went into the next room, and returned, saying gravely that no one
was there.

"Will you look behind the curtains, John, and under this sofa, and
everywhere else where even a cat could be hidden? That seems all
right," the Colonel went on, as his brother continued the search.
"You know there is a saying that walls have ears, and I am not
sure that it is not so. I have been haunted with the feeling that
everything I did was watched, and that everything I said was listened
to for years; and I can tell you it is a devilishly unpleasant
thought. Draw your chair quite close to me. It is about my jewels,
John. I always had a fancy for jewels--not to wear them, but to
own them. In my time I have had good opportunities in that way, both
in the Madras Presidency and in the Carnatic. In the first place,
I have never cared for taking presents in money, but I have never
refused jewels; and what with Rajahs and Nabobs and Ministers that
one had helped or done a good turn to somehow, a good deal came to
me that way.

"Then I always made a point of carrying money with me, and after
a defeat of the enemy or a successful siege, there was always lots
of loot, and the soldiers were glad enough to sell anything in the
way of jewels for a tithe of their value in gold. I should say if
I put the value of the jewels at 50,000 pounds I am not much wide
of the mark. That is all right, there is no bother about them;
the trouble came from a diamond bracelet that I got from a soldier.
We were in camp near Tanjore. I was officer of the day. I had
made my rounds, and was coming back to my quarters, when I saw a
soldier coming out of a tent thirty or forty yards away. It was a
moonlight night, and the tent was one belonging to a white Madras