AT THE GATE OF LAHORE Shere Ali, accordingly, travelled with reluctance to Bombay, and at that port an anonymous letter with the postmark of Calcutta was brought to him on board the steamer.

Shere Ali glanced through it, and laughed, knowing well his countrymen's passion for mysteries and intrigues.

He put the letter in his pocket and took the northward mail.

These were the days before the North-West Province had been severed from the Punjab, and instructions had been given to Shere Ali to break his journey at Lahore.
He left the train, therefore, at that station, on a morning when the thermometer stood at over a hundred in the shade, and was carried in a barouche drawn by camels to Government House.

There a haggard and heat-worn Commissioner received him, and in the cool of the evening took him for a ride, giving him sage advice with the accent of authority.
"His Excellency would have liked to have seen you himself," said the Commissioner.