Alicia eagerly ran forward, attempting to call out as she ran; but voice and breath failed her, and she was only able to gasp out, “Harold, Harold!” in tones too feeble to reach the ear of her husband. Alicia ran on, then paused to call again, her heart beating so violently that she pressed her hand over it to still its throbbing. A third call, which rose into a cry, burst from her parched lips. At the distance which separated husband from wife it was inaudible to any but Harold; but love’s quick ear caught the sound of the dear familiar voice. Harold turned round, saw his wife, and hurried back to meet her, with an expression of surprise, anxiety, and almost terror on his pale face. Seeing Alicia alone, strangely attired and greatly excited, a horrible suspicion flashed across the young man’s mind that the effect of sunstroke had turned his poor bride’s brain. In no other way could Harold account for finding her thus—at some distance from home, unattended, arrayed in white satin, and running as if for her life. Harold hastened to meet her, and the poor frightened dove threw herself into his arms, and burst into a passionate flood of tears. This still further alarmed her husband, who mistook the expression of joy and relief for one of distress. Alicia’s face was crimson with the exertion of running in the heat, her slight frame trembled violently; but even at that moment there was a tone of triumph in her sobbed-out words, “I have it—I have it—safe in my bosom!” “What have you, my love, my life?” asked Harold; but he did not press for a reply. His only thought was how to get his afflicted wife safe home. Mr. Hartley, who had turned to see the cause of Harold’s suddenly quitting his side, had ridden back to the spot where his son and Alicia were standing, and shared the surprise and alarm of young Hartley. The missionary threw himself off his pony with all the energy of youth, and bade Harold place Alicia upon it. The agitated girl was lifted to the saddle and supported on it by her husband, who spoke to her gentle words of soothing, as he might have done to a frightened child. Very slowly the party proceeded homewards, Harold holding a white umbrella over the head of his wife. He did not ask any questions; but as soon as the short burst of crying was over, and Alicia had recovered her breath, she was eager to recount her adventures. “You wonder at seeing me in such a strange dress; but Robin said that my best chance of getting into the fort was to go in my wedding attire. How absurd it must look!” “So it is Robin whom I have to thank for this!” exclaimed Harold angrily. “I shall take care not to leave you under the care of such a hare-brained mad-cap again.” “But Robin was right, quite right!” laughed Alicia. “I did get into the fort, and I _did_ get the locket out of the hands of the Hindu bibis!” “What locket? you speak in riddles, my love.”