The equipage was busied during the earlier hours of the day in
leaving the visiting cards of the returned soldier of fortune in
certain quarters well calculated to attract social notice.
Threading the spacious gardens in rear of Ram Lal's establishment,
the artful Major entered the jewel merchant's abode without the
notice of the morning gossips of the Chandnee Chouk. "All right,
now," he laughed, as he bade the sly merchant set a private guard
to prevent all intrusion upon their privacy. "I think that I have
thrown these fellows off the track very neatly!" he laughed. "No
one knows of your rear entrances at the club, I am sure!" It suited
the luxurious old jewel merchant to hide the opulence of his secret
life, and to veil the graceful lapses of his private code from the
sober austerities of a dignified Mohammedanism.
"Look alive now, Ram Lal!" said Hawke, briskly, as he handed his
confederate the telegram from Berthe Louison. "You see that the
lady will arrive here tomorrow night! Some one must go down to
Allahabad for her! Are you all ready for her coming?"
"Perfectly!" smiled Ram Lal. "The Mem-Sahib could give a dinner
of twenty covers in an hour after her arrival! You know that the
bungalow was fitted up for--" he bent his head and whispered to
Major Hawke, who laughed intelligently and viciously.
"All right, then! Here is the address in Allahabad, where the lady
is to wait for her conductors.
Pages:
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125