Trust to no one but
the other maid, who is devoted to me," proudly said the dapper
little Frenchman. Nearing the mansion, on this eventful morning,
Prince Djiddin, at a hidden bend of a leafy path, whispered to his
fair conductress, "For God's sake, darling Nadine, do not betray
yourself! Those sweetly shining eyes are tell-tale stars! Your
heart happiness will struggle for expression. Go to your rooms at
once. Pour out your happy heart in song, lift up your voice. But,
watch over your very heart-throbs! Only a single fortnight more,
darling, and we will clip the claws of this old Scottish lion who
has you in his clutches!
"Anstruther will soon make his coup de main, for Hawke has at last
gone back to India, and we will have a deadly grasp soon on the
frightened Andrew Fraser. He must either give up his legal tyranny
and yield you to us, or else face a future which would appall
even a braver man. I dare not to tell you our secret yet. Only the
Viceroy and Anstruther know it. And, now, darling, above all, be
sure not to betray yourself, in London. Remember that Anstruther
will have you secretly watched, from this gate to the very moment
when you return to it! Any false play of old Fraser would lead to
his detention by the authorities, and you would be freed at once
by the law!"
In the three weeks of their long masquerade, neither Prince Djiddin,
his scribe and interpreter, or else the two, as studious visitors,
never left Andrew Fraser alone a single moment! The old scholar
was thrilled at heart with Eric Murray's solemn rehearsing of Frank
Halton's valuable notebooks and ingenious theories.
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