He rode with me to my tent, and, dismounting, entered it with me, followed by two or three of his men. There was nothing in it but the carpet and mattress on which I had slept, a few cooking utensils, and some of the bales of plunder piled up at the farther end. "She is not here," said Azim Khan, the leader of the Nuwab's party, "let us go to the other tent." I accompanied them, and, making a salam to my father, told him that the Nuwab's people wished to search his tent, as they had done mine, and added, "Do not oppose them, lest the Nuwab should in truth see reason to suspect us." "Certainly not," said my father; "here is the tent, and I am the Nuwab's slave; it is not likely that an old man like me should have women concealed here." So his tent was searched as mine had been, and afterwards the temporary screens of the men, but nothing was found, and the party were evidently disappointed. "We are on the wrong track, and I told you so," said Azim Khan to the leader: "depend upon it, as I told the Nuwab, it is that rascal Sheffee Khan's work; we all know him to be in the employ of the Hakim of Nursee, who wanted to get the girl; and we had better be after him than wasting our time here." "A girl!" cried I; "truly this is most wonderful. For the sake of Alla satisfy my curiosity--what is all this about? By your head," said I to the leader, "but that it seems a serious matter, I feel much tempted to laugh at the idea of my poor camp being searched for a girl,--some slave, I presume, who has run away or been carried off by her lover; say, sahib, what has happened?" "Why, it is no laughing matter to us, whatever it may be to you," said the leader; "send your men out of hearing, and you shall have the whole story." "Away with you!" cried I to our men, who had crowded round; "this is no tale for your ears." "The affair is this," said the man: "Until last night, there was in the zenana of the Nuwab a dancing-girl of surpassing beauty and accomplishments; but early this morning her apartment was found empty, marks of violence everywhere about it, blood on the sheets of her bed, and some of her hair and portions of her clothes strewn about the room. There was no alarm in the night, the gates of the town were closed and guarded as usual; and it seems some work of the Shitan that this should have taken place, and that we should have had dirt thrown on our beards without knowing by whom. There is the Nuwab raving and swearing like a madman; his zenana is all in confusion; and, what is worst of all, he threatens to discharge every one of us, without we either bring back the girl or get him intelligence of her within three days." "Protection of Alla!" cried both I and my father; "this is most extraordinary. And have you no suspicion who has insulted you in this manner?"