nmoved visage. Outside we could hear the distant
clash of the temple gongs in honour of some sacrifice, and through the
lattices there was a glimpse of high white walls, with narrow slits of
windows, shaded over by the dark-green foliage of a teak tree. Was it
all real? I asked myself, or some vision which had come to me in the
night, and from which I should awake to find myself abed in my own
little room at home in Brandon?

So the hour passed, and the last minute came.

"Pray for me, Athelstane," Marian whispered to me, "for I have been a
great sinner, and for myself I hardly dare to pray."

So I knelt down upon the floor, and the blind man opposite me did the
same; and as I used the familiar phrases which I had learned
unconsciously in my youth from many repetitions, a peace stole over
the room, and Rupert's great sobs ceased to shake him, and the hand I
held in my own grew very still and cold. And presently I looked up,
and saw that Marian was dead.

CHAPTER XXI

_COLONEL CLIVE'S MESSAGE_

So now my career in the East Indies was over, and I set my face to
return home.

The first person to whom I communicated my intention was Colonel
Clive. He was at first astonished, and told me so.

"Why do you mean to leave me now, when all our affairs are prospering,
and you have nothing to do but to stay on and enrich yourself? I have
had it in my mind to promote you; indeed, I think you know that I am
your good friend."

"I do, indeed, sir," I answered, "and I am most grateful for all your
kindness to me. But it is right that I should tell you I am here in
consequence of wrong-doing, which has, as I can now see, pursued my
steps and caused me to be harassed with troubles and misfortunes from
the very beginning to this hour."

"Why, what wrong have you been guilty of?" asked the Colonel, much
interested. "I could have sworn you were the most honest young man in
my company."

"I have run away from my home, sir. I have deceived and disobeyed my
father and, I fear, caused great sorrow to my loving mother. I allowed
myself to be tempted to leave them secretly, under cover of a
falsehood, and to join a crew of privateers, who turned out to be
pirates, the comrades of those whom you destroyed at Gheriah. In their
company I fell into evil courses, and finally plunged into a murderous
contest with one of my own flesh and blood. These things have long sat
heavy on my mind. I have perceived their evil consequences,