"He might give me a gentle push into the Styx," acutely reflected the Major.

"Sit down right there where I can see you," said Hawke, his hand firmly grasping the revolver, as he indicated a corner of the table, after satisfying himself that the shop door was locked.

He then quickly locked the garden door and pocketed both the keys.
"What do you want of me ?" murmured Ram Lal, who had noted the semi-hostile tone, and who clearly saw the butt of the revolver.
"I want to talk to you of this Johnstone matter," said the soldier, ignoring all other reference to the "dear departed." This coolness unsettled the wily jeweler, who trembled as Hawke laid a long red pocketbook down on the table before him.
The wily scoundrel shivered when the Major, with his left hand, pushed over to him five sets of Bills of Exchange for a thousand pounds each.
Ram Lal's eyes dropped under the brave villain's steady gaze, and he slowly read the first paper.

He well knew the drawer's writing: DELHI, August 15, 1890.
L 1,000.
Thirty days after sight of this first of exchange (second and third unpaid), pay to the order of Alan Hawke one thousand pounds sterling, value received.
HUGH FRASER JOHNSTONE.
To Messrs.

Glyn, Carr and Glyn, London.
"What do you wish me to do, Sahib ?" tremblingly faltered the old usurer, as he carefully noted the fifteen papers.