“You must not look at the dead, North, but at the living. If it should so happen that I were to die as the doctor has died, my last care would be to give Stratford a solemn charge to get the rest of you safely out of the country before he hinted at suspicion or said a word about avenging me. I don’t deny that we ought never to have brought the ladies here, but, hampered as we are by their presence, we have given hostages to fortune. Heaven helping me, I mean to have that treaty signed yet, before we leave Kubbet-ul-Haj; but, if that is not to be, then I shall turn all my thoughts to getting the ladies across the frontier in safety. I hope I may feel assured that my staff will do all in their power to co-operate with me, and to take my place should I be removed.” “You may count on me, Sir Dugald,” said Dick, slowly. “I hope you will forgive what I said just now. I was so much upset that I did not consider things properly.” Before Sir Dugald could answer, Stratford, who had gone back to the Mission to prepare for his visit to the Palace, returned with Kustendjian, and received his orders. He was on no account to enter the Palace, merely to stand without and demand justice; and he was to be satisfied with nothing less than a royal proclamation denouncing the murderers, and ordering an immediate search for the fugitive servants. Little success as could be hoped for from this measure, such an edict would at least vindicate the prestige of the Mission. “Now,” said Sir Dugald to Dick when Stratford and the interpreter had taken their departure, “we will get two or three of the servants over here, and set them to work to knock together a coffin. We must make it out of some of these packing-cases, I suppose. It will only be a rough affair. And then we must see about a burial-ground and a grave. It is sad to leave behind one you have liked and trusted in a country like this!” Sir Dugald’s iron face twitched as he spoke, and he stooped over the corpse. “Can you find a pair of scissors, North? I must cut off a lock of his hair for Lady Haigh to take to his mother, for I will not allow either her or Miss Keeling to come over and see him like this. I must break the news to them presently, but they shall know as little of the truth as I can manage to tell them.”