"How did you learn that I had left Delhi?" "The journeyings of the Princess Roshinara are known to many." "But you came not when I summoned you." "Your Highness's letter did not reach me until after the affair on the Hindun river." "What is all this idle talk?" broke in Abdul Huq roughly. "This Feringhi was carrying despatches--" "Peace, dog!" cried the Begum. "Unfasten the Sahib's arms, and be gone. What! Dost thou hesitate!" She clapped her hands, and some members of her bodyguard ran forward. "Throw these troopers into the courtyard," she commanded. "If they resist--" But the Pathans were too wise to refuse obedience. Not yet had the rebels felt their true power. They sullenly untied Malcolm's bonds, and disappeared. Using eyes and ears each moment to better advantage, Frank was alive to the confusion that reigned in Nana Sahib's abode. Men ran hither and thither in aimless disorder. The Brahmin's retainers were like jackals who knew that the lion had killed and the feast was spread. The only servants who preserved the least semblance of discipline were those of the Princess Roshinara. It was an hour when the cool brain might contrive its own ends. "I am, indeed, much beholden to you, Princess," said Frank. "I pray you extend your clemency to my men. I have an escort of six sowars, and a servant. Some of them are wounded. My horse, too, which I value highly--" He paused. He saw quite clearly that she paid no heed to a word that he was saying. Her black eyes were fixed intently on his face, but she was thinking, weighing in her mind some suddenly-formed project. He was a pawn in the game on the political chess-board, and some drastic move was imminent. Some part of his speech had reached her intelligence. She caught him by the wrist and hurried him along a corridor into a garden, muttering as she went: "Allah hath sent thee, Malcolm-sahib. What matters thy men and a horse? Yet will I see to their safety, if that be possible. Yes, yes, I must do that. You will need them. And remember, I am trusting thee. Wilt thou obey my behests?" "I would be capable of little gratitude if I refused, Princess," said he, wondering what new outlet the whirligig of events would provide. Leading him past an astonished guardian of the zenana, who dared not protest when this imperial lady thought fit to profane the sacred portal by admitting an infidel, she brought Malcolm through a door into a larger garden surrounded by a high wall. She pointed to a pavilion at its farthest extremity. "Wait there," she said. "When those come to you whom you will have faith in, do that which he who brings them shall tell you. Fail not. Your own life and the lives of your friends will hang on a thread, yet trust me that it shall not be severed while you obey my commands."