‘No, he hasn’t,’ he snapped.  ’There’s no trace of anything.  Call the servants.’

They came, eight or ten of them, whispering and peering over each other’s shoulders.

‘When did your Sahib go to bed?’ said Spurstow.

‘At eleven or ten, we think,’ said Hummil’s personal servant.

‘He was well then?  But how should you know?’

’He was not ill, as far as our comprehension extended.  But he had slept very little for three nights.  This I know, because I saw him walking much, and specially in the heart of the night.’

As Spurstow was arranging the sheet, a big straight-necked hunting-spur tumbled on the ground.  The doctor groaned.  The personal servant peeped at the body.

‘What do you think, Chuma?’ said Spurstow, catching the look on the dark face.

’Heaven-born, in my poor opinion, this that was my master has descended into the Dark Places, and there has been caught because he was not able to escape with sufficient speed.  We have the spur for evidence that he fought with Fear.  Thus have I seen men of my race do with thorns when a spell was laid upon them to overtake them in their sleeping hours and they dared not sleep.’

’Chuma, you’re a mud-head.  Go out and prepare seals to be set on the Sahib’s property.’

’God has made the Heaven-born.  God has made me.  Who are we, to inquire into the dispensations of God?  I will bid the other servants hold aloof while you are reckoning the tale of the Sahib’s property.  They are all thieves, and would steal.’

’As far as I can make out, he died from—­oh, anything; stoppage of the heart’s action, heat-apoplexy, or some other visitation,’ said Spurstow to his companions.  ’We must make an inventory of his effects, and so on.’

‘He was scared to death,’ insisted Lowndes.  ’Look at those eyes!  For pity’s sake don’t let him be buried with them open!’

‘Whatever it was, he’s clear of all the trouble now,’ said Mottram softly.

Spurstow was peering into the open eyes.

‘Come here,’ said he.  ‘Can you see anything there?’

‘I can’t face it!’ whimpered Lowndes.  ’Cover up the face!  Is there any fear on earth that can turn a man into that likeness?  It’s ghastly.  Oh, Spurstow, cover it up!’

‘No fear—­on earth,’ said Spurstow.  Mottram leaned over his shoulder and looked intently.

’I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.  There can be nothing there, you know.’

’Even so.  Well, let’s think.  It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.  Lowndes, old man, go out and tell the coolies to break ground next to Jevins’s grave.  Mottram, go round the house with Chuma and see that the seals are put on things.  Send a couple of men to me here, and I’ll arrange.’

The strong-armed servants when they returned to their own kind told a strange story of the doctor Sahib vainly trying to call their master back to life by magic arts,—­to wit, the holding of a little green box that clicked to each of the dead man’s eyes, and of a bewildered muttering on the part of the doctor Sahib, who took the little green box away with him.