But Ralston returned to the subject before dinner was finished.

“I don’t think you need be uneasy, Mrs. Oliver,” he said.  “The house is guarded by sentinels, as no doubt you know.  They are native levies, of course, but they are quite reliable”; and in this he was quite sincere.  So long as they wore the uniform they would be loyal.  The time might come when they would ask to be allowed to go home.  That permission would be granted, and it was possible that they would be found in arms against the loyal troops immediately afterwards.  But they would ask to be allowed to go first.

“Still,” he resumed, “if you carry valuable jewellery about with you, it would be as well, I think, if you locked it up.”

“I have very little jewellery, and that not valuable,” said Violet, and suddenly her face flushed and she looked across the table at Linforth with a smile.  The smile was returned, and a minute later the ladies rose.

The two men were left alone to smoke.

“You know Mrs. Oliver better than I do,” said Ralston.  “I will tell you frankly what I think.  It may be a mere nothing.  There may be no cause for anxiety at all.  In any case anxiety is not the word” he corrected himself, and went on.  “There is a perfectly natural explanation.  The servants may have opened the window to air the room when they were preparing it for the night, and may easily have forgotten to latch the bolt afterwards.”

“Yes, I suppose that is the natural explanation,” said Linforth, as he lit a cigar.  “It is hard to conceive any other.”

“Theft,” replied Ralston, “is the other explanation.  What I said about the levies is true.  I can rely on them.  But the servants—­that is perhaps a different question.  They are Mahommedans all of them, and we hear a good deal about the loyalty of Mahommedans, don’t we?” he said, with a smile.  “They wear, if not a uniform, a livery.  All these things are true.  But I tell you this, which is no less true.  Not one of those Mahommedan servants would die wearing the livery, acknowledging their service.  Every one of them, if he fell ill, if he thought that he was going to die, would leave my service to-morrow.  So I don’t count on them so much.  However, I will make some inquiries, and to-morrow we will move Mrs. Oliver to another room.”

He went about the business forthwith, and cross-examined his servants one after another.  But he obtained no admission from any one of them.  No one had touched the window.  Was a single thing missing of all that the honourable lady possessed?  On their lives, no!

Meanwhile Linforth sought out Violet Oliver in the drawing-room.  He found her alone, and she came eagerly towards him and took his hands.

“Oh, Dick,” she said, “I am glad you have come back.  I am nervous.”

“There’s no need,” said Dick with a laugh.  “Let us go out.”

He opened the window, but Violet drew back.