they enjoyed their meal heartily. Each had an ample portion of a
pillau of rice and chicken, a plate of stew, which Dick thought was
composed of game of some kind, and a confection in which honey was the
predominating flavour. With this they drank water, deliciously cooled
by being hung up in porous jars.

Surajah ate his food with the dexterity of long habit, but Dick had
not yet learned to make his bread fulfil the functions of spoon and
fork, for at his uncle's table European methods of eating were
adopted.

Half an hour after they had finished, an officer presented himself at
the door, and said that he was ordered to conduct them to the sultan.
Tippoo had supped in the harem, and was now seated on a divan, in a
room of no great size, but richly hung with heavy silken curtains, and
carpeted with the richest rugs. Two or three of his chief officers
were seated beside him. Seven or eight others were standing on either
side of the room. A heavy glass chandelier, of European manufacture,
hung from the richly carved ceiling, and the fifty candles in it
lighted up the room.

The chamberlain met them at the door, and advanced with them towards
Tippoo.

"Great Sultan," he said, "these are the young men whom it has pleased
your Highness to appoint officers in the Palace."

The two lads salaamed until their turbans touched the ground.

"Truly they are comely youths," Tippoo said, "and one would scarcely
deem them capable of performing such a feat as that they accomplished
this morning.

"Well, my slayers of tigers, you have found everything fitly
provided?"

"Far more so than our deeds merit, your Highness," Surajah replied.
"We have found everything that heart could desire, and only hope for
an opportunity to show ourselves worthy of your favours."

"You have done that beforehand," Tippoo said graciously, "and I am
glad to see, by your attire, that you are conscious that, as my
officers, it is fitting you should make a worthy appearance. It shows
that you have been well brought up, and are not ignorant of what is
right and proper.

"At present, you will receive orders from Fazli Ali, and will act as
assistant chamberlains, until I decide in what way your services can
be made most useful.

"Now, follow me. There are others who wish to see you."

Rising, Tippoo led the way through a door with double hangings, into a
room considerably larger than that which they had just left. The
chandeliers, at the end of th