'Yes, my little Kit,' she moaned. 'They took him away. They were going to kill him; but they saw his beautiful curls, and they thought he was a girl. I beg your pardon for being so foolish. I think I can walk.' But he saw that she was weaker than she thought, and he would not put her down until she was in the hands of Aglaia and her ayah. Then he left them all to rest, sent a message to the Resident to let him know that they had arrived safely, and, at last, when he was sure that everything which hospitality demanded had been done, he sent for Hoosanee. CHAPTER XXX CHUNDER SINGH'S PRECAUTIONS 'Tell me everything,' said the rajah. 'I will try,' replied the poor fellow; 'but my master must not blame me more than he can help. I acted for the best.' 'Yes, yes; but--oh! Hoosanee, my servant, my friend,' cried Tom, breaking down now at last, and for a few moments giving way to his passionate grief. 'It is too terrible,' he went on, when the strangled sobs and the shivering of his limbs would let him speak. 'God knows I am glad to have rescued them; but I never thought--I never imagined--that you, knowing my heart as you do, would bring back the others and not her. How could it have been?' Then Hoosanee told rapidly the story that we know. 'It was herself, master,' he cried. 'As your Honour lives, she was safe. They would not have found her, for the night was as dark as the jaws of hell, and to save the others I could have made a story, and the ladies would have helped me. We would have said that she was dead. I would have taken them on to my father's village and returned, when all was still, for her and the child. We should all--all have come in; but she is a daughter of Allah--too fine--too noble even to be paralysed by fear. When she heard the Soubahdar use threatening words she came out and they carried her away. I ask my master what could I do?' 'Nothing. You have done your best, my poor Hoosanee. And now it rests with me.' 'Not so, master. You cannot go out as I have done. You know neither the people nor their ways. If you can think who has taken her, tell me, and I will at least find out if she is alive and what treatment she is receiving. Master'--piteously--'do not deny me! It is not for your Excellency's sake alone, although to serve you is dear to me. It is for her. Ah! master, if you had seen her through all those nights. _They_ were impatient; they would blame me sometimes, and say that I had not done my best; and sometimes, master, knowing a little English as I do, I could hear that they were angry with one another and the child. But _she_ was always the same--always a kind look and a gentle word. "My good Hoosanee, my kind Hoosanee"--master, I hear her voice in my sleep, and I spring up and say to myself that if I do not go to her, if I do not try to save her, I am black of heart and degraded. Let me go then, I beseech you!'