“So it wouldn’t need mind reading to get out. You have wronged Kadir Dhin. I wish you would apologize to him. You haven’t apologized to him?”
“No—not yet,” said Chip. “I may, in time.”
Chip parried this subject off as well as he could. He was again too much in love with this girl to want anything like disagreement to come between them. Yet he was in no mood to apologize to the young Hindu. His belief was growing that Kadir Dhin was tricky; that he was imposing on the confidence of Colonel Gunn and Rose Maitland. He wanted proof of it, and meant to try to get it. So how could he go to Kadir Dhin and say to the young Hindu that he thought he had wronged and was wronging him? It had to be parried off. It was a dangerous subject.
There were ever so many pleasanter things to talk about, and Chip contrived to bring them forward; so that when he took his leave, it was with a sense of having had a pleasant time and of having made a good impression.
“I wonder if I am fickle-minded?” he thought, as he walked away, his mind turning to Rhoda Realf. “No, I don’t think I am. I like Rhoda—she’s fine; but Rose Maitland——”
Then he thought of Kadir Dhin.
“I can’t get it out of my nut that he is playing a double game. Of course, if he isn’t, and I see that he isn’t, I’ll apologize to him, and do it freely; though I’m afraid I can never like him.”
CHAPTER XIV.
When the Plot Went Wrong.
“DEAR me! Dear me!” said Colonel Gunn, twisting his glasses about on his nose, as he stared in astonishment at the crumpled note which had been brought to him by the servant girl.