“Only you came romping in at the finish,” said Fitz. “But what about your own prospects, Mr Stratford?” “They can look after themselves. I may mention that the Chief let out this morning that he intended to mention us all very honourably in his report, so that we shall none of us lose in the long-run.” “It is splendid of you to leave Sir Dugald the credit in this way, Mr Stratford,” said Georgia; “and we shall all think far more highly of you than if you had claimed the honour for yourself.” “But what about your archives--your official journal?” asked Dick, who was still unconvinced. “I wrote that entry myself. Hush, here comes the Chief!” And the conspiracy of silence was an accomplished fact, although Dick continued to argue the matter vainly with both Stratford and Georgia all the evening, as often as he could get either of them alone. They succeeded at last in reducing him to a condition of grumbling acquiescence, and during the journey of the next few days all the conspirators did their best to accustom themselves to the new view of what had happened, until they were almost ready to accept it as the true one. Strangely enough, however, they had left out of account an important element which ought to have entered into their calculations, and it was through this oversight that their deep-laid schemes failed eventually of success. The blow came suddenly on the last day of the march, when the officers at Fort Rahmat-Ullah, riding out to welcome the returning travellers, had met them on the frontier. The Mission was being escorted back to the Fort in triumph, and Sir Dugald, able now to mount his horse, was talking to the Commandant as they rode side by side. “Your staff seem to have come uncommonly well out of this business,” remarked the Commandant. “Of course we expected great things from North, and we were not a bit astonished when he turned up with the treaty, after a three days’ solitary ride; but that Foreign Office fellow of yours--Stratford his name is, isn’t it?--appears to have developed in a wholly unexpected direction.” “My staff have all behaved extremely well, and I shall have great pleasure in representing the fact in the proper quarter.” “Oh, come, Haigh, it’s more than that--or do you include absolute heroism in the bond of your requirements? It is not every civilian that would take his life in his hand in the way your man did, and have the nerve to carry through a palace revolution and secure the object of the Mission all at once. I can tell you that when we heard the story from Hicks, there wasn’t one of us but was simply yearning to have had Stratford’s chance, and to have made as good use of it as he did.” “I wish I had scragged Hicks!” muttered Stratford, behind, to Dick; but Sir Dugald’s face betrayed no astonishment. “Then I suppose our friend Hicks is beforehand with us now in the matter of news, as he was a short time ago in reaching Kubbet-ul-Haj?”