joint investments--that, he decided, must be kept in the dark--but to see whether he could negotiate a much needed loan on easier terms than those of the Madras _soukars_. He considered it therefore worth the odiousness of being condemned to spend an evening in the crimson plush drawing-room and the discomfort of a night in the shining brass bedstead, if he could work his host up to that pitch of smiling compliance which would make his request an easier task than it seemed likely to be during the first few minutes of his call. It was, however, with the cheque for five thousand rupees in his pocket-book, albeit with even a greater loss of self-respect than his dealings with the wily Mussulman had hitherto engendered, that Alfred Rayner stepped out at the low doorway in the weather-stained wall next morning. His host had ordered his gaudy little chariot to be in readiness to drive him to the railway station. It waited now as Zynool stood salaaming on the narrow pavement. As Mr. Rayner was stepping into the carriage he caught sight of two Englishmen passing along the head of the street. They walked slowly. One was a short, broad-shouldered man, who was endeavouring to hold a white-covered umbrella over the head of his younger and taller companion as they laughed and chatted together. "There goes Dr. Campbell, mine enemee," said Zynool, with a fierce scowl, "and the osser is that haughtee young man. What a pity he did not see your Honour at the house of your humble slave here," he added, with an air of disappointment. Rayner had retreated into the depths of the bandy before he ventured to make any reply. "So that's Dr. Campbell, is it? Not a very formidable looking person! I should say, Zynool, that you're a match for that little man with the hollow chest," he said, with a careless laugh as he settled himself among the cushions, while Zynool's dark face filled the window. Rayner was longing to ask him the question which he was anxiously asking himself. "Had Mark caught sight of him at the Mussulman's door?" He fervently hoped not, and made an absent, formal salaam as he took leave of his host. He congratulated himself that the two gentlemen, being on foot, were probably going to the dispensary while their carriage waited near, and that there would be no risk of his meeting them. He was therefore not a little chagrined when the first person he saw standing on the platform was the Assistant-Collector. Perceiving that an encounter was inevitable, Rayner went forward with a gracious smile. "Who would have thought of seeing you here, Cheveril!" "Why, I should rather say, who would have thought of seeing you at our little Puranapore," responded Mark, with that direct look in his eye which had already annoyed Rayner more than once.