He dismounted, drew Nejdi's bridle over his left arm, and went towards Winifred. The girl looked at him with a wistfulness that was pitiful. Hope was struggling in her soul against the fear of grim death. "Oh, Frank!" she sighed, holding out both her hands. "Oh, Frank, I am so frightened. We had a dreadful time at the bungalow, and these men look so fierce and cruel! Have you really brought help?" "Yes," he said confidently. "You need have no further anxiety. Please get into your carriage." Mr. Mayne said something, but Malcolm never knew what it was, for Winifred fainted, and would have fallen had he not caught her. "This Feringhi has a loud voice," a man near him growled. "He talks of cavalry. Where are they?" "The Meerut road is empty," commented another. "We have the Begum's order," said the first speaker, more loudly. "Let us obey, or it may be an evil thing for us." "One of the daughters of Bahadur Shah is here," murmured Mayne rapidly. "She says we are to be taken to Delhi, and slain if we resist. Where are your men? My poor niece! To think that I should have brought her from England for this!" Malcolm, still holding Winifred's unconscious form clasped to his breast, laughed loudly. "Mayne-sahib tells me that you have all gone mad," he shouted in the vernacular. "Have you no ears? Did you not hear the British artillery firing on the rebels a little time since? Ere day breaks the road to Delhi will be held by the white troops. What foolish talk is this of taking Mayne-sahib thither as a prisoner?" The door of the bedizened traveling-coach was flung open, and the Mohammedan lady who had befriended Frank when he fell into the moat appeared. She alighted, and her aggressive servants drew away somewhat. "It is my order," she said imperiously. "Who are you that you should dispute it?" "I regret the heat of my words, Princess," he replied, grasping the frail chance that presented itself of wriggling out of a desperate situation. "Nevertheless, it is true that the native regiments at Meerut have been dispersed, and you yourself may have heard the guns as they advanced along the Delhi road. Why should I be here otherwise? I came to escort my friends back to Meerut." The Princess came nearer. In the brilliant moonlight she had an unearthly beauty--at once weird and Sybilline--but her animated features were chilled with disdain, and she pointed to the girl whose pallid face lay against Frank's shoulder. "You are lying," she said. "You are not the first man who has lied for a woman's sake. That is why you are here." "Princess, I have spoken nothing but the truth," he answered. "If you still doubt my word, let some of your men ride back with us. They will soon convince you. Perchance, the information may not be without its value to you also." The thrust was daring, but she parried it adroitly.