He stood wondering what he should do, when there came suddenly out of the darkness a queer soft scuffling sound, the like of which he had never heard.

He heard a heavy breathing and a bubbling noise and then into the fan of light which spread from the window of the bungalow a man in a scarlet livery rode on a camel.

The camel knelt; its rider dismounted, and as he dismounted he talked to Thresk's bearer.
Something passed from hand to hand and the bearer came back to Thresk with a letter in his hand.
"A chit from his Excellency." Thresk tore open the envelope and found within it an invitation to dinner, signed "Stephen Ballantyne." "Your letter has reached me this moment," the note ran.

"It came by your train.

I am glad not to have missed you altogether and I hope that you will come to-night.