I slipped into the house when Simpson went away
next day. He often goes out to drink secretly, and he has a pretty
Eurasian friend or two, besides, down in the quarter." Ram Lal
winked significantly. "I went all over the upper part of the house
myself. The women's rooms were left just as if they had gone out
for a drive along the Jumna. If they took anything it was only
a few hand parcels. Now you know all that I know. No one ever saw
the strange man before. And these people are gone for good, that is
all. Go now to the Mem-Sahib at the Silver Bungalow. I fear her.
But tell me what I must say to her." The old man was evidently in a
mortal fear. "There is that French devil--that old soldier. He is
a fighting devil, that one, and the woman a tiger. The lady herself
is a tiger of tigers!"
"Say nothing, Ram Lal," soothingly said Hawke. "Leave it all to me.
I see it. Old Johnstone has sent the girl to the hills to keep her
away from the young fellows who will crowd the house, while this
General Abercromby is here. There'll be drink and cards, and God
knows what else."
"I know," grinned Ram Lal. "I knew old Johnstone in the old days,
a man-eater, a woman-killer, a cold-hearted devil, too! What does
he do with this General?" The jewel merchant's eyes blazed.
"Oh! Buying his new title with some official humbug or another. I
don't know. Perhaps he is really settling his accounts," laughed
Hawke.
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