"That will perhaps be safest," Surajah agreed, "though I should think there is no chance of her being suspected, seeing that she will be with Ibrahim. Even if they met one of the Palace officers, and he asked Ibrahim who he had with him, he could say it was a lad who had come to you respecting some horses you had bought." "Yes, that would do very well." Dick returned to Ibrahim, who was squatting down in the corridor near the door. "I am going to follow you, until you are through the gate, and shall keep a short distance behind you. If you should meet any officer on your way out, who may ask you who you have with you, say he has come with a message to me from a trader in the town. By the time you have told him that, I shall be up." "There is no chance of being questioned, my lord. People come and go all day." "That is so, Ibrahim, but one cannot be too careful." They stood, talking together, until they heard Annie clap her hands within. Ibrahim entered at once, and in two or three minutes came out again with the girl. Ibrahim carried a bundle. "You will do very well," Dick said to Annie. "I should not know you, in the least. You make a capital boy. "What bundle is that, Ibrahim? I thought you took our other disguises on, yesterday, to the stable where the horses are." "Yes, my lord, I took them on. These are the things she has taken off. I thought, perhaps, it would be better not to leave them here, as, if they were found, it would be known that she had gone with you." "I don't think it makes much difference, Ibrahim, but perhaps it is as well to bring them away. We can leave the bundle in the wood. "Now, go along. I will follow. Perhaps I had better go first. Keep a few paces behind me." They passed through the long passages of the Palace, without attracting the slightest attention. Once or twice, Dick paused to speak to some officials of his acquaintance, the others stopping respectfully a few paces away. Then he went out into the courtyard, and across to the gate, and as the sentries saluted he stopped, and asked them a few questions as to the regiment they belonged to, until Ibrahim and his companion, who had passed straight through, were well away. He saw Surajah sitting upon his horse, a couple of hundred yards away, and then went to the stables. Chapter 16: The Journey. The syce brought out his horse, as soon as he saw Dick approaching. "You need not wait up for us, after nine o'clock," Dick said, as he mounted. "It is possible that we may be detained, and shall not return until tomorrow evening. If we come, we shall certainly be back by nine at the latest, and we shall not be back before seven, at any rate, so that until then you are free to do as you like."