"You ?" "Yes," answered the tall man; "I reached Calcutta last night.

I went into the Club for breakfast.

They told me you were here." Robert Hatch was of the same age as Ralston.

But there was little else which they had in common.

The two men had met some fifteen years ago for the first time, in Peshawur, and on that first meeting some subtle chord of sympathy had drawn them together; and so securely that even though they met but seldom nowadays, their friendship had easily survived the long intervals.