in sending his pet
aid-de-camp to reconnoitre Hawke's lines and pierce the mystery of his
rumored employment.

"I suppose that you will come up and duly report to the Chief," rather
uneasily said Captain Hardwicke, as they neared the Club on their
return. Hawke cast a glance at the superb domes of the Jumma Musjid
towering in the thin air above them, as he slowly answered:

"I am only here on a roving secret commission. I shall call, of course,
and pay my personal respects to His Excellency, the General Commanding.
I am an official will-o'-the-wisp, just now, but my blushing honors
are strictly civil, and, by the way, in expectancy. Where does your
promotion carry you?"

"Oh, anywhere--everywhere," laughed Hardwicke. "I may be sent home. I'm
entitled to a long leave--there's my wound, you know. I've only stayed
on here to oblige Willoughby." It was easy to see that the frank,
splendid young fellow was but awkwardly filling his role of polite
inquisitor, for they talked shop a couple of hours over a bottle at the
Club, and Hardwicke at last took his leave, no whit the wiser.

"If he did not post me as to the heiress, at least, old Willoughby gets
no valuable information," laughed the Major, that night. "The boy seems
to be ambitious and heart-whole. Old Johnstone will soon clear out
to the Highlands, I suppose, with this hidden pearl." But Major Hawke
laughed softly when the morning brought to him a personal invitation to
dine "informally" with General Willoughby. "Wants to know, you know,"
laughed the Major. "All I have to do is to keep cool and let him drink
himself jolly, and so, answer his own questions."

"That Hardwicke is an uncommonly fine young fellow." So decided the
Major as he splashed into his morning tub. There was one man, however,
in Delhi who now viewed Hawke's presence with a secret alarm, amounting
to dismay. It was the stern old miserly Scotsman who had paced his floor
half the night in a vain effort to reassure himself. "What does he know?
I must have old Ram Lal watch him," mused Hugh Johnstone. "I was a fool
not to have cleared out from here months ago, before these spies were
set upon me. First, Anstruther; now this fellow, Hawke, and, perhaps,
even Hardwicke. If it were not for the old matter I would go to-morrow,
and let the Baronetcy go hang--or find me in the Highlands. But, I must
make one last attempt to get them out. I must--" and the old man slept
the weary sleep of utter exhaustion.