"I was in a Goorkha regiment in India some twenty-five years ago----" Gerald interrupted: "I thought you were in a West Indian Regiment." "Later, later!" said Rebb testily. "Don't interrupt. I exchanged to Jamaica a few years later. But in India I had a brother officer, who was my greatest friend. His name was Julian Durham, and he had six thousand a year against my six hundred. He was not very strong, and always said that, as he had no relatives, he would make me his heir. Then he married a silly, flirting girl, with whom he quarreled, and my hopes were thus dashed to the ground." "Did you aid the quarrel?" asked Gerald delicately. "Yes," replied Rebb shamelessly. "The wife stood in the way of my getting a fortune from Julian, and I tried to part husband and wife. I succeeded; for more than a year after the marriage, Mrs. Durham went to Bombay, with the intention of living apart from her husband." "What a scoundrel you are, Rebb," said Haskins, astonished at the cold-blooded way in which the man recounted his villainy. The Major laughed harshly. "I only tell this to you, and you don't matter," he retorted. "Outside, if you say anything, I shall deny all, and who will believe you, Haskins? However, to continue. We were stationed in the far north of India, and I escorted Mrs. Durham to Bombay, where she intended to embark for England. At Bombay she was taken ill, and died giving birth to twins. I didn't want a couple of girls on my hands, as I knew that Julian could not live long, so I paid the nurse to take one of the children--the eldest, mind you--to Simla, and to get rid of it somehow. She sold it, I believe, to a juggler's wife, and afterwards Mrs. Pelham Odin, then on tour, bought the child in Calcutta, to bring up. That child is Charity Bird." "Can you prove this?" "Yes! Be quite certain of that. The ayah and the juggler's wife are still alive. Well, then, that disposed of one twin. I brought the other back to the north of India to her father, and she was christened Mavis. Julian was very ill, so made a will in my favor and in favor of his child. I was to be her guardian, and to enjoy the money until she married. Then I was to hand it over, without accounting for what I had spent. In this way Julian hoped to satisfy me for his old promise to make me his heir, and of course I agreed." "And you said nothing of the other twin?"