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 tenaciously, only to rescue the two women in his boat. He had come to know that Dalani was the Nawab's Begum, and he thought that the enemies were continuing the chase for her alone. It, therefore, seemed to him that everything would be all right, if he would let off the Begum. He finally decided that he would drop down Dalani, somewhere on the bank of the river. He then said to the Begum,

"Do you see that yonder little boat, following us?"

"Yes, I do," replied Dalani, briefly.

"That boat belongs to your party," said Foster. "It is coming to snatch you off from our hands."

Was there really any reason to justify such a suspicion? No, nothing of the kind. It was absolutely the outcome of Foster's mental aberration—he mistook a rope for a snake. If Dalani had carefully considered what Foster had said, she would have certainly questioned the reality of Foster's apprehension. But, it is invariably the case that people completely lose themselves in the fascination of the very name of the object they crave for—hope makes them blind and they unhesitatingly shun deliberation! Dalani's mind was com-