Ten o’clock struck and we listened intently; in the still Indian night there were no sounds but the distant barking of a dog, the stamping of a pony in the stable and the thrumming of tom-toms in the Trimulgherry bazaar. Eleven o’clock—oh that agonised hour of long-drawn suspense! At last a gurra sounded twelve distinct strokes.
“Eva,” said Ronnie, suddenly breaking our poignant silence, “that black-hearted devil has played you false, and ruined me!”
“Don’t give up yet,” I said, “as soon as it’s light take my receipt and Tommy and gallop down to Chudderghat and fetch the money yourself.”
“Right O!” he agreed eagerly. “Yes, it’s our one chance. I shall have to be back before orderly-room, which is at eight o’clock.”
Long before eight o’clock Ronnie had returned, and I knew at once that the worst had happened! With a ghastly, rigid face he staggered into the veranda, as Tommy Atkins, dripping with sweat, was led away.
“The whole thing was a fraud—a devilish fraud!” said Ronnie, as he leant against a pillar and mopped his face. “Balthasar was not there. He left the station last night, and no one knows where he has gone or when he will return. He always had his knife into you, Eva, ever since the day you turned him out. Get me a peg; I must try and pull myself together before I go to the orderly-room and face the music. Hallo, here is Gloag!” he exclaimed, and to my astonishment Captain Gloag rode into the compound. He pulled up at the steps, threw the reins to a syce, and clanked into the drawing-room, where we followed him in silence.
“Good morning, Miss Lingard,” he said, looking more wooden-faced than ever. “Good morning, Lingard. Ahem—I’ve come on a rather unpleasant duty. Your presence is required in the orderly-room. The colonel has told me to receive your sword, and to place you under close arrest.”
With a face as wooden as the adjutant’s, and without a word, Ronnie went inside in search of his sword, and Captain Gloag turned to me and said:
“This is pretty awful for you, Miss Lingard. There has been some sort of mystery about the canteen funds, so the safe in the orderly-room was opened this morning—the drawer and the partition in which Lingard was understood to keep the notes was found empty. The safe has two keys; he had one when acting adjutant. Of course he may be able to explain all this, but the colonel is in a terrible state—regimental funds should never be removed.”
Here Ronnie appeared with his sword and handed it over in silence.