, and my servants have gone down to
Kalka, and I am going to-morrow morning."

"Well, of course, if you really think you can," etc. etc. So he was
prevailed upon to promise that if he should be suffering in the morning
he would send word in time to put off the party. "Besides," he added,
"even if I could not go, that is no reason why you should not."

"Stuff," said Ghyrkins.

"Oh!" said Miss Westonhaugh, looking rather blank.

"That would never do," said John.

"Preposterous! we could not think of going without you," said Lord
Steepleton Kildare loudly; he was beginning to like Isaacs in spite of
himself. And so we parted.

"I shall not dine to-night, Griggs," said Isaacs, as we paused before
his door. "Come in for a moment: you can help me." We entered the richly
carpeted room, and he went to a curious old Japanese cabinet, and after
opening various doors and divisions, showed a small iron safe. This he
opened by some means known to himself, for he used no key, and he took
out a small vessel of jade and brought it to the light. "Now," he said,
"be good enough to warm this little jar in your hands while I go into
the next room and get my boots and spurs and things off. But do not open
it on any account--not on any account, until I come back," he added very
emphatically.

"All right, go ahead," said I, and began to warm the cold thing that
felt like a piece of ice between my hands. He returned in a few minutes
robed in loose garments from Kashmir, with the low Eastern slippers he
generally wore indoors. He sat down among his cushions and leaned back,
looking pale and tired; after ordering the lamps to be lit and the doors
closed, he motioned me to sit down beside him.

"I have had a bad shaking," he said, "and my head is a good deal
bruised. But I mean to go to-morrow in spite of everything. In that
little vial there is a powerful remedy unknown in your Western medicine.
Now I want you to apply it, and to follow with the utmost exactness my
instructions. If you fear you should forget what I tell you, write it
down, for a mistake might be fatal to you, and would certainly be fatal
to me."

I took out an old letter and a pencil, not daring to trust my memory.

"Put the vial in your bosom while you write: it must be near the
temperature of the body. Now listen to me. In that silver box is wax.
Tie first this piece of silk over your mouth, and then stop your
nostrils carefully with the wax. Then open the vial qui