Tell me,
bearing that in mind, whether you will penetrate the Indian's motive for
yourself? or whether you wish me to save you the trouble of making any
inquiry into it?"
It is needless to say that I thoroughly appreciated the practical
purpose which I now saw that he had in view, and that the first of the
two alternatives was the alternative I chose.
"Very good," said Mr. Murthwaite. "We will take the question of the ages
of the three Indians first. I can testify that they all look much about
the same age--and you can decide for yourself, whether the man whom you
saw was, or was not, in the prime of life. Not forty, you think? My
idea too. We will say not forty. Now look back to the time when Colonel
Herncastle came to England, and when you were concerned in the plan he
adopted to preserve his life. I don't want you to count the years. I
will only say, it is clear that these present Indians, at their age,
must be the successors of three other Indians (high caste Brahmins all
of them, Mr. Bruff, when they left their native country!) who followed
the Colonel to these shores. Very well. These present men of ours have
succeeded to the men who were here before them.
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