want me there.”      

       The instant the train's motion altogether ceased the heat shut in on them as if the lid of Tophet had been slammed. The prickly heat burst out all over Hyde's skin and King's too.     

       “Almighty God!” gasped Hyde, beginning to fan himself.     

       There was plenty of excuse for relaxing hold still further, and King made full use of it. A second later he gave a very good pretense of pain in his finger-ends as the thief burst free. The native made a dive at his bosom for the knife, but he frustrated that. Then he made a prodigious effort, just too late, to clutch the man again, and he did succeed in tearing loose a piece of shirt; but the fleeing robber must have wondered, as he bolted into the blacker shadows of the station building, why such an iron-fingered, wide-awake sahib should have made such a truly feeble showing at the end.     

       “Damn it!--couldn't you hold him? Were you afraid of him, or what?”        demanded Hyde, beginning to dress himself. Instead of answering, King leaned out into the lamp-lit gloom, and in a minute he caught sight of a sergeant of native infantry passing down the train. He made a sign that brought the man to him on the run.     

       “Did you see that runaway?” he asked.     

       “Ha, sahib. I saw one running. Shall I follow?”      

       “No. This piece of his shirt will identify him. Take it. Hide it! When a man with a torn shirt, into which that piece fits, makes for the telegraph office after this train has gone on, see that he is allowed to send any telegrams he wants to! Only, have copies of every one of them wired to Captain King, care of the station-master, Delhi. Have you understood?”      

       “Ha, sahib.”      

       “Grab him, and lock him up tight afterward--but not until he has sent his telegrams!'     

       “Atcha, sahib.”      

       “Make yourself scarce, then!”      

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