"Sahib, it is fate," he said. "We must return at once to Allaha.
Truly, the curse of that old guru sticks like the blood leeches of the
Bengal swamps. But as you have faith in your guru, I have faith in
mine. Not a hair of our heads shall be harmed."

"I am a very miserable man, Ahmed! God has forsaken me!" The colonel
spoke with stoic calm; he was more like the man Ahmed had formerly
known.

"No, Allah has not forsaken; he has forgot us for a time." And Ahmed
strode out to make the arrangements for the return.

"Bruce," said the colonel, "it is time for you to leave us. You are a
man. You have stood by us through thick and thin. I can not ask you
to share any of the dangers which now confront us, perhaps more
sinister than any we have yet known."

"Don't you want me?" asked Bruce quietly.

Kathlyn had gone to her room to hide her tears.

"Want you! But no!" The colonel wrung the young man's hand and turned
to go back to Kathlyn.

"Wait a moment, Colonel. Supposing I wanted to go, what then?
Supposing I should say to you what I dare not yet say to your daughter,
that I love her better than anything else in all this wide world; that
it will be happiness to follow wherever she goes . . . even unto death?"

The colonel wheeled. "Bruce, do you mean that?"

"With all my heart, sir. But please say nothing to Kathlyn till this
affair ends, one way or the other. She might be stirred by a sense of
gratitude, and later regret it. When we get out of this--and I rather
believe in the prophecy of Ahmed's guru or fakir--then I'll speak. I
have always been rather a lonely man. There's been no real good
reason. I have always desired to be loved for my own sake, and not for
the money I have."

"Money?" repeated the colonel. Never had he in any way associated this
healthy young hunter with money. Did he not make a business of
trapping and selling wild animals as he himself did? "Money! I did
not know that you had any, Bruce."

"I am the son of Roger Bruce."

"What! the man who owned nearly all of Peru and half the railroads in
South America?"

"Yes. You see, Colonel, we are something alike. We never ask
questions. It would have been far better if we had. Because I did not
question Kathlyn when I first met her I feel half to blame for her
misfortunes. I should have told her all about Allaha and warned her to
keep out of it. I should have advised her to send native
investigators, she to remain