With difficulty she arose, for she was very ill, and the loss of blood had been great. Having assured herself that all was quiet, and that there was no one stirring, she commenced to descend, and soon gained the compound. This she quickly crossed, and stood in the shed where Walter waited, burning with anxiety and suspense almost unbearable. In the uncertain light, he did not recognise for some moments who his visitor was; but as soon as he discovered it was Mehal, he sprang towards her, and in a voice, rendered tremulous by his excessive anxiety, cried-- “What of Miss Meredith--where is she?” “Hush!” Mehal answered, clutching his arm and leaning upon him, for she was terribly weak. Then for the first time, Walter noticed the bandage round the old woman’s head, and that something was the matter. His heart sank within him, for Mehal’s appearance in such a plight augured a disaster--so he thought--that might annihilate his hopes. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked eagerly, as he led the woman to the heap of straw. “Our plans have miscarried,” she said, as she seated herself with difficulty, and the pain from her wound caused her to utter an involuntary groan. The strong man staggered as the words were uttered, for it sounded like the death-knell of Flora. In an instant he remembered the promise he had made to Mrs. Harper the night before he had left Meerut. “I will either save Flora, or perish in the attempt.” That promise should be fulfilled one way or the other. He mentally pledged himself again to that. When he had recovered from the first effects of the startling news, he said-- “But how is it the plans have miscarried? and where is Miss Meredith?” “I liberated her. She must have been near you.” Gordon uttered a cry of agony, and pressed his hand to his head, as there flashed through his brain the remembrance of the cry which had startled him in his sleep, and which he believed to be a delusion, but he now knew was a reality. He moaned, fairly moaned, with the unutterable sense of sickness which was at his heart, as he realised that, by some accident, Flora had been near, without discovering him. “Tell me all,” he said, when he was able to speak. Mehal related the circumstances of her struggle with Wanna, of Flora’s descent to the balcony, of her starting off for the shed, and the other particulars which have already been chronicled. “Answer me one question,” Walter gasped, for his breath came so thick and fast that he could scarcely speak. “Did you tell Miss Meredith of my disguise?” “No; it did not occur to me to do so.” “I see it now clear enough,” he continued. “She has been here. The voice I heard was hers. She did not recognise me in this disguise, and fled.” “I think there can be no doubt that these are the true facts,” Mehal remarked. “And it must have been on leaving the shed that she was recaptured.”