“With two others, Mem Sahib.”

“And the others?”

“One was bitten by a snake an hour before dawn, and the other, who was an upright man, lives to-day.”

Moreen shuddered.

“Do you know”—she still hesitated to broach this subject with the man—“do you know where—Major Fayne has gone?”

“It is said, Mem Sahib, that a stream runs through the jungle close beside the old temple, a stream which bubbles up from a cavern and which is supposed to come underground from the Ruby Mine plateau. He goes early in the morning to look for rubies—so I think.”

Moreen tapped the ground with her foot.

“Do you think”—again she hesitated—“that Major Fayne is afraid of something? Of something—where we have come from?”

Ramsa Lal bowed low.