and in two or three minutes came out
again with the girl. Ibrahim carried a bundle.

"You will do very well," Dick said to Annie. "I should not know you,
in the least. You make a capital boy.

"What bundle is that, Ibrahim? I thought you took our other disguises
on, yesterday, to the stable where the horses are."

"Yes, my lord, I took them on. These are the things she has taken off.
I thought, perhaps, it would be better not to leave them here, as, if
they were found, it would be known that she had gone with you."

"I don't think it makes much difference, Ibrahim, but perhaps it is as
well to bring them away. We can leave the bundle in the wood.

"Now, go along. I will follow. Perhaps I had better go first. Keep a
few paces behind me."

They passed through the long passages of the Palace, without
attracting the slightest attention. Once or twice, Dick paused to
speak to some officials of his acquaintance, the others stopping
respectfully a few paces away. Then he went out into the courtyard,
and across to the gate, and as the sentries saluted he stopped, and
asked them a few questions as to the regiment they belonged to, until
Ibrahim and his companion, who had passed straight through, were well
away. He saw Surajah sitting upon his horse, a couple of hundred yards
away, and then went to the stables.

Chapter 16: The Journey.

The syce brought out his horse, as soon as he saw Dick approaching.

"You need not wait up for us, after nine o'clock," Dick said, as he
mounted. "It is possible that we may be detained, and shall not return
until tomorrow evening. If we come, we shall certainly be back by nine
at the latest, and we shall not be back before seven, at any rate, so
that until then you are free to do as you like."

He rode quietly off, and did not quicken his pace until he had got
beyond the fort. Then he touched the horse with his heel, and cantered
down to the ford. Surajah was halfway across the river, when he
reached it. The other two figures were just ascending the road up the
other bank.

Surajah checked his horse, when he got across, and waited till Dick
joined him.

"Shall we go on with them to the farmhouse?" he asked.

"We may as well do so as halt in the road. Besides, there are the
things Ibrahim took over yesterday, to put into our saddlebags. There
is another thing that I never thought of. Of course, the girl has
never been on a horse, and that may give us a good deal of trouble.