ken five steps before Cleek appeared upon the scene, and did
exactly the same thing as the Cingalese.

"All right. You may go home now. I've got my man," he whispered, as
Ailsa and the boy passed by. "Look for me at Chepstow House some time
to-night." Then rose, as she walked on, and went after the man who first
had prostrated himself before the child.

He had risen and gone on his way, but not before witnessing Cleek's
obeisance, and flashing upon him a sharp, searching look. Cleek
quickened his steps and shortened the distance between them. Now or
never was the time to put to the test that wild thought which last night
had hammered on his brain, for it was certain that this man was in very
truth a genuine Cingalese, and, as such, must know! He stretched forth
his hand and touched the man, who drew back sharply, half indignantly,
but changed his attitude entirely when Cleek, who knew Hindustani more
than well, spoke to him in the native tongue.

"Unto thee, oh, brother!" Cleek said. "Thou, too, art of us, for thou,
too, dost acknowledge the sacred shrine. These eyes have beheld thee."

All his hopes rested on the slim pillar of that one word, "shrine," and
his heart almost ceased to beat as he watched to see how it was
received. It broke, however, into a very tumult of disturbance in the
next instant, for the man positively beamed as he gave reply.

"Sacred be the shrine!" he answered in Hindustani. "Clearly thou art of
us--not of those others."

"Others? What others? I am but newly come to this country."

"Walk with me, then, to my abode, sup with me, eat of my salt, and I
will tell thee then, oh, brother. But I forget: thou hast no knowledge
of me. Listen, then. I am Arjeeb Noosrut, father of the High Priest
Seydama, and it is among the people of my house that the gun is yet
preserved. Nor has the blood of Seydama been ever washed from the wood
of it! Come."

All in a moment a light seemed to break over Cleek's brain. The missing
link had been supplied--the one thing that could make possible the wild
thought which had come to him last night had been given into his hands.
Here at last was the key to the amazing mystery! He turned without a
word and went with Arjeeb Noosrut.

"What an ass!" he said to himself in the soundless words of thought.
"What an ass never to have suspected it when it is all so clear!"

Meantime Ailsa and the boy, dismissed from any further need of service,
walked on through the deepen