n mirrored
among rainbow-colored fishes.

Beyond the pool a flight of marble steps rose fifty feet until it passed
through a many-windowed wall into the _panch mahal_--the quarters of the
women. At their foot Ismail halted.

"Go thou up alone! Leave this elephant with me!" he said, nudging me and
pointing with his thumb toward a shady bower against the garden wall.

Without acknowledging that pleasantry King took my arm and we went
straight forward together, our tread resounding strangely on steps that
for centuries had felt no sterner shock than that of soft slippers and
naked, jeweled feet.

We were taking nobody entirely by surprise; that much was obvious.
Before we reached the top step two women opened a door and ran to meet
us. One woman threw over King's head such a prodigious garland of
jasmine buds that he had to loop it thrice about his shoulders. Then
each took a hand of one of us and we entered between doors of
many-colored wood, treading on mat-strewn marble, their bare feet
pattering beside ours. There were rustlings to right and left, and once
I heard laughter, smothered instantly.

At last, at the end of a wide hall before many-hued silken curtains our
two guides stopped. As they released our hands, with the always
surprising strength that is part of the dancing woman's stock-in-trade,
they slipped behind us suddenly and thrust us forward through the
curtains.

There was not much to see in front of us. We found ourselves in a
paneled corridor, whose narrow windows overlooked the river, facing a
painted door sixty paces distant at the farther end. King strode down
the corridor and knocked.

The answer was one word that I did not catch, although it rang like a
suddenly struck chord of music, and the door yielded to the pressure of
King's hand.

I entered behind him and the door swung shut of its own weight with a
click. We were in a high-ceilinged, very long room, having seven sides.
There were windows to right and left. A deep divan piled with scented
cushions occupied the whole length of one long wall, and there were
several huge cushions on the floor against another wall. There was one
other door besides that we had entered by.

We stood in that room alone, but I know that King felt as uneasy as I
did, for there was sweat on the back of his neck. We were being watched
by unseen eyes. There is no mistaking that sensation.

Suddenly a voice broke silence like a golden bell whose overtones go