Koda Bux and we will get him to bed; then tell a servant to go
for Doctor Allison; we will have him round all right before Sir Arthur
comes back."

In a couple of minutes Vane was on his bed, and Koda Bux had opened his
teeth and was dropping drop by drop, a green, syrupy fluid into his
mouth, while Ernshaw was getting his boots off ready for the hot-water
bottle that the housekeeper was preparing. By the time the Doctor had
arrived, Koda Bux's elixir had already done its work. His eyes had
closed and opened again with a look of recognition in them, his jaws had
relaxed and his limbs were loosening. The Doctor listened to what
Ernshaw had said while he was feeling his almost imperceptible pulse and
Koda was wrapping his feet up in a blanket with a hot-water bottle.

"Yes, I see," said the Doctor, "intensely nervous, high-strung
temperament, just what we should expect Mr. Vane Maxwell to be now.

"A very great mental shock and a fit. No, not epileptic, epileptoid,
perhaps. Did you say that this man gave him something which brought him
round? One of those Indian remedies, I suppose--very wonderful. I wish
we knew how to make them. I suppose you won't tell us what it is, my
man?"

Koda Bux's stiff moustache moved as though there were a smile under it,
and he bowed his head and said:

"Sahib, it is not permitted; but by to-morrow the son of my master shall
be well, for he is my father and my mother, and my life is his."

"I thought so," laughed the Doctor, who was an old friend of Sir
Arthur's. "I know you, Koda Bux, and I think I can trust you. I'll look
in again in a couple of hours, Mr. Ernshaw, just to see that everything
is right, but I don't think that I shall be wanted."

When the Doctor left Koda Bux took charge of the patient as a right, and
when they got back into the dining-room, Dora said after a short and
somewhat awkward silence:

"Mr. Ernshaw, after what has happened, I suppose it is only fair that I
should tell you what I told Mr. Maxwell, because when he gets better, of
course, he will talk it over with you, which is very dreadful, almost
incredible. I promised Carol that I should not say anything about it
until she was out of England. Of course, she told Mr. Rayburn; she
wouldn't marry him until he knew the whole story, and so I'm not
breaking any confidence in telling you."

"Yes," he said, "I can fully understand that. And now, what is it? It is
just as well that we should all know before Sir