shouted the usual Anglo-Indian caller's demand:

"Boy! _Koi hai_?" (Is anyone there?)

A servant hurried out and salaaming answered:

"_Adjitan Sahib hai_." (The adjutant is here).

"Oh, come in, Major," cried Raymond, rising from the table at which he
was seated drinking his tea.

"Don't get up," said Hepburn, entering the room. "Is Wargrave in?"

"No, sir; he went out half an hour ago."

"Confound it, it seems impossible ever to find him in the afternoon
nowadays," said the major petulantly. "I wanted him to get up a hockey
match against No. 3 Double Company to-day. He used to be very keen on
playing with the men; but since he came back from England he never goes
near them. Where is he? Poodlefaking at the Residency, as usual?"

This is the term contemptuously applied in India to the paying of calls
and other social duties that imply dancing attendance on the fair sex.

"I didn't see him before he went out, sir," was Raymond's equivocal
reply. He loyally evaded a direct answer.

Hepburn shook his head doubtfully.

"I'm sorry about it. I hope the boy doesn't get into mischief. Look