her head resting on his shoulder.  I have good eyes and was not mistaken, but I trusted Kildare had not seen.  A quick twitch of his arm, hanging carelessly through mine, told me the mischief was done before I could turn his attention.  By a common instinct we wheeled to the left, and passing into the open strolled back in the direction whence we had come.  I did not look at Kildare, but after a minute he began to talk about the moonlight and tigers, and whether tigers were ever shot by moonlight, and altogether was rather incoherent; but I took up the question, and we talked bravely till we got back to the dining-tent, where we sat down again, secretly wishing we had not gone for a stroll after all.  In a few minutes Isaacs came from his tent, which he must have entered from the other side.  He was perfectly at his ease, and at once began talking about the disagreeable journey he had before him.  Then, after a time, we broke up, and he said good-bye to every one in turn, and Ghyrkins told John to call his sister, if she were still visible, for “Mr. Isaacs wanted to say good-bye.”  So she came and took his hand, and made a simple speech about “meeting again before long,” as she stood with her uncle; and my friend and I went away to our tent.

We sat long in the connat.  Isaacs did not seem to want rest, and I certainly did not.  For the first half hour he was engaged in giving directions to the faithful Narain, who moved about noiselessly among the portmanteaus and gun-cases and boots which strewed the floor.  At last all was settled for the start before dawn, and he turned to me.

“We shall meet again in Simla, Griggs, of course?”

“I hope so.  Of course we shall, unless you are killed by those fellows at Keitung.  I would not trust them.”

“I do not trust them in the least, but I have an all-powerful ally in Ram Lal.  Did you not think it very singular that the Brahmin should know all about Ram Lal’s warning? and that he should have the same opinion?”

“We live in a country where nothing should astonish us, as I remember saying to you a fortnight ago, when we first met,” I answered.  “That the Brahmin possesses some knowledge of yog-vidya is more clearly shown by his speech about Ram Lal than by that ridiculous trick with my water-carrier.”

“You are not easily astonished, Griggs.  But I agree with you as to that.  I am still at a loss to understand why I should not have come or let the others come.  I was startled at the Brahmin.”

“I saw you were; you were as white as a sheet, and yet you turned up your nose at Ram Lal when he told you not to come.”

“The Brahmin said something more than Ram Lal.  He said I should not have brought the white-haired lady into the tiger’s jaws.  I saw that the first warning had been on her account, and I suppose the impression of possible danger for her frightened me.”

“It would not have frightened you three weeks ago about any woman,” I said.  “It appears to me that your ideas in certain quarters have undergone some little change.  You are as different from the Isaacs I knew at first as Philip drunk was different from Philip sober.  Such is human nature—­scoffing at women the one day, and risking life and soul for their whims the next.”