Shumilal drummed for an absent moment on the desk, then answered, with a coal of fire!
"Well, Captain Mallender, if you were not so impatient, I was going to give you first-class news, and inform you, that you are very near success."
"Oh! But why not say so before, instead of keeping me on the string?"
"Yes; and we believe, that he you seek, is close to you, at an old place twenty miles out; once a depôt for military—but now abandoned. In one of the bungalows there lives the gentleman you want; he is over fifty years of age. He shuns all society, he hides some weighty secret, he has been in India for many years; and if you are patient and cautious, you are bound to catch him. You will have to go out there, and put up at the Dâk Bungalow. Better take food, and servants, and provisions."
"All right!" said Mallender curtly, "but you haven't told me the fellow's name?"
"Smith, Major Smith; his cheques and bills are made out to John Smith."
"Very well, I shall start this evening. What do you call the place?"
"Panjeverram; and now that we are talking secretly, tell me, Captain Mallender, do you expect to find your Uncle?"
"No, but I hope to secure his murderer; he has had a tremendous start, and a long respite, but please God, I'll lay my hands on him within a week."
"But if this man is not your object—I believe he is—but, we are all liable to mistakes, what then?"