'And I did guard it!' put in Jerry aggrievedly, 'afore I went to sleep. For they comed to pull it down--didn't they?' He turned sharply to his henchmen. '_Huzoor!_' they assented eagerly, seeing extenuation in the plea, 'without doubt they came.' 'They may have!' said Jack Raymond aside, 'I haven't had time to find out yet. He was asleep when I came, with the key of the door in his hand; and they were positively afraid to take it from him till I insisted!' 'He is more than half-asleep now, poor child,' replied Grace in the same tone, struggling with her desire to laugh, and cry, and hug Jerry all at once. 'Bearer, you had better take the _chota-sahib_ back to his bed, and I will inquire about the rest by and by. Good-night, Jerry! or rather good-morning! You gave poor mum such a fright!' 'I'm solly,' murmured Jerry sleepily, shrinking as ever from the passionate caress she could not help giving, 'but they weally did come--didn't they?' '_Huzoor!_ without doubt they came!' echoed the trio forlornly. 'And I wouldn't be hard on them either,' said Jack Raymond, as the disconsolate little group moved homewards. 'I fancy they must have had some inkling of the city business, and then, when he started this game, they were in two minds if he wasn't right. You were all away, you see. And Master Jerry was completely master of the situation, I can tell you. He must have been thinking about it for some time, for he had provisions--chocolate caramels, and heaven knows what!--stored in the crevices--dear little chap! And that reminds me'--he paused with a laugh, and drew an official envelope sealed with a red seal out of his pocket--'here's his "Secret Despatches." They fell out of Lloyd's cartridge-case he was wearing, as he came down-stairs--he was so dead sleepy he could hardly stand--and I promised to hand them over to you. He has had them, he told me, these two months! and they are most important.' Grace Arbuthnot took the envelope, gave a glance at it, a cry, certain, yet incredulous-- 'It is my letter--_the_ letter--how could he have found it!' There was a pause as those two stood, in the dawn of another day, with that immemorial past about them, looking at each other almost doubtfully. 'There are more things in heaven and earth,' said the man at last. 'And so Jerry really has--hullo, what's up now? What do _you_ want?' '_Khodawund!_' replied the furtive importance, which was all that remained of the '_khânsâman_ to Ricketts-_sahib bahadur_ who was killed,' as it salaamed low to the masters. 'There is a _mem_ yonder in the Residency, whom I, Mohubbut, brought thither as I brought the other, into the keeping of Jân-Ali-shân. And he hath kept her! Yea! during the night when the evildoers came, he kept her safe as he did of old. But now it is dawn, and though I tell the _mem_ it is safety, she listens not; but if the _Huzoors_ come, she will believe.'