g in the jungle, thirty miles from Rangoon? He could make
a pretty good guess. Krauss had motored down, sent the animal on
ahead, and ridden through the grass and jungle in order to superintend
the landing.

Could this be a fact? Or was the whole thing a mere coincidence? Was
he obsessed by FitzGerald and suspecting an honest man, who might have
been shooting in the swamps--why not?

CHAPTER XXIV

SENTENCE OF DEATH

When Sophy Leigh returned from May Myo she had half expected her aunt
to meet her at the station, and was much concerned to discover, when
she arrived home, that Mrs. Krauss had suffered a serious collapse, had
not been out of the house for weeks, but was confined to her own
apartments, nursed and attended by the ever-faithful Lily. Her
condition seemed as serious as when Sophy had arrived from England, ten
months previously, she found the patient propped up among her pillows,
weak, apathetic, and terribly wasted. She looked dreadfully ill and
her whole appearance was unkempt and strange.

"Oh, my dear Aunt Flora," said Sophy kneeling beside her and taking her
limp hand, "why did you not let me know? _Why_ did you not wire for
me? I would have come back at once."

"No, no, no!" murmured Mrs. Krauss as she rolled her head slowly from
side to side and closed her drowsy, dark eyes.

"But yes, yes, yes! and when you wrote to me you never said one word
about being ill--though I might have suspected it. Your writing was so
feeble--so shockingly shaky. How long has my aunt been like this?" she
asked, appealing to Lily.

"About three--four weeks," replied the pouter pigeon, with calm
unconcern; "ever since Mr. Krauss went to Singapore."

"Most of her friends have been away and my aunt has had no one to look
after her, except you? Did the German ladies come to see her?"

"They did--yes, three, four times; asking plenty questions. Mem-sahib
would not receive them, she liking only be left alone."

To-day Mrs. Krauss appeared almost unconscious of Sophy's presence and
to be sunken in a sort of stupor.

As soon as Herr Krauss arrived home Sophy accosted him and deplored her
aunt's condition.

"If you had only sent me a line I would have been here the next day."

"Oh yes, of course," he acquiesced brusquely. "She wanted you to have
a good time. I have been away, too. Now that you are here I expect
she will pick up, same as before."

"But do you not think that Aunt Flora should see a