“If I could think so, the mystery would be cleared up. As it is--” the Colonel broke off suddenly, on the entrance of the prisoner with his guards. He signed to the two sowars to retire out of earshot, and addressed their charge. “I have sent for you privately because I hope that things are less black than they look against you, Ismail Bakhsh. That a man with your record should be detected in the act of deserting to the enemy seems preposterous, and I hope you may be able to show that your idea was to obtain information of some kind. In that case your conduct might be passed over for once, as imprudent but not disgraceful.” “I have nothing to say, sahib. I had my orders.” “Orders from Bahram Khan? Don’t trifle with me, Ismail Bakhsh. Am I to give Mrs North the pain of knowing that her father’s orderly has been shot as a traitor?” The old man drew himself up. “Since I shall no longer be present to protect the Memsahib and her son, I will tell thee the truth, sahib, that thou mayest watch over them in my stead. My orders were from the Memsahib herself.” “Mrs North told you to desert?” cried the Colonel incredulously. “The Memsahib bade me be ready to convey her and her son and her waiting-woman out of the fort at such an hour, and I obeyed her.” “Oh, come, this is too much! Why should Mrs North wish to leave the fort?” Ismail Bakhsh cast a fierce glance at Mr Burgrave, who had taken no part in the examination. “I can guess the reason, sahib, but it is not expedient to accuse the great ones of the earth to their faces.” “Now what did I tell you?” asked Colonel Graham of the Commissioner. “I said you were mixed up in it somehow. You would like to have the matter cleared up, of course?” “By all means,” said Mr Burgrave indifferently. The proceedings bored him, and he did not see why both the Colonel and Ismail Bakhsh should persist in bringing his name into them. “Speak, and fear not,” said the Colonel.