into the sallow, drawn face, with the dilated, glassy eyes, sufficed to
assure him that any further examination was useless.

"He has got his reward," he said, "and he has no further claim upon your
generous compassion; but is there no one to help me get the body away?"

"They are all out," said the maid; "the butler invited them to spend a
jolly evening with him in the town."

Edith and Heideck exchanged a significant look; neither of them now
doubted in the least that the audacious attack had been the result of
a plot to which the Indian servants were parties, and each guessed that
the other entertained the same suspicion as to who was the instigator of
the shameful outrage.

But they did not utter a syllable about it. It was just because they had
been brought as near to each other by the events of this night as fate
can possibly bring two young beings of different sex, that each felt
almost instinctively the fear of that first word which probably would
have broken down the last barrier between them. And Captain Irwin's name
was not mentioned by either.




VII

THE MAHARAJAH