Through the window he looked out upon a lawn which was being watered by a garden-sprinkler, and where a gardener was at work attending to a bed of bright flowers.

There, too, she had been making the usual pathetic attempt to convert a half-acre of this country of yellow desert into a green garden of England.

Coulson had not a shadow of doubt in his mind Stella Ballantyne would exchange this room with its restful colours and its outlook on a green lawn for--at the best--many years of solitary imprisonment in Poona Gaol.

He shut up his book with a snap.
"Will you be ready to go in an hour ?" he asked roughly.
"Yes," said she.
"If I leave you unwatched during that hour you will promise to me that you will be ready to go in an hour ?" Stella Ballantyne nodded her head.
"I shall not kill myself now," she said, and he looked at her quickly, but she did not trouble to explain her words.

She merely added: "I may take some clothes, I suppose ?" "Whatever you need," said the Inspector.