"What a fool was his master!" grunted Jaloo, as he stood gazing; "was he not well enough, and yet he would surely marry one of those women, doubtless the girl with the proud eyes, whom they in the bazaar called the 'Belait' (Europe) Missy." With this conviction he turned his back on the receding bank, and proceeded to toil up to the bungalow with his tray of jingling glasses, grunting and grumbling all the way. "I do believe it was you who sent us all the books and mangoes this hot season," said Pussy; "now, was it not, Mr. Salwey? Mother thought they came from some of Dom's friends. Oh, the mangoes were so good and juicy. I loved them--but Verona loved the books." "I am glad you were both pleased," rejoined Salwey with a smile. "Dom doesn't read now, nor Mother; she is so busy at her own books, since Abdul Buk has a boil on his neck. Oh, goody me! she does work. All day long and half the night." "At books? Do you mean that your mother writes?" "No, no, no; only in account books--about her propertee--and she has such piles of them! I saw them," giggled Pussy; "I peeped into the office the other day, when she was with Nani. My, such books! all ruled, like a draught board. Such rows and rows of figures!" "Surely you must be making a mistake?" and Salwey paused abruptly, resting on his oars, and contemplated Pussy with a glint of steel in his blue eyes, "only one class keeps accounts that way." "But no, no, no; I am quite certain," she giggled. "I thought it awfully queer--and what class do keep such funny books?" "Money-lenders," was his curt reply. "Mother is so fond of figures--oh, so mad about them. Perhaps," still giggling, "she is playing at being a soucar." "Perhaps; but she never struck me as a likely person to play--at anything!" Oh, Pussy, Pussy! what a gigantic cat you have suffered to escape through your imprudence! You have aroused the dawn of a suspicion in your boatman's shrewd mind! The golden light disappeared with the rude abruptness of an Eastern sunset; then came the changing touch in the air, the smell of rank water plants, the flip of a bat's wing; a silence and gloom which had fallen on the landscape was shared, for some inexplicable reason, by the little party in the boat. CHAPTER XXXIX Two evenings after this boating party Mr. Lepell and his nephew had a long interview with Mr. Chandos, who heard with astonishment that in Abdul Buk's house in the bazaar part of his daughter's jewellery had been recovered. That Abdul Buk's money ledgers had been examined, and he stood exposed as a cheat, a swindler, and a thief. He was a true wolf in sheep's clothing, who had contrived to pass himself off as an inoffensive, if somewhat garrulous, old man. Terrified by his situation, Abdul had turned King's evidence, and had confessed all, and figuratively given away his employer. His employer--incredible as it seemed--was Mrs. Chandos.