“Yes. My Babu was telling me something of the kind only to-day,” rejoined Raynier, tranquilly. “By the way, Haslam, how is it all this while we’ve never been through that tangi? You know, the one you were telling me the yarn about?”
Haslam stared.
“Well, you know, old chap—I—I told you the yarn, didn’t I? Well, that explains it.”
“But you don’t really mean to say you believe in such arrant tomfoolery?”
“I don’t know about believing in it. But—well, it’s best to be on the safe side.”
“Goodness gracious, I should think so,” struck in Mrs Tarleton. “Why, I wouldn’t go into that place if anyone were to offer me a million pounds.”
“Well, I wish they’d offer it to me, that’s all,” said Raynier. “For I mean to go through it to-morrow, gratis. Who’ll volunteer? What do you say, Miss Clive?”
“I’ll go, with pleasure,” was the answer.
It will be seen that these two had kept their former experience to themselves, and this they had done by mutual agreement, mainly to get some fun out of the rest of the party, and it was to this object Raynier was now leading up. The head which both had seen watching them they had since accounted for by optical delusion, even as the startling sounds had been accounted for by perfectly natural causes.
Mrs Tarleton gave a cry of genuine consternation.