ather has just had a terrible seizure--an attack while riding out
on business. He will see no one but Doctor McMorris, and besides, he
has the old jewel merchant searching all over Delhi for Major Hawke. You
must not leave me a moment, Justine."

"Is he better?" demanded Justine, with guilty qualms.

"He is resting now, but he will not be quieted till he sees this strange
man," answered the disconsolate girl.

"How beautiful she is," mused the Swiss woman, as Nadine Johnstone sat
with parted lips relating the excitements of the morning. The wooing
Indian climate was fast ripening the exquisite loveliness of eighteen.
Her dark eyes gleamed with earnestness, and the rich brown locks crowned
her stately head as with a coronal of golden bronze. The roses on her
cheeks were not yet faded by the insidious climate of burning India, and
a thrilling earnestness accented the music of her voice.

"What can we do, Nadine?" murmured Justine Delande.

"Nothing," sighed the motherless girl. "But when this Major Hawke
comes, you must, for my sake, find out all you can. Ah! To leave India
forever!" she sighed. Her marble prison was only a place of sorrow and
lamentation.

Major Hawke's flying steeds reached the marble house, after a circuit
to Ram Lal's jewel mart. Without leaving his carriage, he called out the
obsequious old Hindu. The dusk of evening favored Ram Lal in his adroit
lying.

He gave a brief account of Hugh Johnstone's strange morning seizure,
forgetting to divulge to Hawke that the old nabob had already bribed him
heavily to watch the inmate of the Silver Bungalow, and report to him
her every movement. Nor, did the Hindu divulge his secret report to
Madame Berthe Louison, after her ostentatious public carriage promenade.
He further hid the fact that Madame Louison had deftly pressed a hundred
pounds upon him, in return for a daily report of the secret life of the
marble house. But he smiled blandly, when Major Hawke hastily said "Will
he die?"

"No; he is all right! He was over there with the Mem-Sahib this morning,
and something must have happened."

"What happened?" imperiously demanded Hawke.

"I don't know," slowly answered Ram Lal.

"Don't lie to me, Ram Lal," fiercely said the Major. "I have a
fifty-pound note if you will find out."

"He is going there to-morrow," slowly said Ram.

"All right, watch them both. I'll be back here. Wait for me." And then
at a nod the horses sprang away.

"Fools! Fool