ds of the zamindar, O merciful. He cried out with
great laughter when he saw the white face of the missy sahib, and bade
us carry the palki to his village. And but a little after we had entered
came one running, to say that your mightinesses were riding fast upon
the place. The zamindar is not a man of war, and he lay for a time in
his house, hoping that if his face was not seen by the Feringhis he
would escape the edge of the sword. But when it was told him that the
men of Lumsden Sahib had entered and were burning, he stowed some jewels
in his pockets, and placed more in the palki--they are even beneath the
cushion whereon the missy sahib sits--and he bade us hasten out of the
gate with the palki, purposing to reach Gungah, ten koss to the
north-east, and there dwell with his brother. And then thou didst come
upon us like a swift breath, and the zamindar hath not escaped the edge
of the sword. It is fate: who can strive against it? I have spoken the
truth."

"Well for thee!" cried Ahmed. "And what became of the ayah and the
khitmutgar?"

"Truly we left them in the house, and without doubt they are burnt up in
the flames kindled by the Feringhis' servants."

Ahmed was nonplussed. He looked round for Sherdil and his party; there
was no sign of them. The sooner he rejoined them the better. Suddenly he
heard a voice from the interior of the palki; it was thrown open, and
turning, he saw the face of a young English girl.

"You are a friend of the sahibs?" she said in faltering Urdu.

"Truly," said Ahmed, and then stood speechless. Into his mind came a dim
recollection of having seen ladies such as this long years before, when
he was a tiny child, before that terrible day when his father had been
killed in his tent. The girl's voice recalled other voices; he seemed to
hear them speaking to him, and to see tall ladies with unveiled faces
bending over him, and--yes, surely one of them had given him the wooden
sword which had so much amused Rahmut Khan when he had first seen him,
and another had given him a little horse, on which his ayah used to draw
him about the room.

"You will help me?" said the girl again in the native speech.

"Yes!" Ahmed was on the point of telling the girl that he was English
like herself; she would then have greater confidence in him. But he
checked himself; it was not time for that, especially with Hindus in
hearing and possible danger all around. "I will help the missy sahib,"
he said. "Wh