the Steward excitedly exclaimed: "Here's a fearful deed!
+Hugh Johnstone has been murdered in his bed, and--they've sent for
+you!"
+
+Alan Hawke was staggered. "Get me a horse, at once! I must report
+to the General! When, where, how? Tell me all! Send off a man for
+the horse!" And, as Hawke hastily donned his uniform, he heard the
+Hindu servant's story.
+
+"Be off! Tell Simpson I go first to the General, and, then, I will
+come over to the house!"
+
+As Major Hawke strode through the clubroom, a half-dozen half-dressed
+clubmen seized upon him. He waved off their inquiries, as an orderly
+dashed up to the door.
+
+"General Willoughby's compliments, Sir. You are to report to him
+instantly at the Marble House! You can take my horse, Major! I'll
+bring yours on." And so, lightly leaping into the saddle, the Major
+galloped away, with an approving nod. "There'll be a devil of a
+racket over this thing!" he reflected, as he dashed along. And he
+chuckled with glee at his prudence in hiding away the dagger which
+he had picked up in the garden. For, a moonlight-eyed Eurasian girl,
+hidden in a little cottage, was the only human being in Delhi who
+knew of the hasty visit her secret lover had made in the night. The
+jeweled dagger of Mirzah Shah was now securely locked in a little
+chest where Alan Hawke kept a few articles hidden away in the humble
+home of the passive plaything of his idle hours. As he caught sight
+of the Marble House, with its gathered crowds, he saw the gleam of
+musket barrels, as a company of foot were picketing the vast garden
+inclosure, and forcing back the excited crowd.
+
+A non-commissioned officer swung open the heavy gates which would
+only turn on their hinges once more for Hugh Johnstone going out
+on his last journey. "The General awaits you, Major," said the
+sergeant, touching his cap. "He has already asked for you." And
+as Hawke rode up to the front door he was suddenly reminded of his
+imperiled interests. "The drafts! They may be stopped now! By God!
+I must see Ram Lal! I need him now and he needs me."
+
+With an unruffled professional calm, however, Major Hawke reported
+to the visibly disturbed General commanding.
+
+With a single warning gesture of silence, General Willoughby drew
+the Major aside. "I shall put you in entire charge here. I have
+seen all the civil authorities. This is your affair. It touches
+your mission. The Viceroy has been telegraphed, and you are to
+guard the whole property here till we have his pleasure. Now come
+with me and let us question Simpson. The rest are merely a lot of
+apes."
+
+And so Major Alan Hawke had ample time to arrange his private plan
+of campaign as he guarded a respectful silence during Simpson's long
+relation, for his thoughts were now far away with Berthe Louison,
+and the lovely orphan, whose only confidante was his tender-hearted
+dupe Justine Delande. But the acute adventurer's mind returned to
+fix itself upon Ram Lal Singh, now blandly smiling in his jewel
+shop, where the morning gossips babbled over Johnstone Sahib's
+tragic death. "I must telegraph to Euphrosyne," thought the Major,
+"and to 9 Rue Berlioz, Paris, for my will-o-the-wisp employer. But,
+Mr. Ram Lal Singh, you shall pay me for what ruin Mirzah Shah's
+dagger has wrought!"
+
+The mantle of silence had fallen forever over the last night's
+rencontre in the garden. With dreaming eyes Hawke mused: "It would
+never do to tell any part of that story. What busines had I there?"
+And, without a tremor, he stood by the General's side as they gazed
+on the dead millionaire's body still lying on the floor.
+
+"I will now send for the civil authorities, and you, Major Hawke,
+will represent me in the investigation. Your military future hangs
+on this. Remember, now, that the Viceroy looks to you alone! I will
+return here after tiffin. I will have some personal instructions
+for you." And Alan Hawke now saw the farther shore of his voyage
+of life gleaming out as General Willoughby left him to confer with
+the arriving magistrates and civil police. "I shall marry you, my
+veiled Rose of Delhi, and be master here yet, in this Marble House,
+and, by God, I'll die a general, too!" he swore, with which pleasing
+prophecy Major Alan Hawke calmly took up the varied secret duties
+which joined a Viceroy's secret orders to the will of the General
+commanding.
+
+"I am a devil for luck!" he mused as he gazed down on the old man's
+shrunken and withered dead face. "I will do the honors alone for
+you, my departed friend," he sneered, "for I am the master here
+now." The absence of all articles of value, the disappearance
+of Johnstone's three superb ruby shirt-studs, and his magnificent
+single diamond cuff-buttons, told of the greed of the robbers,
+presumably familiar with his personal ornaments, while the terrific
+stab in the back showed that the heavy knife had been driven through
+the back up to its very hilt.
+
+"We must find the dagger!" pompously said the civil magistrate.
+"Major Hawke, will you give orders to have the whole house and
+grounds searched?" And with a faint smile the Major politely rose
+and set all his myrmidons in motion.
+
+Even then the telegraph was clicking away a message to Johnstone's
+lawyer and bankers in Calcutta, and to his young relative, Douglas
+Fraser, of the great P. and O. steamship service. Before night the
+crafty Calcutta lawyer had notified Professor Andrew Fraser, in the
+far-away island of Jersey, and before Major Hawke himself received
+the Viceroy's orders, through General Willoughby, Mademoiselle
+Euphrosyne Delande, of Geneva, and the household at No. 9 Rue
+Berlioz, Paris, both knew that the defiant old nabob had sailed
+the dark sea without a shore.
+
+Most of all surprised was Captain Anson Anstruther in London, who
+pondered long at the United Service Club over an official message
+from the Viceroy, telling him of the startling murder. The young
+gallant's heart beat in a strange agitation as he examined the
+previous dispatches of both Berthe Louison and the Viceroy.
+
+"She had no hand in it, thank God!" mused the young aide-de-camp.
+"Perhaps he was paid off for some of his old Shylock transactions--some
+local intrigue, or the jealous lover of some Eurasian beauty,
+dragged to his lair, has finished all, and revenged the accumulated
+brutalities of thirty years."
+
+There was a loud outcry of horror and surprise sweeping on now
+from the social circles of Delhi to the clubs of Lucknow, Cawnpore,
+Allahabad, Benares, and Patna to Calcutta.
+
+In a day or two, men from Lahore to Hyderabad, from Bombay to
+Nagpore and Madras, and in all the clubs from Calcutta to Simla,
+had paused over their brandy pawnee to murmur, "Well! The poor old
+beggar is gone, and now he'll never get his Baronetcy! Some of the
+niggers did the trick neatly for him at last. They must have got
+a jolly lot of loot!"
+
+In which general verdict the glittering-eyed Ram Lal, hidden in
+his zenana, did not share. For, when he had rifled and destroyed
+the two mahogany boxes he summed all up his pickings with baffled
+rage. "A couple of thousand pounds of notes, a few scattered jewels,
+the sly old dog has spirited away his vast stealings! My work was
+all in vain, save the vengeance!" And the oily Ram Lal, in the
+zenana, drew a willing beauty of Cashmere to his bosom, and hid
+his face from the chatterers of street and shop. He was safe from
+all prying eyes in the Harem.
+
+But, while the triumphant English Mem-Sahibs, of Delhi, shuddered
+at the bloody details of old Hugh Johnstone's taking off, they
+found abundant reason to point a moral and adorn a tale.
+
+While the anxious Viceroy was busied at Calcutta, and General Willoughby
+and Hawke were engrossed with the pompous funeral preparations at
+Delhi, the ladies of the whole station unanimously condemned the
+departed. For a cold and brutal foe of womanhood had died unhonored
+in their midst, and none were left to mourn.
+
+With much pretentious wagging of shapely heads, and much mysterious
+innuendo, they spoke lightly of the departed one, and failed not
+to mentally unroof the Silver Bungalow. The baffled ladies scented
+a social mystery!
+
+Wild rumors of splendid orgies, strange tales of a wronged woman's
+vengeance, lurid romances of the flight of the French Countess
+with a younger lover, after despoiling her aged admirer; all these
+things were "put in commission" and vigorously circulated.
+
+The principal party interested in these slanders, was, however,
+now calmly gliding on toward Aden, while the dead millionaire was
+alike oblivious to the lovely daughter whom he had crushed as a
+bruised flower, the haughty woman who had defied him in his wrath,
+and the administration of the million sterling which was the golden
+monument over his yawning grave! The silk-petticoat Council of
+Notables in Delhi decided by a tidal-wave of womanly intuition,
+that the gallant and debonnair Major Alan Hawke would marry "the
+lovely and accomplished heiress," and so the white-bosomed beauties
+of the capital of Oude turned again lazily to their respective sins
+of omission and commission, and to the glitter of their respective
+booths in Vanity Fair!
+
+The club gossips waited in vain for the reappearance of Major Alan
+Hawke, whose entire personal effects were bundled hastily away to
+the marble house, where the adventurer now ruled pro tempore. It was
+late in the night when Major Hawke had achieved all the preparations
+for the funeral of the murdered man, upon the following day.
+Simpson and a squad of non-commissioned officers watched where the
+flickering lights gleamed down upon the dead nabob.
+
+Making his last rounds for the night, Major Hawke, with a soldier's
+cynical calmness, enjoyed a cheroot upon the veranda, as he bade
+his captain of the guard take charge until his return. The Major
+had most carefully examined the five bills of exchange which now
+occupied his attention, and his mind was now busied with the dead
+man's golden store. He now contemplated a visit to a man whose
+conscience bothered him not, but whose bosom quaked in fear when
+Hawke's letter, sent by a messenger, bade Ram Lal await him at
+midnight.
+
+"Does he know?" gasped Ram Lal, with chattering teeth, and yet he
+dared not fly.
+
+An early evening interview with General Willoughby had disclosed
+to the Major the inconvenient fact that the dead nabob had left
+a carefully drawn will, whereof Andrew Fraser, of St. Heliers,
+Jersey, and Douglas Fraser, of Calcutta, were executors. "There
+is a duplicate will here in the Bengal Bank," so telegraphed the
+solicitor, "and I have now notified both the executors. I presume
+that Mr, Douglas Fraser will return here at once, as he is absent
+in Europe on leave. It may be a week or more until he receives the
+sad intelligence."
+
+Alan Hawke softly smiled at those touching words, "Sad intelligence."
+It was only the perfunctory regret of the shark-like lawyer, and
+the secretly rejoicing heirs. "This is not a case where the one who
+goes is happier than the one that's left behind," mused Hawke. "I
+must settle matters rapidly with Ram Lal, for if the will leaves
+the property to Nadine, she must be mine at all costs!
+
+"Shall I not send a well-armed man with you, Major?" asked the
+Captain. "It is very late!"
+
+"Thanks, Jordan," lightly said the Major. "I've a good revolver
+and my service sword--a priceless old wootz steel tulwar. I'm good
+for a dozen Pandies! I'm used to Thug--and Dacoit, to bandit and
+ruffian.  I have a little private business to attend to, and I'll
+come home in a trap!"
+
+By a strange chance, Major Alan Hawke, the distinguished favorite
+of fortune, slunk along in byway and shadow till he reached the
+cottage, where a lovely woman, flower wreathed, with child-like face
+and timid, mournful eyes, anxiously awaited him. "I'll be back in
+two or three hours," he carelessly said, as he tossed her a roll
+of rupees. Then, with a long, slender package hidden in his bosom,
+he stole out after a long circuit and entered Ram Lal's compound
+by the rear entrance, always at his use.
+
+"It is just as well not to make any little mistake just now," mused
+Hawke, as with cat-like tread he sped through the old jeweler's
+garden. And the "prevention of mistakes" consisted in the heavy
+Adams revolver which he carried slung around his neck and shoulder
+by a heavy cord, in the handy Russian fashion.
+
+His left hand steadied the peculiar parcel which he had so carefully
+hidden. An amused smile flitted over his face when old Ram Lal
+opened the door of the snuggery, where Justine had first listened
+to a lover's sighs. "Poor girl! I wish she were here to-night!"
+tenderly mused the sentimental rascal, as he waved away Ram Lal's
+bidding to a splendid little supper.
+
+"I came here to talk business, Ram, to-night" sternly said Hawke,
+who had inwardly decided not to taste food or drink with the past
+master of villainy. "He might give me a gentle push into the Styx,"
+acutely reflected the Major. "Sit down right there where I can see
+you," said Hawke, his hand firmly grasping the revolver, as he
+indicated a corner of the table, after satisfying himself that the
+shop door was locked. He then quickly locked the garden door and
+pocketed both the keys.
+
+"What do you want of me?" murmured Ram Lal, who had noted the
+semi-hostile tone, and who clearly saw the butt of the revolver.
+
+"I want to talk to you of this Johnstone matter," said the soldier,
+ignoring all other reference to the "dear departed." This coolness
+unsettled the wily jeweler, who trembled as Hawke laid a long red
+pocketbook down on the table before him.
+
+The wily scoundrel shivered when the Major, with his left hand,
+pushed over to him five sets of Bills of Exchange for a thousand
+pounds each. Ram Lal's eyes dropped under the brave villain's
+steady gaze, and he slowly read the first paper. He well knew the
+drawer's writing:
+
+DELHI, August 15, 1890.
+
+L 1,000.
+
+Thirty days after sight of this first of exchange (second and
+third unpaid), pay to the order of Alan Hawke one thousand pounds
+sterling, value received.
+
+HUGH FRASER JOHNSTONE.
+
+To Messrs. Glyn, Carr and Glyn, London.
+
+"What do you wish me to do, Sahib?" tremblingly faltered the old
+usurer, as he carefully noted the fifteen papers. A sinking at the
+heart told him that he was in the power of the one man in India
+whom he knew to be as merciless as himself, for a kindred spirit
+had fled when the drawer of the Bills of Exchange died alone in the
+dark, his bubbling shriek stopped by his heart's blood. The Major
+sternly said in an icy voice, as he fixed his eyes full on his
+victim:
+
+"I wish you to indorse, every one of those papers. I wish you
+to make each one of them read five thousand pounds. You have done
+that trick very neatly before, and to put the additional Crown
+duty stamps upon them." Ram Lal had started up, but he sank back
+appalled as he looked down the barrel of Hawke's revolver.
+
+"Keep silence or I'll put a ball through your shoulder, and then
+drag you up to General Willoughby. He will hang you in chains if
+I say the word." Alan Hawke was tiger-like now in his rapacity.
+
+"I will leave the first set with you, and you will now give me
+your check on the Oriental Bank for five thousand pounds. The other
+drafts you will have all ready for me to-morrow and bring them to
+me at the Marble House."
+
+The jeweler groaned and swayed to and fro upon his seat in a mute
+agony. "I cannot do it. I have not the money," he babbled.
+
+"You old lying wretch. You have screwed a quarter of a million
+pounds out of Christian, Hindu, and Mohammedan here," mercilessly
+said the torturer.
+
+"I will not! I cannot! I dare not!" cried Ram Lal, dropping on the
+floor and trying to bow his head at Hawke's feet.
+
+"Get up! You old beast!" commanded Hawke. "By God! I'll shoot and
+disable you now and then arrest you! Tell me! Do you know that
+dagger?" With a quick motion, still covering the cowering wretch
+with his pistol, Hawke drew out the package from his bosom, clumsily
+tearing off a silk neck scarf-wrapper with his left hand. He laid
+down on the table the blood-incrusted dagger of Mirzah Shah. The
+golden haft, the jeweled fretwork and the broad blade were all
+covered with the life tide of the great man whom no one mourned in
+Delhi.
+
+"Mercy! Mercy!" hoarsely whispered Ram Lal, with his hands clasped,
+as in prayer.
+
+"I know whose it is!" pitilessly continued the tormentor. "You
+dropped it, you fool, when you ran against me in the garden in
+your mad haste to get away! One single rebellious word and I will
+march you to the nearest guard post! Now, will you do what I wish?"
+
+"Anything, anything, Sahib!" begged the cowering wretch. "Put it
+away, put it away!"
+
+"Now, quick!" said the Major. "First, give me the check! Then indorse
+all these drafts right here in my presence. I will negotiate the
+others myself. You can send on the first one through your bankers.
+Your name on all of them will make them go without question." The
+alert adventurer watched Ram's trembling fingers achieve the work.
+"Do not dare to leave your own inclosure till you come directly
+to me to-morrow, when you have altered all those drafts to read
+five thousand pounds each. I have charge of the estate of the man
+whom you butchered like a dog. I have a guard of two companies of
+soldiers, and you will be arrested as a murderer if you attempt to
+leave, save to come directly to me with these papers."
+
+Alan Hawke lit a cigar and then took a refreshing draught from a
+pocket flask.
+
+"Now open your strong box and show me your jewels! I want some of
+them!" The sobbing wretch at his feet demurred until the cold nozzle
+of the pistol was pressed against his forehead. "I will make the
+English bankers pay the other four bills; but, you brute, did you
+think that I would let you off with a poor five thousand pounds?
+Harken! I go to England in a week! Then you are safe forever!
+Bring out all your jewels! You got fifty thousand pounds from the
+old man!  I know it!"
+
+Begging and beseeching in vain, Ram Lal crawled to his great iron
+strong box studded over with huge knobs, and, after a half an
+hour's critical selection, Alan Hawke had concealed on his person
+four little bags, in which he had made the shivering wretch place
+the choicest of his treasures.
+
+"Call up your man now. Do not stir for an instant from my side! If
+the drafts are not with me before sundown to-morrow, you will be
+hung in chains, and the ravens will finish what the hangman leaves!
+Remember--my boy! The rail and telegraph will cut off any little
+tricks of yours! And," he laughed, "you will not run away; you
+have too much here to leave. It would be a fat haul for the Crown
+authorities. I will keep my eye on you, near or far. I will be with
+you always. We have our own little secret, now!"
+
+"I will obey--only save me! Save me, Hawke Sahib. I will do all upon
+my head, I will!" pleaded Ram Lal, whose vast fortune was indeed
+at the mercy of the law.
+
+"Call up your servants. Get out the carriage. Go back to your women.
+Make merry. You are perfectly safe, but only if you obey me!" was
+the last mandate of the triumphant bravo. When he stepped out of
+the house, attended by the frightened murderer, Alan Hawke whispered
+from the carriage: "Your house is under a close watch--even now.
+Remember--I give you till sundown, and if you fail, I will come
+with the guard! I shall seal up the dagger and leave it here with
+a message to the General Willoughby Sahib to be given to him, at
+once, by one who knows you! So, I can trust you. Nothing must happen
+to your dear friend, you know!" he smilingly said in adieu, as Ram
+Lal groaned in anguish.
+
+Alan Hawke had closely examined the vehicle, and he sat with his
+drawn revolver ready as he drove down the still lit-up Chandnee
+Chouk. In a storm of remorse and agony, the plundered jeweler was
+now doubly locked up in his room. "I must do this devil's bidding!"
+he murmured. "Bowanee! Bowanee! You have betrayed your servant!"
+was his cry as he sought the safety of the Zenana.
+
+Major Hawke tasted all the sweets of a great secret triumph as he
+cast up his accounts. "The five thousand pounds frightened from
+this old wretch, Ram Lal, really squares me with the estate of the
+'dear departed.' The jewels are worth twice as much more, and, with
+Ram Lal's indorsement all the other drafts on Glyn's bank are as
+good as gold. There is twenty thousand clear profit. I will send
+them on now for acceptance, openly, through the Credit Lyonnaise
+when I get to Paris. For Berthe Louison will give me, also,
+a good character. Old Ram's indorsements make them perfectly good
+anywhere. I had better hide the details of this windfall, out
+here. And, now, thank Heaven, I am 'fixed for life,' and I can go
+in boldly and play the Prince Charming to Miss Moneybags, the fair
+Nadine." He tossed a double rupee to the driver, as the sentry
+swung the gate, but, hastily called him back as Captain Jordan
+said, hastening from the house:
+
+"Orders are waiting for you now, with the General. Let me give you
+a trusty Sergeant. Drive right up there, Major. The General sent
+word that he awaits you." And so the Major sped away to his chief.
+
+No human being in Delhi ever knew the purport of the orders
+which General Willoughby handed to Major Hawke, on this eventful
+evening, but much marveled all Delhi that the favorite of fortune
+was absent from the funeral of the late Hugh Fraser Johnstone, Esq.,
+of Delhi and Calcutta. He had vanished, with no P.P.C. calls, and
+a hundred-pound note tossed to the poor little Eurasian girl in
+the cottage was her whole fortune in life now.
+
+But a grave-faced civilian public official, with Major Williamson,
+of the Viceroy's general staff (a late arrival from Calcutta),
+ruled over the marble house in place of Major Alan Hawke "absent
+upon special duty." Only Ram Lal knew of the real destination of
+the lucky man, who was only free from care when he had sailed from
+Bombay direct for Brindisi, on the fleet steamer Ramchunder.
+
+"I am safe now," laughed Alan Hawke, who rejoiced in the easy tour
+of duty before him. "To repair to London and to report to Captain
+Anson Anstruther, A.D.C., for special duty." Such were the Viceroy's
+secret orders. It was General Willoughby who had absolutely invoked
+secrecy. "Wear a plain military undress, and you must avoid most
+men, and all women. Keep your mouth shut and you may find your
+provisional rank confirmed."
+
+To Berthe Louison's secret agents, the Grindlay Bank at Delhi,
+Major Hawke had delivered a sealed envelope. "Use this only at
+your sorest need. I will see Madame Louison probably before she has
+any orders for me, as to her private affairs." When the envelope
+was opened the words "Major Alan Hawke, Hotel Faucon, Lausanne,
+Switzerland," gave the only address which the adventurer dared to
+leave. And it was that which the cowering Ram Lal Singh copied when
+he brought to Alan Hawke the four sets of altered Bills of Exchange,
+and the Bank of England notes for the check of five thousand pounds.
+
+Major Hawke surveyed the skillfully raised Bills of Exchange
+and carefully examined them in a dark room with a light, and also
+before the glaring sun rays. "A splendid job, Ram Lal," he gayly
+said. "You must have given them a coat of size and then moistened
+and ironed them." The old rascal gloomily accepted the professional
+compliment.  "I observe that you have labored to protect your own
+indorsement," sportively remarked the Major.
+
+"And now you will return to me my jewels?" timidly demanded Ram
+Lal.
+
+"Do you wish me to send the dagger of Mirzah Shah to General
+Willoughby? It is deposited here, with a sealed letter," coldly
+sneered Hawke. "Should anything happen to me or, to these drafts,
+it would be sent to the General, and you would hang. No, I will
+keep the jewels."
+
+And then Major Hawke thrust the shivering wretch out, having liberally
+paid to him, through Grindlay, the balance due by Berthe Louison.
+
+"I swear that I did not get a single jewel from--from him. He has
+hidden them," pleaded Ram Lal.
+
+"Ah! I must look to this" mused Hawke, when Ram Lal had been
+frightened away with a last stern injunction:
+
+"Obey my slightest wishes or you will hang! I will have you watched
+till I return! There are eyes upon your path that never close in
+sleep!" Ram Lal shuddered in silence.
+
+Delhi soon forgot the man whom the great stone now covered in the
+English cemetery, and only General Willoughby and the easy-going
+civil authorities knew of the cablegram: "Coming on with full
+power from Senior Executor.--Dougas Fraser, Junior Executor." The
+cablegram was dated from Milan, for two keen Scottish brains were
+now busied with plans to save and care for the worldly gear so
+suddenly abandoned to their care by Hugh Johnstone. Though Delhi was
+swept as with a besom, no trace of the cowardly assassins was ever
+found, and only old Simpson, waiting, in final charge as household
+major domo for Douglas Fraser's arrival, could enlighten the
+perturbed commanding General with certain vague suspicions. But
+Ram Lal slept now in a growing security.
+
+"It is clear that the master was watched in his secret preparations
+for the voyage home," said Simpson, "and some outsiders, with
+the help of some traitor among the blacks, paid off an old score.
+I could tell of many an old enemy which he gained in these twenty
+years." sadly said Simpson. "I feel they only mussed up the room
+to give an appearance of robbery. The mahogany boxes were merely
+part of master's old wedding outfit in London, and I know that they
+were only filled with toilet articles and little medical stores.
+They only lugged them off to make a show."
+
+And General Willoughby, following up Simpson's clues, easily
+discovered a shady side of Johnstone's past life, not compatible
+with the pompous panegyrics of the Indian press, the resolutions
+of a dozen clubs and societies, the minutes of the Bank of Bengal,
+and other mortuary literature of a complimentary nature. It was
+some old curse come down upon the defenseless man in his old age!
+And so no one ever sought for the solution of the mystery in the
+deep dejection of Ram Lal Singh, who vainly mourned for his lost
+jewels and money. Fear tied his hands, and his tongue was palsied
+by guilt.  He vindictively, however, raised his customary "rate
+of usance," and swore in his own hardened heart that the needy
+borrowers of Delhi should recoup him fully before a year. The one
+Star gleaming in the dark night of financial blackness was the
+vengeance upon the man who had tricked and despoiled a fellow-robber
+thirty years before.
+
+Major Hawke on his homeward way counted up a goodly store of twelve
+thousand pounds in money, jewels of nearly the same value, and the
+skillfully raised and properly indorsed drafts on London for twenty
+thousand more. "If I can only get these passed by the executors
+I am a made man for life," mused the Major as the Ramchunder sped
+over the blue Arabian sea. "If I discover the secret of the stolen
+jewels, they must yield, to save both family honor and money; if
+I don't, then, Ram Lal must save his life and protect the drafts.
+I will negotiate them with the Credit Lyonnais, in Paris, and force
+Berthe to help me. No one shall rob me now," somewhat illogically
+mused the brilliant adventurer, proud of his life-work.
+
+At Calcutta, the noble Viceroy had already given to Major Harry
+Hardwicke and Capt. Eric Murray his orders for their performance
+of a delicate duty.
+
+"You will find Captain Anstruther to be my personal as well as
+official representative in London, and Her Majesty's service demands
+prudence in this grave affair. So but one set of confidential
+cipher dispatches have been sent on, and Captain Anstruther will
+have charge of the whole delicate affair. Should either of you meet
+Major Alan Hawke in London, or out of India, your commissions will
+depend on guarding an absolute silence as to the whole Johnstone
+affair.  You are trusted, and not watched, gentlemen," said the great
+noble, "and he is watched, and not trusted. Now, I have done all I
+can for you, as this duty takes you home and brings you back at the
+expense of her Majesty's government. You will not fail to communicate
+with me from Aden, Suez, and Port Said, as well as Brindisi, and to
+report if Madame Louison has received at each place her telegrams
+and proceeded on her journey in safety. Her Majesty's consuls will,
+in each place, aid you in every way. Should I decide to drop or
+quash the whole affair, my young kinsman, Anstruther, represents
+me, personally as well as officially."
+
+And so the gay young bridegroom-to-be sailed from Calcutta
+light-hearted, while Harry Hardwicke counted each day's reckoning
+as bringing him, by leaps and bounds, nearer to the dark-eyed girl
+now left alone in the world. "There shall nothing come between us
+now, my darling one!" was the young Major's fond vow confided to
+the evening star, glowing in its trembling silver radiance over
+the spicy Indian Ocean.
+
+Alixe Delavigne was still "Madame Berthe Louison" to the
+glittering circle of passengers who envied her the state in which
+she traveled, the slavish obeisance of the ship's officers, and
+the deft ministrations of those admirable servants, Jules Victor
+and Marie.  "A great personage incognito," was the general verdict,
+and so the luckless swains hovering around fell off one by one,
+as the beautiful woman seemed to be always wrapped in an unbroken
+reverie.  There was an anxious gleam in the lady's eyes, for she
+felt that she was going home to the sternest battle of her life,
+and she brooded now only upon the trials of the future. She never
+knew how near the dark angel's wing had swooped over her own
+defenseless head.
+
+For the gray head now lying low had been secretly busied with
+plans for a huge bribe to Ram Lal which should buy him to the doing
+of a dark deed without a name. Only Berthe's determined attack on
+the granting of the baronetcy in London, and her own "lightning
+disappearance" had saved her from Ram Lal's cupidity. Master of
+the secrets of a dozen Eastern poisons, the artful confederate of
+her dark retinue in the silver bungalow, Ram Lal would have gladly
+worked Hugh Johnstone's will for his red gold. But the fierce quarrel
+and the precipitate flight of Berthe Louison had balked Johnstone,
+who fell by the very hand of the sly wretch whom he had designed
+to buy, as the murderer of another. The engineer hoist by his own
+petard. But, steadfastly looking to Valerie's child alone, she knew
+not the dangers which she had escaped.
+
+"I was afraid they would kill you, Madame. Thank God, we are now
+safe at sea!" said Jules Victor.
+
+"Who?" cried the startled woman.
+
+"Why, that old wretch; he had money, and his spies were all around
+you," said Jules.
+
+"Yes! Thank God! We are safe now!" mused Berthe Louison, and she
+bade a long adieu to the strange scenes of her pilgrimage. "I shall
+never see India again!" she reflected, when she passed, in a mental
+review, Calcutta, holy Benares, smoky Patna, brisk Allahabad,
+Cawnpore, where the white-winged angel broods over the innocent
+dead, heroic Lucknow, and crime-haunted Delhi--all these rose up
+in a weird panorama of the mind. Strange tales of wild adventure
+told by Alan Hawke returned to her now--the mysteries of Thibet,
+the weird ferocity of Bhotan, the quaint tales of the polyandrous
+Todas, and the strange story of Vijaynagar, the desecrated city
+whose streets are peopled but ten days in the year! A lotos land
+where crime broods, where the cobra hides under the painted blossoms
+of Death!
+
+Glittering palaces of Agra, gloomy caves of Elephanta, the light
+and lovely Mohammedan architecture, the dark haunts of Kali and
+Bowanee, the thronged Ghats of the sacred rivers, the color medleys
+of the vast cities, all these busied her as she passed her days
+alone in study over the secretly gathered up collection of polychrome
+views which had taken her from the Neilgherries to Cape Comorin.
+Her dreams of all her subtle plans to counteract all of Johnstone's
+schemes, her tender intrigues to silently entrap Nadine Johnstone's
+girlish heart, her carefully plotted line of future action, all
+of these things vanished in a moment, at Aden, when a government
+launch steamed out, and an officer of the vessel led up Her Majesty's
+Consul to address the mysterious lady passenger.
+
+There was a rush of volunteers when the woman, always brave in
+sorrow and ever fate defying, fainted away in a deathly trance as
+her eyes eagerly scanned the brief dispatch of the Viceroy. They
+were underway again when she realized the fearful decrees of a
+merciless fate! She read with a shudder, the lines again and again,
+whispering: "Can it be?"
+
+"Hugh Johnstone murdered by persons--unknown at Delhi? Hasten on
+to London. Anstruther will have full details. Please acknowledge!"
+
+And it was half an hour before the beautiful Nemesis who had clouded
+Hugh Johnstone's life had penned her simple answer. Only at night,
+on the voyage afterward, did she ever leave her splendid staterooms,
+and when Brindisi was reached she vanished with her loyal servants
+so quickly that even the veriest fortune hunter could not follow on
+her trail. "Some terrible row--some sad family happening," was the
+general smoking-room verdict! But, with a heart strangely yearning
+to the orphaned child, Berthe Louison hastened, without stopping,
+by Venice to lovely Munich and on to gay Paris. "She shall be mine
+now--mine to love, to cherish, my poor darling!" vowed the woman
+whose eyes shown out in an infinite pity! The cup of vengeance
+was dashed away from her lips for, behind the arras, the waiting
+headsman of Fate had struck in the night and laid low the man who
+would have compassed her death!
+
+Madame Alixe Delavigne was only a gracious memory to the sympathetic
+men passengers who hastened on to London via Mont Cenis, but the
+chattering gossips of the Rue Berlioz noted, with an eager Gallic
+curiosity, the return of the mysterious occupant of No. 9. Jules
+Victor and his wife were seen, however, for only one day, busied
+about their usual household avocations, and then the returning
+travelers vanished once more to baffle the chatterers. "Diantre!
+Comme ils sont des voyageurs!" cried the coachman who took the
+wanderers to the Gare St. Lazare. There was need of haste now,
+for Madame Louison had received three foreign dispatches, besides
+a letter from Captain Anstruther, now waiting impatiently at London,
+and chafing over his unsuccessful queries at Morley's Hotel. The
+gallant Captain's letter was pregnant with governmental mysteries,
+and yet the beautiful woman sighed as she saw the vein of personal
+interest but too clearly evident in the long communication. A single
+glance at her tell-tale mirror re-assurred her, and she blushed,
+as she murmured:
+
+"He believes me younger than I am!" But her brow was grave as she
+revolved the situation. "There will be a long struggle, a fight
+of love against craft and and greed! Who will win?" The fact that
+the Government Secret Service had already traced the delivery of
+the heavily insured shipment, "ex. Str. Lord Roberts," to Professor
+Andrew Fraser, was a first victory for the enemy! "If the old
+nabob wrote directly via Brindisi to his brother, then the acute
+old Scotch Professor may be on his guard now! And--the will?--the
+will?  What does it provide for Nadine's future? If he had already
+taken the alarm-then I may have yet to fight my way to my darling's
+side!  The black curtain of the past shall never be lifted by my
+hand unless--unless Andrew Fraser forces me to strike hard at his
+dead brother's paper card house of honorable deeds!"
+
+As Madame Louison watched the rich moonlight silvering the broken
+wake of the channel steamer, she pondered over the telegrams. "Major
+Hardwicke and Alan Hawke are both en route to London, charged with
+different missions. And I am to beware of Hawke. They have only
+sent him away, perhaps, to veil the official game of the Indian
+authorities. And Alan Hawke truthfully warns me of his coming by
+private dispatch. Is he trying to regain his lost status? Douglas
+Fraser, the second executor, on his way back to India. He has
+passed Brindisi already. Ah! The sorrows for the dead are quickly
+assuaged when the 'property interests' furnish a fat picking to
+solicitors and the holders of dead men's gear.
+
+"Nadine is only eighteen--she has three years to remain under
+legal tutelage. Perhaps Andrew Fraser may have been already coached
+upon his course by his unrelenting kinsman. And there is a fortune
+waiting for father and son in the perquisites." Madame Louison fell
+asleep in a vain quandary as to the precise age when men ceased
+to value wealth and to sell their souls for gold. That question
+was still undecided when the steamer Sparrow Hawk sped into Dover
+harbor.
+
+The beautiful wanderer was now clearly resolved as to her future
+treatment of Alan Hawke. "My foe dead, the theater of war is transferred
+to Great Britain. He is not necessary to my own campaign, but, in
+watching him, I may be able to shield Nadine from his crafty plots.
+If he should try to secretly make friends with the Frasers, and
+to return to India, to aid the nephew, he might assist in robbing
+Valerie's child of this mountain of miserably gotten wealth.
+
+"Thank God, I can make her rich. But Captain Anstruther will know
+the Viceroy's whole mind, and I can trust to him." But her cheeks were
+rosy red and her dancing dark eyes dropped in a sudden confusion,
+as the handsome aid-de-camp leaped aboard the steamer at Dover
+Pier.
+
+"I did not expect you!" she murmured.
+
+"I knew, of course, from your dispatch when you would arrive, and
+so I came down to further the Viceroy's business!" the soldier
+said in a sudden confusion. In an hour, the two who had met in
+such strange manner at Geneva were seated alone in a first-class
+compartment, and were merrily whirling on to Lud's town. Captain
+Anstruther's ten shillings to the guard secured them from annoying
+intrusion. In another compartment, Jules and Marie Victor sagely
+exchanged their lightning glances of Parisian acuteness.
+
+"C'est un homme magnifique!" murmured Marie, and Jules gravely
+nodded, "Peut-etre, notre maitresse l'a connu longtemps. II est
+tres tendre!" The staff-officer "furthered the Viceroy's business"
+by clasping both of Alixe Delavigne's prettily-gloved hands. Her
+bosom heaved in a soft alarm, but she repulsed him not.
+
+"Why did you deceive me at Geneva?" he eagerly demanded, with
+a trembling voice. And Alixe Delavigne's eyes were downcast and
+dreamy, as she whispered:
+
+"Because I was only a poor pilgrim of Love--a lonely woman, heart
+hungry for the tidings of the girl whom you have brought back to
+me!" The young officer gazed out of the window, and in his heart,
+he already pardoned her.
+
+"To those who love much, much shall be forgiven!" he reflected,
+with a compassion growing momentarily, for he saw the shadow of
+tears in the beautiful dark brown eyes. And he forbore to question
+her as he gazed at her glowing face.
+
+With a sudden lifting of her stately head, the woman sitting there,
+her heart throbbing in a strange unrest, laid her hand lightly upon
+his arm.
+
+"Listen to the strange story of a woman's life!" she said slowly.
+"I promised His Excellency, the Viceroy, that you should know why
+I left the defensive lines of my sex at Geneva! For he has trusted
+to me, and I wish you to know--to know that--" and the sentence
+was never finished, for Captain Anstruther bent over her trembling
+hands.
+
+"I know that you are what I would have you ever be!" he simply
+said.  And, with softly shining eyes, she told the soldier of her
+strange life path.
+
+It was strange that they had neared London before the whole story
+was concluded, and their voices had sunk into softened whispers.
+"You may rely upon me to the death! You may depend upon me whenever
+you may wish to call upon me!" he said, as the train rolled into
+Charing Cross station. "Major Hardwicke, of the Engineers, will be
+my chosen ally, and I alone am to trace out this mystery of the
+vanished jewels. You shall conquer! I will aid you! Amor omnia
+vincit! You are the only heart in the world now throbbing for that
+sweet girl."
+
+But when they drove to Morley's Hotel, far away on the sea, Harry
+Hardwicke's heart was beating fondly in all a lover's expectancy
+for the same friendless Rose of Delhi, and the debonnair Alan Hawke,
+in sight of Brindisi, mused in his deck-pacings: "I will placate
+Euphrosyne Delande. Justine, too, shall do my bidding, and my
+employer shall give me the key to this girl's heart. For I will
+marry Nadme Johnstone! I am a devil for luck."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+ON THE CLIFFS OF JERSEY.
+
+
+
+
+
+Captain Anson Anstruther, A. D. C., was the very happiest of men
+three days later, when he watched Madame Alixe Delavigne gracefully
+presiding over a pretty tea table, a la fusse, in the quaint old
+mansion, bowered in a garden sloping down to the Thames, where
+Miss Mildred Anstruther, a venerable maiden aunt, had her "local
+habitation and, a name!" A lonely woman of colossal wealth and blue
+blood, high in rank, and decidedly of riper years.
+
+"By Jove! Dear old Aunt Mildred is a tower of strength to me, just
+now," reflected the gallant Captain, when, as the soft shadows
+deepened on lawn and river, he lingered tenderly there in explanation
+of his official business. It was hardly "official" that Anson
+Anstruther had fallen into the habit of furtively addressing the
+now unveiled Madame Berthe Louison, as "Alixe", but it was even
+so. Acquaintance can ripen as rapidly on the Thames as by the Arno,
+given a certain impetus. And the Pilgrim of Love, though still
+Madame Berthe Louison in France, was Alixe Delavigne in the retreat
+chosen by the Viceroy.
+
+"Pazienza! Pazienza!" smiled the young soldier, as the impassioned
+Alixe eagerly demanded to be allowed to approach the orphaned Nadine,
+at St. Heliers. "You have been so noble, so untiring, do not ruin
+all by precipitancy now! You see I am already secretly watching over
+her. I now represent the whole interests of Her Majesty's Service!
+And you--only your own loving heart! I must first meet Major Alan
+Hawke, and send him away to be busied on some apparently important
+duty, which will keep him away from old Andrew Fraser. We know
+the old professor's cunning character. Miser and pedant, he is but
+a shriveled parchment edition of his heartless, dead brother. We
+must not alarm him. We have already traced the insured packet to
+his hands. Now, he properly has the custody of the dead nabob's
+will. He may soon have to bring the girl on to London, for the legal
+formalities of proving it. We do not wish him to send the stolen
+jewels away in a sudden fright, and so hide them from us forever.
+If he qualifies duly as executor, and then files the will, then
+the estate is responsible, through him.
+
+"We will soon know who controls your niece for the three years of
+her long minority. Hawke must be got out of the way. I will hoodwink
+him, and every British Consul in the continental towns which he
+visits will secretly watch him for me. Besides, Major Hardwicke
+and Murray will be here very scon, to aid me, and to watch Hawke.
+I wish Alan Hawke to blunder around, hunting for Major Hardwicke,
+and so give me an opportunity to do my duty secretly, and to aid
+you in your own labor of love. In the mean time--you must be content
+to rest tranquilly here; cultivate my dear old aunt, and I will
+come to you daily so that your quiet life in this 'moated grange'
+will be brightened up a bit. You see," thoughtfully said Anstruther,
+"whoever sent old Johnstone to his grave, he had previously spirited
+the heiress away--all his plans for the future were perfectly
+matured with all the craft of a man well versed in intrigue for
+forty years. His bitter hatred of you did not die with him. You
+may be assured that he has laid out a plan, both in his private
+letters and in the will to fence you forever out of this girl's
+life. So your work must be done in secret. If I can ever effectively
+help you, I must work on Andrew Fraser and not needlessly alarm
+both his greed and fear. As soon as it is safe, you shall take up
+your post near to her; but Hawke must come and go first. He must
+find no sign of your presence here." There was cogency in the
+sentimental soldier's reasoning.
+
+"He will surely come to my Paris home at No. 9 Rue Berlioz. He
+knows that address!" murmured Alixe Delavigne, her eyes dropping
+in a sudden confusion, as a flame of jealousy lit up the young
+soldier's fiery glances. For Anson Anstruther had posted there on
+his first voyage from Geneva to find the bird flown.
+
+"Then you may keep Marie, your maid, here," slowly replied Anstruther,
+"and send Jules over to Paris. Alan Hawke will surely seek for you
+there. Let Jules inform him that you have gone to Jitomir to attend
+to your Russian interests."
+
+Alixe Delavigne bowed her head in a mute assent. Day by day the
+proud self-reliant woman was yielding to the imperious will of the
+young soldier. It was a soft, self-deception that reassured her on
+the very evening when he left her.
+
+But there was one now weaving his webs at Lausanne whose fertile
+brain was busied with sly schemes of his own. Alan Hawke always
+first considered "his duty to himself" and so the acute Major decided
+to spy out the land before he precipitately appeared at London, or
+dared to risk himself at St. Agnes Road, St. Heliers.
+
+"It is just as well to know all that Justine can tell me before I
+see this young dandy Anstruther, and to find out what Euphrosyne
+knows before I interrogate her sister," he murmured; "I must make
+no mistake with the Viceroy's kinsman!"
+
+With much prevision he had telegraphed the date of his probable
+arrival in London to Captain Anstruther from Munich, adding that
+convenient fairy tale, "Delayed by illness" and he had also left
+this telegram behind, so as to be sent on to allow him four days
+leeway near Geneva.
+
+The signature bore also an injunction to answer to Hotel Binda,
+Paris. "This is no little card game," muttered Hawke. "It is for
+rank, wealth, and the hand of Miss Million, the rose of Delhi."
+
+Alan Hawke was practically received with open arms by the
+fluttering-hearted Euphrosyne, who nobly resigned herself to Justine's
+victory over Alan Hawke's heart. For the younger sister's letters
+had filled the elder's mind with rosy dreams of enhanced family
+prosperity.
+
+"Only this telegram. That is all!" murmured the preceptress,
+as she handed the Major a dispatch dated at St. Heliers, stating,
+"Arrived, well, news of Mr. Johnstone's assassination just received.
+Will write!"
+
+"This is all I know of this strange homecoming, as yet!" summed up
+the child of Minerva.
+
+Hawke softly delved into Mademoiselle Euphrosyne's inner consciousness
+until he knew all the corners of the simple woman's heart.
+
+"I am quite sure that she speaks the simple truth!" he decided,
+after he had informed the Swiss woman of his address, "Hotel
+Binda, Paris." "I must go on there by the night train," he at once
+resolved. "Here is a juncture where all our various interests are
+deeply involved. You and Justine may lose the well-earned reward
+of years. I must be near Justine, now, to protect you both. I fear
+this old mummy Fraser! If he controls the fortune, then he and his
+hopeful son will probably steal half of it. Thats a fair allowance
+for an ordinary executor! It is all for one, and, one for all, now!
+Write under seal to Justine that I am near--only do not mention
+names!" With an affected tenderness, Hawke kissed the pallid lips
+of the daughter of Minerva, and slipped away to Lausanne, whence
+he took the midnight train for Paris.
+
+"I might look around and dispose of my jewels in Paris," he thought
+as he neared that "gay and festive city." But his serious business
+with the Credit Lyonnais as to the negotiation of the four "raised"
+bills of exchange, and his desire to at once come to terms with
+Madame Berthe Louison, caused him to postpone the vending of the
+jewels so neatly extorted from Ram Lal.
+
+"I have lots of ready money now--too much, even, for safety in
+travel, and the jewels will keep." With a strange anxious craving
+to see his fair employer he drove directly to No. 9 Rue Berlioz on
+his arrival in Paris. The impassive face of Jules Victor met his
+gaze at the door.
+
+"Madame, suddenly summoned to Poland, had begged Monsieur le Major
+to address her by letter, as telegrams were most unreliable in
+Russian Poland. Monsieur would, however, surely find letters at
+his London address, and it was true that Madame had not expected
+Monsieur's arrival for a fortnight."
+
+"I don't believe a damned word of this fellow's yarn. There is
+some sly juggling here!" ejaculated the Major as he drove back to
+the Hotel Binda. His brow was black as he descended, and it grew
+blacker still when he read a telegram from Euphrosyne Delande. He
+studied over the unwelcome news while he made a careful business
+toilet to visit the Credit Lyonnais. And a white rage shone out
+upon his handsome face as he learned that Justine was useless to him
+now.  "Discharged without even a reward! Thrust out like a beggar
+without a word of warning." "Justine on her way home. Passed through
+Paris last night. Can you not return?" The signature "Euphrosyne"
+was a guaranty of the unwelcome truth. Major Hawke swore a deep
+and bitter oath as he penned a telegram to the Swiss preceptress:
+"Coming to-night. 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's side. And yet she will be
+under a long three years guardianship." Some busy devil at his side
+whispered: "She would be helpless if she were carried off." And as
+the enraged schemer finished the last of a dozen cigars and took
+a pull at his pocket flask, he disposed himself to sleep, grumbling.
+
+"They have upset all the chessmen. Old Fraser and the Louison,
+too, are playing at cross purposes--evidently. They have, however,
+spoiled my little game. I will spoil theirs!" He grinned as he
+decided "I will do a bit of the Romeo act with Justine, and come
+back by Granville to Boulogne. If the old gang is to be found there,
+I may get one of them to spy the whole thing out. All these Jersey
+people are half French in their birth and ways. I can sneak some
+fellow in from Granville. There might be a chance. I'll get to the
+old fellow, or the girl, or the jewels--by God! I will! For I hold
+the trump cards."
+
+And yet his flattering hopes of gaining a permanent rank returned
+to affright him in planning such a bold deed. "Ah! I must get some
+trusty fellow--perhaps, in London," he muttered as his head dropped,
+and the train bore him on to the halls of learning, where poor
+Justine was now weeping on her sister's bosom, and unveiling all
+the secrets of a hungry heart to the sympathetic Euphrosyne.
+
+But, saddest of all the coterie who had trodden the tessellated
+floors of the marble house at Delhi, was a lonely girl sobbing
+herself to sleep, that very night, in a gray castellated mansion
+house perched upon a sunny cliff of Jersey.
+
+The fair gardens and splendid halls of the luxurious home seemed
+but the limits of a cheerless prison to the broken-hearted girl
+who had been astounded when her one friend, Douglas Fraser, the
+companion of a thirty-five days' journey, left her without a word.
+Nadine Johnstone had opened her heart, shyly, to her manly young
+kinsman, Douglas Fraser. And yet she guarded, as only a maiden's
+heart can, the secret of the blossoming love for Hardwicke--the
+man who had saved her life. She asked her hungry heart if he would
+follow on her way, led by the appeal of her shining eyes.
+
+Worn, harassed, and wearied out by travel, she had sought a refuge
+in Justine Delande's clinging arms, on the night of their arrival
+from Boulogne, for the path from India had been but a series
+of shadow-dance glimpses of strange scenes. The ashen face of the
+tottering old pedant had offered her no welcome to a happy home.
+
+"How hideously like my father, this old bookworm," murmured the
+frightened girl in a strange repulsion, as she fled away to her
+room. It was a grateful relief when the servant maid announced that
+the travelers would be served in their rooms.
+
+"The Master lives entirely alone," the girl said shortly. Late
+that first night the lonely girl sat gazing at the windows rattling
+under the flying wrack, while Douglas Fraser and his father communed
+below her until the midnight hour. Suddenly Justine Delande was
+summoned to join them "on urgent business," and the heiress of a
+million sat with clasped hands, murmuring:
+
+"Will he ever find me out here? This is only a cheerless prison. I
+am, forever, lost to the world." There was that in Justine Delande's
+face on her return which startled the heart-sick wanderer.
+
+"Ask me nothing--nothing to-night. Only sleep, my darling," murmured
+the devoted Swiss. The shadows deepened over Nadine Johnstone as
+she fell asleep dreaming of her mother, the gentle vision, and,
+the absent lover of her girlish heart.
+
+Sunny gleams came with the dawn, and Nadine was already wandering
+in the beautiful gardens of "The Banker's Folly," as the home perched
+on the hill was termed. It was there that Douglas Fraser suddenly
+came upon her, walking with the white-faced Justine. Both women
+could see that he bore tidings of grave import, and another shadow
+settled on Nadine's heart, as she clasped Justine's hand.
+
+Her cousin's face was grave as he said, in a broken voice: "I
+must hasten away instantly to catch the boat, and I have to return
+immediately to India. There's no time for a word. My father will
+tell you all! It is a matter of life and death to our whole family
+interests. May God keep you, Nadine!" the young man kindly said,
+as he bent and kissed her hand. "I have tried to make your long
+journey bearable!" And then, a wrinkled face at a window appeared
+to end the coming disclosure, for Douglas was softening. A harsh
+voice rose up in a half shriek:
+
+"Douglas! Douglas!" and the young man turned back, without another
+word, springing away, over the graveled walks. Nadine's face grew
+ashen white, as the presage of coming disaster chilled her heart.
+
+Without a word, Justine Delande led the startled girl into the
+house. "You are to see your uncle at once! After our breakfast!
+And I will be with you." faltered Justine, with an averted face.
+
+The orphaned girl was now dimly conscious of some impending blow.
+She had been frightened at the solemnity of Douglas Fraser's hasty
+farewell, and, while Justine Delande affected to touch the breakfast
+spread in their rooms by the Swiss lady's maid, now gloomy in an
+attack of heimweh, Nadine saw a four-wheeler rattle away over the
+lawn, while old Andrew Fraser grimly watched it until the gates
+clanged behind the departing Anglo-Indian. Over the low wall,
+on the road, Douglas Fraser caught a last glimpse of the graceful
+girl standing there. He sadly waved an adieu, and Nadine Johnstone
+was left with but one friend in the world, save the silent Swiss
+governess. Though the two women were sumptuously lodged "in fair
+upper chambers," opening east and south, with their maid near at
+hand, the gloomy chill of the silent household had already penetrated
+the lonely girl's heart. No single sign of the warmer amenities.
+Only books, books, dusty books, by the thousand, piled helter-skelter
+in every available nook and cranny.
+
+The servants were slouching and sullen, and they moved about their
+duties with gloomy brows. Even the gardener and his two stout boys
+struck sadly away with mattock and spade as if digging graves. No
+chirp of bird, no baying of a friendly dog, no burst of childish
+merriment broke the droning silence. And this was the home to which
+a father had doomed his only child.
+
+When the frightened maid tapped at the door to summon her mistress,
+her feeble rapping sounded like a hammer falling sadly on the
+hollow coffin lid. The girl stammered, "The master would like to
+see you both in the library." And with a sinking heart Nadine Fraser
+Johnstone descended the stair.
+
+She had only cast a frightened glimpse at the yellowed, bony face,
+the cavernous eye sockets, the bushy eyebrows, beneath which a cold
+intellectual gleam still feebly flickered. Andrew Fraser had bent
+his tall form over her, and peering down at her had whispered after
+their few words of greeting:
+
+"Did ye gain aught in knowledge of Thibet in your Indian life? My
+life work lies there, and Hugh has sorely disappointed me. He was
+to send me books and maps and papers for my 'History of Thibet and
+the Wanderings of the Ten Tribes.'" With a confused negation the
+girl had fled away to the cheerless shelter of the great rooms whose
+drab and gray arrangements bespoke the Reformatory or a Refuge for
+the Friendless.
+
+And the stern old scholar waited for the fluttering bird whom
+adverse Fate had driven into his dismal lair with all the pompous
+severity of a guardian and trustee.
+
+Seated at a long desk littered with a multitude of papers, Professor
+Andrew Fraser coldly bowed the two women to convenient seats.
+The parvenu banker who had fled away after a bankruptcy due to the
+erection and embellishment of "The Folly," had approved a semi-medieval
+plan of construction which suggested a Norman stronghold or a
+Corsican mansion arranged for a stubborn defense.  Books, globes,
+maps, and papers littered the floors, and were piled nearby
+in convenient heaps with tell-tale flying signals of copious note
+taking. It was a bristling Redoubt of Learning.
+
+But on this sunny morning the retired Professor of Edinburg University
+held sundry letters, dispatches, and legal papers clutched in his
+claw-like hands. His eye rested upon Justine Delande, in a semi-hostile
+glare, as he slowly said:
+
+"I've sent for ye, as in the place of your father's daughter, ye
+must know of the changes that come to us, with the chances of Life
+and the sair ways o' the world." He was nervously fumbling with a
+selection of the papers and he paused and coughed ominously. "There
+has come to us news which has posted my son Douglas hastily back
+to India, to do your father's last bidding."
+
+Nadine Johnstone's trembling hand clutched Justine Delande's still
+rounded arm.
+
+"Her father the double of this grim ogre?" There was horror
+in her conjecture, but no pang of affection at the easily divined
+disclosure. "The news came to us suddenly, yesterday, and Douglas
+and I are left now to screen ye from the robbers and cormorants
+of the world! Ye're one of the richest women in Britain now--Hugh
+Fraser's daughter--for yere guid father is no more! A sudden death--a
+sudden death! and his will leaves you to me as a legal charge, for
+yere body and yere estate, till ye come o' the legal age. T'hafs
+the next three years!"
+
+With a single glance of stern deprecation, Andrew Fraser saw the
+girl totter and her head fall upon the bosom of the woman who had
+"sorrowed of her sorrows" in all the years of the lonely colorless
+infancy, childhood, and budding womanhood! The old bookworm clung
+to the papers as if that "documentary evidence" was an absolute
+guaranty, and he held it ready to proffer in support of his theorem.
+His toughened heart-strings were silent at natural affection's
+touch, and only twanged to the never-dying greed for gold--useless
+gold!
+
+In an unmoved wonder, the senile scholar listened to the broken
+sobs of the child of Valerie Delavigne. He was astounded at her
+financial carelessness, when she moaned:
+
+"Let me go away! Let me go!" and then she cried, "What care I for
+all this money--this useless wealth. He is gone! I am now alone in
+the world! And--and, now I never will know the story of the past!"
+There was a stony gleam on the old Scotchman's face as the girl
+sobbed, "Mother! Mother! Lost to me forever, now." The cunning old
+Scotchman's face darkened at the mention of that long-forbidden
+name. The woman who had deserted the rich nabob.
+
+With uneasy, tottering steps the old scholar paced the room,
+watching the two women in a grim silence, until Justine Delande,
+with a woman's questioning eyes, pointed to the rooms above.
+
+"Before ye go, and I'll now give ye these whole papers and documents,
+I would say that my dead brother Hugh has here in his will laid
+out yere whole life for the three years of the minority.  He has
+put on me the thankless labor and care of watching over yere worldly
+gear, and of keeping ye safely to the lines of prudence and of
+a just economy. And my duty to my dead brother, I will do just as
+his own words and hand and seal lay it down! To-morrow I will have
+much to say to you. If ye will come back to me here, Madame Delande,
+when my ward goes to her own room, I'll see ye at once on a brief
+matter o' business. And now I'll wait till ye take her away!" It
+was a half hour before Justine Delande descended to the rooms where
+the old egoist chafed at the loss of time stolen from the maundering
+researches on Thibet and the Ten Tribes.
+
+"Woman! woman! I sent up for ye twice!" he barked, as the half-defiant
+Swiss governess at length joined him.
+
+"I know my duty to my dear child, Nadine!" said the stout-hearted
+governess, with a crimsoning cheek. The old man opened a check-book,
+and sternly said:
+
+"Sit ye there! I'll arrange yere business in a few minutes! And,
+then, ye can find other duties, and know them as ye care to. I'll
+have none of yere hoity-toity airs here!" Regardless of the look
+of horror stealing over the face of Justine, the old man coldly
+proceeded as if receding from the pulpit. "My late brother, Hugh
+Fraser Johnstone, of Delhi and Calcutta, has sent me his own last
+instructions and orders. I have here the last receipt for the
+stipend which ye have been allowed--and, I'm duly following his
+orders, when I give ye this check for the six months that has yet
+too to run.
+
+"And-look ye here! A twenty-pound note to take ye back to Geneva!
+When ye sign this receipt for the stipend, ye are free to leave my
+house at once. There's some letters and a couple of telegrams for
+ye! Bring me the maid, now, and I'll pay her in the same way; and,
+moreover, I will give her ten pounds to take her home. Then, ye'll
+both remember ye are not to sleep another night here! I'll give
+ye the whole day to say good-bye and to make up yere boxes. There
+will be two four-wheelers here after yere dinner, and ye'll find
+the Royal Victoria Hotel suited to ye both, at St. Heliers. If ye
+choose to go, the morning boat takes ye to Granville. Bring the
+maid here now! Do you linger, woman? I'll be obeyed and forthwith!"
+
+With flashing eyes, Justine Delande sprang up, facing the
+flinty-hearted old Scotsman. "I will never abandon Nadine here! She
+will die in your cheerless prison!" she cried. But the old pedant
+glowered pitilessly at the startled woman, who cried: "To turn me
+away like a dog--after these many years!" And her sobs woke the
+echoes of the vaulted room.
+
+"Hearken, my leddy!" barked old Fraser, "One more word, and I'll
+have the gardener put ye off the premises! The girl ye speak of is
+young and strong. She'll have just what the Court gives her, and
+what her father laid out for her, and I'll work my will, and I'll
+do his will. Ye're speaking to no fule, here now! Take yere money
+and yere letters, and bring me the maid, or I'll bundle ye both
+in a jiffey into the Queen's highway. I'll have none but my own
+servants here--now!"
+
+Then Justine Delande, without another word, stepped forward, and,
+seizing the pen, signed her receipt for wages due, in silence. She
+defiantly gathered up her withheld letters and papers. She returned
+in a few moments with the maid, whose ox-like eyes glowed in the
+sudden joy of a return to Switzerland. For the ranz des vaches was
+now ringing in the stout peasant girl's ears. "There, that's all,
+now!" rasped the old man, when the maid had gathered up her dole.
+"The butler will go down to town with ye and see ye safe, and he
+will leave word at the bank to pay yere checks. I keep no siller
+here. It's a lonely house." And the dead tyrant worked his will
+through the living one, as his stony heart had laid out the future.
+
+Justine Delande faced the old miser pedant as she indignantly
+cried: "God protect and keep the poor orphan who has drifted out of
+one hell on earth into another! Your dead brother robbed her of a
+mother's love, and you--you old vampire--you would bury her alive!
+She shall know yet her dead mother's love, and--her brutal father's
+shame!"
+
+Before the excited woman could select another period of flowing
+invective from her thronging emotions, the gaunt old scholar had
+pushed her out into the hall and slid a bolt upon his door, with a
+vicious click. There were certain qualms of fear already unsettling
+his triumphant calmness.
+
+While Justine Delande, with flaming cheeks, sprang up the stair, and
+barricaded herself with the sobbing heiress, the old man, his eyes
+gleaming with all the conscious pride of tyranny, seated himself
+and indited a note directed to
+
+PROFESSOR ALARIC HOBBS, (of Waukesha University, U. S. A.), ROYAL
+VICTORIA HOTEL, ST. HELIERS, JERSEY.
+
+He had already dismissed from his mind the sorrows of the orphaned
+niece--he cared not for the spirited onslaught of the Swiss woman--and
+he rejoiced in his heart at the fact of Douglas Fraser's departure
+to gather up the loose ends of his dead brother's great fortune.
+"It's a vixenish baggage--this Swiss teacher! Hugh was right to
+bid me cut those cords at once and forever between them!  The girl
+shall have discipline, and, that baggage, her mother, is well out
+of the world! I'll work Hugh's will! She shall come under!" With a
+secret glee he ran over a schedule of chapter headings upon Thibet,
+Tibet, Tubet--the land of Bod--Bodyul or Alassa. He was drifting
+back into the dreamland of the pedant, but a few hours deserted.
+
+"This Yankee fellow has a keen wit! His ideas on the Ten Tribes
+are wonderful! His life has been a study of the Mongolians, the
+Tartars, and the history of the American Indians! I will be a bit
+decent to the fellow, and I'll get at the meat of his knowledge!
+He's young and a great chatterer, maybe, but a help to me. Body o'
+me! But to get there myself--to Thibet.
+
+"Ah!" sighed the old misanthrope, "I'm too old now! And Hugh has
+failed me! Nothing from him. This sair blow cuts off the last hope!
+And no educated men of Thibet ever travel! Blindness--blindness
+everywhere!" he babbled on, while above him, two women, in an
+agonized leave-taking, were silently sobbing in each other's arms,
+while the happy Swiss servant made her boxes. Nadine Johnstone's
+utter wretchedness gave her no sense of a loss by the hand of Death.
+For a father's love she had never known, and her mother--a mystery!
+
+The two women cowering together above the old pedant's den with
+sorrowing hearts communed while Justine Delande directed the packing
+of her slender belongings. There was a new spirit of revolt stirring
+in Nadine Johnstone's breast, and her face glowed with the resentment
+of an outraged heart. When all was ready for Justine's flitting,
+the heiress of a million pounds finished a little memorandum,
+which she calmly explained to the Swiss preceptress. The sense of
+her future rights stirred her like a bugle blast, and with clear
+eyes, she looked beyond the three years toward Freedom.
+
+"It rests with you, Justine, as to whether I am left friendless
+for three years of a gloomy captivity. First you are to telegraph
+to Major Harry Hardwicke, Royal Engineers, Delhi, and if you receive
+no reply, then telegraph to General Willoughby for the Major's
+address.  When at Granville, and, not before, send this letter to
+Major Hardwicke at the 'Junior United Service Club, London'." The
+beautiful girl was blushing rosy red as the sympathetic Swiss folded
+her to her breast. "Then, when you get to Paris, go to No. 9 Rue
+Berlioz, and leave this letter there for Madame Berthe Louison. Go
+yourself. Trust no one. When you have conferred with dear Euphrosyne,
+you can send all your letters to Madame Louison at Paris under
+cover. She will find out a safe way to get them to me--even if she
+has to send her man, Jules, over here. He is quick-witted, and he
+will find a way to reach me."
+
+There was a dawning wonder in Justine's eyes.
+
+"Who is this strange Madame Louison? Can you trust her?"
+
+"Ah! Justine!" murmured Nadine, "She is only one who loves me, for
+love's own sake, but I know I can trust her. She knows something
+of my mother's past life--something that I do not know. This old
+tyrant will now try to cut me off from all the outside world. He
+has had some strange power given to him by the father who was only
+my father in name.
+
+"I will obey you. I swear it!" cried Justine. "And old Simpson will
+probably be coming on soon. He loves you. He will serve you."
+
+"Yes," joyously exclaimed Nadine, with a glowing face. "And he
+adores Major Hardwicke, whose father saved his life at Lucknow.
+There is one dawning hope. You are not to write one word till you
+hear from me. I know that Madame Louison will manage to send Jules
+to me in some safe disguise," she proudly cried, "and remember--I
+shall not be always a poor prisoner with her hands tied. The day
+of my deliverance comes. When I am twenty-one, I can reward both
+you and Euphrosyne. She shall have a home to live in ease. And
+you,--you shall go out into the world with me, and aid me to find
+my mother.  Even in the tomb I shall find her. I shall know of her
+love. For I shall see her loving face, even only in a picture. The
+face that has blessed me in my dreams."
+
+Justine Delande saw a future reward awaiting the two faithful
+guardians of the childhood of Miss Million. With a sudden impulse,
+she cried: "There is one to aid even nearer to us now than Major
+Hardwicke. For I have a telegram from Euphrosyne, that Major Haivke
+is at Geneva."
+
+Nadine Johnstone rose and seized both of Justine's hands: "Promise
+me now, by my dead mother's grave, that you will never tell that
+man anything of our secret compact of to-day! I fear him! I disliked
+him from the first! He had strange dealings with the dead." The
+girl's face was stern. "If I am approached by him in any way, I will
+cease every communication with you forever! I will have no aid of
+Alan Hawke."
+
+And when the parting hour came, Justine Delande was amazed at the
+cold dignity with which Nadine Johnstone faced the grim old uncle.
+It was only at the gate of the "Banker's Folly," that the heiress
+for the last time kissed her friend in adieu. "Fear not for me. I
+have learned the lesson of Life. Remember!" she whispered. "Keep
+the faith! Guard my trusts!" and then, Justine sobbed: "Loyal a
+la, mort!"
+
+The evening shades were darkening the sculptured shores of Rozel
+Bay, where clumsy luggers lay far below, high and dry on the beach,
+behind the great masonry pier. Skiffs and fishing-boats lined the
+shores, and the soft breeze moved the foliage of the luxuriant
+garden. The white stars were peeping out and twinkling in the gray
+and lonely sea, as Nadine shivered and walked firmly back to the
+portico, where the old recluse awaited her.
+
+With a stiff motion of perfunctory courtesy, he motioned the heiress
+into the frosty-looking drawing-room, now lit up with spectral
+gleams of wax candles. For he would treat his ward with a frozen
+dignity.
+
+Andrew Fraser coughed in a hollow warning and wasted no words in
+his first bulletin of "General Orders." "I have here a certified
+copy of your late father's will," he said, "for your perusal. You
+will see all the conditions of life which he has wisely laid down
+for you. I have telegraphed on to London for his solicitor to send
+a representative here, and the original testament will be duly
+filed at Doctors' Commons, at once. I shall at once provide you
+with suitable women attendants. I have already engaged a proper
+housekeeper, to whom you can state all your wishes. With regard
+to money matters and your correspondence, you must consult me! For
+the present, you will readily see that I deem it imprudent for you
+to leave these spacious and splendid grounds! But, ye'll find ways
+to busy yourself. Women always do!"
+
+The old pedant marveled at the young woman's composure, for she
+simply bowed and awaited a termination of the interview. Slightly
+disconcerted, he abruptly demanded: "Have you anything to say?"
+
+"Only this, Andrew Fraser," coldly replied the heiress. "Your sending
+away the only woman whom I know in the world has marked you as a
+tyrant and a jailer." Her spirit was as unyielding as his own, and
+he winced.
+
+"Ye'll find I had your father's warrant. I'll go on to the end and
+obey him! There are to be no old associations kept up, and when ye
+come to your own ye can do all ye will! I'll go my way in my duty
+and do it as it seems right!" When he finished he was alone, for
+the daughter of Valerie Delavigne had passed him with a glance of
+unutterable contempt.
+
+There was fire in the eye of the rebellious girl, and the elastic
+firmness of youth in her tread, but above stairs, in her own lonely
+rooms, her courage faded away quickly. But she wrapped her sorrows
+in her own proud young heart and turned her eyes to the far East.
+"Will he come?" she murmured.
+
+When the clumsy island serving girl had trimmed the fire and drawn
+the heavy curtains, Nadine Johnstone locked her doors. She sat
+spellbound, with a wildly beating heart, until she had read the last
+of the sixteen provisions of her father's vindictive will. Though
+the whole fortune was left absolutely to her, with the exception
+of twenty-five thousand pounds each to Andrew Fraser and his son,
+she was tied up by restrictions so infamously brutal, that her
+three years of minority stretched out before her as a death in life.
+Five hundred pounds a year of pin money were allowed to her until
+her majority, "to be expended with the approval of her guardian."
+
+In an agony of lonely sorrow she threw herself, dressed, upon her
+bed and sobbed herself into forgetfulness, her last cry for help
+mingling the names of Berthe Louison and Harry Hardwicke. "Will
+Justine be true to her oath?" she faltered, as she drifted into
+the blessed release of dreamland.
+
+As the night wore on, Justine Delande, tossing on her bed in the
+Royal Victoria Hotel, waited for the dawn, to sail for Granville.
+She had telegraphed in curt words her dismissal, and she burned
+to reach Geneva, for to her the sight of Alan Hawke's face was the
+one oasis in her desert of sorrow.
+
+Long after Nadine Johnstone had closed her tired eyelids, stern
+old Andrew Fraser cowered below, glowering over his library fire,
+clad in a huge plaid dressing gown. His greedy eyes watched the
+dancing flames, and he rubbed the thin palms in triumph, while he
+sipped his nightly glass of Highland whisky grog. It had been a
+famous secret campaign for the surviving brother.
+
+"If all goes on well; all goes well!" he crooned. "There's Douglas,
+gone for good! The boy is young and soft-like. He might fall into
+this pert minx's hands as young Douglas with Queen Mary of old.
+And, thank God, he knows nothing of the packet of jewels! Not a
+soul knows in the wide world! Why should I not save them for myself
+and turn them into gold? Yes, save them for myself. For the boy?
+But he never must know! Ah! I must hide them well! This stubborn
+girl knows nothing! That is right! Janet Fairbarn will be here in
+two days, and I'll have another man to keep watch; yes, and a good
+dog, too! For the gallants must never cross my wall!"
+
+"He! He! She'll no fule with Janet Fairbarn," he gloated, "and the
+will gives me every power. I must find a place of safety for the
+jewels," he mused. "I'm glad that I burned Hughie's letter, as he
+told me. There's nothing now to show for them. The bank would not
+be safe. Never must they go out of my hands. And, I can write a
+sealed letter for Douglas, to be opened by him alone, if I should
+be called away. I can put it in the bank, and take a receipt and
+send the boy the receipt. But, no human being must know that I have
+them." He tottered away to his sleep murmuring, "But safer still,
+to turn them into yellow gold. There's a deal of them. I must find
+out in time how to dispose of them, but never till the lass above
+is gone and my accounts all discharged." And the old miser, who
+had already robbed his dead brother, slept softly in love with his
+own exceeding cunning.
+
+Of all the loungers on the wind-swept wharf at Granville-sur-Mer
+next day, decidedly the most natty was Jules Victor, who was now
+awaiting the return of the little St. Helier's packet, to engage a
+special cabin for himself, with all a Gaul's horror of the stormy
+passage. He sprang forward, in a genuine surprise, as Mademoiselle
+Justine Delande, aided by the stout Swiss maid, tottered over the
+gangplank. "Madame is ill, a la bonne heure! Let me conduct you
+to the Hotel Croix d'Or, where Madame Louison is even now awaiting
+the Paris train." The ex-zouave was a miracle of politeness and,
+he proudly conducted Justine to a waiting fiacre, having deftly
+reserved himself the choice of staterooms. With the skill of his
+artful kind, Jules hastened upstairs at the Hotel Croix d'Or, to
+announce to his mistress the lucky find of a windy afternoon on
+Granville quay.
+
+That night, when Justine Delande reached Paris, she was assured
+in her heart that her own future fortunes were safe, and that her
+sister would surely be the recipient of Nadine Johnstone's future
+bounty. For Madame Berthe Louison, ever armed against possible
+treachery, announced her own instant departure for Poland. "But, I
+leave Jules in charge in Paris, and he will find the way to deliver
+your letters to your young friend."
+
+When Justine Delande was safely escorted to the train by the
+smiling Madame Berthe Louison, she proceeded to register a packet
+for London, addressed to "Major Harry Hardwicke."
+
+That young officer's heart was light, three days later, when
+he received the letter of Nadine which Madame Louison had cajoled
+easily from the Swiss woman. And the happy Major's heart was no
+lighter than Nadine's for the watchful Janet Fairbarn, now on duty,
+with her selected subordinates, wondered to see the pale-faced girl
+laugh merrily as she chatted over the garden wall with a strolling
+French peddler. "I may trade at the gate, may I not, Miss Janet,"
+said Nadine, "or is that one of the crimes?" But Jules Victor had
+brought her a new life. She whispered, "He will come!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+AN ASIATIC LION IN HIDING.
+
+
+
+
+
+Madame Alixe Delavigne sat alone in her snug apartment of the Hotel
+Croix d'Or, at Granville-sur-Mer, four days after Justine Delande
+had been driven forth from the Banker's Folly! The perusal of a
+long letter from Jules Victor was interrupted by the arrival of a
+telegram from that rising young soldier, Captain Anson Anstruther.
+It needed but a single glance to call the resolute woman to action.
+
+Smartly ringing the bell, she ordered the maid, her bill, and a
+voiture to convey her to the Boulogne station. "So, Hardwicke and
+Captain Murray are safely in London! Major Hawke is at Geneva, and
+I am to hide at Rosebank Villa until he has reported and been sent
+away on his continental tour of the great jewel dealers!"
+
+With flying fingers the lady soon penned a letter addressed to
+"Monsieur Alois Vautier, Marchand-en-petit, Hotel Bellevue, St.
+Aubin, Jersey." "He can telegraph to me at Richmond, and one of us
+will soon be on the ground to aid him! Now, 'the longest way round
+is the nearest way home!'" laughed the ci-devant Madame Louison, as
+she departed for Boulogne, an hour later, having carefully mailed
+her letter personally, and sent a brief telegram to the active
+Jules Victor.
+
+The ex-Zouave had easily made the rounds of the pretty islet of
+Jersey, in his capacity of merchant of small wares, long before
+Alixe Delavigne, braving the stormy channel, had proceeded from
+Folkestone directly to Richmond, and hidden herself in the leafy
+bowers of Rosebank Villa. Smiling, gay and debonnair with all the
+women servants, he had a pinch of snuff, a cigar of fair quality,
+or a pipe full of tabac for coachman and groom, supplemented with
+many a petit verre from his capacious flask. His Gallic gallantry,
+with the gift of a trinket or ribbon, made him welcome with simple
+milk-maid or pert house "slavey," and the dapper little Frenchman
+was already an established favorite in the wine-room of the Hotel
+Bellevue.
+
+His greatest triumph, however, was the secret demonstration of the
+cheapness of Jersey prices to the London sewing woman and smart
+lady's maid, now chafing under Janet Fairbarn's iron rule at the
+"Banker's Folly." "Norn d'un pipe! But I have to make shameful
+rabaissements de prix," muttered Jules, as he adroitly worked upon
+the susceptibilities of the two new maid servants. While one or
+the other of these women always accompanied Miss Nadine Johnstone
+in her daily wanderings through the splendid gardens of the Folly,
+the merry voice of Jules Victor was often heard by them singing
+on his way down the road. The gift of a famous brule guenle had
+propitiated the simple Jersey gardener, whose stout boy rejoiced
+in a new leather jacket, almost a gift, and the second man, Andrew
+Fraser's reinforcement, a famous drinker, was soon a nightly
+companion of "Alois Vautier" at the one little "public," down under
+the scarped hill at Rizel Bay.
+
+Andrew Fraser, closeted with the London lawyer, had almost forgotten
+the existence of Nadine Johnstone.
+
+A formal interview as to the filing of her father's will, a mere
+mute exhibition of perfunctory courtesy, released Nadine to her own
+devices, while Professor Andrew Fraser returned to his afternoon
+studies with that famous young Yankee savant, Professor Alaric
+Hobbs, of Waukesha University.
+
+The beautiful captive was now happy in dissembling her contentment,
+for, though the sharp-featured Scotch housekeeper, Janet Fairbarn,
+keenly watched all her outgoings, sending always one of the women
+as an "outside guard," the heiress had learned some of woman's
+secret arts quickly. The peddler, Alois Vautier, brought to her
+letters and messages which made her lonely heart light, even in
+her stately semi-durance. And the epistles of Major Harry Hardwicke
+left her with a heart trembling in delight after their perusal.
+
+And so it fell out that four days after Alixe Delavigne had returned
+to Rosebank Villa, that a packet of important letters was smuggled
+past the droning Professor's picket line, one of which caused Nadine
+Johnstone to hide her tell-tale blushes in her room.
+
+"To-morrow I will come by, to deliver some little purchases of the
+maids! Have your answers all ready. I will be here at ten, at the
+garden gate!" Long after the Yankee Professor had left the "Folly"
+for St. Heliers that night, the lonely girl bent her beautiful head
+over the pages, destined to safely reach her lover's eyes in fair
+London town. And to Berthe Louison, she now poured out her loving
+heart, for she knew that her protecting friends would soon be near
+her.
+
+"We are waiting, watching, and planning," wrote Alixe Delavigne.
+"Be cheerful--silent--watchful! I must be near you, I must see you,
+face to face, to tell you all the story of the past! I will then
+tell you, my own darling child, of the mother whom you have never
+known.  But, first, Major Hardwicke must open a way to your side!
+Beware of the schemes of Alan Hawke! He will be here to-morrow,
+and he may steal over to Jersey, though his duty takes him for a
+month to the Continent! You will surely see Major Hardwicke before
+you see me for Andrew Fraser might take alarm at a sight of my face
+and so hide you away from us all!"
+
+Miss Mildred Anstruther was a delicate symphony in gray, as she
+gracefully presided the next evening over the dinner table at which
+Alixe Delavigne, Captain Anstruther, Major Hardwicke, and Captain
+Murray merrily discussed the sudden hastening of Captain Eric
+Murray's nuptials. Hardwicke's duty as "best man" was now the only
+bar to the beginning of a campaign destined to foil Andrew Fraser's
+Loch Leven tactics of imprisoning his niece and ward.
+
+"You will have but a brief honeymoon, Eric!" laughed Hardwicke.
+
+"You have promised to stand by me, Harry," replied his friend. "See
+me married to-morrow, then a week's honeymoon at Jersey is all that
+I ask! I can bestow my wife there with a dear friend, who has the
+prettiest old Norman chateau-maison on the island, and after that
+be near you there at Rozel Bay to work up the final discomfiture of
+this old vampire. I only claim the attendance of the whole party
+at my wedding, then I will disappear and spy out the ground for
+you long before you are ready to astonish the dreamy old bookworm.
+I have made my own plans, and Flossie has agreed to our runaway
+trip 'in the interests of the service'! She is a soldier's daughter,
+remember!" Miss Mildred, wreathed in her soft laces, shimmering
+in her gray poplin, and bending her stately head in salutation,
+extended a delicate hand, loaded down with quaint old Indian rings,
+to each, when the coffee was served.
+
+"I will leave you now to the hatching of your famous conspiracy for
+the invasion of the Island of Jersey." The old gentlewoman passed
+smilingly through the door where the three knightly soldiers stood
+bowing low, and then the four conspirators sat down to arrange the
+dramatis persona of a little society play in "High Life," in which
+Professor Andrew Fraser was destined to be the central figure, and
+act without "lines" or rehearsal.
+
+The "leading lady" was at the present moment dreaming of a golden
+future in her own rooms at the "Banker's Folly." Nadine Johnstone
+had been allowed to make her apartments as bright and cheery as
+her buoyant nature suggested.
+
+For Andrew Fraser, after much discussion with Janet Fairbarn, had
+convoyed the heiress to St. Heliers for a day. The resources of
+all the local furnishers were taxed by the young prisoner's taste,
+and, the old executor, unbending a little, grimly vaunted his
+"dangerous liberality." "I'll be bail for the expenditure of five
+hundred pounds, as an extra allowance," he said. "Now make yourself
+snug here, for ye'll bide here the whole three years! As to the
+bookmen, music, and libraries, I'll give ye a free hand.
+
+"The yearly allowance of yere lamented father will cover all
+yere dealings with mantua-makers and milliners. That is yere own
+affair--all that sort of womanly gear. We will make one day of it,
+and if ye are lacking aught, then Miss Janet can bring ye to town,
+or the dealers can come." It was, thus self-deluded, that Andrew
+Fraser noted the coming cheerfulness of his defiant young charge.
+He fancied he had provided every wish of her lonely heart. But the
+trailing lines of smoke of the daily Southampton packets only spoke
+to Nadine of a growing correspondence with Major Harry Hardwicke,
+Royal Engineers. She waited now for Simpson's arrival for news of
+the Delhi mystery--the death of the unloving parent, who had been
+only her jailer.
+
+At Rosebank Villa, Major Hardwicke was busied with Captain Murray,
+while Anstruther drew Alixe Delavigne aside. "Listen to all Murray
+proposes, and agree to it. You may be astonished at our plans, but
+between you and I, alone, lies the deeper secret. My secret orders
+from the Viceroy are for your ear alone. Your life-quest to reach
+Nadine's side can only betaken up after Murray and Hardwicke have
+finished their little masquerade at the 'Banker's Folly.' Let this
+secret be ours, alone! Do you promise me, Alixe? I will aid you,
+heart, life, and soul!" And, with her eyes softly shining in a
+growing tenderness, Alixe Delavigne murmured: "I trust you in all
+things! It shall be as you wish."
+
+Captain Anstruther then led the way to the library, and closing
+the doors with the minute attention of a true conspirator, cried:
+"Murray, we will hear from you first!" Seated, with her lips parted
+in an expectant smile, Alixe Delavigne listened in amazement as
+"Red Eric" proceeded.
+
+"I got the little idea from Frank Halton, of the Globe. You may
+know that he was out at the Khyber Pass seven years ago, as the war
+correspondent of the Telegraph, and he ran over Cabul at the time
+of the Penj-Deh incident. He has prepared a series of varied skits
+and personal items covering the visit incognito of Prince Djiddin,
+a Thibetan noble of ancient and shadowy lineage. This 'Asiatic Lion'
+will be duly kept in the shadows of a mysterious seclusion in the
+Four Kingdoms until we introduce him to a small section of the
+British public.
+
+"The Globe, the Indian Mail, the Mirror, the Colonial Gazette, and
+other periodicals will darkly hint at his itinerary, and he will
+be paraded judiciously, and no vulgar eye must ever rest upon him.
+These items will be widely copied. A graceful, social phantom, a
+Veiled, mysterious young potentate is Prince Djiddin!" "The humbug
+will be easily discovered!" said Anstruther, still at sea.
+
+"Not if you flung your protecting mantle over him!" cried Murray.
+"We will shield him by a protecting Moonshee, who alone speaks his
+august master's language, a tongue not to be easily translated;
+in fact, perfectly proof against all prying outsiders. The one way
+to hoodwink old Fraser is to humbug him about the great work on
+Thibet.  That is the one soft spot in the hide of this old alligator.
+We have gone carefully over the reports of your secret agent at
+St. Heliers.  Make us square with him, Captain, let him have your
+orders to aid us, and he can get us first hooked on to this Yankee
+Professor Alaric Hobbs! We will jolly him a bit, and so, get an
+interview with old Fraser, and then fool the old chap to the top
+of his bent. We will supply him with theories enough to set every
+bee in his bonnet buzzing. Your man is already 'solid' with Professor
+Alaric Hobbs, who is a quaint genius, and withal, a hard-headed
+Yankee, but full of cranks and 'isms.'"
+
+Anson Anstruther exchanged doubtful glances with Alixe Delavigne,
+who was still very agnostic. "The real object is to spy out the
+interior of Fraser's household without alarming him, and to locate
+his hidden treasure, and, moreover, to open a safe, personal
+communication with Nadine Johnstone. Letters and messages finally
+go astray. And, at the very first sign of danger, old Andrew would
+clear out to the Continent, shut up the girl, get rid of that
+insured package, and cut all future communications! In the long three
+years, the girl might die, be estranged from you, or perhaps fall
+into the hands of some foreign fortune hunter. Human nature--woman
+nature--is a mutable quantity. But once we are in communication we
+can provide for future correspondence in any event.
+
+"And you, Anstruther, would be defeated in recovering the hidden
+property of the Crown. Moreover, these two Frasers are the only
+heirs-at-law.
+
+"Who knows what might not be done for a million, when a beggarly
+fifty pounds will buy a death certificate in many a little continental
+town?" They were all gravely silent as Murray soberly clinched his
+argument. "It is idle not to believe that old Hugh Fraser Johnstone
+laid out his brother's whole future course! He certainly has
+trusted him with his stealings, the lost crown jewels!  He trusts
+his child's whole future to the care of these two cold Scotsmen,
+and gives the heiress over to old Andrew, to keep her safe from
+Madame," Murray bowed, "his only living enemy, and from all the other
+relatives of his long-hated dead wife. From your own disclosures
+and Madame's own words, we must all fear that her first appearance
+would be the signal for the spiriting away of Nadine until the
+minority is at an end. And it might invite some secret crime. She
+bears the hated face of her dead mother, you say!"
+
+"True," murmured Anstruther. "My solicitor tells me, too, that a
+guardianship by will is the very strongest tying-up of a rich young
+ward. We can follow on later, perhaps, if this opening could be
+made, but where have we a 'Prince Djiddin,' and where, the wonderful
+'Moonshee?'"
+
+"There is Prince Djiddin," laughed Captain Murray, pointing to
+Major Harry Hardwicke, "and here is the Moonshee," he tapped his
+own broad breast.
+
+"I fail to understand you," slowly replied Anstruther, now blankly
+gazing at the two men in a growing wonderment.
+
+"Nothing easier," briskly answered Murray. "I go quietly over
+to Jersey and spend a honeymoon week with Flossie. She is soldier
+enough to know that my little masquerade means full 'duty pay
+and traveling allowances.' I will hide her safely with my Jersey
+friends, and while Frank Halton works his secret Literary Bureau,
+I will steal over to Southampton and bring 'Prince Djiddin' over
+to St. Heliers. I will see that he naturally falls in with Prof.
+Alaric Hobbs, and then, 'fond of seclusion,' I will embower my
+'Asiatic Lion' not a league from the 'Banker's Folly.' I will be
+near my Flossie, and I propose to bring 'Prince Djiddin' soon face
+to face with the heiress.
+
+"As the Prince speaks not a word of English, even old Fraser will
+be disarmed. Neither Hobbs, Alaric of that ilk, nor Fraser have
+ever been in India, and we can easily fool them. Neither of us
+have ever been been in Jersey, and fortunately our figures, age,
+and complexions aid the makeup. I can do the Moonshee. It was my
+'star' cast in many a garrison theatrical show. Remember, none of
+them have ever seen Hardwicke or myself--only Miss Nadine will know
+us."
+
+"But," faltered Alixe Delavigne, "Captain Murray makes no provision
+for me. Must I be hidden here always?" Her voice was trembling with
+the surging love of her longing heart.
+
+"Ah! dear Madame!" replied Murray. "Place aux dames. You can be
+later quietly escorted to St. Heliers. Old bookworm Fraser does
+not leave the 'Folly' once in six months. You shall, on to-morrow,
+arrange with Mrs. Flossie Murray to share 'those days of absence'
+with her, while I am playing the 'Moonshee' to 'Prince Djiddin's'
+leading part. With your own sly man-of-all-work, then how easy
+for the acute Jules Victor to lead you into the extensive grounds,
+where you may often meet Nadine Johnstone when all is safe. He has
+the friendly entree, and can hoodwink the attendants of the garden,
+while your own ingenuity will enable you to have stolen interviews
+in the splendid rambles of the 'Banker's Folly.' Old Andrew never
+quits his study, and all we have to do is to watch Miss Janet
+Fairbarn. Jules Victor can guard against a surprise by her."
+
+"It is an ingenious plan, but, a dangerous one," mused Anstruther.
+
+"Not so," boldly replied Murray. "Remember that old Fraser is
+crazy on his bookwork. Hobbs is his only male visitor. He has not
+a relative, a friend--no one to watch on the outside while we hold
+the old chap at bay. Miss Janet watches in the house." Anstruther
+had been carefully studying the two men's faces. "'Prince Djiddin'
+will be all right, with a little makeup, using walnut juice and a
+proper costume. His Indian brown is quite the thing. But you, my
+boy, must be an Eurasian, the son of a high English official and
+a native woman of rank. You were carried away to Thibet by your
+beautiful Cashmere mother when she was abandoned. The usual sad
+story will go.  She, driven out by her family, refuges finally in
+Hlassa, and your English was, of course, learned before the death
+of your father, when you were eighteen. Your usefulness as interpreter
+caused you to attach yourself to 'Prince Djiddin's' noble family.
+
+"Yes," said Hardwicke. "A couple of days spent in the British Museum,
+and with your fertile imagination, Eric, you will be enabled to
+describe the mysterious, lonely city on the Dzangstu, and even the
+gilded temples of Mount Botala. You can easily book up all about
+the Dalai Lama. Make a voyage a la Tom Moore to Cashmere!"
+
+"Right you are!" laughed Eric Murray. "Frank Halton stole into the
+town of Hlassa and he now offers to me his sketchbooks and private
+notebooks. Foreigners from the south have occasionally been allowed
+to go into Thibet since the Nepauese were driven out, but only very
+rarely. I will have all the rig and quaint outlandish gear that
+Halton brought away. So you see we are the 'Ever Victorious Army.'
+Yes. Prince Djiddin will be a go." And the others were fain to
+agree in the plausibility of the scheme.
+
+It was midnight when the quartette separated to meet at the quiet
+wedding of the morrow. Alixe Delavigne had finally approved the
+plan, when Anson Anstruther drew her away to confer upon the risk.
+"You see," he pleaded, "Murray will never even speak to Miss
+Johnstone. All that pleasing task is left to Prince Djiddin, who
+can and will, of course, choose any unguarded moment. Captain Murray
+will hold old Fraser personally in limbo, while you and Prince
+Djiddin can meet the pretty captive in alternation. At any danger
+signal, the Prince and Moonshee can quit Jersey at once. Then the
+lightning thought came to the lady: "She already loves him! It must
+be so! He is the only young officer who was ever allowed to enter
+the Marble House in that long year of golden bondage. It shall be
+so! I can trust to him for her sake, if he loves her for Love's own
+sake. I can remain near Nadine then, even if they have to disappear,
+for Jules will keep the pathway open." And yet, shamefaced in her
+own growing tenderness for her mentor, Anstruther, she took these
+wise counsels away to hide them in her own happy heart. "It will
+make us then, Captain Murray," she said, as she extended her hand
+in good night, "a little circle of five, gathered around this
+motherless and fatherless girl to save her from the secret schemes
+of tyrant and fortune hunter."
+
+"Precisely so, Madame," laughed Murray, "when I have sworn in my
+beautiful recruit to-morrow. Then we will be five in very truth."
+There was a flying early morning visit to Hunt and Roskell's on the
+morrow, which greatly astonished Captain Anstruther, who had escorted
+Madame Alixe Delavigne down on her way to the pretty chapel at Kew,
+where Captain Murray duly "swore in his beautiful recruit," with
+bell, book, and candle. The parure of diamonds which the lady of
+Jitomir gave to Mrs. Flossie Murray caused even the eyes of "The
+Moonshee" to open in wonder at the little campaign breakfast of
+the leaders of this Crusade of Love. "Only suited to the wife of
+Prince Djiddin's High Chamberlain," laughed Alixe Delavigne, as the
+happy Captain departed on his honeymoon tour, escaping showers of
+rice, to "move upon the enemy's works in Jersey."
+
+"Thank God that I have got that sharp-eyed Hawke safely out of
+town," cried Captain Anstruther to his beautiful confidante, as
+they escorted Miss Mildred back to beautiful Rosebank. The "lass
+o' Richmond Hill" was no fairer than the happy woman who had seen
+Major Hardwicke depart for a long conference with that all powerful
+sprite of the magic pen, Frank Halton, who was now busied in
+launching his creation, Prince Djiddin. "A single word at the 'F.
+O.' will legalize our useful myth, 'Prince Djiddin,' and I hope
+that Hardwicke and Murray will succeed. They can surely lose nothing
+by the attempt. I am known to be the Viceroy's aide-de-camp 'on
+leave,' a near kinsman, and I am sure that old Fraser would take
+alarm at the first visit or written communication from me. Once
+startled, he would soon be off to hide the jewels on the Continent,
+and then only laugh at our efforts. Of course he will swear that
+the insured packet only contained family papers or some of the
+estate's securities. Yes! Alan Hawke is the only man whom I fear
+now as to the safety of either the girl or the jewels. He seems
+to have had many old dealings with Hugh Johnstone, too!" They were
+silent as they threaded the beautiful Surrey garden lanes of the
+old burgh of Sheen. Loved by the bluff Harrys of the English throne,
+its beauties sung by poet and deputed by artist, the charming
+declivities of Richmond gained a new name from Henry VII, and
+its bosky shades once saw a kingly Edward, a Henry, and a mighty
+Elizabeth drop the scepter of Great Britain from the palsied hand
+of Death. Its little parish church to-day hides the ashes of the
+pensive pastoral poet Thomson, and the bones of the great actor Kean.
+But, Anstruther's active mind was only dwelling in the present,
+as Miss Mildred nodded in the carriage. He saw again the simple
+wedding of the morning, and heard once more those touching words
+"I, Eric, take thee, Florence." Then his eyes sought the face of
+Alixe Delavigne in a burning glance, which caused that lady to seek
+her own bower in Rosebank villa, and hide her blushes from "Him
+Who Would Not Be Denied." Miss Mildred smiled and nodded behind
+her fan, for she heard the Bells of the Future sounding afar off.
+
+The graceful woman escorted Captain Anstruther to the river's
+edge that night, when he departed to a conference of moment with
+Hardwicke and Halton. She fled back, like the swift Camilla, to
+her own nest, as the Captain went forth upon the river. Only the
+listening flowers heard her startled answer when Anstruther had found
+a voice to tell the Pilgrim of Love his own story in a soldier's
+frank way. "Wait, Anson! Wait, till you know me better, till our
+quest is done; wait till the roses bloom here once more," she had
+whispered.
+
+"And if I do wait, Alixe--if I ask you again?" Anstruther cried as
+he kissed her slender hand.
+
+"Then you shall have my answer," she faltered, but her eyes shone
+like stars as she lightly fled away.
+
+Captain Anson Anstruther had reckoned without his host when he
+rejoiced over Alan Hawke's departure. As the aide-de-camp sped down
+the darkened river, he still saw Alixe Delavigne's eyes gleaming
+down on him in every tender twinkling star, but the wily agent whom
+he had dispatched to the Continent four days before, was near him
+yet, and comfortably dining in a little snug public in the Tower
+Hamlets, on this very night. He was looking for tools suited to a
+dark game which busied his reckless heart.
+
+Major Alan Hawke (temporary rank) had passed two days at Geneva
+in a serious conference with the sorrowing sisters Delande. His
+meeting with the softhearted Justine had brought the color back to
+the poor woman's face, and she shyly held up the diamond bracelet
+to his view, murmuring, "I have thought of you and kissed it every
+night and morning, for your sake, Alan!"
+
+With a glance of veiled tenderness, the acute schemer took his fair
+dupe out upon the lake, while Euphrosyne directed the slow grinding
+of the mills of the gods. "I must lose no time," Hawke pleaded,
+"as I have to report for duty in London." And so, he gleaned the
+story of the hegira and the situation at the Banker's Folly. He
+heard all, and yet felt that there was a gap in the story. Justine
+was true to her plighted word.
+
+He instinctively felt that Justine was holding back something of
+moment, and yet in his heart he felt that the price of that disclosure
+would be his formal betrothal to the loving Justine. But he dared
+not vow to marry, and the Swiss woman was loyally true to her oath.
+He remained "their loving brother" as yet, and when two days later,
+Alan Hawke departed for London direct, he mused vainly over the
+tangled problem until he reported to Captain Anson Anstruther. "If
+this greenhorn girl has any designs of her own she has not told
+them yet to Justine. I must get a man to help me to work my scheme,
+or go over to Jersey myself," he at last decided. He was secretly
+happy at Captain Anstruther's prompt injunctions to make ready
+for a tour of two months upon the Continent. "I shall have all
+your detailed instructions prepared tomorrow, Major Hawke," said
+the young aide-de-camp. "Meet me, therefore, at the Junior United
+Service at ten o'clock; you can take a couple of days to look over
+London, and then proceed at once to the delicate duty which I will
+give to you. And, remember, the Viceroy's orders are that you are
+to report to me alone, and also to preserve an absolute secrecy.
+Your future rank will depend upon your discretion." Major Alan Hawke
+was not as cheerful, however, when he opened his private mail at
+Morley's Hotel, as when he had bade adieu to Captain Anstruther.
+A formal communication from the Credit Lyonnais informed him that
+Monsieur le Professeur Andrew Fraser had formally forbidden Messrs.
+Glyn, Carr & Glyn to pay the four bills of exchange, acting in his
+capacity of executor of a will duly filed at Doctor's Commons, and
+that the four drafts must be proved as debts against the estate,
+and so paid later, in due process of law on proof of the claim.
+The refusal was due to the death of the drawer before presentment.
+
+"Damn it! I must play a fine game now!" he glowered. "Anstruther
+I must obey in all! Once back in India with rank, however, I can
+force old Ram Lal to pay these drafts. He dare not resist--there's
+the rope for him!
+
+"And I must find a fellow to spy out the situation in Jersey.
+I certainly dare not linger here!" He be-took himself to an old
+haunt in Tower Hamlets, where the first stars of the "swell mob"
+were wont to linger, a haunt where he had once taken refuge in his
+changeling days, years before.
+
+A glance at a man seated enjoying a good cigar at a table caused
+his heart to leap up in joy. "Jack Blunt--of all men! By God! this
+is luck!" he cried. When the happy Alan Hawke tapped the smoker
+smartly on the shoulder he first laid a finger on his own lip and
+then hastily said: "Get a private room, Jack, I want you at once.
+I've a special bit of business in your line." Major Alan Hawke,
+Temporary Rank, unattached, hastily bade the boni-face serve the
+best supper available for two. "Mind you, no poison in the wine!"
+he sharply said.
+
+"We've the best vintages of London Docks," grinned the happy host,
+as he sped away and left the two scoundrels alone.
+
+"What are you doing now, Jack?" queried Hawke.
+
+"Nothing," sullenly replied the middle-aged star of the swell mob.
+"My eyes! you are in great form," he admiringly commented.
+
+"Can you leave town for a week or so, on a little job for me?"
+briskly continued the Major.
+
+"Ready money?" said "Gentleman Jack" Blunt, stroking out a pair of
+glossy side whiskers.
+
+"Yes, cash in plenty on hand, and lots more in sight," imperatively
+replied the Major.
+
+"Do I work with you, or alone?" asked Blunt.
+
+"It's a little private investigation," replied Hawke, "and as I
+have to leave town to-night, and spend a couple of months on the
+Continent, you are the very man. I am afraid to appear in the thing
+myself, as I am well known to the other parties, and so I fear being
+followed over the Channel. I'm back again in the army." Jack's eyes
+grew larger in a trice.
+
+"Here comes the grub," gayly said Blunt. "You can trust the wine
+here. The crib is square, too. Now, my boy, fire away. We are alone,
+and no listeners here." Before Jack Blunt had put away a pint of
+best "beeswing" sherry, he was aware of all Alan Hawke's intentions.
+His keen brain was working all its "cylinders."
+
+"Give me just five minutes to think it over, Governor," said the
+sparkling-eyed, dark-faced, swell cracksman. "I know Jersey like a
+book. I worked the 'summer racket' there once. The excursion boats,
+the farmers' races, the Casino balls, the Military games, and the
+whole lay. I think I can cook up a plan. You don't show up just
+yet.  I am to do the 'downy cove.'"
+
+"Not till I can double on my track, and you have piped the whole
+situation off," said Hawke. "The game is a queer one. I may want to
+come over later and show up and make a little society play on the
+girl. I may, however, join you and help you secretly, or I may have
+to stay away altogether. But I must act at once. There's money in
+it. If you have to make the running yourself, you can get your own
+help."
+
+"And, you have the real stuff?" agnostically demanded Jack Blunt.
+
+"What do you want for a starter as your pay for the report to be
+sent to me at the Hotel Faucon, Lausanne, Switzerland?" Hawke was
+eager and disposed to be liberal.
+
+"Oh! A hundred sovs for the job, as you lay it out--and fifty for
+my little incidentals," laughed Jack Blunt. "Of course, if it goes
+on to anything serious, you'll have to put away the real 'boodle,'
+where I have something to run with, if I have to cut it. I might
+run up a dangerous plant!"
+
+"Bah!" decisively said Hawke. "Only an old fool to dodge, who is
+over seventy--a dotard--and a foolish girl of eighteen--a simple
+boarding-school miss!"
+
+"Yes, but she has a million, you say. There's always some one to
+love a girl with that money! Love comes in by the door, and the
+window, too, you know!"
+
+"She has never been five minutes alone with a man in her life!"
+cried Hawke. "You are safe--dead sure safe!" Blunt's roving black
+eyes rested on Hawke's eager face as he laughed.
+
+"And you want to marry her, to keep others from her, or run her
+off at the worst, you say? That's your little game."
+
+"I will have either the girl, or those jewels! By God! I will! I've
+got money to work with, plenty of it--not here," cautiously said
+Hawke, "but there's your hundred and fifty. Do you stand in?"
+
+"To the death--if you do the handsome thing, my boy!" said the
+handsome ruffian, pocketing the notes. "When do I start?"
+
+"Take the midnight train to Southampton, and go at work at once. I
+fear they may send some damned spies over there! Now, what's your
+plan?" Major Hawke watched his old pal in a brown study.
+
+Jack Blunt had smoked half his cigar, when he brought his white hand
+down with a whack. "I have it! A combination of gentleman artist
+and literary gent! 'The Mansion Homes of Jersey,' to illustrate a
+volume for the use of tourists--London and Southwestern Railway's
+enterprise. I'll sneak in and do the grand. You want a correct
+sketch and map of house and grounds, and the whole lay out?" Artist
+Blunt was delightfully interested in his Jersey tour now.
+
+"Yes!" cried Alan Hawke, his eyes growing wolfish, and he leaned
+over to his companion and whispered for a few moments. "That's the
+trick, Governor," nodded Jack Blunt, "You work on the double event.
+And--I get my money--play or pay?"
+
+"Yes. Put up in good notes--only you are not to bungle!"
+
+"Do you think I would fool around with a 'previous conviction'
+against me? The next is a lifer, and I've got to use the knife
+or a barker, if I run up against trouble, for I'll never wear the
+Queen's jewelry again! I've sworn it!" The man's eyes were gleaming
+now like burning coals, "I'll do the grand, and then, take off my
+beard and change my garb! I look twenty years older in a stubble
+chin. I can watch them from the public at Rozel Pier. I used to
+do a neat little bit of cognac, silk, and cigar smuggling. I know
+every crag of Corbiere Rocks, every shady joint in St. Heliers,
+every nook of St.  Aubin's Bay. Oh! I'm fly to the whole game!"
+
+"Could you not get a good boat's crew there?" anxiously demanded
+Major Hawke.
+
+"Ah! My boy! I am 'king high' with a set of daring fishermen, who
+can smell out every rock from Dover to Land's End; and, from Calais
+to Brest, in the blackest night of the channel, if it pays."
+
+"Then, Jack, your fortune is made, if you stand in. We'll pull
+it off, in one way or the other. You've got an easy job for a man
+of your ability. I'll meet you at Granville! Now, get over to St.
+Heliers, and work the whole trick in your own way! Send me your
+secret address in Jersey at once to Hotel Faucon, Lausanne, and run
+over to the French coast at Granville and find a safe nest there
+for us. There we are within seventeen miles of each other, with
+two mails a day, and the telegraph. It's a wonderful plant, so it
+is."
+
+"Yes, Governor! And old Etienne Garcia, at the 'Cor d'Abondance'
+in Granville, is the very slyest rogue in France. When you find a
+Crapaud who is dead to rights, he is always an out and outer. I'll
+square you with my old pal, Etienne, who slyly makes 'floaters'
+and then gets the government cash reward for towing them in. He has
+always a half dozen pretty girls hanging around there, and many a
+good looking stranger has ended his 'tour' by a sudden drop through
+the flow of the drinking room over the wharf where Etienne keeps
+his 'boats to let.'"
+
+"How does he do it?" mused Alan Hawke. "It's a risky game in France."
+
+Jack Blunt laughed.
+
+"A few puffs of smoke in a cognac glass, and the subject is knocked
+out for an hour after drinking from the nicotine-filmed crystal,
+bless you," laughed Blunt, "there's never a mark on Etienne's victims.
+He is too fine for that, only cases of plain, simple, 'accidental
+drowning.'
+
+"You may as well address me as 'Joseph Smith, Jersey Arms, Rozel
+Pier, Jersey.' I am solid with Mrs. Floyd, the landlady there,"
+said the scoundrel mobsman, anxious to spend some of his cash.
+
+"All right, then, Jack! Go ahead!" cheerfully cried Major Hawke.
+"Don't overgo my instructions a single hair! I'll either join you
+in the grand stroke, or else meet you at Granville and there tell
+you what to do. Remember that I'll settle all your Jersey bills,
+and I will send a post order for ten pounds extra to you at the
+'Jersey Arms,' to give you a local standing with the postman.
+
+"That you can spend on the underlings around the Banker's Folly,
+but beware of an old body servant named Simpson--an old red-coat
+who may turn up any day now from India! He was Johnstone's own man,
+and he hates me, at heart, I know! Now, if you can do the 'artist
+act,' you must find out where the old man keeps his stuff! I don't
+know yet whether we want him first or the girl; or to crack the
+whole crib!  If we ever do, then, Simpson must get the--" Hawke
+grimly smiled, as he drew his hand across his throat! "I must be
+off!" he hastily said as he noted the time.
+
+On his way over to Folkestone, Major Alan Hawke mused over his
+great coup, as he lay at ease, wrapped up in a traveling rug, and
+now resplendent in a fur-trimmed top coat, befrogged and laced,
+which indicated the officer en retraite.
+
+"I will first do up Holland, Belgium, and Denmark, and take a
+little preliminary look around Paris," mused the Major, studying
+a list of the missing jewels which Captain Anstruther had artfully
+arranged.  Sundry deductions and additions, with an admirable
+disorder in the items (judiciously divided and reclassified) served
+to guard against any old confidences exchanged between Ram Lal and
+his secret friend Hawke. The real list in the original was now in
+the private pocket-book of the Viceroy.
+
+"Each of our Consuls at the cities you are to visit has this list,"
+said Anstruther to the Major, "and you can vary your travel as you
+choose, but visit all these jewel marts, and report to the local
+Consuls. If they have further orders for you, you will get them
+there, at first hands. Should you find that any of the jewels have
+been offered for sale, simply report the facts to the local Consul,
+and write under seal to me at the Junior United Service, then go
+on and examine further at once! You are to take no steps whatever
+to recover them, or to alarm the thieves! All your expenses and
+your pay will be advanced by me!" The acute schemer decided not to
+risk any suspicions by marketing his own jewels. "They might bounce
+me for the murder," fearfully mused the Major. "I could show no
+honest title through Ram Lal. They might arrest him, and I need him
+to pay the protested drafts--later, when I go back on the Viceroy's
+staff!" He smiled and wove his webs like a spider in his den.
+
+On his arrival in Paris, from a run to the Low Countries, a week
+later, Major Alan Hawke betook himself at once to No. 9 Rue Berlioz.
+And there Marie Victor greeted him, handing him a letter which was
+dated from Jitomir, Volhynia. "How is your mistress?" he affably
+demanded.
+
+"She is well, and will remain for several months longer in Russia!"
+politely answered Marie, bowing him out.
+
+"By God, then, she has given up the chase! I see it all!" mused
+Hawke, as he pored over the letter on his way to the Hotel Binda.
+"The trump card she wished to play was to blast the old fellow's
+hopes of a baronetcy. Death has struck down her prey, and, she will
+now wait till the girl is free! She is too sly to face old Fraser;
+his brother has warned him. But she says she will need me in the
+winter, on her return."
+
+The deceived scoundrel laughed. "The coast is left clear for me
+now!  I'll telegraph to Joseph Smith, run on to Geneva, deposit my
+own jewels there, in the agency of the Credit Lyonnais, and then
+return the notifications of protest of the Bills of Exchange to
+Ram Lal.
+
+"I wonder if I can steal those jewels, get my Major's rank as a
+reward from the Viceroy, and marry the girl? It would be the luck
+of a life!" he dreamed.
+
+Two days later, on the terraces of Lausanne, he laughed over Jack
+Blunt's cheeky campaign.
+
+"The 'artist dodge' worked to a charm," wrote Jack. "I used the
+Kodak, and I have a dozen good views of the house, and as many more
+of the grounds. My chapter on the 'Artistic Homes of Jersey,' will
+be a full one! I soon jollied a couple of the London maid servants
+into my confidence. By the way, send me, at once, another 'tenner'
+for expense, and some money for my own regular bills. I can make
+great play on the two frolicsome maids. They are up for a lark. The
+shy bird keeps her rooms; and there really seems to be no young
+man around. Devilish strange! A room is being got ready for the old
+body servant who is now on his way from India. He might fall over
+Rozel cliff some night, when half seas over! That's a natural ending
+for him! Maps, sketches, and all will be ready for you at the place
+we agreed. It's all lying ready to our hand, and ten minutes of a
+dark night is all I want. The old chap is always mooning alone in
+his study, till the midnight hours, over his books, and he has the
+whole ground floor to himself. The men are in the gardener's house,
+ten rods away, and all the women sleep upstairs. He sees no one
+but a half crazy Yankee professor, who drops in of a morning. But,
+the shy bird keeps in her cage, and lives in great state, upstairs.
+More when you send the money."
+
+On his way to say adieu to Justine, before departing to Vienna, Alan
+Hawke smiled grimly. "I can strike now, when I will, and as I will!
+But, first to race around a little, and then, having fulfilled my
+mission, to get a couple of weeks' furlough, to go about my own
+affairs. The coast is clear. Jack Blunt's plan is right. Simpson
+must be first put out of the way. He would fight like a rat on
+general principles."
+
+At Rosebank Villa, Madame Alixe Delavigne was nightly busied now in
+official conferences with Major Harry Hardwicke, who had lingered
+in the concealment of Anstruther's home. The Captain found abundant
+time to prosecute his "official business" with his lovely aid in
+the secret service. And he had learned all of Alixe Delavigne's
+lessons now, save to acquire the patience to wait. But a growing
+album of newspaper clippings was daily augmented by Frank Hatton's
+artfully disseminated items regarding "Prince Djiddin of Thibet,"
+the first visitor of rank from that land of shadows. The warring
+journals who wrangled over the rich young visitor's "stern retirement"
+from all public intrusion referred to the political coup de main
+to be looked for in "the near future." From various parts of the
+United Kingdom, the mysterious princely visitor's trail was daily
+telegraphed, and a hearty laugh from all three of the conspirators
+of Rosebank Villa greeted the final article in the St. Heliers
+Messenger, stating that a learned Moonshee or Pundit, "the only
+Asiatic attendant of Prince Djiddin of Thibet" was arranging for
+a brief visit of a descendant of the Dalai-Lamas.
+
+Anstruther and Hardwicke laughed merrily at Frank Halton's last
+graceful touches. "A romantic gratitude to a retired British officer,
+who had once befriended the Prince's august father, was the one
+impelling cause of a visit, in which the strictest retirement would
+be guarded by the dweller on the Roof of the World," etc., etc. So
+read out Madame Delavigne, closing with the remark that the "Moonshee
+had already visited the Royal Victoria Hotel at St.  Heliers
+to arrange for the coming of his friend, and to the regret of the
+authorities, the Prince would decline all the hospitality due to
+his exalted rank."
+
+"Captain Murray must be even now at work," anxiously said the fair
+reader.
+
+"We will hear at once," said Anstruther. "Prince Djiddin, you must
+now materialize! For Murray's letter tells me that he is already
+in full communication with Jules Victor at the Hotel Bellevue. So
+the 'Moonshee' has one faithful friend near at hand. If there is
+any shadowing of either of you, Jules Victor is an invincible avant
+garde. He knows the faces of all the dramatis persona. You see,
+Douglas Fraser is gone to India and old Andrew has never seen any
+of our 'star actors.' We are absolutely safe!"
+
+"It seems that fortune favors us," tremblingly said Alixe Delavigne.
+"This prying and curious Yankee, Professor Hobbs, also seems to
+have fallen at once into the trap! Captain Murray's description
+of his 'interview,' at the Royal Victoria, with Alaric Hobbs, is
+a crystallized work of humorous art!"
+
+"Of course the Yankee savant will write columns to the Waukesha
+Clarion, describing this Asiatic lion, Prince Djiddin, and exploit
+him in the States as an 'original discovery' of his own. His
+eagerness to arrange an interview between the Prince and Professor
+Fraser is most ludicrously fortunate for us," said Captain Anstruther.
+
+The entrance of the butler with a telegram disturbed "Prince
+Djiddin" and his lovely confidential staff officer. "An answer,
+please, Captain," formally continued the household factotum.
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Hardwicke, when the little conclave gathered around
+the red light. "Simpson has arrived, and now Nadine and I have
+some one whom we can both trust!" The further information that the
+"Moonshee" would arrive forthwith to conduct "Prince Djiddin" to
+the safe haven where that fascinating bride, Mrs. Flossie Murray,
+awaited her beloved truant, was a call to prompt action. "I am
+ready! I shall drop the Royal Engineers and live up to my 'blue
+china' as a Prince!" cried Hardwicke.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE COUNCIL AT GRANVILLE.
+
+
+
+
+
+When Major Alan Hawke returned, three weeks later, to the Hotel
+Grand National, at Geneva, he was sorely wearied and dispirited.
+A round of inspection of all the principal jewel marts of the
+continent had been only a fruitless, solitary tourist promenade.
+And the ominous silence of Captain Anson Anstruther, A. D. C.,
+boded no good to the military future of the adventurer. "Damn me,
+if I don't think that I have been hoodwinked!" growled Major Hawke,
+on his re-turn from Moscow and St. Petersburg, whither he had been
+ordered, as a last resort, to see the Court jewelers.
+
+From Warsaw, he wrote to the Hotel Faucon, at Lausanne, to send
+all his letters to meet him at Berlin, where Jack Blunt had given
+him the address of the safest "fence" in all Kaiser Wilhelm's broad
+domain. He had his own jewels valued there in Russia, but dared
+not sell them.
+
+With a sudden inspiration, born of a growing fear for the stability
+of his house of cards, so flimsy in construction, he ran down to
+Jitomir, and the half-crazed adventurer only lingered an hour with
+the Intendant of Madame Alixe Delavigne's grand old domain. He
+found the bird flown. Had he been duped? A permission to view the
+old chateau was courteously accorded, and then Alan Hawke soon
+realized that he was betrayed. For the fact that Madame was still
+absent, "traveling around the world," and had not visited her
+Volhynian estate for a year, proved to him now that he had been
+doubly tricked. "Ah! By God! I have it!" he cried, as he set his
+teeth in a white rage. "That fool, Anstruther, is bewitched by her
+Polish wiles, the mongrel inheritance of La Grande Armee's visit
+to Russia!" Straight as the crow flies, Alan Hawke then pressed on
+to Lemberg, and hastened to Berlin, having sent on his last official
+report to Captain Anstruther, at London. In Berlin, a letter from
+Jack Blunt decided his whole career. There was news of moment,
+which set his hot blood boiling in his veins.
+
+"Simpson, the old body servant, has arrived from India," wrote the
+disguised ex-convict. "And he's mighty thick with your shy bird, too.
+There is some strange game going on here, which I can't make out.
+The cute Yankee professor is furious, for old Fraser has temporarily
+given him the 'dead cut.' The American is totally neglected, for the
+old idiot spends half his time, now, shut up in his study with a
+visiting nigger prince from India, and the yellow fellow's half-breed
+interpreter. I send you a dozen cuttings from the papers. The
+Prince, however, seems to be all O. K. He never even notices the
+shy bird. He probably buys his women at home. How could he, for
+he does not speak a single damned word of English. But I've caught
+sight of this Moonshee fellow trying to do the polite to the heiress.
+Old Simpson keenly watches the whole goings on, and I've tried to
+pull him on! No go! But he sneaks off himself, gets roaring full,
+down at Rozel Pier, with a little French peddler fellow, that he
+has picked up. And, I don't like this French chap's looks. Too fly,
+and far too free with his money. There's no one else who has, as
+yet, showed up here. Not a woman, no other human being but a London
+lawyer. And I'm told now the guardian and niece are soon going over
+to London to deposit all the papers that Simpson brought home and
+to do 'a turn' at Doctor's Commons. Now's your very time--the dark
+of the moon. Better cut your job and come over to me at Granville;
+and why can we not turn the place up-while they are away? To do that,
+we must do Simpson 'for fair,' and I now know his nightly trail.
+Send money, plenty of it, and come on. I am 'on the beachcomber's
+lay,' now, down at the Jersey Arms, Rozel Pier. Write or telegraph
+me a line, and I'll instantly meet you at Granville, at the Cor
+d'Abondance."
+
+A loving letter from Justine Delande inclosed a notice of a registered
+letter waiting at the Agence du Credit Lyonnais, Geneva.  It is
+marked "Tres Important," she wrote, and then added: "I have received
+a letter from Nadine, who says that her guardian is now half crazy
+with excitement over the finishing of his 'History of Thibet, and
+Memoir Upon the Lost Ten Tribes,' for he has an Indian visitor of
+princely rank, and he even proposes to take this Prince Djiddin
+and his 'Moonshee' into the house, so as to shut the world out from
+the wonderful disclosures of the only visitor of rank who ever left
+Thibet."
+
+Alan Hawke's brow was gloomy when he read the last letter, which
+was a brief note from Captain Anstruther, informing him that his
+final instructions would be forwarded "in a week." The ominous
+silence of "Madame Berthe Louison," the living lie of her pretended
+visit to Russia, the trick of the letters sent on from Jitomir to
+his Parisian address, now only confirmed his jealous rage.
+
+"They are living in a fool's paradise together, this dapper aide
+and the wily woman, hiding in England! One has betrayed me, and the
+other will now coldly abandon me! I'll soon raise a hornets' nest
+about their ears!" So, with a simple telegraphed word "coming,"
+dispatched to "Joseph Smith," he sped on to Geneva from his "Leipsic
+defeat" at Berlin, but only to meet a ghastly "Waterloo" at the
+Grand Hotel National. He had ordered the letters from the Hotel
+Faucon to be sent on there to Miss Justine, and when he had freed
+himself from her clasping arms he read a curt official note from
+the Viceroy's aid-de-camp which left him livid in a paroxysm of
+fury. On his way from the station he had only stopped long enough
+at the Agence du Credit Lyonnais to receive an official-looking
+document.  "My accounts, I presume," he had muttered, thrusting them
+in his pocket. But, when he had read Captain Anstruther's formal
+note, he tore open the letter of the great French Banking Company.
+The two letters curtly illustrated the old saw, that "it never
+rains, but it pours!" With a fluttering heart poor Justine Delande
+watched her undeclared lover's blackening face.
+
+"Hell and furies!" he cried, "the whole world is leagued against
+me.  I've got to go back to India now, Justine, and go alone. Luck
+is dead against me now." And the whitening face of the woman who
+hung on his every glance made the infuriated man even more reckless.
+"Damn them, I'll grind them all to powder!" he growled. For the
+tide was on the turn, and it was dead water again at Geneva, the
+tide fast receding, and the man who was "a devil for luck" was soon
+left on the rocks of a silent despair.
+
+Alan Hawke's eyes gleamed out with a murderous sheen as he scanned
+both letters carefully. "It is his work--the low dog--and he shall
+die. Wait till Jack Blunt and I get a hack at him," he mused,
+with a sudden conviction that he dared not now show himself at St.
+Heliers, nor openly approach the Banker's Folly. "I stand to lose
+all and win nothing. I must work in the dark. I cannot dare to
+brave this Anstruther. They would simply drive me from India. But,
+Simpson and Ram Lal shall pay! And, Berthe Louison--Ah! By God! I
+will strike her to the heart now! I see the way!"
+
+The official words of Captain Anstruther were few but crushing in
+there stern brevity. And Alan Hawke's heart sank as he read them over
+again. "By the orders of His Excellency, the Viceroy, I have the
+honor to inform you that he has withdrawn your temporary rank, and
+all powers heretofore delegated to you will cease on the receipt
+of this letter, which please acknowledge. On reporting to me in
+London in person, you will receive the payment of all your accounts
+with your back pay and transportation back to Calcutta, the place of
+your temporary appointment. All the Consuls in continental Europe
+have now been notified of the cessation of your powers, and you will
+therefore, in no way act in the future in regard to the confidential
+business once in your hands. The inquiry has been finally abandoned
+by the order of the Indian Government.
+
+"Please do report as soon as possible, and deliver over all papers
+and vouchers now remaining in your hands. With assurance of my
+consideration, Yours,
+
+"ANSON ANSTRUTHER, Captain and A. D. C."
+
+"Official,
+
+"Confidential."
+
+The letter of the Credit Lyonnais was even more menacing in its
+tone. The Direction G'entrale referred to a formal letter of the
+solicitors of the estate of Hugh Fraser Johnstone, deceased, totally
+repudiating the four unaccepted drafts of five thousand pounds
+sterling each, and legally notifying the Direction of an intended
+suit to recover from the payee and the in-dorser, the first draft
+for five thousand pounds paid before Executor Andrew Fraser had
+filed his objections with Messrs. Glyn, Carr & Glyn. "The arrival
+from India of the papers of the deceased, and the testimony of his
+body servant Simpson, as well as the Calcutta Banker and solicitors,
+proves that no such considerable withdrawals as twenty-five thousand
+pounds were ever contemplated by the deceased, who had sent the
+most minute business instructions to his agent and later executor."
+
+"I shall have to throw this all back on Ram Lal." mused Alan
+Hawke, who hastily bade Justine an adieu, until he could conjure
+up an explanation for the Geneva agents of the Credit Lyonnais.
+The closing words of the Paris Derection were semi-hostile. "Be
+pleased.  Monsieur, to call at once upon our Geneva branch and
+explain these imputations. We are forced to withhold your present
+deposits to cover any reclamation and legal expenses, and we
+therefore beg you to discontinue the drawing of any drafts upon us
+until the solicitors of Messrs. Glyn, Carr & Glyn and the Executor
+notify us of the settlement of this distressing imputation upon
+the regularity of our actions as your business agents."
+
+"That leaves me only the jewels, and about a thousand pounds ready
+cash on hand, and that is due from Anstruther," gloomily decided
+Alan Hawke, when he was safely locked in his rooms at the National.
+
+"Tricked by this double-faced devil Louison-Delavigne, thrown
+out of my future rank, held for the five thousand pounds already
+advanced, and, with eleven thousand embargoed in that Paris pawnbroker
+shop of a Credit Lyonnais, I've but one course left to me now."
+
+He took counsel of the brandy bottle, and then, ignoring all else,
+he sent off a careful letter to Joseph Smith. "I'll jolly poor
+Justine a bit, so as to leave one faithful friend to watch and get
+all my letters here. Jack can raise money on the jewels now for us
+both. I must tell these fellows of the French Bank here that I go
+to London to see my own lawyers. I'll go over, settle with Anstruther,
+and then just quietly disappear. The next blow shall come out of
+the blackness of night, and I'll strike them all at once!"
+
+In the evening, Major Alan Hawke drove with Justine Delande to the
+restaurant garden, where, long months before, he had first learned
+the daring hardihood of his fair employer--the acute woman who
+had fooled him at every turn. His heart was saddened with all the
+fresh hopes which had failed him. He had frankly told Euphrosyne
+Delande that a return journey to India, and a long and bitter
+struggle now lay between him and the rank and competence which he
+would need to make her loving sister his wife.
+
+Three hours later Justine Delande's arms clung desparingly around
+the handsome outcast, as he was leaving her to be escorted home
+by the adroit Francois, already in waiting without the restaurant
+with a closed carriage. The presage of sorrow weighed upon her
+loving heart.
+
+"Alan, My God, I can not let you go. You are the one brightness
+of my life. My heart of hearts. My very soul," sobbed the wretched
+woman. "I have fears for you. They will kill you in that far land,
+these powerful enemies. That mysterious devil woman who bends all
+to her will will ruin you." And then, really touched at heart,
+the desperate trickster drew off his finger a superb diamond, the
+nonpareil, the choicest stone of Ram Lal's unwilling tribute. "Wear
+this always, and think of me, Justine," he said. "You are the only
+woman who ever loved me, and, if I succeed, I swear you shall share
+my better fortunes--if not, then--" he crushed her to his breast
+and ran out of the room, before she could drag him back. "Go
+in, Francois, quickly to Miss Justine," cried Hawke, thrusting a
+hundred-franc note in the butler's open hand. The rattle of departing
+wheels was heard as Francois supported the half-fainting woman to
+her carriage.
+
+"Now for London," growled Major Hawke as the train dashed down the
+Rhone valley. "I've got a clear alibi here. All my letters sent
+to Justine will be forwarded to the Delhi Club. One day in London,
+then to Granville, and Jack Blunt. They will only get Justine's
+story if they shadow me, and if I can only hit it off right, at
+Calcutta.  Yes! there is the king luck of all. To give the whole
+thing away to the baffled Viceroy. Then denounce Ram Lal to him as
+the early confederate and later assassin of Hugh Fraser Johnstone!
+These jewels that I have 'innocently received' will connect old
+Ram Lal with Hugh Fraser's betrayed trust. I will hold the murder
+business back at first.
+
+"Ram Lal or his estate will be finally forced to cash my drafts. It
+is clear that Johnstone and Ram Lal have either divided or hidden
+the jewels. Yes! By God! I have it. If I can wring them out of the
+old professor, or find them, I will then hide them away and secretly
+report the whole affair to the Viceroy, in my chosen colors as a
+friend of the Crown, and they'll give me a huge reward; my permanent
+army rank will soon follow. So, if Justine only holds to my alibi,
+by God! I will marry her, for she would be a badge of respectability.
+I'll take no more chances after this--not another single chance!
+I've got money enough to satisfy Jack Blunt. He shall secretly sell
+the jewels for me--a small lot, here and there, a few at a time."
+
+"There is just one frightful risk to run," he muttered, as he
+reached out for his brandy flask. "Ram Lal might go in to save his
+twenty-five thousand pounds, for the Johnstone estate will never pay
+these disputed claims which I cannot prove in law. Good in honor,
+but bad in law! And if he should denounce me privately to the Viceroy,
+as the real murderer of Hugh Fraser? He is there on the ground. I
+did not denounce him. I did not produce the dagger. I dare not to
+explain why I concealed the crime. An accessory! He might seek to
+turn Queen's evidence, and even try to hang me. He is rich, sly,
+smart. By God! they may even now be shadowing me. Once on English
+soil, I am at Anstruther's mercy." He was still white-faced and
+unmanned as he took the Boulogne boat the next evening. "I must
+face Anstruther, get my money, and then telegraph to Justine my
+departure for India from London. I'll wire the poor woman from here
+now. A few loving words will cheer her. Her true heart is the only
+jewel I have that I have not stolen. Poor girl! she will miss me
+sorely!" And the handsome blackguard sighed over the ruin he had
+wrought--an honest woman's shattered peace of mind. It weighed
+heavily upon him now.
+
+For there came back to him now strange shadowy glimpses of his own
+stormy past! Dashing on, to face unknown dangers, the dauntless
+adventurer, with a softened heart, recalled the days when he could
+gaze, without a secret shudder, upon the battle-torn colors of the
+regiment from which he had been chased by that suddenly discovered
+sin, once so sweet!
+
+He "looked along life's columned years, to see its riven fane--just
+where it fell." And, sadly alone in life now, his heart gnawed with
+a growing remorse, he saw in the mirror of memory, once more, the
+bright faced boy who had "filled the cup, to toast his flag and
+land." Alan Hawke, in all the bright promise of his youth, the
+darling of women, the envy of men!
+
+Under the swiftly gliding current of his tortuous past, he plainly
+saw now the fanged reefs which had wrecked him! With a smothered
+groan, he recalled all that he had lost, and this bitter introspection
+brought up to him, among his deeds of passion, the one needless
+cruelty of his reckless life! "Poor Justine! There is such a
+thing as woman's love after all!" he sighed, for he knew that the
+steadfast woman had poured out the wine of her life all in vain.
+"She loves me!" he cried!
+
+Woman, born to be man's sport and plaything, is doomed to be the
+unconscious avenger of her sex in every tragedy of the heart! The
+treason of some callous lover is repaid with vengeance meted out to
+some defenseless man who comes all unguarded "into the arid desert
+of Phryne's life, where all is parched and hot." And, Alan Hawke,
+the innocent Lancelot, had suffered for some recreant's past crime!
+
+Among the visions of the burning Lotos Land, the bright phantasmagoria
+of his unstained youth, there came back now to Alan Hawke all the
+glories of his first Durbar, the unforgotten day when he had fallen
+under the spell of the woman whose fatal touch had withered the
+"very rose and expectancy" of his brilliant promise.  His mind
+strayed backward through all the misty years to that gorgeous
+scene of Oriental pomp. He closed his eyes and pictured again the
+brilliant pageant.
+
+The huge masses of serried troops, the lines of stately elephants,
+the castled background of the temples of Aurungzebe. The blare of
+trumpets smote once more upon his ear, and hordes of jewel-decked
+Asiatics swept along before the pompous military representatives
+of the Empress, who wears the Crown of the Seas.
+
+There was a quickening of "Love's extinguished embers" as he lived
+over again the moment, when "side by side, with England's pride,"
+he rode with his sword lowered in knightly salute before the clustered
+banners of the Imperial military throne. And the hour of his fate
+sounded when the eyes of a woman rested upon him in a mute appeal!
+Their glances told him all.
+
+For, then and there, the young officer had seen the wonderful
+beauty of the woman who had lured him on and then, in after days,
+sold his unstained soul to shame! A fair-faced Lilith, her glowing
+beauty enshrined in all the borrowed splendor of majesty, a woman
+of gleaming golden hair, a later, all too willing, Guenevere! The
+soft subtle invitation of her eyes of sapphire blue had called him
+to her side, in that unspoken pact which needs no words! He was
+her slave from the first moment! With a last pang of his quivering
+heart, Hawke recalled the sly skill of the faithless wife who had
+drawn the young officer into her net, for the passing amusement
+of her idle hours! Too late he knew all the artful craft of his
+being bidden to the Grand Ball, of the "veiled interest" which had
+"detailed him, for special duty," of the self-protecting maneuvers
+which had placed him on the staff of the faded valetudinarian
+general who had given his spotless name to the woman whose lava
+heart glowed under a snowy bosom. It was the wreck of a soul!
+
+And then, with a gasp, he recalled his mad fever to win every honor
+under her glowing eyes. The forgotten deeds of desperate valor--all
+useless now, and stained forever with the bar sinister of his treason.
+He shuddered at the unforgotten delights of the hour when they had
+met in her seraglio bower of shaded luxury, and "the fairest of
+Laocoons" had answered his passionate whisper, "Stoop down and seem
+to kiss me ere I die," with the faltered words: "Alan, you are all
+the world to me!"
+
+Fondly blind, he had drifted along in a Fool's Paradise, at
+her bidding, until the crash came! He never knew the military Sir
+Modred, who had betrayed the open secret, but his blood boiled
+when he recalled the cruel abandonment to the rage of a jealous
+and awakened spouse!
+
+All in vain had been his manly sacrifice to save the woman whom
+he had loved more than life. He had cast away every protection for
+himself. Duped and tricked, he had remained mute before the storm
+of abuse heaped on him by the General, and his papers sent in, at
+a momentary summons, had carried him in dishonor out of the band of
+laureled soldier knights, to dream no more "the dream that martial
+music weaves!" And the smiling woman Judas tricked him to the very
+last!
+
+How hollow her faith, how lying the mute pleading of her eyes,
+he knew now, for had he not paused at the door for one despairing
+glance of farewell, to hear her murmur to her placated lord: "After
+all your goodness to him, to dare to offer me insult! You have
+punished him rightly, but, he is a fascinating traitor, after all!"
+Deprived of his sword, shunned by his associates, and lingering
+near her in hopes of the last interview pledged him by her lying
+eyes, he had only been undeceived when he vainly tried to reach
+her carriage for a last farewell on a star-lit lonely drive.
+
+The cold cutting accent of her voice smote him as the edge of
+a sword. "Drive on, Johnson!" she sharply cried. "These vagabond
+people must face the General himself." Then came the insane
+self-sacrifice of his reckless downfall, but he had spared her to
+the very last.
+
+He bowed his head in his hands, and a storm of agony swept over
+him as he recalled the word "traitor," branded upon his brow as
+a badge of shame, and again he wandered along that devious path
+which had led him year by year downward. Too bitterly self-accusing
+to palliate his past, he only knew that in all the long years of
+social pariahhood he had learned to despise all men and to trust
+no woman!  For had not Friendship been a lie to him, Love only
+a hollow cheat, and woman's vows of deathless loyalty but writ in
+sand to be washed out by the next wave of passion?
+
+And yet, stained with crime, there was one breath of truth which
+swept over his soul as fresh as the voice of the "pines of Ramoth
+Hill!" His eyes were misty and his breath choked in a sorrowing gasp
+of manly remorse, as the winsome face of the true-hearted Justine
+rose up before him in this hour of lonely agony! Her devotion had
+touched the wayworn wanderer, and, pure and unselfish, her love
+had been the one bright star of all these darkened years!
+
+"By Jove! She is a royal soul! If I could only save her the shock
+of the awakening," he murmured. His heart beat generously in a thrill
+of pride recalling Justine's steadfast devotion to the motherless
+girl whom he had sought to entangle. "Far above rubies!" he cried,
+and the memory of the fond woman who was watching for him at Lausanne,
+swept over his stormy soul to bring unbidden tears to eyes which
+had never flinched before the red flash of the grim cannon.
+
+"There are still good women in the world!" he muttered, "and, God
+bless you, you have taught me this, Justine!" Drawing her picture
+from his bosom, he gazed fondly at the face of the gentle-hearted
+daughter of the Alps. A vain and passionate regret racked his
+bosom--the last struggle of his wavering soul! "Shall I turn back?"
+he doubtfully cried. And then in the rush of his onward course,
+a dull hopeless feeling came over him. "Kismet!" he cried. "It is
+too late now. If they had only trusted me! If they had told me all
+and given my fighting soul a chance to redeem the lost promise once
+written on my brow. I have played a man's part before! I might,
+perhaps, have won this girl's gratitude and earned Justine's love
+to be a shield and a buckler to me. But--" his head, overweaned
+with care, drooped down, and in the company of strange visions and
+and dreams of ominous import, the hunted soldier of fortune forgot
+alike the echoing voice of his better angel, and lost from view,
+the shadowy faces of both the woman who had lured him to a living
+death, and the tender-hearted one whose heart was glowing at
+Lausanne in all the fervor of her unrequited devotion. Over Alan
+Hawke, sleeping there, as he was swiftly borne away, hovered, in
+sad regret, his good angel, with sorrowing eyes, for the stern,
+self-accusing man had not sought, in the last hours of this sorrow,
+even the poor consolation that his life had been wrecked to feed
+the fires of vanity burning in the jaded heart of the beautiful
+Faustine, whose cold desertion had sold his youth to shame!
+
+Twenty-four hours later Major Alan Hawke was again a stormy petrel
+on Life's trackless ocean. The cold politeness of Captain Anson
+Anstruther at the brief interview at the Junior United Service Club
+in London at once decided the wanderer to make for India as soon
+as his "pressing engagements" would allow. There was no seeming
+menace, however, in Anstruther's wearied air of perfunctory courtesy.
+
+"The whole affair being officially dropped, Major Hawke," said
+Anstruther, "I only ask for your personal receipt for my individual
+check. You will observe that this eleven hundred pounds is not in
+any way government funds. And, on behalf of the Viceroy himself,
+I thank you for your energy shown in the inquiry, which is now
+permanently abandoned." To Major Hawke's murmured request, Anstruther
+replied:
+
+"Certainly! Drive around to Grindlay's in Parliament Street with
+me and they will at once give you notes or their own circular check
+for this money." In ten minutes, when Hawke had lightly announced
+his intention to return to India, the Captain observed: "I may
+not meet you for some years. If the Viceroy returns to England,
+my promotion will probably carry me with his Embassy to Paris as
+Major and Military Attache." And then they parted as mere casual
+acquaintances.
+
+"Damn his cool impertinence," mused Alan Hawke, as he caught a
+passing cab, after telegraphing his greetings and intended departure
+to Justine Delande.
+
+"Write one letter to Hotel Binda, Paris, then all to the P. & O.
+Agency, Brindisi; after that, to Delhi," were the lying words which
+reached the Swiss woman, whose loving breast was now given over to
+a tumult of sighs.
+
+Major Hawke was not free from secret apprehensions until he landed
+at Calais, upon the next morning. "Now for a last 'throw off' at
+Paris!" he exclaimed. "Damn England! I hope I shall never see it
+again!" he growled, unmindful of the pitiless Fates ever spinning
+the mysterious web of Destiny. "I'll first show up at Berthe
+Louison's, at No. 9 Rue Berlioz. They shall have my next address
+given to them as Delhi. The real Major Hawke dives under the troubled
+sea of Life at Paris, only to emerge at Calcutta! Ram Lal is like
+all his kind, a coward at heart! He has not denounced me, for, if
+he had, Captain Anstruther would have nabbed me in England.  He
+acts by the Viceroy's private cabled orders. No! The coast is all
+clear for my dash at the enemy's works!"
+
+Before the morning dawned on the sea-girt coast of La Manche, Marie
+Victor had duly telegraphed Major Hawke's impending departure for
+India to the beautiful recluse who now cheered the lonely bride of
+"the Moonshee," at the old Norman chateau, embowered in its splendid
+gardens, within a league of the Banker's Folly.
+
+Alan Hawke, closely shaven, and masquerading in a French commis-voyageur's
+modest garb, was seated at ease in Etienne Garcin's death-trap at
+the Cor d'Abundance, in foggy Granville. His darkened locks and
+nondescript garb thoroughly effaced the "officer and gentleman."
+One of the old French villain's wickedest and prettiest woman decoys
+was coquettishly serving Hawke's breakfast as he read the burning
+words of Justine Delande's message from the heart. The last greeting,
+tear-blotted, and promptly sent to the Hotel Binda.
+
+"It's a wild day, a wild-looking place, and a wild enough sea,"
+grumbled Major Hawke, gazing out of the grimy window at the rolling
+green surges breaking, white-capped, far out beyond the new pier,
+where the black cannon were drenched and crusted with the salty
+flying scud. Far away, a little side-wheel steamer was laboring
+along over the strait from the blue island of Jersey, rising and
+dipping half out of sight, with a trail of intermittent puffs of
+dense black smoke.
+
+"There is the enemy's stronghold, and now for Jack Blunt's plan
+of campaign! I wonder if he'll come over to-day, or to-morrow? He
+must have had my telegram last night!" Alan Hawke amused himself
+with the bold, black-eyed French girl's vicious stories of olden
+deeds done there in Etienne Garcin's gloomy spider's den. He even
+laughed when the red-bodiced she-devil laughingly pointed down at
+the loosened floor-planks in the back room, underneath which mantrap
+the swish of the throbbing waves could be heard.
+
+Then the sheeted, cold driving rain hid the promontory, with its
+heavy, lumpy-looking fort, the old gray granite parish church, and
+the clustered ships of the harbor, now dashing about and tugging
+wildly at their doubled moorings, soon to be left high and dry on
+the soft ooze when the thirty-foot tide receded. "There's where we
+find our best customers," laughed the French wanton, as Alan Hawke
+drew her to his knee, and they laughed merrily over the golden
+harvest of the sea, the price of the recovered dead. Through the
+narrow stone fanged streets lumbered along the heavy French hooded
+carts, driven by squatty men in oil skins and sou'westers, and
+laden down with the spoils of the whale, cod, and oyster fisheries.
+Stout women in huge blue aprons, with baskets on their rounded arms,
+gossiped at the protecting corners, while the shouts of Landlord
+Etienne Garcin's drunken band of sea wolves now began to ring out
+in the smoky salle a boire.
+
+It was two o'clock when the burly form of Etienne Garcin was propelled
+unceremoniously into Alan Hawke's room. A grin of satisfaction spread
+over the bullet-headed old ruffian's face, and his round gray pig
+eyes twinkled, as he noted the already established entente cordiale
+between Jack Blunt's pal and the wanton spy who was the absent
+Jack's own especial pet. But, Alan Hawke was temporarily blind to
+the universally offered charms of the soubrette as he read Joseph
+Smith's careful report.
+
+"That's the talk!" joyously cried Hawke. His heart bounded in a
+fierce thrill. "By God! Simpson shall be 'done up' in short order.
+The drunken old dog. He cut off the payment of my drafts with his
+blabbing tongue!
+
+"Yes, over the cliffs he goes, and we will make sure of
+him--forever--before he takes his last tumble! Jack! Jack! You are
+a hero!" he mused, as the triumphant words of Jack Blunt's great
+discovery were read again and again. And then, he carefully burned
+the letter, before the astonished eyes of the tempting companion of
+his waiting hours. "These fools of employers!" cheerfully muttered
+Alan Hawke. "They always think that 'Servant's Hall' has no eyes.
+That the maid in her cap and apron has not the same burning passions
+as idle Madame in her silks and laces. That the man has not his own
+easy-going vices just as alive and masterful as the base appetites
+of the swell master."
+
+While Alan Hawke thus exulted at Granville, there was gloom and
+jealousy in the heart of Prof. Alaric Hobbs, of Waukesha University,
+Wisconsin, U. S. A.
+
+A tall, lank, bespectacled "Westerner," nearly thirty-five years
+of age, the blue-eyed country boy had dragged himself up from the
+obscurity of a frontier American farm into the higher life. Uncouth,
+awkward, and yet resolute and untiring, he had justified his first
+instructor's prediction:
+
+"He has the head of a horse, and will make his mark!" Newspaper
+trainboy, chainman, assistant on Government frontier surveys, and
+frontier scout, he early saved his money so as to complete a sporadic
+university curriculum. A trip to Liberia, a dash down into Mexico,
+and a desert jaunt in Australia, had not satisfied his craving for
+adventure. With the results of two years of professional lectures,
+he was now imbibing continental experiences, and plotting a bicycle
+"scientific tour of the world." Hard-headed, fearless, devoted,
+and sincere, he was a mad theorist in all his mental processes,
+and had tried, proved, and rejected free love, anarchy, Christian
+science, and a dozen other feverish fads, which for a time jangled
+his mental bells out of tune. A cranky tracing of the lost Ten
+Tribes of Israel down to the genial scalpers of the American plains
+had thrown him across the renowned Professor Andrew Fraser, who
+had, on his part, located these same long mourned Hebrews in Thibet,
+ignoring the fact that they are really dispersed in the United
+States of America as "eaters of other men's hard-made 'honey'" in
+the "drygoods," clothing, and "shent per shent" line.  For, a glance
+at the signs on Broadway will prove to any one that the "lost" have
+been found in Gotham.
+
+Smoking his corncob pipe the Professor paced his rooms at the Royal
+Victoria, and mentally consigned Prince Djiddin and his indefatigable
+Moonshee to Eblis, the Inferno, Sheol, or some other ardent corner
+of Limbo. "How long will these two yellow fellows keep poor old
+Fraser enchanted?" mused the disgruntled American, mindful of his
+hotel bill running on. "The old man is crazy after the two Thibetans,
+and I can't see his game. He does not wish me to publish my own
+volume first. That is why he has given me the 'marble heart,' and
+taken them into his house. Their wing of the Banker's Folly is
+now an Eastern idolaters' temple. If I could only hook on to the
+'Moonshee,' I might make a 'scoop'--a clean scoop--on old Fraser.
+God! how my book would sell if I could only get it out first. And
+yet I dare not offend this old scholar, Andrew Fraser. He must be
+true to me. He has read to me all the original manuscript of his
+own half-finished work. He must trust to me, and he has promised
+to give me a resume of their disclosures also after they leave.
+The Thibetan Prince will only be here two weeks longer."
+
+"Then old Fraser will take me to his heart again." Alaric Hobbs
+reflected on his vain attempt to try the Tunguse, Chinook, Zuni,
+Apache, Sioux, and Esquimaux dialects on the handsome Prince Djiddin,
+whose Oriental magnificence was even now the despairing admiration
+of the two pretty housemaids.
+
+"My august master cannot speak to any one but the great scholar
+whom he came here to see. He soon returns to his retirement in his
+palace in the Karakorum Mountains. And he never will emerge thence!"
+solemnly said the Moonshee, adding in a whisper: "He may, by the
+grace of Buddha, be re-incarnated as the Dalai-Lama. He springs from
+the loins of kings. I dare not break in upon his awful silence."
+The Moonshee's significant gesture of drawing a hand across his
+own brown throat had silenced the pushing American professor.
+
+"By hokey!" he groaned, "it is hard to have to play second fiddle
+to this purblind old Scotchman." Alaric Hobbs had been a reporter
+upon that dainty sheet, The New York Whorl, in one of his "emergent"
+periods, and so he writhed in agony at being left at the post. "I
+must be content to tap old Fraser when he comes back from London
+with that embarrassing lump of beauty, his millionaire niece. She
+would make a fitting spouse for this Prince Djiddin, for she never
+speaks a word--at least to me. And this swell Prince, who comes 'only
+one in a box,' gets the same 'frozen hand.' Funny girl, that.  But
+I must yield to old Fraser's moods." Alaric Hobbs then descended to
+the tap-room and instructed the pretty barmaid in the manufacture
+of his own favorite "cocktail," an American drink of surpassing
+fierceness and "innate power," which had once caused "Bald-headed
+Wolf," a Kiowa chieftain, to slay his favorite squaw, scalp a
+peace commissioner, and chase a fat army paymaster till he died of
+fright in his ambulance, after Alaric Hobbes had incautiously left
+a bottle of this "red-eye" mixture with his aboriginal host on one
+of the "exploring tours." A powerful disturbing agent, the American
+cocktail!
+
+But for all Miss Nadine Johnstone's seeming aversion to men, and in
+spite of Prince Djiddin's inability to utter a word of any jargon
+save ninety-five degree Thibetan, "far above proof," on this very
+morning while the "Moonshee" was transcribing under the watchful
+eyes of the excited Andrew Fraser the disclosures of the evening
+before, the young millionairess was "getting on" very well in
+exhibiting the glories of the tropical garden to the august tourist
+from the lacustrine Himalayas.
+
+Jules Victor adroitly busied the maid whom Janet Fairbarn had dispatched
+to "play propriety," and the other London girl had quietly stolen
+away to her own last rendezvous with her mysterious London lover,
+"Mr. Joseph Smith," otherwise "Jack Blunt, Esq., of the Swell Mob
+of the Thames."
+
+The whispers of the stately young Prince brought crimson blushes to
+the face of the glowing girl, whose answering murmurs were as low
+as the siren voice of Swinburne's "small serpents, with soft, stretching
+throats." They had a double secret to keep now. A momentous, a
+dangerous one; for in the depths of the Tropical Gardens of Rozel,
+the passionate hearted Alixe Delavigne was hidden, waiting this very
+morning to clasp again the beautiful orphan to a bosom throbbing in
+wildest love. Prince Djiddin, always on his guard, artfully turned
+back and busied the maid, when she was released from Jules Victor's
+vociferous bar-gaining, with a half-hour's choosing her "fairing,"
+out of the lively peddler's pretty stock. The woman's vanity made
+her an easy victim. The "descendant of Thibetan Kings" could not,
+of course, speak intelligibly, but the yellow sovereigns which he
+carried were the magic talisman which opened at once the pretty
+maid servant's softened heart.
+
+It was a long half hour before the happy Nadine Johnstone returned
+to join the kinsman of the Maharajah of Cashmere. Her eyes were
+gleaming in a tender, dawning lovelight, her lips still thrilling
+with Alixe Delavigne's warm kisses. In her heart, there still rang
+out her mysterious visitor's last words: "Wait, darling! My own
+darling! Before another month the secret Government agent will have
+officially visited Andrew Fraser. We are all ready to act with
+crushing power when the happy moment safely arrives. And you shall
+then hear all the story of the past on my breast. You shall know
+how near you have been to my loving heart in all these weary years.
+The story of your own dear mother's life shall be my wedding present
+to you. Yet, a few days more of watchful patience," softly sighed
+Alixe.
+
+"For we must not let Andrew Fraser wake for a moment from his frenzy
+of Thibetan study until we can force from him the permission which
+we will demand to visit you, and to free you from his control."
+
+Prince Djiddin paced solemnly back toward the Banker's Folly, leaving
+the overjoyed maid to bundle up all her many gifts. A grateful wink
+to Jules Victor from the Prince rewarded the disguised valet, as
+he gayly sped away to meet his mistress, and to obtain her orders
+for the next day. This artful game of mingled Literature and Love
+had so far been safely played, but Jules Victor had secretly warned
+Nadine Johnstone against any confidences with her pretty London
+sewing woman. "She has found a sweetheart here. He is a curious
+looking fellow, he has money and is liberal, and, so, what you
+tell her she will surely tell her sweetheart. Trust to no one but
+the other maid, who is devoted to me," proudly said the dapper
+little Frenchman. Nearing the mansion, on this eventful morning,
+Prince Djiddin, at a hidden bend of a leafy path, whispered to his
+fair conductress, "For God's sake, darling Nadine, do not betray
+yourself! Those sweetly shining eyes are tell-tale stars! Your
+heart happiness will struggle for expression. Go to your rooms at
+once.  Pour out your happy heart in song, lift up your voice. But,
+watch over your very heart-throbs! Only a single fortnight more,
+darling, and we will clip the claws of this old Scottish lion who
+has you in his clutches!
+
+"Anstruther will soon make his coup de main, for Hawke has at last
+gone back to India, and we will have a deadly grasp soon on the
+frightened Andrew Fraser. He must either give up his legal tyranny
+and yield you to us, or else face a future which would appall
+even a braver man. I dare not to tell you our secret yet. Only the
+Viceroy and Anstruther know it. And, now, darling, above all, be
+sure not to betray yourself, in London. Remember that Anstruther
+will have you secretly watched, from this gate to the very moment
+when you return to it! Any false play of old Fraser would lead to
+his detention by the authorities, and you would be freed at once
+by the law!"
+
+In the three weeks of their long masquerade, neither Prince Djiddin,
+his scribe and interpreter, or else the two, as studious visitors,
+never left Andrew Fraser alone a single moment! The old scholar
+was thrilled at heart with Eric Murray's solemn rehearsing of Frank
+Halton's valuable notebooks and ingenious theories. He eagerly
+enforced Prince Djiddin's request that no curious strangers shoud
+be allowed to force themselves on him, no matter of what lofty rank.
+Prince Djiddin was wrapped in the veil of a solemn personal seclusion.
+
+And to this end Simpson, now the butler of the "Banker's Folly,"
+was especially assigned to wait upon the austere "Prince Djiddin" as
+his "body servant." Only one visit of state was exchanged between
+"Prince Djiddin" and General Wragge, Her Majesty's Commander
+of the Channel Islands. The "Moonshee," with a sober dignity, had
+interpreted for the British Commander of the Manche, and in due
+state, a return visite de ceremonie to General Wagge's mansion and
+headquarters strangely found Captain Anson Anstruther, A.D.C. of
+the Viceroy of India, a pilgrim to St. Heliers, to arrange secretly
+for "Prince Djiddin's" safe conduct and return to Thibet. The
+curious society crowd and St. Heliers's beautiful women envied
+Captain Anstruther his three hours conference with the "Asiatic
+lion."
+
+By day, in the vaulted library, Andrew Fraser pored over the weird
+stories of Runjeet Singh, of Aurung zebe, of King Dharma, and the
+Cashmerian priest who came with Buddha's first message to Thibet!
+The story of the marvelous royal babe found floating in the
+Ganges, in a copper box, a century before Christ, the tales of the
+"Konchogsum," the "Buddha jewel," the "doctrine jewel," and the
+"priesthood jewel" fed the burning fever of old Fraser's senile
+mind. He now felt that he lived but only in the past. At night,
+he labored alone till the wee sma' hours, depositing his precious
+manuscript in a secret hiding-place, where he now scarcely glanced
+at the "insured packet," which had been such a dangerous legacy
+of his dead brother. He had forgotten all his daily life and even
+his fears for the future in the fierce exultation of concealing
+his strangely gotten Thibetan lore from his rival, Alaric Hobbs.
+
+"A remarkable mind," growled old Fraser, "but a Yankee--and so
+untrustworthy." At last, unwillingly, with a quaking heart, lest
+Prince Djiddin should decamp in his absence, he obeyed an imperative
+legal summons and proceeded to London with Nadine Johnstone, leaving
+his house under the charge of that sphinx-eyed Scottish spinster,
+Janet Fairbarn.
+
+To the "Moonshee," and to the rubicund veteran Simpson, the
+departing Andrew Fraser said solemnly, "The Prince is to be the
+master here until my return." With a joyous heart the London sewing
+girl embarked as Miss Johnstone's one personal attendant, forgetful
+of her devoted lover, Joseph Smith, who had temporarily disappeared,
+gone over to France "on business." For she was herself going back
+to the dear delights of her beloved London, and her liberal lover
+had already given her his address at the Cor d'Abondance.
+
+"You must telegraph to me, Mattie, where you are staying, and when
+you leave London to return. I may run over to Southampton and come
+back on the same boat with you. Write to me, my own girl, every
+day, and here's a five-pound note to buy your stamps with." On his
+sacred promise of honor to write to her himself every day, and to
+let no black Gallic eyes eclipse her "orbs of English blue," Mattie
+Jones allowed her lover an extra liberal allowance of good-bye
+kisses.
+
+While Professor Andrew Fraser, Miss Nadine Johnstone, and the
+lovelorn Mattie Jones, were escorted to London by a head clerk of
+the estate's solicitors, Prince Djiddin and the "Moonshee" unbent
+their brows and rested from the nervous strain of the three weeks
+of continued deception.
+
+While the happy "Moonshee" escaped to his own fair bride, Prince
+Djiddin, under Simpson's guidance, examined minutely the superb
+modern castle, and even microscopically examined all the beautiful
+surroundings of Rozel Head. "It may come in handy some day," mused
+Major Hardwicke, "especially if we have to aid Nadine Johnstone to
+escape." The pseudo-Prince was glad to often steal out alone to
+the headland overlooking Rozel Pier, and there watch the French
+luggers beating to seaward sailing like fierce cormorants along
+the wild coast of St. Malo. He was glad to fill his lungs with the
+fresh, crisp, salt air, and to commune in safety at length with
+the faithful Simpson.
+
+Securely hid in an angle of the cliff, they talked over all the
+mystery of Hugh Fraser's bloody "taking off," and of the dreary
+three years of Death in Life left before Nadine.
+
+"As for the old master, he was an out and out hard 'un," stolidly
+said Simpson. "Who killed him, nobody knows and nobody cares. I've
+always suspicioned that there Ram Lal and yer fancy friend, this
+Major Alan Hawke."
+
+Hardwicke started in a sudden alarm. "Why so?" he demanded.
+
+"I believe that they tried to blackmail him about some of his old
+Eurasian love affairs, or else some official secret they had spied
+out. You see the niggers in the marble house were all Ram Lal's
+friends, and any one of them could have left the murderers alone
+to do their work and then let 'em out of the house. I believe that
+Hawke did the job, and Ram Lal got away with some of the missing
+crown jewels. I'll tell you, Major Harry, General Willoughby and
+the magistrates had me under fire there for many a day."
+
+"See here, Simpson," said Major Hardwicke, "a man who would murder
+the father, would rob the daughter! I'll give you a thousand pounds
+if you instantly notify me, if Hawke ever is found creeping around
+here. There may be some ugly old family secrets, you know."
+
+"I'm your man! Pay or no pay!" cried Simpson. "Only they think of
+giving me a three months' leave on pay to visit my people."
+
+"Don't go! Don't go! till I tell you!" cried the Major.
+
+"I am glad this fellow Hawke, whom you say has been dropped, is
+now on his way back to India," said Simpson.
+
+"Yes, but he might show up here devilish strangely," mused
+Hardwicke. "He is just the fellow for a dirty fluke. Watch over
+Nadine, Simpson," cried Hardwicke, "for I've sworn to make her my
+wife, within three months, uncle or no uncle!"
+
+"I will," growled Simpson. "I've an old grudge to settle with the
+Major, and I'll tell you some day," said the veteran. "Let us go
+in.  There are some curious people here. I'll tell you all when
+I'm your own man, and the young mistress is Mrs. Major Hardwicke!"
+
+On this very evening, as the gray mists hid the Jersey outline
+from the windows of Etienne Garcin's den, Jack Blunt and Major Alan
+Hawke were seated in the Major's bedroom in the cabaret. They were
+cheerfully discussing two steaming "grogs," but there was doubt and
+a shifty lack of thorough confidence between the two scoundrels as
+yet.
+
+"So you think the boat will do?" flatly demanded Jack Blunt, offering
+some exceptional cigars.
+
+"Just the thing," carefully replied the Major. "And your terms for
+a two weeks charter?"
+
+"Twenty-five hundred francs for the boat and outfit--the same sum
+for the gang, cash down. Two weeks, with the privilege of renewal
+for two more-at the same rate," doggedly said Blunt. "Now, you've
+got to make up your mind soon, Hawke," said Jack Blunt roughly.
+"I've told you the whole lay, and so far, have given you the worth of
+your money. If you can't 'come up,' then I'm going to run a lugger
+load of brandy and 'baccy over to the Irish coast. She's a sixty
+tonner and by God! fit to cross the Atlantic! Old Garcin, too, is
+getting impatient. Our being here, stops his 'regular business,'"
+gloomily said Blunt,
+
+Hawke's impassive face angered Jack Blunt as he continued: "And
+you say that I can trust Garcin's brother Andre down at Isle Dial."
+
+"Yes. Even if we had to stow one or both of these fools away down
+there."
+
+"I am sure that Angelique and I could hide them away for a year or
+else safely forever there," cried Jack Blunt, in a hoarse whisper.
+"It's only a matter of money and damme if I believe you've got any!
+If you fool us, you'll never get out of here alive!" Major Hawke
+only smiled, and dropped his hands lightly on the butts of two heavy
+bull-dog revolvers ready there in his velveteen trousers' pockets.
+
+"Jack! Don't be an ass!" he said. "I play this game to win. Do you
+think that I would bring my ready money into this murder pen? Now,
+tell me what you will take in cash, to tell me where the old miser
+has hidden the stuff I want? And how much will you take to do the
+job? I want to know when they return, and I want your help and the
+aid of the gang. You are to crack the crib--alone--while they are
+away, and then we, perhaps, may meet them, on their way home. The
+lugger lying off in that cove to the north of Rozel Head, below
+the old martello tower."
+
+"Have you been over there?" amazedly cried Blunt.
+
+"Oh! I know every inch of the place of old," laughed Hawke, still
+with his hands on his revolvers.
+
+"Well, Major," said Jack, pouring out a cognac, "I'll take, first,
+five hundred pounds cash for the information. Another five hundred
+for the job, with a quarter of what we get. And this second sum
+you can put up with Etienne Garcin. You can pay him now the two
+hundred for the men and the boat, out of that, and give me the
+rest of the odd change later. We'll never lose sight of each other
+after we start. For the Hirondelle will not leave me in the lurch.
+I've sworn never to wear the widow's jewelry again." Jack Blunt's
+eyes were devilish in their glare.
+
+"So, it's five hundred pounds down now, and I can order the expedition
+on, after the payment. You'll give me on the instant all the news
+from Mattie Jones of the intended return, for I propose to have
+some fun with the Professor."
+
+"Honor bright," said Jack forcibly. "For we will all hang or 'go
+to quod' together, if there's a break once that we begin. We had
+better start when I get her next letter, for Mattie is to write me
+to the Jersey Arms and then telegraph there, too, from Southampton.
+I'll have one of the crew pipe them off from the pier home to the
+Tolly, and a half dozen of the boys will be in hiding, ready for
+work. So you can work your scheme as you will."
+
+"It's a go, then. Come on, now, and get your money," said Hawke,
+as he led the way to the nearest fiacre. In ten minutes, Alan Hawke
+disappeared into the railway waiting-room, and returned after a
+visit to the luggage store-room. Jack Blunt was astonished at his
+pal's evident distrust. "Here you are, Jack," the Major cordially
+cried, as they sought the rear room of the neat cafe opposite the
+gare. "Now, count over your five hundred pounds. I'll give Garcin
+the other sum in your presence. Then, I suppose that I am safe," he
+coldly smiled. "Tell me now where has old Fraser hidden the stuff."
+
+"In his study on the first floor, in a secret hiding place. The
+girl Mattie has watched the old fellow through the keyhole. I know
+just where to easily break in on the ground floor. These damned
+Hindus are far away in the other wing, so there's only Simpson to
+hinder.  Now, I'll have a couple of the boys pipe him off at the
+Jersey Arms.  Old Janet Fairbarn's strait-laced ways make him sneak
+out late at night for his toddy. When he is 'well loaded' and tired
+with climbing up the cliff, they will follow him and fix him, for
+good.  One of the boys will come along with me, to my hiding place,
+and be 'outside fence' while the two others will watch the road
+and the gardener's quarters. The three men are two hundred yards
+away, in the porter's lodge. The old Scotch woman sleeps like a
+post. Then I make my way when I've done, at once to the Hirondelle,
+alone and hide my plant. The men relieved can rally on your party
+at the old martello tower, and so we will be ready to sail when
+your part of the job is done. Two on board, three with me, nine
+with you, will be plenty! My work is a quiet job! I can do the
+whole trick in five minutes! Yours, I leave for yourself. I know
+just where to lay my hand."
+
+"But, should any trouble occur?" said Alan Ha wke, "any outcry,
+any pursuit?"
+
+"Then I will bury the stuff on the shore, saunter back openly to
+the Jersey Arms, and just stay there as friend Joseph Smith, till
+I can get over to Granville by the steamer. The Hirondelle will
+not be seen by any one; there are fifty luggers always hovering
+around. She will first land us all in Bouley Bay in the morning, or
+drop half the men off at St. Catherine's Bay in the early afternoon.
+They all know every inch of the ground." In half an hour the chums
+in villainy dined gayly with "Angelique," and a running mate,
+rejoicing in the cognomen of "Petite Diable Jaune." The next day,
+a secret meeting with a confidential Jewish money-lender, enabled
+Major Alan Hawke to safely market the half of the jewels which he
+had extorted from Ram Lal Singh. In a waist belt, he wore a thousand
+pounds of Banque of France notes neatly concealed. Jack Blunt and
+Garcia had earned an extra bonus of a hundred pounds each in the
+jewel sale, and Alan Hawke laughed, as he laid away four thousand
+pounds in his safely deposited luggage, in the railway office. "I
+can trust to the French Republic--one and indivisible," he said,
+as he sent a loving letter to Justine Delande, and then mailed her
+the receipt for his valuable package, with his last wishes, "in
+case of accident." "These fellows might kill me for this, if they
+knew of it!" he growled.
+
+Three days later, the stanch Hirondelle was beating up and down
+Granville Bay, while Alan Hawke awaited the letter of the faithful
+Mattie Jones. He had furnished the twenty-pound note which made
+that natty damsel doubly anxious to meet her faithful lover "Joseph
+Smith," to whom she now dispatched the news of the immediate
+return of the anxious Professor. Fraser was burning to take up the
+gathering of Thibetan pearls of hidden knowledge, while the artful
+and restless Professor Alaric Hobbs was stealthily waiting Prince
+Djiddin's departure, but kept busied with some personal tidal and
+magnetic observations on Rozel Head. In the deserted second floor
+of an old martello tower, he had made a lair for his evening star
+and planetory researches, and the ingenious Yankee concealed a
+rope ladder in the clinging ivy which enabled him to cut off all
+intrusion on his eyrie.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE FRENCH FISHER BOAT, "HIRONDELLE."
+
+
+
+
+
+It was four o'clock of a wild November afternoon when Major Alan
+Hawke, cowering in a hooded Irish frieze ulster, crawled deeper
+into a cave-like recess in the little path leading from the Jersey
+Arms up to Rozel Head. The blinding rain was thrown in wild gusts
+by the howling winds, now lashing the green channel to a roughened
+foam. A sudden and terrific storm was coming on.
+
+Half an hour before the disguised adventurer could see the ominous
+double storm signals flying in warning on the scattered coast guard
+stations, a signal of danger sent on from the Corbieres Lighthouse.
+But now not a single sail was to be seen, and huge banks of heavy
+blackening mists were rolling over the stormy channel. Not a stray
+sail was in sight!
+
+"Where in hell is Jack?" raged the excited conspirator, swallowing
+half the contents of his brandy flask. As he returned it, the butts
+of his two revolvers and the handle of a huge couteau de chasse
+were plainly visible. "The fiends seem to be let loose to-day," he
+growled. "It would be the night of all nights! Ha!" The discharged
+officer noted two men in sou'westers and oilskins now toiling up
+the path. And his heart leaped up in a wild joy.
+
+In another moment, he half dragged his drenched companions into the
+weather-worn cave. "What news?" he hoarsely demanded of Blunt, as
+he extended his flask.
+
+"The best of all news," cheerily replied the mobs-man. "Here is
+Antoine. He raced down from St. Heliers, in a covered fly, and has
+brought the very latest news from Fort Regent. The Stella has lost
+the tide, cannot enter, and has, therefore, turned south, running
+down the channel. She can not dare to enter St. Heliers now till
+between ten and eleven to-night. Of course, she will not put back
+to Southampton, in the teeth of this southwest gale, the very
+heaviest known for twenty years. She has signaled the 'Corbieres,'
+and they have telegraphed over to the office at the pier. There's
+Mattie Jones's telegram. The three we want are on board, sure enough.
+And, thank God! the Hirondelle is riding safe and easy around the
+point.  It's the one night of a million for my job and for yours."
+
+"What's your final plan? We must get out of here soon," growled
+Hawke, shaking off the pouring rain like a burly water dog. "I
+have my two men already watching the little gardener's hut in the
+Tropical Gardens, where I hid my cracksman's outfit. Old Simpson
+is boozing away down at the Jersey Arms. I heard him tell pretty
+Ann, the barmaid, that he would have to be home by midnight, for
+the 'old man' would surely arrive in the morning. Now, will you
+stay here with this man, and 'do up' old Simpson? Mind you, there
+must be no stab or bullet wound. The 'life preserver,' and, then
+over with him!  They will only think that rum and the fall did the
+business.
+
+"I will make straight for the Hirondelle when I am done, and send
+a man to report to you at the old martello tower, where your gang
+are to meet you. This man can get over to the boat now and warn
+them to show up, carefully, one by one, and hide around there till
+dark. Not in the tower itself, for some of the coast-guard roundsmen
+might take shelter there and pitch into them for smugglers. I'll
+stay here till he comes back. If old Simpson should come along
+too early, why, you and I could hide him away here till it is dark
+enough to throw him over. And you'll surely catch old Fraser and
+the two women on the road between eleven and two. It will take over
+an hour to drive from the pier in this weather.
+
+"All right!" sternly said Hawke. "Send your man right away. I will
+tell them what to do later, when I meet them. Let him send the
+boatswain and two men to meet us here, and wait and hide with the
+others around the tower. I will hunt in the bushes till I run on
+them. Stay! He can come back here to me with the three!"
+
+It was already dark when the four men returned to where Alan Hawke
+lay perdu with his murderous mate. Not a light was now to be seen
+but the one glimmer below in the "Public," on the Rozel pier. And
+the very last words had been spoken between "Gentleman Jack Blunt"
+and his crafty employer. "Now, remember," said Jack, "Antoine here
+goes down with orders to come up the cliff ahead of old Simpson.
+You'll surely be warned of his approach. You can give the boatswain
+his orders; there'll be three to one. Your man leads you to your men
+at the tower. And I am to crack that crib and make for the Hirondelle!
+
+"If chased, the boat runs out to sea, and you are both only honest,
+French fishermen storm-driven ashore in search of supplies!"
+
+"That's it, Jack! You are to wait for me, if the house is not
+alarmed. I'll bring some 'passengers,' perhaps, on board. If I fail,
+you are just to run for Granville. We will all meet at Etienne's.
+I've got money to take care of all my men. You are to make no
+miss.  I can wait and try again if I am disappointed. I'll take no
+chances.  With your success, I can hold the old miser down, and
+your two thousand pounds is safe; besides, the swag is your security.
+You see, he will never dare to make any public outcry, for he
+secretly fears the Government! We take only the safest chances. He
+may stay down there all night at St. Heliers, and your lucky chance
+will never come again. Go ahead, and do not fail!"
+
+The two men grasped hands in an excited clinch. "Do up Simpson for
+a dead man, and no mistake!" hoarsely whispered Jack Blunt.
+
+"I'll fix the old blanc-bec," growled the boatswain, as the spy
+slid down the hill toward Rozel Pier.
+
+"Take my flask, Jack!" said Alan Hawke.
+
+"I don't drink on duty!" simply replied Blunt. "I shall get at work
+by eleven, and you'll hear from me by midnight! Then, look out only
+for yourself! The boat is mine, if there's any alarm. I'll send
+her back soon to Rozel Pier, if I have to run out to sea, and you
+are to be only honest fishermen. How long shall I wait in the cove
+for you?"
+
+"Sail at three o'clock, if I'm not on board! Remember the hail,
+'Saint Malo, Ahoy!'"
+
+"This is dead square, for life and death!" cried Blunt.
+
+"Dead square," echoed the renegade officer. Darkness now doubled
+its black folds, and the roar of the surf boomed sullenly upon the
+rocky Rozel beach. Crouching in their cave, the two French thugs
+eagerly watched the winding path below, and gathered a resentful
+vulpine ferocity in their hearts. With knife in one hand, and the
+heavy lead-weighted blackjacks in readiness, they cowered upon the
+path, waiting for the old soldier, whose thickened eyes were still
+sullenly gazing at the dingy clock in the Jersey Arms. He hated to
+leave the pretty, white-armed Ann.
+
+Ten o'clock! The red-coated soldiery of Fort Regent and Elizabeth
+Castle, the guardians of Mont Orgueil, were all wrapped in slumber,
+save the poor, shivering sentinels. Ten o'clock! The drenched tide
+waiters at St. Heliers pier anathematized the still distant Stella,
+whose lights now blinked feebly, laboring far out at sea. "An hour
+yet to wait!" growled the bedraggled customs officers. Ten o'clock!
+The good burghers of St. Heliers had given up their whist, and
+taken their last drop of "hot and hot." In St. Aubin's Bay, from
+Corbin's Light, from mansion in town, and cot among the Druidical
+rocks, anxious eyes now gazed out on the wild sea, where Andrew
+Fraser tried to calm the terrified Nadine Johnstone.
+
+Mattie Jones was lying senseless, a helpless mass of cowering
+humanity, while the anxious captain and pilot vigorously swore,
+as became hardy British seamen. The "Chief" had piped up "that the
+engines would be out of her," if they shipped another sea like the
+last. Prayer in the cabin, curses on the deck, fear in the hold,
+and misery everywhere; the stout Stella struggled shoreward, toward
+her dangerous landing at the pier, whose sheer sixty feet of masonry
+wall was now lashed by the wild waves. Black waters rose and fell
+in great surges. The shivering coastguards in the line of garrisoned
+martello towers, vowed that no such night had ever been seen since
+the "Great Storm."
+
+Prince Djiddin had also given up all hope of the return of the
+faithful Moonshee whose plea of "business," had led him away to the
+society of his brave and beautiful bride. There was but one more
+day of "home life" before resuming the hoodwinking of the mentally
+excited historian of Thibet. "It's a fearful night on the Channel,"
+thought Major Hardwicke as he waited in vain for Simpson's return
+to act as valet de chambre.
+
+"God help all at sea! It's a fearful night," Prince Djiddin murmured
+as he closed his eyes, little reckoning that the beautiful girl
+whom he loved more than life was tempest-tossed off the Corbieres,
+while poor Mattie Jones literally "sickened on the heaving wave."
+
+The great house was lone and still, and for the first time Prince
+Djiddin reflected upon the exposed situation of the old miser's
+home. "Poor old chap," he muttered, as he closed his eyes. "Somebody
+might come in and throttle him some night! No one would be here to
+stop it. I must speak to Simpson, yes, speak to Simpson--that is,
+if he is ever sober enough to listen. Poor old soldier! He will
+have his drink!"
+
+There was a singular improvised bivouac going on in the ruined martello
+tower where Professor Alaric Hobbs had set up his instruments to
+take some interesting observations upon an occultation of Venus.
+
+A coast-guard station at Bouley Bay and St. Catherine's Head
+rendered the further occupancy of the old martello tower at Rozel
+Head unnecessary, and only a few rats and bats now resented Alaric
+Hobbs' sequestration of the second story. He meditated a comparative
+memoir upon the "Tides of Fundy Bay, and the Channel Islands," with
+a treatise upon "Contracted Ocean Surface Currents." Astronomer,
+hydrog-rapher, geologist, and all-round savant, his lank form was
+already familiar to the Channel Islanders. And, like the wind, he
+veered around "where he listed."
+
+"Great Jupiter aid us!" cried the son of Minerva, "Venus is
+unpropitious to-night. All my trouble is vain." For when the black
+storm broke upon the little channel islet, Alaric Hobbs saw no way
+of a comfortable return to the Royal Victoria at St. Heliers. "I
+might leave all here and claim old Fraser's hospitality for a night.
+No one can get up to the second story," mused Hobbes, who now
+regretted having ordered the fly to come for him only at day-break.
+"Here is a wild night of inky darkness. The star occults only at
+three A.M. This hurricane ruins all. And old man Fraser may not
+have returned from London." So with a basket of luncheon, a roll
+of blankets, and a bottle of cocktails, the volunteer astronomer
+reluctantly sought the dryest corner of the second floor of the
+old tower for a night's camp. A square trapdoor hole whence the
+moldering ladder had fallen away, was in the middle of the old
+barrack room floor over the four embrasured gun room below. "I'll
+just draw up my ladder, have a pipe, and take a nap. It may clear
+off. If so the observation goes, and then the highest tide of the
+year, I can get the register in the morning."
+
+He had brought down his light instrument from the battlemented
+parapet for safety, and now, pulling up his rope ladder, he coiled
+it on the floor. "I can drop down below if I wish to if the rain
+should drive me out of here," he cried as he curled up like a
+sleeping coyote.
+
+Below him the heavy door of the tower swung on its massive hinges,
+banging and creaking mournfully when a swirling gust set it swinging.
+The man who had slept out on the Lolo trail and bivouacked alone
+in the canyon of the Colorado, laughed the howling storm to scorn.
+"Better than being out in a blizzard in the Bad Lands!" he gayly
+cried, as he dozed away, having finished a good meal and lowered
+the level of the "Lone Wolf" cocktails. From sheer frontier habit,
+he laid his heavy revolver near at hand, and his old-time hunting
+knife. "You see, you don't know what emergencies may arise," often
+sagely observed Alaric Hobbes. "Thrice is he armed that hath two
+six shooters and a knife!"
+
+When half-past ten rang out from the old French hall clock at the
+Banker's Folly, Janet Fairbarn, a gray ghastly figure, made her
+last timid rounds of the lower part of the mansion. Her maids were
+all snugly nested for the night. Simpson, the erring one, she
+believed to be in close attendance upon that foreign heathen, Prince
+Djiddin, in their second-story wing. Miss Nadine and her maid had
+locked their apartments on departure, the Professor's study was
+the only room open and vacant, and so with a last timid glance at
+the darkened halls and great salons of the main floor, the Scotch
+spinster retired to her rooms adjoining the Master's study and
+bedrooms on the ground floor.
+
+Minded to "read a chapter" and to "compose herself for the night,"
+the housekeeper sat late rocking alone in her rooms, while the
+hollow tick of the hall clock sounded doubly lonely in the cheerless
+night. The modern castle's walls were proof against the wildest
+rain and even the blows of a catapult, and so the dashing storm
+never even stirred the heavy leaded diamonded panes. "Thanks be to
+God, auld Andrew never ventured to cross on this raging sea! He'll
+no be here the morrow, neither. I must send down for telegrams in
+the morning," she mused when she had finally laid her spectacles
+across her Bible.
+
+It was nearing eleven o'clock when the two half-drowned thugs hiding
+on Rozel Head were roused by their returning mate stumbling wildly
+into the muddy cavern in the cliff. They sprang up as he muttered,
+"On vient, tout pres d'ici! Soyous tous prets!" A bottle extended
+was half drained by the two ruffians, who then eagerly loosened
+their black jaws with a mad desire to revenge their cheerless vigil.
+
+"Lei has," whispered the spy, pointing to a black object creeping
+unsteadily up the steep path--Simpson, dreaming still of pretty
+Ann's rounded white arms! It was indeed Simpson, with unsteady
+steps, breasting the hill. A fear of Andrew Fraser's arrival led
+the half-fuddled old veteran to hasten homeward now. "I can say the
+telegram was late," he chuckled. "They never will know." And then
+feeling for his pocket-flask, filled by handsome Ann, "as a last
+night-cap," he turned into the little cavern, where the school-boys,
+on a Saturday outing, often played "pirates," for his breath was
+gone and his eyes were drenched with salt scud.
+
+Then, a half smothered cry arose, as the three waiting thugs leaped
+upon their prey. Simpson was taken off his guard! His muscles
+were all relaxed by drink. He fell prone as the heavy black jacks
+descended upon his head, muffled in the hood of his "dreadnaught."
+
+"Ah! V'la un affaire bien fini! Allons! Jettez-le!" growled the
+grim boatswain, dropping his loaded club, as all three spurned the
+prostrate body, and then, with a heavy lurch, it bounded off the
+sodden bank plunging downward, over the cliff.
+
+For a moment, there was no sound! Then skirting the furze bushes
+of the headland, the three assassins dragged their stiffened limbs
+along in the darkness, hastening to where the stout Hirondelle
+rocked easily in the dead water of the one protected cove to the
+north of Rozel Point.
+
+They were all safely stowed away in the forecastle before half an
+hour, and, with grunts of satisfaction, examined the largess of
+their mysterious employer, "C'est ungaillard--un vrai coq d'Anglais!"
+growled the boatswain, as his chums produced another bottle, and
+the three doffed their drenched clothing. Then cognac drowned their
+scruples against murder--for the price was in their pockets.
+
+It was half past eleven o'clock when gaunt old Andrew Fraser led
+his half-fainting ward ashore from the Stella, at St. Heliers pier.
+But one covered carriage had remained on the storm-beaten pier,
+braving the rigors of this terrible night. "Never mind the luggage,
+man," shouted the Professor to the driver. "Here's ten pounds to
+drive us over to Rozel, to my home! And, I'll bait yere horses,
+put ye up, and give ye a tip to open yere eyes." The hardy islander
+whipped up his horses, and soon cautiously climbed the hill of St.
+Saviours, crawling along carefully over the wind-swept mows toward
+St.  Martin's Church. The exhausted maid was fast asleep. Nadine
+Johnstone herself lay in a semi-trance, while the fretful old
+scholar consulted his watch by the blinking carriage lights, and
+then wildly urged the driver on. It was long after midnight when
+they reached St. Martin's Church, with three miles yet to go. A
+dreary and a dismal ride!
+
+And all was silent, in the Banker's Folly where the old hall clock
+loudly rang out twelve, rousing Mistress Janet Fairbarn from her
+first beauty sleep. She started in terror as an unfamiliar sound
+broke upon the haunting stillness of the night. The hollow sound of
+a smothered cough in the Master's study, a man's deep-toned cough,
+unmistakably masculine, aroused the spinster whose whole life had
+been haunted by phantom burglars.
+
+For the first time since her coming to the Folly, her loneliness
+appalled her. "My God! There is the plate! The master away, and
+no one near." Her nerves were thrilling with nature's indefinable
+protest against the dangers of the creeping enemy of the night. A
+sudden ray of hope lit up her heart. "Had the Professor returned?"
+He had the keys. It would be his way. Yes, there was the sign of
+his presence. And, so, timorously moving on tip-toe, she crept down
+the hall in her white robes, and barefooted. Yes, he had returned,
+for she had left the study door open. It was closed now. There was
+a pencil of light shining through the keyhole, and, yet, silently
+she stood at the door, and listened. There was the sound of muffled
+blows within. A panic seized upon her. "Thieves, thieves--at last!"
+
+Scarcely daring to breathe, she fled, ghostlike, up the stair, and
+in a wild paroxysm of fear dashed into the room at the angle of
+the hall, where "Prince Djiddin" lay extended upon his couch of
+Oriental shawls and cushions. He was restless, and still dreaming,
+open-eyed, of his absent love.
+
+The young man leaped to his feet as the frantic woman, with affrighted
+gestures, besought his aid and protection, pointing down to the
+stairway. Hardwicke's ready nerve failed him not.
+
+Grasping a heavy revolver from under the pillow, a mechanical
+arrangement, a memory of his Indian life in the midst of untrusted
+subordinates, the officer seized in his left hand the Sikh tulwar,
+which was his own "property saber" of Thibetan royalty. Its naked,
+wedge-shaped blade was as keen as that of a razor.
+
+Pointing to the key, he mutely signed to the woman to lock herself
+in. Then down the stair he crept, ready to face any unseen enemy.
+The light streamed out from Janet Fairbarn's open door. "Perhaps
+it was only old Simpson, drunk, or trying to gain a surreptitious
+entrance," he mused. But the woman had pointed to the light and
+the keyhole of the door. "Some one is in the old man's study!" Yes!
+There was the little tell-tale pencil of light flickering on the
+darkened wall opposite. And Hardwicke scented danger. "Was it Alan
+Hawke?"
+
+Light-footed as the panther, the young soldier crept to the heavy
+oaken door. A moment in his crouching position showed to him a
+man, with his back toward him, raising one of the great red tiles
+of the study floor. Yes! There was only a moment of suspense, for
+the tile was slid aside, and a package was then eagerly clutched.
+With one mighty leap, the Major bounded to the man's side as the
+door swung open. The cold steel muzzle pressed the ruffian's temple
+as Hardwicke's hand closed upon the burglar's throat. There lay
+the sealed canvas package, covered with official Indian seals. In
+an instant, the Major's knee was on the scoundrel's breast.
+
+"One single sound, and I blow your brains out!" hissed the disguised
+Englishman. And, astounded at the apparition of a stalwart Hindu
+warrior, Jack Blunt's teeth chattered with fear. Dragging the
+half-throttled wretch to his feet, Hardwicke tore off the sash of
+his Indian sleeping robe and bound the villain's arms behind him.
+Picking up his saber, he then cut the bell cord and lashed the
+fellow's legs to a chair. Then, giving the canvas package a closer
+glance of inspection, Hardwicke pressed the edge of his tulwar to
+Jack Blunt's throat, when he had closed the window, half raised,
+and shut the shutter so neatly forced with a jimmy. "What's in
+that package?" he said, with a sudden divination of Alan Hawke's
+overmastering influence.
+
+"A lot of valuable jewels," the sneaking ruffian answered. "If
+you'll turn me loose, I'll now save what's dearer to you than all
+this diamond stuff that I was sent for. I've watched you here for
+three weeks. You're after the girl. By God! Hawkes got her now!"
+
+"Do you speak the truth?" said Hardwicke. "If you deceive me, I'll
+butcher you! Speak quickly! You've got just one chance to save
+transportation for life now!"
+
+The coward thief muttered: "The old man is on his way back from
+St.  Heliers, and Hawke's got a dozen French fellows to run the
+girl off and perhaps 'do up' the old man. But he wanted this same
+stuff. He's a downy cove!"
+
+While Jack Blunt worked upon the lover's fears, "Prince Djiddin's"
+hands, on an exploring tour, drew out a knife and two revolvers
+from the captured burglar's wideawake coat. He picked up the bulky
+bundle which the thief had dropped, and saw the bank seals of
+Calcutta and the insurance labels thereon. "I'll give you a show.
+Keep silent!" cried Hardwicke as he cut the cords on the fellow's
+legs. Then grasping him by the neck, he dragged him bodily to the
+door of the "Moonshee's" room, where he thrust him in. Then he
+locked the door, and knocking on his own, induced the frightened
+Janet Fairbarn to open at last. The poor woman screamed as "Prince
+Djiddin" calmly said: "Go and rouse up the girls. Send one of them
+to bring the gardener and his two men over here. I've got the thief
+locked up."
+
+"My God! who are you?" screamed the affrighted Scotswoman, as the
+Prince dropped into English.
+
+"I'm an English officer, madam. Don't be a fool. Rouse these people.
+There's been one crime already committed, and there may be another.
+There's no one else in the house. Get the three men over here at once
+to me. I'll stand guard over this thief." Then as Janet Fairbarn
+fled away shrieking and yelling, Harry Hardwicke locked the recovered
+package in his own trunk, which stood in his room.  Bounding across
+the hall, he then dragged his captive over the way and thrust him
+in a helpless heap into a chair. Before Hardwicke was dressed, he
+had extorted the secret of the rendezvous at the old Martello tower.
+
+"Now, sir, no one has seen you yet," said Hardwicke. "If you guide
+me there and save her, you shall cut stick. If you betray me, then,
+by God, you shall die on the spot." A groan of acquiescence sealed
+the bargain, as the three gardeners, armed with bili-hooks and
+pruning-knives, now burst into the room. "One of you stay here with
+the women. Light up the whole house now. Let no one leave it till
+I return. Now, you two, each take a pistol. Get your lanterns, at
+once, and a good club each. Come back instantly here."
+
+The procession was descending the stair, when there was heard
+a vigorous knocking on the front door. As it opened, the excited
+"Moonshee" leaped into the hallway. "What's up?" he cried, forgetting
+his assumed character. "I came over, for I had a telegram that
+the Stella was in with old Fraser and Nadine. The General sent a
+special messenger to me."
+
+"Run up and get my saber and your own pistol and join me! There's
+foul play here! The house is all right! Come on, for God's sake!"
+shouted Harry Hardwicke. He led his captive by the trebled bell
+cord passed with double hitches around the burglar's pinioned arms,
+and the Moonshee now leaped back--ready to take a man's part--for
+he easily divined the treachery.
+
+Out into the wild night they hurried, leaving behind them
+the barricaded "Banker's Folly," now gleaming with lights. "Where
+in hell is Simpson?" demanded Eric Murray, as he struggled along
+clutching the gleaming tulwar tightly in his hand.
+
+"Drunk at Rozel Pier, I suppose!" bitterly answered Hardwicke.
+"Come here and just prick this fellow up into a trot!"
+
+As they hastened on, Prince Djiddin succeeded at last in convincing
+the two gardeners that he was not a ghost, but a reincarnated
+Englishman who had been larking disguised as a Hindu Prince. "What's
+the devilish game, anyway?" puffed out Captain Murray, still in
+the dark, as they struggled on in the darkness along the road.
+
+"Hawke has tried to kidnap Nadine!" hastily cried Hardwicke.
+
+"My God! what's that?" They soon came up to an overturned carriage.
+The traces had been cut, and the horses and driver were not visible.
+The gardener's lantern showed to them only the insensible form of
+the maid, Mattie Jones, who lay moaning in a sheer exhaustion of
+terror. "How far is it to the tower?" almost yelled Hardwicke, his
+heart frozen with a new terror. "They have murdered her, my poor
+darling!"
+
+"The tower is now about three hundred yards away!" said the gardener,
+as Hardwicke sternly dragged his reluctant prisoner along.
+
+"On, on!" he cried. "We may even now be too late!" They were only
+a hundred yards from the tower, when the sound of rapid pistol shots
+was heard, wafted down the wind, and a confused sound of cries on
+the cliff was wafted to them, as a dozen twinkling lantern lights
+appeared on the brow of the bluff.
+
+"It's a rescue party!" joyously cried Murray. "Hurry! hurry on to
+the tower!"
+
+With cheering cries, the pursuers neared the old Martello tower,
+and a clump of dark forms vanished quickly into the shrubbery as
+the three lanterns were flashed full upon the door. Eric Murray,
+sword in hand, was the first man at the entrance, as a desperate
+assailant leaped from the narrow door and sprang upon him, pistol
+in hand.  There was the snap of a clicking lock and then the sound
+of a hollow groan, for the robber's pistol had missed fire, and
+Captain Murray ran the wretch through the body with the razor-bladed
+tulwar!
+
+There was a silence broken only by the trampling of approaching
+feet, as Red Eric flashed the light in the face of his fallen foe,
+for the storm had spent its fury and the stars were gleaming out
+at last.
+
+"By God! It's Hawke, himself!" he shrieked. "Alan Hawke, a midnight
+robber!" But, Harry Hardwicke, with the two men at his back, had
+dashed on into the gun-room of the old tower, leaving Murray with
+his prostrate foe--empty, not a sign of any human presence.
+
+With one wild cry Hardwicke turned to the door, "Nadine! Nadine!"
+he yelled, and his voice sounded unearthly in the night winds.
+
+And then, from over their heads, a cheery hail replied, "All right,
+on deck! The lady is safe up here with me. I am Professor Hobbs,
+the American. Who are you?"
+
+"Friends! friends!" cried Hardwicke. "The house was attacked! Where
+is the Professor?"
+
+"I reckon they have carried him off!" the nasal voice of the American
+answered. "If they've killed him it's a great loss to science, you
+bet! I'm coming down." And while the gun-room was soon filled with
+a motley crowd from Rozel Pier, Professor Alaric Hobbs long legs
+dropped dangling down his rope ladder. He gazed, open-mouthed, at
+the anglicized Prince Djiddin.
+
+"Who are you--friends, also?" now demanded the astonished "Prince
+Djiddin" of the rescuers.
+
+"We are friends of Simpson!" cried the nearest. "The smugglers
+bludgeoned him and then threw him off the cliff, but the banks
+were soft and wet, and his heavy coat saved him. He sent us up here
+to the rescue, for he crawled half a mile on his hands and knees.
+We've found the old Professor tied to a tree over there in the
+bushes.  They are bringing him here. Simpson is at the 'Jersey
+Arms,' all safe."
+
+"See here, stranger!" demanded the American, still standing amazed,
+pistol in hand, "I winged a couple of these damned robbers; they
+tried their best to get the girl away from me. I'm a pretty good
+shot. Now, are you a prince or a fraud? I suspicioned you from
+the first! If you are a fraud, then the History of Thibet is all
+damned rot! I suppose that you were just 'girl hunting.' The girl's
+yere sweetheart. I see it all now. Hoodwinked the old man! Who's
+this fellow that you've got tied up there, anyway? One of the
+Johnny-Bull-Jesse-James gang?"
+
+"Why! It's Joe Smith, our friend!" chimed out a dozen friendly
+voices. Then Harry Hardwicke stepped up to the shivering wretch who
+stood gazing on Alan Hawke, now propped up on a doubled-up coat,
+and rapidly bleeding to death. "I'll keep your secret, and save
+you yet, if you will disclose the whole, and keep mum!" Jack Blunt
+nodded, and hung his head in shame.
+
+But, on his knees beside the dying man, Eric Murray bent down his
+head to listen to the final adieu of the dying wanderer, whose luck
+had turned at last. "Justine Delande is to have all! The drafts,
+and my money, at Granville. Murray, I'll tell you everything now.
+Ram Lal Singh murdered old Hugh Johnstone to get the jewels that
+Johnstone stole. The same ones that this old scoundrel, Fraser,
+here, is hiding." The red foam gathered thickly on Hawke's trembling
+lips. "Tell Major Hardwicke all! He's a good fellow! The knife that
+Ram Lal killed old Fraser with is in my own trunk at Granville,
+stored in Railroad Bureau. He got in through the window. I was in
+the garden, and caught him coming out. I was watching old Johnstone,
+for fear he would give me the slip. I didn't tell--I wanted to
+come over here and get the jewels myself. Hang old Ram Lal! He's
+a cowardly murderer! Telegraph to the Viceroy to arrest the jewel
+seller; he will break down and confess at once. Make him pay poor
+Justine Delande all my drafts--Johnstone gave him that money for
+me to keep me silent about the stolen crown jewels. Now--now, all
+grows dark! Lift me up high--higher!" he gasped. "I played a hard
+game, but the luck turned--turned at last! That woman, Berthe Louison
+was too much--too much for me! Poor Justine! Tell her--tell her--"
+His voice grew fainter and fainter.
+
+"Do you know this man, Hawke?" whispered Hardwicke, forcing Jack
+Blunt's face down to the dying renegade's glance.
+
+"Never--saw him--before!" gasped Alan Hawke. "Poor Justine, tell
+her--" and with a sighing gasp, his jaw dropped, and at their feet,
+the fool of fortune lay dead, with a last lie on his lips.
+
+"By God! He was dead game!" muttered Jack Blunt, kneeling there,
+by the stiffening form of the wreck of a once brilliant Queen's
+officer. He dared not lift his craven eyes!
+
+"He had the making of a gallant soldier in him!" cried Hardwicke,
+as he turned to the American, and motioned to the rope ladder. "We
+must not let Miss Johnstone see the body. Some of you run and get
+a ladder or some other means to aid her descent. And rouse up the
+nearest farm people. Get a carriage and bring the old Professor
+and maid here!"
+
+While a dozen volunteers darted away to bring a conveyance, the
+rest hastily covered Hawke's body with their coats. The gun-room
+was now lit up, and in five minutes the waylaid carriage was drawn
+by hand to the door of the lonely tower. Within it lay the bruised
+and exhausted old scholar, bareheaded and ghastly, in the light of
+the flickering lanterns, while pretty Mattie Jones, with a shriek
+of terror, ran to the side of her sweetheart, his arms still bound
+with Prince Djiddin's sash. Jack Blunt's "swell mob" assurance
+stood him in good stead.
+
+"It's all a mistake, my girl," bluntly said the mobs-man, feeling
+safe now that Alan Hawke's lips were sealed in death. While the old
+Professor was revived with copious draughts of "usquebaugh," Jack
+Blunt saw the flash below him, on the darkened seas, of a red light
+above a white one. And he heaved a great sigh of relief,
+
+"There goes the Hirondelle now, driving along out to sea with the
+whole gang," he murmured. "Now, by God, I am safe if this yellow
+masquerader only plays the man!" There was a hubbub of cackling
+voices, as on the night when the geese saved Rome! Above them, on
+the barrack room floor of the Martello tower, Harry Hardwicke was
+already holding Nadine Johnstone's drooping head upon his breast,
+while the lanky American gazed at the strange picture before him.
+The girl's arms were clasped around her lover's neck. "Do not leave
+me--not a moment!" she moaned. Alaric Hobbs, with quick forethought,
+tossed his blankets down below, with a significant gesture.
+
+"Darling! You will be mine for life, now!" cried the happy soldier,
+as he covered her shivering form with his coat. Alaric Hobbs had
+promptly descended and hastened the necessary preparations for
+departure. "Damn the explanations. Let's get the whole party out
+of this!" he said to Captain Murray, and then rejoined Hardwicke.
+
+"Tell me all, quickly!" said Hardwicke. "I am a Queen's officer and
+shall telegraph to the Home Guards and send for General Wragge. I
+must report this by cable to the Indian Government. There is justice
+yet to be done!"
+
+"I was taking some private star observations here," whispered Hobbs,
+bending down at Hardwicke's warning signal. "Storm bound, I waited
+for the return of my wagon at dawn. I was aroused from sleep by
+the sounds of a struggle below.
+
+"Some one had dragged this young woman screaming and wailing into
+the tower below. She soon fainted. I heard the followers tell the
+leader of the gang that the coachman had just cut the traces and
+decamped with the horses. He then bade them gather all the gang
+waiting in hiding so as to carry her down to some boat below,
+and then closing the door, he stood on guard outside. They were,
+however, baffled. Some of the scoundrels had taken the alarm and
+fled, seeing the lights of the other party moving up from the pier.
+Then the desperate leader tried to lead a party to steal a horse
+from the nearest farmhouse. They were busied in their quarreling.
+I dropped my ladder down, and while they wrangled, cried softly
+to the imprisoned woman to mount the ladder. She knew my voice at
+once, as I had been a visitor at her uncle's house. With my help,
+she got up into the barrack room, and, you bet, I quickly pulled
+up my rope ladder. In ten minutes more, the door was opened. The
+trick was discovered. They tried a pyramid of men to reach the nine
+feet. But I waited till they were all good and blown with their
+exertions and then, shot a couple of them! You'll find those
+fellows lingering somewhere in the bushes. I had stowed the girl
+safely away in the middle of the pier, over the doorway, between
+two pillars. She was game enough. I let them just shoot away a bit.
+I kept my powder and lead to kill. I've even now four cartridges
+left.
+
+"But when you came on the ground, the whole coward gang skedaddled
+at once, and the brave chap you killed got his dose for good, for
+he stood his ground like a man! The girl didn't bother me. She
+fainted in good shape when the close fighting began. I was a dead
+winner from position. I could have stood them off for hours!"
+
+"You are a hero!" warmly cried Harry Hardwicke.
+
+"Let's all get out of this!" replied Alaric, modestly.
+
+The American offered Hardwicke his cocktail bottle. "Let's get her
+down. I hear carriage wheels now. Would you just tell me your real
+name, now, the name you use when you are not doing your 'character'
+song and dance." The young officer smiled at the American's rough
+address.
+
+"Major Harry Hardwicke, Royal Engineers, and, this lady's future
+husband," confidently remarked Prince Djiddin.
+
+"Oh, yes," grinned Alaric Hobbs, "the last part I'll take for
+gospel truth. Well, Major, I'm glad to know you." And he then, very
+practically, aided the descent of Miss Nadine Johnstone, for a
+dozen stout arms now held up the ponderous old ladder which had been
+purposely dislodged by the Coast Guardsmen. Alaric Hobbs surveyed
+his battle ground.
+
+"If they had only dared to use lights, I might have had a harder
+fight," chuckled Alaric Hobbs, as he descended the very last one.
+"Major," said he huskily, "I've got my things corraled up there,
+and the instruments, and so on. Leave me a couple of men, and get
+your own people back now to the Folly. I'll 'hold the fort' here,
+till you bring the proper authorities. Our man won't run away now.
+He is 'permanently fixed' for a long repose from 'further anxieties.'"
+
+But fiercely bristling up, old Andrew Fraser now loudly demanded to
+be allowed the ordering of all. "This is an outrage," he babbled.
+"You are a cheat, a fraud, an impostor, in league with the robbers."
+So, fiercely addressing Major Hardwicke, he tried to drag away
+Miss Nadine Johnstone, at whose feet the stout Mattie Jones was
+blubbering and wailing.
+
+"Captain Murray," sternly cried Major Hardwicke, "take Miss Nadine
+and her maid to the Folly. Leave the two gardeners on guard. Return
+here as soon as you can, for the Professor and myself. I will come
+over with him. Have a horse at once saddled and bring a man to
+take my dispatches to General Wragge and for London. Bring me some
+writing materials. This must be reported at once."
+
+"Go now, dearest Nadine," her lover implored. "I will join you at
+once. Trust to me, all in all. I will never leave you again," and
+then and there, before her astounded guardian, Nadine Johnstone
+threw her ams around her lover in a fond embrace. "You will come?"
+
+"At once," cried the Major, as he cried out hastily, "Drive on!"
+
+Old Andrew Fraser writhed in vain in Hardwicke's grasp. "Be quiet,
+you damned old fool!" pithily said Alaric Hobbs. "They saved your
+life for you!"
+
+"You shall never darken my doors," raged Andrew Fraser.
+
+"I will go there to-night, and at once remove my property," coldly
+answered Hardwicke. "After that I care not to visit you, save to
+lead your niece to the altar. But I will have a reckoning with you!
+Don't fear!"
+
+"You shall never marry her," the old pedant cried. "You shall answer
+to me for this whole dastardly outrage."
+
+"All right," coolly said Hardwicke. "It's man to man, now. I will
+marry your niece within a month, and, with your written permission!"
+And not another single word would the disgusted Hardwicke utter--while
+old Fraser clung to Alaric Hobbs, whining in his wrath.  In an
+hour, a motley cortege slowly left the door of the martello tower.
+Murray and Hardwicke walking, armed, beside the carriage, where Mr.
+Jack Blunt, still bound, was the sullen companion of the half-crazed
+Professor Fraser.
+
+To the demands of "Joseph Smith's" friends Hardwicke replied: "He
+will undoubtedly be released tomorrow by the proper authorities if
+there is a mistake."
+
+A smart groom was already half-way to St. Heliers, galloping on
+with a sealed letter to General Wragge, the commander of the Channel
+Island forces. "That will bring Anstruther over at once. He must
+act now!" said Hardwicke. "In two days Ram Lal will be in irons at
+Delhi, and I think that we will prepare a crushing little surprise
+for this defiant old fool and miser, Professor Andrew Fraser." And
+Red Eric Murray now inwardly rejoiced to see the end of all his
+masquerading as the Moonshee. He received a parting salute, also.
+"You are no gentleman, a vile swindler, sir," raved old Andrew, as
+Captain Murray allowed him to descend and enter his own door. The
+"History of Thibet" fraud rankled in old Fraser's mind.
+
+But the "ex-Moonshee" only smiled and politely bowed, while "Prince
+Djiddin" sternly marched with his prisoner, Jack Blunt, upstairs
+and then locked the doors of his apartments. It was an "imperium
+in imperio."
+
+In the hall, he had turned and faced Andrew Fraser only to say:
+"I shall await here, sir, the orders of the civil and military
+authorities; yes, here, in my own room. The very moment that they
+take charge, I shall, however, leave your roof. But not until then!
+And for your future safety, I warn you to moderate your ignorant
+abuse."
+
+There was no sleep in the house until the gray dawn at last
+straggled through the mists of night. And the sound of outcry and
+excited alarm long continued, for Professor Andrew Fraser and Janet
+Fairbarn were excitedly wailing over the easily detected work of
+the burglar, in the old pedant's study. The aged Scotsman ran up and
+down the hall, tearing his hair and bemoaning his lost manuscripts
+and papers. For, he dared not announce the loss of the stolen crown
+jewels!
+
+The family coachman had already departed for Rozel Pier, to bring
+home the wounded Simpson, while a doctor, summoned by the messenger
+from St. Heliers, was led by Janet Fairbarn to the apartments of the
+heiress. Murray and Hardwicke rejoiced in secret over the recovery
+of the key to the whole deadlock--from Delhi to London! The game
+was now won!
+
+At ten o'clock, a staff officer of General Wragge joined Major
+Hardwicke and Captain Murray in their room, while one of the terrible
+army of twelve policemen of an island populated with "three thousand
+cooks" watched over the "Banker's Folly," and another garrisoned
+the old martello tower, where Alan Hawke lay alone in the grim
+majesty of death. The fox-eyed American professor "invited himself"
+to breakfast with Professor Andrew Fraser and cheered the broken
+old man.
+
+"Never mind, we will finish up the 'History of Thibet' together,"
+he cried, "when these two swashbucklers are gone, and the house
+will be much quieter when the girl is married off and out of the
+way." But old Andrew Fraser refused to be comforted. He sternly
+forbade all communication with his ward and bitterly bewailed a
+further personal loss, which he dared not explain!
+
+"There was a suspicious French fishing-boat lately seen knocking
+around Rozel," acutely said Alaric Hobbs. "We also found the bloody
+trail where they dragged their wounded away down to the beach.
+And so they are off on the sea, with your valuable plunder. No one
+knows the dead scoundrel up there."
+
+"But we will finish the Thibet history, if I have to go out there
+myself and get the honest information." Whereat old Fraser feebly
+smiled and opened his heart to Alaric Hobbs at once. When a bustling
+country magistrate arrived to potter around, Andrew Fraser was
+astounded to see the General's aid-de-camp lead out the man whom
+the two officers had guarded, and send him off to St. Heliers under
+a military guard.
+
+"Hold this man only as a suspicious person. There may be some
+mistake. They say he is known at Rozel Pier as an honest man," said
+the aide. "The real robbers seem to have escaped in the boat. The
+dying robber did not seem to know this person, who has undoubtedly
+borne a good character for a month past at the Jersey Arms
+as a lodger." It was true, and even the befuddled Simpson, on his
+questioning, only could falter that he had been attacked by three
+unknown footpads. He failed to make any charge against the mute
+Jack Blunt. "This man is a proper, decent fellow enough," kindly
+testified the old soldier.
+
+In vain Andrew Fraser raved to the Magistrate, demanding that Major
+Hardwicke and Captain Murray should explain their past conduct.
+"I am directed by General Wragge to say that he will visit you,
+himself, officially, to-morrow, Professor Fraser, and he will
+have an important governmental communication for you. Until then,
+I desire these two gentlemen to be allowed to remain in your house.
+They will remove all their luggage this evening." And then, old
+Fraser, with a presage of coming trouble, shivered in a sullen
+silence. Conscience smote him, sorely.
+
+"The lost jewels!" In fact, a handsomely appointed carriage and a
+van, in the afternoon, removed all of the effects of the two pseudo
+"orientals," who, half an hour after the carriage had arrived,
+appeared in their respective undress uniforms of the Royal Engineers
+and the Eighth Lancers, to the dismay of old Fraser--now affrighted
+at his dangerous position. There was gloom in the house now, for Miss
+Nadine Johnstone flatly refused to even see her guardian a single
+moment! And Simpson, alone, sat in conclave with Major Hardwicke,
+who had learned privately of the secret removal of Alan Hawke's body
+to St. Heliers. Messengers, in uniform, coming and going rapidly,
+were hourly admitted to Major Hardwicke's presence, and already a
+pale-faced woman was on her way from Geneva to rejoin Madame Alixe
+Delavigne, at the old chateau mansion where Captain Murray only
+awaited the arrival of Anstruther now ready to open his siege
+batteries on the man who had covered up his brother's crime.  There
+was not a word to be gleaned from the authorities, and St.  Heliers
+was simply convulsed in a useless fever of curiosity. Even Frank
+Hatton, representing the London press, was muzzled. Not a soul
+was, as yet, permitted to approach the old martello tower, where
+Alan Hawke had faced the Moonshee, "man to man." A squad of coast
+guardsmen sternly picketed the vicinity of Rozel Head. And a great
+smuggling raid was the only accepted explanation to the public.
+
+Captain Murray had duly reported the completion of all the Major's
+carefully matured preparations, and fled away to await the arrival
+of Justine Delande and Captain Anson Anstruther.
+
+It was a sunny morning, two days later, when Major Hardwicke
+descended at Simpson's summons, dressed in his full uniform, to the
+great library, where several grave-faced visitors were now awaiting
+a formal interview with the agitated Professor Andrew Fraser. The
+young Major's face was simply radiant, for Mattie Jones had just
+given him a letter and a nosegay, sent by the young heiress, who
+had already read a dozen times her lover's smuggled love missive
+of this fateful morning.
+
+"To-day will decide all. And you will be to-morrow as free as any
+bird of the air. Then, darling, it will be only you and I, all in
+all to each other forever more! I will send for you. Wait for me.
+Our hold on Andrew Fraser is the deadly grip of the criminal law.
+He must yield."
+
+"The flowers are from Miss Nadine's breast; she sent them
+to you, with her dearest love," cried Mattie, who rejoiced in the
+private assurance that her own liberal-minded sweetheart was soon
+to be discharged 'for lack of evidence.' Captain Eric Murray had
+obtained a complete deposition, which the magistrate representing
+the Parliament of Jersey had accepted as State's evidence, under
+the special orders of the Home Office.
+
+In Andrew Fraser's study, the sallow face of Professor Alaric Hobbs
+was seen bending over many documents and papers. He was not only
+busied as a volunteer lawyer for Fraser, but was now the commentator
+and collaborator of that famous interrupted work, "The History of
+Thibet." "Say! Go light now on the old man!" prayerfully whispered
+Alaric Hobbs, drawing Major Hardwicke into the study. "Captain
+Murray is a devilish good fellow. He is going to make this great
+traveler, Frank Hatton, my friend. And you'll both be benefactors
+to 'Science,' if you drop masquerading and post me honestly on
+Thibet.  You are a dead winner in the little social game here. You
+get the girl--that's all you want. She's a nice girl, too! I'll
+make the old boy come down and be reasonable. I helped you out,
+you know. You owe me a good turn, you do."
+
+"All right, Professor Hobbs. I believe I do owe you my wife to be.
+They would have carried her off or injured her in some way," said
+the now anxious Hardwicke.
+
+"You bet your sweet life they would!" said the strange Western savant,
+more forcibly than elegantly. "They would have had the ransom of
+a prince, or else they would have chucked her in the channel! That
+was their game!"
+
+In the library, General Wragge, Captain Anstruther and Captain
+Murray faced Professor Andrew Fraser, whose face was as set as a
+stone sphinx. His feeble heart was thumping, for the stolen jewels
+were not his to return now. He cursed the day he had lied about
+them.
+
+The old General gravely said: "Professor Fraser, I desire to say that
+Captain Anson Anstruther represents both her Majesty's Government
+and His Excellency, the Viceroy of India. There is a magistrate
+waiting in the house even now, and I recommend you to seriously
+consider the words of the Captain. If you are officially brought to
+face your past refusal to his just demands, I fear that you will
+be left, Sir, in a very pitiable position. I will now retire until
+you have conferred with the representative of the Indian Government.
+Remember! Once in the hands of the authorities, your person and
+estate will suffer grievously if you have conspired against the
+Crown."
+
+Andrew Fraser's eyes were downcast as Captain Anstruther, with
+a last glance at his friend, then locked the door. "Now, Sir, I
+repeat to you for the last time the official demand which I made
+in London upon you as executor of the late Hugh Fraser Johnstone,
+to surrender certain jewels wrongfully withheld, a list of which
+I have furnished you, as the property of Her Majesty's Indian
+Government, and which stolen property I now demand on this list."
+
+There was a long pause. "I cannot! They are not in my possession!
+I know nothing whatever of them," faintly replied the startled old
+miser.
+
+"I warn you that I have a search warrant, particularly describing
+the articles stolen and the place of their concealment, and
+a magistrate now awaits my slightest word," said the aid-de-camp
+sternly.
+
+"Do with me as you will. You will not find them! I know nothing
+about them," faltered the desperate old man. He was safe against
+arrest, he hoped.
+
+"Then, I will serve the warrant," remarked the Captain, as Andrew
+Fraser's head fell upon his breast. A fortune lost, and now, shame
+and perhaps prison awaited him.
+
+"One moment," politely said Major Hardwicke. "Do not serve
+the warrant. I will surrender the Crown's property, which I have
+discovered under the floor of this man's study, where he feloniously
+hid them after denying their possession."
+
+"Thief and deceiver!" shrieked Andrew Fraser. "You lied your way
+into my house! You have now conspired against my dead brother's
+estate!" He was shaking as with a palsy in his impotent rage. "And
+you would rob me!"
+
+"You hardened old scoundrel! I will give you now just half an
+hour," sternly said Major Hardwicke, "to consider the propriety of
+resigning instantly your executorship of your brother's estate in
+favor of your son, Douglas Fraser. He is honest! You are unfit to
+control your ward! You can also first file your written consent to
+the immediate marriage of your ward, Nadine Fraser Johnstone, to
+myself, and apply to have your accounts passed and approved upon
+your discharge as guardian upon her marriage. This alone will save
+you from a felon's cell. She shall be free. Douglas Fraser may be
+made the sole trustee of her estate until the age of twenty-one.
+On these two conditions alone will I consent to veil the shame of
+your brother and spare you, for we have traced the stolen jewels,
+step by step, with the list, the insurance, and the delivery by Hugh
+Johnstone to you. If you wish to stand your trial for complicity in
+the theft and concealing stolen goods, you may. General Willoughby,
+General Abercromby, and the Viceroy of India have watched these
+jewels on their way. And I came here only to recover them, and to
+free that white slave, your poor niece!"
+
+There was the sound of broken wailing sobs, and the three officers
+left their detected wrong-doer alone. Out on the lawn, the young
+soldiers joined General Wragge, who now looked impatiently at
+his watch. It was but a quarter of an hour when old Andrew Fraser
+tottered to the front door. "What must I do? I care not for myself!"
+he cried plucking at Major Hardwicke's sleeve. "Only save Douglas,
+my boy, this public shame!"
+
+"It rests all in your hands, Sir," gravely answered the lover.
+"Shall I call Miss Johnstone down now to have you express your
+consent and sign these papers in the presence of the General?"
+Major Hardwicke saw his enemy weakening, even as a child.
+
+"Yes, yes, anything, only get her away out of my sight--out of my
+life!" groaned the broken old miser, whose sin had found him out.
+"But, you'll keep all this from Douglas--the story of a father's
+disgrace? I did it all for Hugh!"
+
+"The family honor is mine, now, Sir! I will save your niece all
+suffering!" stiffly replied the Major, as he boldly mounted the
+stair. Captain Anstruther led Andrew Fraser aside. "I had the papers
+drawn up at once so that you would not be humiliated in public by
+your obstinacy, and General Wragge will now witness them. He has
+offered the hospitalities of his family to your niece until she is
+made a wife."
+
+"I am ready," tremblingly said Professor Fraser, and in haste
+a singular group soon gathered in the library. A notary and the
+magistrate entered with due professional decorum.
+
+And then, Captain Anstruther, addressing the executor, in the
+presence of the gray-bearded old General, repeated the words of
+voluntary resignation and surrender of all rights as guardian over
+Nadine Johnstone, first taking his written consent to the marriage.
+There was not a word spoken as the trembling old scholar hastily
+signed the papers presented to him. Then he turned to the sweet
+woman clinging to Major Hardwicke's arm. "I'll be thankful to ye if
+ye leave my home to me in peace, as soon as ye can! Janet Fairbarn
+will be my representative!" With a last glance of cold aversion
+at Hardwicke, he bowed to the Commander of the forces, and then
+tottered across the hall to his study, when the tall form of Alaric
+Hobbs hovered at the door.
+
+"My dear child," kindly said the old veteran General, lifting her
+trembling hand to his lips, and bowing reverently, "Let me be,
+this day, your father, as you are soon to be born into the service.
+Here, Major Hardwicke, I give her to you to keep against the whole
+world, if the lady so consents." Nadine's answer was an April smile,
+when her lover clasped her hand, and then she hid her blushes on
+Hardwicke's breast.
+
+"Take me away forever from this horrible prison-house," she whispered.
+
+"Mrs. Wragge's carriage will be here at four for you, and we will
+have a little dinner en famille at seven, Miss Nadine, for you,"
+said the happy General, as he jingled away, his dangling sword,
+jingling medals, and waving white plume, making a gallant show. It
+was truly "an official capture."
+
+"Now," whispered Captain Murray to Hardwicke, "I will clear out with
+Anstruther, and at once deliver over the unlucky jewels to him to
+be sealed up and deposited with General Wragge until the Viceroy's
+orders are received. I've a cablegram that Ram Lal has been arrested.
+
+"And I fancy Miss Nadine will be astonished at seeing two new faces
+at the dinner table. Let Simpson and the maid at once pack all her
+belongings, for we can not trust her with this old wreck of humanity.
+He is half crazed already. I will cable and write to Douglas Fraser
+that 'ill health' forces the old gentleman to at once give up his
+trust. Now, I belong, in future, only to Mrs. Eric Murray, of the
+Eighth Hussars. I throw up my job as an all-round Figaro!"
+
+"Stay a moment," said Major Hardwicke to Captain Anson Anstruther,
+when Nadine had fled away to prepare for her flitting from the
+unloved granite fortress.
+
+"When do you go over to London, Anstruther?" said Major Hardwicke,
+for he now nourished a scheme of "social employment" for the
+brilliant staff officers. He was short only a groomsman.
+
+"Not till after I am married," remarked the relative of the great
+Viceroy. "I have done my duty to Her Majesty," he laughed, "and
+now, I am going to do my duty to myself!" Whereat Harry Hardwicke
+was suddenly aware that Cupid carries a double-barreled gun,
+sometimes.  In her own apartment, Nadine Johnstone listened to
+Janet Fairbarn's sobbing plaint, as the heart-happy Mattie Jones
+flew around the rooms making her young mistress's boxes. Nadine
+was still in an entrancing dream of freedom, life, and love, and
+the cunning Scotswoman's plaint was all unheeded. Major Hardwicke
+was announced, "upon urgent business."
+
+"I cannot tell you yet, darling, just how we vanquished the old
+ogre," said he. "Be brave, and remember that a feast of long-deferred
+love-tidings awaits you to-night. I have already sent away all my
+own luggage. A horse and a well-mounted orderly will be here at
+four, and so I shall not lose you from sight even a moment until
+you are safe in General Wragge's home at Edgemere. Let the maid
+return alone here to-morrow and remove all your effects we may
+overlook. I will dispatch the luggage and ride after your carriage."
+
+"The proprieties, you know," he laughed, as he vanished, after
+stealing a kiss.
+
+"The master's in a woeful way," mourned Janet. "To think of your
+father's only bairn leaving her ain house so! The master's half
+daft with his troubles, for they've scattered and lost the bit
+bookie--the work of years!
+
+"Though there's the braw American scholar, tho', to aid him now.
+He hates you, my poor bairn, for your poor dead mother's sake! It's
+afearfu' hard heart these Frasers carried. I know them of old!"
+
+"Do you mean to tell me that the 'Banker's Folly' is really my own
+house?" said Nadine, her cheek flushing crimson at the insult to
+the memory of her beloved dream mother.
+
+"In truth, it's yer very ain, my leddy. Old Hugh bought it for his
+last home," whimpered the housekeeper.
+
+"Then you may tell Andrew Fraser," the spirited girl cried, "that
+I will never cross the threshold again, where I have been kept under
+a jailer's lock under my own roof tree! Let him write his wishes
+to Douglas--Douglas is a gentleman. I will keep silent for the
+sake of the man who was a kindly brother to me on my voyage. But
+to Andrew Fraser, I am dead for evermore! My life of the future
+has no place for a half-crazed tyrant--the man who tried to bruise
+the broken heart of an orphan of his own blood. We are strangers
+forevermore.  And I will leave old Simpson here as my agent to keep
+the possession of this place in my name. I will write Douglas, so
+that his old father may live out his days here in peace!"
+
+With a stately tread, the lonely girl descended the stair, when Major
+Harry Hardwicke tapped at her door, gently saying: "The carriage
+waits below. And--some one waits there to cheer you on your way
+onward to Life and Love! Remember, I follow on at once." Nadine
+Johnstone sprang lightly into the carriage. With a gentle art, the
+soldier turned away his head and quickly cried, "Drive on!" when
+the door closed. The orderly at a sign followed the closed vehicle.
+It was a sweet surprise. Love's coup de main!
+
+Nadine Johnstone never turned her head toward the dark martello
+tower, for a woman's arms were now clasped around her, and loving
+lips pressed her own. "Free at last, my own darling! Free!" cried
+Alixe Delavigne, as she strained her gentle captive to her bosom.
+"My own poor darling! Now, we shall never be parted! My darling!
+My Valerie's own image!"
+
+"And, my mother?" faltered the lovely girl, the sunrise of hope
+flooding her cheek with affection's glow of dawn. "My sister--your
+mother--looks down from Heaven upon us, joined after many years!"
+sobbed Alixe. A softer pillow never had maiden's head than Alixe
+Delavigne's throbbing bosom.
+
+"Did you not feel in your heart that love led me to your side, my
+darling? That I crossed the wide world to find you, and to fight
+my way to your heart?" murmured Alixe.
+
+"Ah! Justine always said there was a marvelous resemblance!" faltered
+Nadine. "She must be sent for now! At once! Poor Justine!"
+
+"She waits for you, even now, at Edgemere! I must save you, now,
+from hearing the story of strangers!" said Alixe, taking the girl's
+trembling hands. "Major Hardwicke telegraphed to her at Geneva,
+in your name, to come on here at once. For, while we have sunshine
+mantling around us, she, alone, must follow Alan Hawke's body to
+an unknown grave."
+
+"Is he--that terrible man--indeed dead?" gasped Nadine.
+
+"You passed his body that night when they led you from the tower,"
+gravely said Alixe. "He fell, fighting as a criminal, by the hand
+of Captain Murray, who struck only to save your liberty, and his
+own life. The civil authorities will not unveil the dark past of
+a man who once wore the Queen's uniform in honor. General Wragge
+and the authorities have softened the blow to Justine Delande, whom
+he would have made his dupe. You must only know this, darling, from
+me--from me, alone! And so, to shield poor, faithful Justine, we
+will all leave Jersey at once. Strange irony of fate. The Viceroy
+has cabled that Ram Lal Singh has paid over twenty thousand pounds, to
+be held for Justine Delande, to whom Alan Hawke left all his dearly
+bought bribes; and also the money he left hidden at Granville--jewels
+and notes to the value of ten thousand pounds more. The wages of
+sin, even death, was all he gained, and, strangely, through him,
+Justine will be shielded from penury; for she bears a broken heart.
+All that she knows is of his sudden death.
+
+"And now, darling, for I must tell you, the assassin of your father
+has saved his miserable life by a full confession made to General
+Willoughby. None but myself must ever tell you that your father's
+memory, your uncle's liberty were all involved in a tangled story
+of olden greed, intrigue, shame, and crime. Let the dead past rest
+unchallenged. The seal of the tomb will be unbroken. And it is your
+mother's tender love that will gild your bridal. Let me be your
+sister forever. None but you and I must know the history until
+others have a right to it."
+
+"Has--has Harry told you of our coming marriage?" faltered Nadine,
+hiding her head in her kinswoman's breast. There were fleeting
+blushes as rosy as the Alpenglow now tinging her pale cheek. Nadine
+Johnstone saw her new-found sister now glowing in a woman's gentle
+triumph. She had a secret of her own!
+
+It was Alixe's turn to beg a fond heart's throbbing sympathy when
+she whispered, "General Wragge advises and the Viceroy insists that
+we leave the island at once. Captain Anstruther must soon report
+to His Excellency the Viceroy at Calcutta, for his promotion to a
+Majority takes him back to his kinsman's suite. The Earl has been
+honored with the control of Her Majesty's Embassy at Paris. And
+so," the words came slowly in trembling whispers, "both Anson and
+Harry have applied for 'special licenses,' and there will be two
+marriages at Edgemere, instead of one. Anson gave you to me, through
+a strange romance, and he demands to be my loving jailer!
+
+"In three days we can all leave for London. Justine Delande has
+finished her solemn duty even now, with General Wragge as sole
+escort. It was the only way to hoodwink useless public gossip."
+
+"And will we be then so soon separated?" cried Nadine, clinging
+to her kinswoman, in a tremble of yearning love. "For you must go
+out with your husband to India. You must tell me of my mother, her
+life, her home, and I must see where she lies."
+
+"Ah, my darling," said Alixe, "we will all go on to my home--your
+home, at Jitomir, my castle in Volhynia. Your own yet to be. There,
+Anson and I will leave you and Major Hardwicke for your honeymoon.
+There, my dearest child, where your own mother's sweet face still
+looks down from the walls. Where the Russian violets and Volhynian
+forget-me-nots bloom around her tomb, where you will see her name
+carved in the memorials of a princely line as 'Valerie, Princess
+Troubetskoi.' There, I will tell you the whole story."
+
+An April rain of loving tears silenced the girl's voice, as she
+looked out of the carriage window, and saw Major Hardwicke riding
+after them. "Tell me no more, now, Darling Alixe," murmured Nadine,
+"I must have peace--even in this moment of happiness!" Her thoughts
+went back to the day when Harry Hardwicke had ridden "Garibaldi"
+straight to the rescue, in her moment of deadly peril, and his
+saber had fended off the huge cobra. And so, they journeyed on
+silently-linked in love, dreaming tender dreams.
+
+In the western skies, the sun was sinking over the purpled sea, as
+they drove down to Edgemere, and the glow of the dying day lingered
+upon the beautiful hills of Jersey. For the wild storm was quieted
+and the sea shone as a sapphire zone. Golden gleams lit up stern
+old Mount Orgueil and gray Fort Regent, and tenderly tinted the
+rugged outlines of the moss-grown Elizabeth Castle. All nature
+dreamed in the peaceful, even fall. On the sea, white sails were
+flitting afar, and the swift steamers passed grandly on toward
+their distant havens. There was a group gathered in the splendid
+gardens of Edgemere as General Wragge gallantly advanced,
+
+The silver-haired veteran graciously surrendered his command, as
+he aided his guests to alight. "This is to be 'Bride's Hall,' and
+not a 'place of arms'! You are now joint commanders, and so make
+the best use of your three days liberty! I give up my sword!"
+
+That night, while Nadine Johnstone sat in a heart exchange
+of confidence with Justine Delande and the fair woman--no longer
+Berthe Louison--while Flossie Murray was playing hostess with Mrs.
+Wragge, General Wragge, Major Hardwicke, Captain Anstruther, and
+the now full-fledged Benedict, Eric Murray, gave some pithy parting
+counsels to Jack Blunt, "Gentleman Jack," of the London Swell
+Mob. "Only a mere fluke, and, our desire to save a family needless
+pain, protects you," said Hardwicke. "These five hundred pounds
+will enable you to reach America. I venture to advise you to avoid
+landing on English soil hereafter! You certainly owe something
+to your plucky, dead comrade, who generously lied, even in death,
+to save you from transportation!" With a sullen brow, Jack Blunt
+departed the next morning on the Granville steamer, and, only when
+in the safe hiding of Etienne Garcin's Cor d'Abondance did he dare
+to breathe freely.  There were two sorely wounded lodgers already
+lying there, who cursed the unerring aim of the vivacious and
+eccentric Alaric Hobbs of Waukesha. They had told the landlord
+their tales over cognac and absinthe, and Jack Blunt vainly tried
+to comfort the sloe-eyed Angelique, who mourned for the unreturning
+visitor who had sprung over the easily-stormed battlements of
+her mobile heart. "Il etait bien beau, cet homme la! Il m'aimait
+beaucoup! Je le regretterai toujours! C'etait un vrai gaillard!"
+
+Which heartfelt tribute from a nameless wanton served for epitaph
+to the man lying in an unmarked grave in the soldiers plot at Fort
+Regent. With gnashing of teeth did Garcin and Jack Blunt discover
+that H. R. M.'s Consul had officially aided Justine Delande to
+remove the valuable deposits of the dead adventurer.
+
+"The whole thing was a dead plant on us. Luck turned against him at
+last!" growled Blunt, as they counted up the cost of the bootless
+cruise of the Hirondelle. And only Justine Delande's bitter tears
+flowed in silence to lament the bold adventurer who had lost the
+game of life!
+
+It was at Rosebank that the three brides were assembled for a sweet
+review after the quiet double marriage at Edgemere, which caused
+General Wragge's rugged face to wreathe in honest smiles of delight.
+
+And there was no rice left in the General's military supplies,
+"when the bridal parties drove away in great state to the Stella."
+
+A curious congratulatory visit from Professor Alaric Hobbs led to
+the extending of an invitation by Captain Anstruther for the lanky
+American scientist to visit him in India.
+
+"We owe you a debt of gratitude," laughed Anstruther, "for you helped
+Hardwicke to his wife. She helped me to mine, and I will see that
+the Indian Government gives you an official safe conduct to Thibet,
+where you can see the real line of the Dalai-lamas, and I'll furnish
+you a veritable 'Moonshee' free of charge. You shall be the very
+'Moses' of Yankee investigators! You deserve it!"
+
+"Now you talk horse sense," said the alert Yankee. "I'm going out
+to 'square things' with old Andrew Fraser's son. Don't ever kick a
+man when he's down! The old boy has had a very 'rough deal.' That
+'fake' about Thibet nearly broke him up. And I've a commission from
+the Buggin's Literary Syndicate, of Chicago, to 'write up India.'
+I shall take a hack at Egypt on my way home, and perhaps ride over
+to Persia, then get into Merv and Tashkend, and come back by Astrakhan
+into 'darkest' Russia, and return home. I shall also write some
+spicy letters to the Chicago Howler and the New York Whorl. I tell
+you, Cap," said Alaric Hobbes, slapping Anstruther familiarly on
+the back, "you three military men have certainly fitted yourselves
+out with tiptop wives! I am going to make a pretty good money haul
+myself on this trip. I'll look you up later in Calcutta. Would like
+to see the Viceroy. He was a 'brick' when he was Governor-General
+of Canada. So I'll get young Douglas Fraser fixed up all in good
+trim, and when I get home and have published my books, settle down
+and marry a little woman I've had my eye on for some time. I will
+go in for a family life, you bet!"
+
+"Look out that you don't lose her," laughed Hardwicke.
+
+"I will not get left, you bet!" cried Hobbes. "Now, I'm going to
+vamoose the ranch. I think that I may have killed one or two of that
+gang, and I don't fancy the 'monotonous regularity' and 'salubrious
+hygiene' of your English prisons."
+
+And so, "his feet were beautiful on the mountains," as he went out
+on his queer life pathway.
+
+After the week of quiet at Rosebank, Captain Eric Murray was hugely
+delighted to receive his orders to take charge of all Anstruther's
+confidential work, in England, until the Viceroy should be pleased
+to otherwise direct. "I think that a garrison life here, with
+Miss Mildred as commander, will just suit you and Madame Flossie?"
+laughed the kindly conspiring aide-de-camp, anxious to be away on
+his road to Jitomir, "personally conducted" by the brilliant Alixe.
+
+The Horse Guards were "pleased to intimate" that Major Harry Hardwicke,
+Royal Engineers, should be allowed "such length of leave" as he
+chose to apply for, and a secret compliment upon his "gift to the
+Crown" of the recovered property was supplemented by a request to
+name any future station "agreeable at present" to the young Benedict.
+And the solicitors had now deftly arranged the complete machinery
+of the care of the great estate, until the orphan claimed her own.
+
+While Jules Victor and Marie prepared Madame Anstruther for her
+state visit of triumph to Volhynia, Hardwicke and Anstruther soon
+closed up all their reports to Calcutta. With due cordiality, the
+unsuspicious Douglas Fraser had wired his congratulations to his
+gentle cousin; and General Willoughby, and His Excellency, the
+Viceroy, were also heard from, in the same way. It was the gallant
+General Abercromby who spread the news of Anstruther's marriage
+in the club. "Ah!" he enthusiastically cried, "A monstrous fine
+woman--came near marrying her myself!" which was a gigantic "whopper!"
+
+Justine Delande accompanied the happy quartet to Paris, and there,
+being joined by her sister, the faithful Swiss sisters remained
+as guests of Madame Berthe Louison, awaiting the return of the
+wanderers from Jitomir. The Murrays gayly escorted the quartet of
+lovers to Paris, and, the laughing face of the gallant "Moonshee"
+was the very last the four lovers saw, as the Berlin train left
+the "Gare St. Lazare."
+
+Mr. Frank Halton, in his capacity of "journalist in general,"
+had neatly stifled all comment upon the strange events in Jersey,
+with the aid of the stern General Wragge and the startled civil
+authorities. "I think that I had better present you with all the
+property costumes of Prince Djiddin and the 'Moonshee,'" laughed
+Halton. "We accept on the sole condition that you will make us
+a visit at Jitomir, and experience a Russian welcome," cried the
+Anstruthers in chorus. "The Russian bear has a gentle hug, when
+his fur is stroked the right way!"
+
+Justine and Euphrosyne Delande drove back happy-hearted to No. 9 Rue
+Berlioz, for the beautiful brides had claimed them both as future
+colonists of Volhynia, when the mill of Minerva ceased to grind to
+their turning.
+
+"We have agreed to own Jitomir in common, as we have both 'joined
+the army,'" laughed the kinswomen. "There is a permanent home for
+you both, already awaiting you, and a welcome which time will not
+wear out. For Jitomir shall be, now and in the future, a temple of
+Life and Love, the headquarters of a happy clan."
+
+And, so, linked in love, the kinswomen voyaged to the far domain
+where a mother had sobbed away her life, hungering for a sight of
+her child's face. The men, grave with the secrets of the troubled
+past, wondered over the strange meeting at Geneva which had undone
+all of Hugh Fraser's secretly plotted wiles. "We must never cast
+a shadow upon Douglas Fraser," they mused. "Let the dead past bury
+its dead, and all sin, shame, and sorrow be forgotten. For this
+once, the innocent do not suffer for the guilty."
+
+There was only left behind them a broken old man, wandering
+disconsolately around the halls of the Banker's Folly and vainly
+turning the leaves of his unfinished "History of Thibet."
+
+Janet Fairbarn, tenderly nursing the now childish old pedant, vainly
+soothed him, and fanned his flickering lamp of life in the silent
+wastes of the Banker's Folly. But the half-crazed scholar refused
+to be comforted and called in his mental despair ever for "the
+Moonshee."
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A FASCINATING TRAITOR ***
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