presence, the two of them squatting on the floor of the corridor with
the bottle between them so that no one else might see what was taking
place.

"Now, you would better get rid of that fellow Omar while you attend to
this," Yussuf Dakmar cautioned him. "Can you think of any way of doing
that?"

"Oh, easily!" Jeremy answered. "He is a great one for the women. I will
tell him there is a pretty Armenian girl in the car behind. He will run
like any other Turk to have a good look at her."

"Very well. I will wait here. But understand now; I am a dangerous
man. You have fortune in one hand, but destruction in the other!"

"Very well; but this may take me an hour, and if you grow impatient,
and that Indian sees you peering into the compartment after having
watched you and me talking all this time, he'll grow suspicious."

"All right; I'll go to the car behind. As soon as you have the letter,
come and tell me."

So Jeremy came back and entertained Grim and me with a burlesque account
of the interview, after whispering to Narayan Singh to give the alarm in
the event of Yussuf Dakmar returning forward to spy on us. Grim put the
doped whisky into his valise after a sniff at it, instead of throwing it
out of the window at my suggestion; and after a suitable interval he
went out in the part of the Turk to look for the imaginary beautiful
Armenian. Then I gave Jeremy the fake letter back, and went to sleep.