the other fellow comes down!"

When the little steam-launch was a black blur on the blue waters, then
Alixe Delavigne, standing alone at the rail, smiled as she saw the lean,
straggling shores sweep by. "I fear that General Abercromby will deem
me discourteous! But time, tide, and the P. and O. steamers wait for no
elderly beau, however fascinating!"

It is a matter of local history in Calcutta that General Abercromby's
remark: "Hawke! we have been a pair of damned fools! We are outwitted!"
found its way at last into the clubs, and the attack of jaundice,
followed up by a severe gout, which "laid out" the sighing lover for
long months, proves, as of old, that stern Mars cannot cope with
the bright and all-compelling Venus! But Major Alan Hawke, of the
Provisional Staff, hearkened wisely to the banker's words: "Don't
be fool enough to think that you can trifle with Madame Louison's
interests. The noble Viceroy has placed you on duty, at her own personal
request, to give you a last chance to regain all the promise of your
youth. One word from her, and--and you will be suspended or, dropped!
You will get your military orders from the Viceroy and her wishes from
me."

Alan Hawke was paralyzed with astonishment the next day, when the
Viceroy ordered him to proceed at once to Delhi, to report to General
Willoughby, and to hasten to London, via Bombay, on completion of his
secret service at Delhi."

"I am a devil for luck!" muttered Hawke. "But even the tide of Fortune
can drive along too fast!" He had lost his head, and forgotten all
his pigmy plans. A stronger hand than his own was secretly guiding his
onward path, upward to the old status of the "British officer!" "What
the devil do they want of me in London?" he mused.

And, chuckling over how easily he had made the lovesick Abercromby
help him into his "military seat" once more, Alan Hawke betook himself
forthwith to Delhi, to report to General Willoughby for instant service.
When he descended at Allahabad, his undress uniform of a major of the
Staff Corps brought down on him a storm of congratulations from old
friends gathered there. "Sly old boy you were!" the service men laughed,
over their glasses, while wetting his new uniform. "A man must not tell
all he knows!" patiently replied Major Hawke, with the sad, sweet smile
of a man who had dropped into a good thing.

As he rolled along toward Delhi, he seriously cogitated "playing fair"
in his new capacity. "Perh