"Very neatly played," he muttered with a relieved sigh, as he leant back in the tikka-gharry which was carrying him along the brightly-lit streets to the appointed trysting-place. Presently the paving-stones were left behind, and the gharry rattled along a soft dusty roadway lined by trees, though the presence of lamps indicated that they were still in the suburbs. At last the gharry-wallah pulled up at the precincts of the little sandstone temple embowered by trees. Long dank grass of a marshy kind grew all round, the temple being in the near neighbourhood of a small river which ran into the Hoogly. This river was regarded as sacred, and therefore the little shrine had been planted on its banks. Under the shadow of a big neem tree Mr. Rayner caught sight of the Eurasian clerk, who now came towards him through the long grass with rapid steps. "Thought you were never coming, sir," he began. "I've been hangin' about this blessed place for more than an hour. I was makin' up my mind you was goin' to give me the slip!" He was holding some papers in his hand and his eyes shone with excitement. Mr. Rayner dismissed the gharry, and advanced a few steps into the grass, saying impatiently: "Well, out with it! Mind, if you humbug me, I'll find means to pay you out in something different from a bag of rupees. But for good value I'll pay you a good price. I know my father must be a person of importance, or Truelove Brothers wouldn't have been so deferential to me all along." "You're right, sir, he is a person of veree great importance. What's more, I've seen him with my own eyes and heard 'em whisperin'--the boss and him about you--'Alfred' bein' your name. So you see I know more than you might think to look at me." "You'd need to!" said Rayner contemptuously, as he surveyed the bent shoulders and the weak face of this humble member of the race he despised. "Come on then, out with it! I can't stand all night listening to your haverings. His name and his address!" "His name is an honoured one among us. It's David Morpeth, sir, and his address is Freyville, Vepery, Madras!" "You lie--you lie!" shouted Rayner, after a moment's stunned silence, waxing so deadly pale that the clerk thought he was about to faint. Then suddenly he flung himself on the young man and seized him by the throat. "You lie, say you lie!" he screamed. The youth strove frantically to shake himself free from the grasp of the convulsive fingers, and after a struggle succeeded in doing so. "Oh my gracious me!" he gasped. "Oh, my, what an onset--and for my prime bit of news too, as I thought you'd be proud to hear--you the son of such a man!" "Listen to me, you idiot," said Rayner in a choking voice, with an effort to calm himself. "There must be some mistake! This is not the truth you have told me. Say that you've lied and I'll forgive you--you'll have your hundred rupees. I've got it here--say you've been lying!"