"I didn't _say_ it was a ghost, mind ye," interposed the General, with a grave regard for his veracity; "only we were puzzled a bit. There _was_ something there we all knew; and something that could reach up to the high shelves, and break things on the floor too, you see. We had been watching, off and on, I think, some three or four weeks, and I heard one night, early, a row in the store-room--a devil of a row it was; but Smith was on dooty, as we used to say, that night, so I left it to him; and he could have sung out, you know, if he wanted help--poor fellow! And in the morning my native fellow told me that poor Smith was dead in the store-room; and, egad! so he was, poor fellow!" "How awful!" exclaimed Beatrix. And Miss Blunket, in girlish horror, covered her fierce black eyes with her lank fingers. "A bite of a cobra, by Jove! above the knee, and another on the hand. A fattish fellow, poor Smith, the natives say they go faster--that sort of man; but no one can stand a fair bite of a cobra--I defy you. We killed him after." "What! _Smith?_" whispered Linnett in his neighbour's ear. "He lay in a basket; you never saw such a brute," continued the General; "he was very near killing another of my people." "So _there_ was your ghost?" said Doocey, archly. "Worse than a ghost," observed Sir Paul Blunket. "A dooced deal," acquiesced the General gravely. "You're very much annoyed with vermin out there in India?" remarked Sir Paul. "So we are, sir," agreed the General. "It's very hard, you see, to meet with a genuine ghost, Miss Marlowe; they generally turn out impostors," said Doocey. "I should like to think my room was haunted," said Lady Jane. "Oh! _dear_ Lady Jane, how _can_ you be so _horribly_ brave?" cried Miss Blunket. "We have no cobras here, at all events," said Sir Paul, nodding to Sir Jekyl, with the gravity becoming such a discovery. "No," said Sir Jekyl, gloomily. I suppose he was thinking of something else. The ladies now floated away like summer clouds, many-tinted, golden, through the door, which Doocey held gracefully open; and the mere mortals of the party, the men, stood up in conventional adoration, while the divinities were translated, as it were, before their eyes, and hovered out of sight and hearing into the resplendent regions of candelabra and mirrors, nectar and ambrosia, tea and plum-cake, and clouds of silken tapestry, and the musical tinkling of their own celestial small-talk. CHAPTER X. Inquiries have been made by Messrs, Pelter and Crowe. Before repairing to bed, such fellows, young or old, as liked a talk and a cigar, and some sherry--or, by'r lady, brandy and water--were always invited to accompany Sir Jekyl to what he termed the back settlement, where he bivouacked among deal chairs and tables, with a little camp-bed, and plenty of wax candles and a brilliant little fire.