Leaving Fitz occupied in writing out the code, Georgia next made a raid on the stores under the care of Ismail Bakhsh. She felt it to be a matter of the greatest importance that Rahah and she should take their own provisions with them, since to depend on Khadija’s liberality would be merely a gratuitous invitation to her to poison them both, and with this danger in her mind she secured a sufficient quantity of meat extract and other portable articles of food to last for three or four days. Ismail Bakhsh demurred persistently to parting with the stores in his charge, except in obedience to an officially signed order, yielding only under protest; while, when he discovered, from some chance words let drop by Rahah, the real object of the journey, he could scarcely be restrained from going at once to Stratford and begging him to prevent it. Rahah overwhelmed him with shrill reproaches, for, little as she approved of the expedition herself, she was determined not to allow any man living to thwart her mistress’s wishes; but it was Georgia herself who forced him to give an unwilling acquiescence to the plan. Her plea that she was going to secure a medicine that might cure the _Burra Sahib_ he dismissed with contempt, remarking that the _Burra Sahib’s_ illness did not concern her--a slight to her profession which aroused all the ire of which Georgia was capable. Looking straight at him, she spoke sternly-- “Am I to ask your leave to go where I will, Ismail Bakhsh--you who have eaten my father’s salt? I am going to Bir-ul-Malikat, and I forbid you to interfere. You take too much upon yourself.” Ismail Bakhsh saluted in dumb amazement as Rahah translated the words with much gusto. “Truly Sinjāj Kīlin himself speaks in his daughter!” he murmured submissively, as Georgia increased by another tin the pile which Rahah was carrying, and left the room without vouchsafing him another glance. He watched the two women out of sight, and after securing the door of the store-room, went off to his quarters, revolving many things in his mind.