But even he could not foresee everything--no one can. Not even the
righteous man, much less the liar.

"Do you mean to say," pursued the newcomer, "that you are not writing to
your family about it--only to the Company?"

"That is all."

"Rum chap you are, Michael," said the other, lighting a cheroot.
"Heartless beggar I take it."

"Not at all. The simple fact is that I have no one to write to. I only
possess one or two distant relatives, and they would probably be rather
sorry than otherwise to have the report contradicted."

The younger officer--a mere boy--with a beardless, happy face, walked to
the door of the bungalow.

"Of course there is always this in it," he said carelessly. "By the time
the contradiction reaches home the news may be true."

Seymour Michael laughed lamely. A joke of this description made him feel
rather sick, for a Jew never makes a soldier or a sailor, and they are
rarely found in those positions unless great gain is holden up.

With this pleasantry the youth departed, leaving Michael to write the
letter which he had advised as written. As he drew the writing materials
towards him he cursed his brother officer quietly and politely for a
meddling young fool. He wrote a formal letter to the Company--the
old East India Company which administered an empire with ledger and