would have passed unnoticed. For Hindus
and Japanese and Chinamen and what-nots from the southern seas were
every-day affairs. The brown turban, however, and an enormous emerald
on one of his fingers, produced an effect quite gratifying to him.
Vanity in the Oriental is never conspicuous for its absence. The
reporters gave him scant attention, though, for this was at a time when
the Gaikwar of Baroda was unknown.

The stranger, after two or three days of idling, casually asked the way
to the wild animal farm of his old friend, Colonel Hare. It was easy
enough to find. At the village inn he was treated with tolerant
contempt. These brown fellows were forever coming and going, to and
fro, from the colonel's.

At five o'clock in the afternoon of the thirty-first day of December,
this East Indian peered cautiously into the French window of the Hare
bungalow. The picture he saw there sent a thrill into his heart. She
was as fair and beautiful as an houri of Sa'adi. She sat at a desk,
holding a long white envelope in her hand. By and by she put it away,
and he was particular to note the drawer in which she placed it. That
the dark-haired girl at the tea tabouret was equally charming did not
stir the watcher. Dark-haired women were plentiful in his native land.
Yonder was the girl of the photograph, the likeness of which had fired
his heart for many a day. With the patience of the Oriental he stood
in the shadow and waited. Sooner or later they would leave the room,
and sooner or later, with the deftness of his breed, he would enter.
The leopard he had heard about was nowhere to be seen.

"Winnie," said Kathlyn, "I dread it."

Winnie set down the teacup; her eyes were brimming.

"What can it all mean? Not a line from father since Colombo, five
months gone."

"Do you think----"

"No, no!" replied Kathlyn hastily. "Father sometimes forgets. He may
be hunting miles from telegraph wires and railroads; it is only that he
should forget us so long. Who knows? He may have dropped down into
Borneo. He wanted some pythons, so I heard him say."

The elder sister did not care to instil into the heart of her charge
the fear which was in her own.

"Who knows but there may be good news in the envelope? Dad's always
doing something like that. New Year's!"

The collie, released from the kitchen, came bounding in. In his
exuberance he knocked over a cloisonne vase. Both girls were glad to
welcome this diver