rs.

"I'll tell you," she said. "I must not forget that I owe my life to your
bravery. As I said before, I was engaged to Carl Grey. But for his
sister I don't think that I should ever have consented. But there it
was, and I loved another man at the time. And the other man loved me.
There was a deal of jealousy between the two, and I was frightened. Carl
Grey was always queer and mysterious; he was ever seeking to penetrate
the mysteries of the East. Strange men would come to his bungalow late
at night, and I heard of weird orgies there. But I did not see anything
of this till one day when I was riding on the hills with Mr. Grey. We
had a kind of quarrel on the way, and he was very difficult that day. We
came presently to a kind of temple in ruins, which we explored. There
was a vault underneath, and Mr. Grey pressed me to enter. It all seems
like a dream now; but there were natives there and some kind of ceremony
progressing. The air of the place seemed to intoxicate me; I seemed to
be dragged into the ceremony, Mr. Grey and I together. Somebody dressed
me in long white robes. Even to this day I don't know whether it was a
dream or a reality. Then there was a disturbance, and the other man came
in; I do not recollect anything after but blows and pistol shots; when I
came to myself I was in the jungle with my horse by my side. From that
day to this I have never seen or heard of Mr. Grey, and I never again
beheld the man I loved, and who gave his life to save me."

Field listened patiently enough to the strange story. He had yet a few
questions to ask.

"You think that Mr. Grey had been initiated into the mysteries of those
rites?" he asked. "And that his idea was to initiate you into them
also?"

"I think so," Violet Decie said with a shudder. "There are such strange
and weird things in the East that even the cleverest of our scholars
know nothing of them. An old nurse used to tell the most dreadful tales.
Perhaps the man who died for me could have explained. I presume that he
followed me, expecting mischief of some kind."

"I dare say he did," Field replied. "Did an explanation follow?"

"No. I declined to see Mr. Grey again. I heard that he had met with an
accident; they said that he was maimed for life. And people blamed me
for being callous and heartless. As if they knew! Even Mr. Grey's sister
was angry with me. But nothing could induce me to look upon the face of
that man again, and I left Simla soon afterwa