But no. Rahah drew back with a scream when she plunged her hand into the mass of crumpled paper which guarded the contents of the box; and Georgia, guessing the state of affairs, brought out a huge, carefully-stoppered bottle, containing a gruesome-looking object swimming in a muddy yellow fluid. “The collection!” she said, disdainfully. “And of course that particularly detestable snake turns up first of all! Well, Rahah, we are in a nice plight, with no clothes or fancy-work or sketching materials, but with a good many of those creatures to amuse us instead.” Rahah’s countenance expressed unutterable disgust, and her mistress was not proof against a modified feeling of the same character, for it is the reverse of agreeable, even for a highly qualified lady doctor, to find oneself reduced to a single dress, and that a riding-habit. But while this small although sufficiently unpleasant matter was occupying the minds of Georgia and her maid, Stratford and Dick were experiencing a very bad quarter of an hour in their part of the building. When their host left them they had occupied themselves in sorting the few possessions that remained to them; but while they were in the midst of this somewhat melancholy process, Abd-ur-Rahim returned, accompanied by two or three of his officers. “Is my lord graciously pleased to be contented with the accommodation afforded by my poor house?” asked the old man. “I am sure we could ask nothing better,” returned Stratford, pleasantly. “That is well, seeing that it will now be my lord’s abode during certain days,” said Abd-ur-Rahim. “How is that?” asked Stratford. “You offered us merely a night’s lodging, and we accepted it.” “True; but a man of my lord’s wisdom will not need to be reminded that it is only fools who allow the gifts of destiny to slip through their fingers. My lord and his companions have been brought into my hand, and here they will remain so long as our lord Fath-ud-Din is kept in prison at Kubbet-ul-Haj.” “Thank you. There’s nothing like knowing what one has to expect. How many years do you intend to entertain us here?” “That depends upon another matter. The liberation of Fath-ud-Din hangs upon the treaty that my lord holds, for if that is destroyed, our lord the King is free to do as he will, and the treaty, on account of the means by which it was gained, he finds disgraceful and irksome to him.” “Show me the King’s mandate demanding the surrender of the treaty,” said Stratford, quickly. Abd-ur-Rahim shook his head. “My lord knows that there are certain services that a man may render to his sovereign for which no orders can be given beforehand, although they may be richly rewarded when performed,” he said. “Of such a kind is this matter of the treaty.” “Don’t you wish you may get it?” asked Stratford, aware that Dick’s fingers were gripping his revolver.