His last shore duty was done when he had wired to his urgent relative in Delhi the glad tidings: "All right.

Coomassie Castle.

Orders strictly obeyed." Even the astute Alan Hawke failed, after many days of futile private research, to trace the route of the train which had pulled out of Delhi in the dead of night, beat the record to Allahabad, and then, turning off apparently for Bombay, had curved, on a loop, to the Madras line, and surpassed all speed records on the Indian Peninsula.

Even when he telegraphed to Ram Lal's friends at Madras, he could obtain no definite trace, the railway officials were silent, and the travelers had sought no hotel in Madras.

Hugh Johnstone's well applied money had smothered all inquiry.