ple time to arrange his private plan
of campaign as he guarded a respectful silence during Simpson's long
relation, for his thoughts were now far away with Berthe Louison, and
the lovely orphan, whose only confidante was his tender-hearted dupe
Justine Delande. But the acute adventurer's mind returned to fix itself
upon Ram Lal Singh, now blandly smiling in his jewel shop, where the
morning gossips babbled over Johnstone Sahib's tragic death. "I must
telegraph to Euphrosyne," thought the Major, "and to 9 Rue Berlioz,
Paris, for my will-o-the-wisp employer. But, Mr. Ram Lal Singh, you
shall pay me for what ruin Mirzah Shah's dagger has wrought!"

The mantle of silence had fallen forever over the last night's rencontre
in the garden. With dreaming eyes Hawke mused: "It would never do to
tell any part of that story. What business had I there?" And, without
a tremor, he stood by the General's side as they gazed on the dead
millionaire's body still lying on the floor.

"I will now send for the civil authorities, and you, Major Hawke, will
represent me in the investigation. Your military future hangs on this.
Remember, now, that the Viceroy looks to you alone! I will return here
after tiffin. I will have some personal instructions for you." And Alan
Hawke now saw the farther shore of his voyage of life gleaming out as
General Willoughby left him to confer with the arriving magistrates and
civil police. "I shall marry you, my veiled Rose of Delhi, and be master
here yet, in this Marble House, and, by God, I'll die a general, too!"
he swore, with which pleasing prophecy Major Alan Hawke calmly took up
the varied secret duties which joined a Viceroy's secret orders to the
will of the General commanding.

"I am a devil for luck!" he mused as he gazed down on the old man's
shrunken and withered dead face. "I will do the honors alone for you,
my departed friend," he sneered, "for I am the master here now." The
absence of all articles of value, the disappearance of Johnstone's
three superb ruby shirt-studs, and his magnificent single diamond
cuff-buttons, told of the greed of the robbers, presumably familiar with
his personal ornaments, while the terrific stab in the back showed that
the heavy knife had been driven through the back up to its very hilt.

"We must find the dagger!" pompously said the civil magistrate.
"Major Hawke, will you give orders to have the whole house and grounds
searched?" And with a faint smile the Major