widely dissociated as the foul-mouthed old corporal of artillery and
the distinguished Anglo-Indian general have each earned the ill-will of
these strange castaways? And if the danger were a positive physical one,
why should he not consent to my proposal to have the three men placed
under custody--though I confess it would have gone much against my grain
to act in so inhospitable a manner upon such vague and shadowy grounds. 

These questions were absolutely unanswerable, and yet the solemn words
and the terrible gravity which I had seen in the faces of both the
old soldiers forbade me from thinking that their fears were entirely
unfounded. 

It was all a puzzle--an absolutely insoluble puzzle. 

One thing at least was clear to me--and that was that in the present
state of my knowledge, and after the general's distinct prohibition,
it was impossible for me to interfere in any way. I could only wait and
pray that, whatever the danger might be, it might pass over, or at least
that my dear Gabriel and her brother might be protected against it. 

I was walking down the lane lost in thought, and had got as far as the
wicket gate which opens upon the Branksome lawn, when I was surprised to
hear my father's voice raised in most animated and excited converse. 

The old man had been of late so abstracted from the daily affairs of the
world, and so absorbed in his own special studies, that it was difficult
to engage his attention upon any ordinary, mundane topic. Curious to
know what it was that had drawn him so far out of himself, I opened
the gate softly, and walking quietly round the laurel bushes, found him
sitting, to my astonishment, with none other than the very man who was
occupying my thoughts, Ram Singh, the Buddhist. 

The two were sitting upon a garden bench, and the Oriental appeared to
be laying down some weighty proposition, checking every point upon his
long, quivering, brown fingers, while my father, with his hands thrown
abroad and his face awry, was loud in protestation and in argument. 

So absorbed were they in their controversy, that I stood within a
hand-touch of them for a minute or more before they became conscious of
my presence. 

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