“Oh, I forgot that you have heard nothing about the black heart-shaped locket, just like the one which you saw hung round my neck on the first day that we met. Premi had its fac-simile on the day when she was brought to the fort; Robin and I thought that if we could only get possession of it, we could identify my cousin by its means.” Harold’s face brightened: an intolerable weight was lifted from his heart; his fears for his wife’s loss of reason were gone. Mr. Hartley listened as eagerly as did his son to the full and graphic account which Alicia now gave of her visit to the fort. Harold laughed at the bargaining over the locket, and when told of the flinging away of the bracelet which had had such a happy effect, the husband exclaimed with proud delight, “My noble girl, my spirited wife! you deserve to wear the Koh-i-nur itself on your arm!” Mr. Hartley’s praise was almost as warm as that of his son. “It was bravely done,” he said. “Our Alicia had asked for wisdom and courage, and they were given in the moment of need.” “Yes,” said Alicia earnestly; “I feel that I was helped all through, or I should never have succeeded. Was it not a mercy that at the very moment when I knew not whither to turn, you should have been passing along the road?” “Had not our departure from the encampment been delayed by my oversleeping myself,” observed Mr. Hartley, “we should have been at the bungalow hours before this.” “You were so weary—you have been ill!” cried Alicia. “I cannot bear to ride while you walk; I would rather, far rather be on foot.” “My child, I have boots; your little slippers have been fairly worn out in honourable service,” was the playful reply. “Robin must never twit me about them again,” said Alicia. “What to me is incomprehensible is Robin’s conduct to-day!” exclaimed Harold, with a touch of indignation in his tone. “It is so unlike him to bring a sister into a difficult situation, and then to desert her, after promising to keep near.” “And why did the kahars too run away?” cried Alicia; “something very strange must have occurred.” “The mystery will soon be cleared up,” observed Mr. Hartley, “for we have come in sight of the bungalow at last.” The reader will find the solution of the mystery in the following chapter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XV A STRUGGLE.