of lozenges, and said, ‘In this box I have food for several days, so that I can remain here without inconvenience. The King and Fath-ud-Din have no food, and cannot pass me to leave the room; therefore I would recommend that they follow my advice.’ The King saw the reason of it, and called one of the black fellows, whom he ordered to fetch Jahan Beg at once, without saying anything about what had been going on. You may judge that in spite of this I kept the revolver ready in case of any attempt to rush me; but none was made. I think the King felt that it was necessary to get to the bottom of the matter, for he even invited me to come and sit beside him; but I refused, ‘until my words were proved true,’ as I said. I don’t know whether Fath-ud-Din or I felt the more uncomfortable when the messenger was gone, for it struck me that Jahan Beg might think it advisable not to tell the exact truth, in which case I should find myself badly left; but I made a great parade of eating one of the lozenges, and I hope I dissembled my uneasiness better than the Vizier did. Happily, when poor old Jahan Beg was brought in--a perfect shadow, wasted and ill, and ragged, and chained--he gathered the significance of the questions the King asked him at once, and confirmed exactly what I had said, being able to corroborate my account of the Vizier’s earlier visits to the Mission. Of course, he did not know anything of the Antar Khan business, which did not happen until after his arrest; but I had an inspiration there. I suggested an examination of Fath-ud-Din’s servants, with the view of discovering whether he had really held communication with the Scythian agent and with us. The King jumped at the idea, and improved upon it by ordering a search of his house as well. I thought that it was not likely to be much good; but I was mistaken, for his scribe, on being arrested, displayed such great anxiety to be allowed to take his copy of the Koran to prison with him that suspicion was excited, and in the cover of it they found concealed a written promise from the Scythian agent, pledging his Government to support Antar Khan in case of the King’s death, and to pay Fath-ud-Din eight thousand pounds in return for his getting their treaty signed. The greedy old beast must have had the paper in his possession when he came to us this morning--was it really only this morning?--and tried to get us to outbid him by two thousand pounds. It was exactly the evidence we wanted, and its discovery is only another warning never to commit compromising agreements to writing.” “Yes; and then?” asked Fitz, eagerly, seeing that Stratford appeared inclined to moralise.