ver saw the royal jewels! Every moon the list was made
anew. The mollahs and moonshees and treasurers took jewels for the
Zenana every moon, and for the gifts of the princes. I could not testify
to this!" The old man was on his guard.

"I will pay you well, Ram Lal. It is my last little matter to settle
with the authorities! Then my accounts are closed forever! As Treasurer
you could do this!" Old Hugh Fraser Johnstone was ignorant of the veiled
scrutiny of his stewardship.

Ram Lal raised his head, at last, with something like defiance. "The
better half is gone--the rarest--the richest! True, the princes may have
divided them, they may have bribed their mutineer officers with some,
but, a true list may be in the hands of these Crown officers here. They
captured all the Palace papers. Now, I did not open them at Humayoon's
Tomb. You know," he faltered, "how they passed through your hands!"

Hugh Johnstone, for the last time tried to threaten and bully. "I will
have you punished. I paid you well--you must lie for me! We both lied
then."

"Then the curse of Allah be upon the liar who lies now," solemnly said
Ram Lal Singh. "I will not sign! I have the savings of years to guard.
You will go away and the Crown will come upon me for the missing gems.
I was absent five months from the Palace when you were in Brigadier
Wilson's Camp! I will offer my head to these generals, but I will not
sign! The Kaisar-I-Hind is just, and I will tell all!" With an oath of
smothered rage, Hugh Johnstone strode away.

"I must try and make a royal present to Willoughby's wife,--a timely
one--and lose a half a lac of rupees to Abercromby. They may find a
way to pass the matter over." He dared not press Ram Lal to a public
exposition of all the wanderings of Mirzah Shah's jewels. "If I had not
told them that fairy tale, I might hedge; but it's too late now. I will
go down to Calcutta, see the Viceroy, and then clear out for good. And
I must placate Alan Hawke. I was a fool to ignore him. But, to make an
enemy of him, on account of that damned woman, would be ruin. He chums
with Ram Lal. He might cable to Anstruther."

In fact Alan Hawke's bold social revolt had imposed on Johnstone. "He
might help to cover all up if I induced Abercromby to get him back on
the staff once more. I was a fool to slight him." Hugh Fraser Johnstone
was dimly conscious that his own line of battle was wavering, and that
his flanks were unguarded--his rear unprotect