Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: http://books.google.com/books?id=bqcOAAAAIAAJ (Stanford University Libraries) 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. Voices in the Night BY THE SAME AUTHOR _Uniform with this Volume, price 6s_. ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS. THE POTTER'S THUMB. FROM THE FIVE RIVERS. IN THE PERMANENT WAY. * * * LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN 21 BEDFORD STREET. W.C. Voices in the Night By Flora Annie Steel Author of 'On the Face of the Waters,' etc. London William Heinemann 1900 _All rights, including translation, reserved_ _This Edition enjoys Copyright in all Countries signatory to the Berne Treaty, and is not to be imported into the United States of America_. CONTENTS _Prologue_. _Chapter_ i. _The Totalisator_. ii. _The Kite-Flyers_. iii. _Cobwebs_. iv. _An Unforgotten Past_. v. _Shark Lane_. vi. _The Money of Fools_. vii. _Crackers and Squibs_. viii. _The Temple of Viseshawar_. ix. _Uncertainties_. x. _The Sinews of War_. xi. _The Spirit of Kings and Slaves_. xii. _A Mother's Dirge_. xiii. _A Valse à deux temps_. xiv. _In the Toils_. xv. _The Râm Rucki_. xvi. _The Prison of Life_. xvii. _The Pen and the Sword_. xviii. _The Freedom of Death_. xix. _On the Bed Rock_. xx. _The Old Wine_. xxi. _Red Paint_. xxii. _The Better Part_. xxiii. _A Memorable Occasion_. xxiv. _The Sovereignty of Air_. xxv. _Secret Despatches_. xxvi. _Fair Odds_. PROLOGUE The new year was already some hours old, but the world to which it had come was still dark. Dark with a curious obscurity, that was absolutely opaque yet faintly luminous, because of the white fog which lay on all things and hid them from the stars; for the sky above was clear, cold, almost frosty. That was why the fog, born, not of cool vapour seeking for cloud life among the winds of heaven, but of hot smoke loving the warmth of dust and ashes, clung so closely to the earth; to its birthplace.