re three ways up on to the wall at that point. There's no
time to block them all--not if he's signalling now. He'll see
your men close in on the barn, sir, and beat it for the skyline.
Oh, damn and blast the luck!"

"At least we can try to cut him off," said Goodenough. "I'll
take some men myself and have a crack at it."

"No use, sir. You'd never catch sight of him. I wish you'd let
Narayan Singh take three men, make for the wall by the shortest
way, and hunt him if it takes a week."

"Why not? All right. D'you hear that, Narayan Singh?"

"Atcha, sahib."

"You understand?" said Grim. "Keep him moving. Keep after him."

"Do the sahibs wish him alive or dead?"

"Either way," said Goodenough.

"If he's gone from the wall when you get there," Grim added,
"bring us the news. You'll know where to find us"

"Atcha"

The Sikh brought his rifle to the shoulder, faced about,
marched out, chose three men from the platoon in the street,
and vanished.

"Too bad, too bad!" said Goodenough, but Grim did not answer. He
was swearing a blue streak under his breath. The next to arrive
on the scene was Suliman, grinning with delight because he had
won all the money of the other urchins, but brimming with news in
the bargain. He considered a mere colonel of cavalry beneath
notice, and addressed himself to Grim without ceremony.

"My mother brought out oranges in baskets and set them on benches
on both sides of the door. Then she went in, and I heard her
scream. There was a fight inside."

"D'you care to bet, sir?" asked Grim.

"On what?"

"I'll bet you a hundred piastres Scharnhoff has tried to make his
get-away, and they've either killed him or tied him hand and
foot. Another hundred on top of that, that Scharnhoff offers to
turn state witness, provided he's alive when we show up."

"All right. I'll bet you he hangs."

"Are you coming with us, sir?"

"Wouldn't miss it for a king's ransom."

"The back way out, then."

Grim beckoned the Sikhs into the room, left one man in there in
charge of Suliman, who swore blasphemously at being left behind,
and led the way down a passage that opened into an alley
connecting with a maze of others like rat runs, mostly arched
over and all smelly with the unwashed gloom of ages. At the end
of the last alley we entered was a flight of stone steps, up
which we climbed to the roof of the house on which I had seen
Grim the night before.

There was a low coping