d," said Lewis falsely. His curiosity was keenly
excited.

"Why does he come up here such a lot?" George asked.

"I suppose because he likes to 'knock about,' as you call it. He is a
tremendous traveller. He has been into Tibet and all over Turkestan and
Persia. Gilbert says that he is the wonder of the age."

"Is he here just now?"

"No, I don't think so. I know he is coming to-morrow, because he wrote
me about it, and promised to come to my dance. But he is a very busy
man, so I don't suppose he will arrive till just before. He wrote me
from Gilgit, so he may find Gilbert there and bring him up with him."

Marker, Marker. The air seemed full of the strange name. Lewis saw
again Wratislaw's wrinkled face when he talked of him, and remembered
his words. "You were within an ace of meeting one of the cleverest men
living, a cheerful being in whom the Foreign Office is more interested
than in any one else in the world." Wratislaw had never been in the
habit of talking without good authority. This Marker must be indeed a
gentleman of parts.

Then conversation dwindled. Lewis, his mind torn between bitter
memories and the pressing necessities of his mission, lent a stupid ear
to Mrs. Logan's mild complaints, her gossip about Bardur, her eager
questions about home. George manfully took his place, and by a
fortunate clumsiness steered the flow of the lady's talk from Glenavelin
and the Wisharts. Lewis spoke now and then, when appealed to, but he
was busy thinking out his own problem. On the morrow night he should
meet Marker, and his work would reveal itself. Meanwhile he was in the
dark, the flimsiest adventurer on the wildest of errands. This easy,
settled place, these Englishmen whose minds held fast by polo and games,
these English ladies who had no thought beyond little social devices to
relieve the monotony of the frontier, all seemed to make a mockery of
his task. He had fondly imagined himself going to a certainty of toil
and danger; to his vexation this certainty seemed to be changing into
the most conventional of visits to the most normal of places. But
to-morrow he should see Marker; and his hope revived at the prospect.

"It is so pleasant seeing two fresh fellow-countrymen," Mrs. Logan was
saying. "Do you know, you two people look quite different from our men
up here. They are all so dried up and tired out. Our complexions are
all gone, and our eyes have got that weariness of the sun in them which
never go