THE VALUE OF A REPUTATION.
“Get the men together while I try a parley with these fellows,” said
Stratford to Dick, when he took in the facts of the situation. “They
are not our friends the mutineers, at any rate.”
“My lord’s _topi_,” said Ismail Bakhsh, stepping up with a salute, and
offering Stratford his helmet, which he had found caught in a crevice
of the rocks. Stratford put it on, and, carrying his riding-whip
carelessly in his hand, advanced to meet the strangers, who had
remained motionless on their horses since Dick had first caught sight
of them.
“Peace be upon you!” he said as he approached them.
“And upon thee be peace!” responded an old man, who appeared to be the
leader of the party. “My lord is one of the envoys of the Queen of
England to our lord the King?”
“I am temporarily in command of the Mission, owing to the illness of
the Envoy,” answered Stratford. “To whom have I the honour of
speaking?”
“My lord’s servant is Abd-ur-Rahim, Governor of the fortress of
Bir-ul-Malik for our lord the King.”
“Not for the late Grand Vizier, Fath-ud-Din, then?”
“How should that be so? My lord knows that another now holds the
King’s signet. Surely his servant only retains his office until he be
confirmed or superseded in it by orders from Kubbet-ul-Haj. But the
only orders he has received as yet have concerned the Mission of the
English Queen, and they have commanded him to do all in his power to
help it, and to facilitate its return journey.”
“Then the orders have arrived in the nick of time,” said Stratford. “A
little assistance will be of great use to us in our present
circumstances. Our baggage-animals were alarmed by the storm, and are
scattered about, and if your soldiers would help us to get them
together again it would be a great boon. But will you not dismount and
eat and drink with us, Abd-ur-Rahim? We have but little to offer, yet
it is our delight to share it with a friend.”
“Nay, but my lord and all his company shall eat and drink with me,”
was the hospitable reply. “In Bir-ul-Malik there is room for the whole
number, and they shall rest in the fortress this night in peace, and
refresh their souls before starting again on their journey. I will
send out my young men to seek for the camels of my lord, and in the
morning his caravan shall be as great as when he left Kubbet-ul-Haj a
week ago.”
“Yet let Abd-ur-Rahim first honour our poor tents by condescending to
eat bread and drink water with us,” urged Stratford.
Again the old man shook his head. “Not so, my lord. Surely when my
watchmen cried from the towers that there was a great company out on
the plain, fleeing towards the rocks for shelter from the storm, and I
knew that they must be the servants of the English Queen, I vowed a
vow that I would neither eat bread nor drink water until I had brought
the Englishmen into my house, that they might rest themselves and be
refreshed at my table, and afterwards depart in peace.”
“And how did you know that we were the servants of the English Queen?”
asked Stratford, endeavouring, with considerable success, to exhibit
in his tones no trace of suspicion, but merely a natural desire for
information.
“The orders I received had warned me of the approach of my lord and
his servants,” replied Abd-ur-Rahim, guilelessly, “and the watchmen
told me that among those whom they saw were men with strange
head-gear, such as our people who have journeyed into Khemistan have
seen the English lords wear. But will not my lord make haste to call
his young men together, and bid them follow him into the fortress? The
feast is being prepared, and the best rooms are ready for my lord and
his servants and his household, and only the guests are wanting.”
“I must take counsel with my friends before I accept your kind
invitation,” said Stratford. “We are in haste, and it may be that we
cannot venture to lose even the remaining half of this day’s march.”
“Nay, my lord,” exclaimed Abd-ur-Rahim, in the eagerness of his
hospitality, “far be it from me to compel any to become my guests by
force--and yet, sooner than allow my lord to depart without honouring
by his presence my humble roof, I would command my young men to bring
him and his servants to my dwelling whether they would or no.”
“One might indeed say that yours was a pressing invitation,
Abd-ur-Rahim,” said Stratford, smiling good-humouredly as he turned to
go back to the rest; but there was no smile upon his face when he
reached them.
Dick stepped forward to meet him, and they walked a few paces aside,
out of earshot of the little band of servants whom Dick had posted in
such a way as to protect the tent and the remaining baggage-animals.
“Well?” asked Dick, eagerly.
“Oh, he’s a deep one! He means to get us up to the fort by hook or by
crook, and the only question is, shall we go peaceably or wait for him
to take us?”
“He has been looking out for us, then?”
“Undoubtedly. He says he was warned of our approach by orders from
Kubbet-ul-Haj. Now you know that the King and Jahan Beg never
anticipated that we should halt anywhere near Bir-ul-Malik, so that
the orders can’t have come from them. They must have been sent by
Fath-ud-Din or some of his people, and very likely Abd-ur-Rahim has
had additional information since then from the mutineers. We can’t
hope that he is merely hospitable and friendly. If we go into the
fort, we go with our eyes open.”
“But hasn’t he showed his hand at all?”
“Not a bit. He is all blarney and butter, only anxious for the honour
of our presence and so on, but he means business.”
“But we can be all blarney and butter too, and merely regret our
inability to pay him a visit, and pass on. If he doesn’t try force,
it’s quite evident that he hasn’t any to try. He is doing his best to
allure us to put ourselves into his power, trusting in the simplicity
evidenced by your childlike and bland demeanour, and there is no doubt
that if he once got us inside the fort we should be in something like
a hole. But as it is, we can merely bow and say good-day.”
“I’m afraid not, North. It is Abd-ur-Rahim who has the cards up his
sleeve this time. When I stood out there on the plain talking to him,
I could see further than you can from here. He is very sweet and
smiling, and he doesn’t want to make a show of force if he can do
things pleasantly; but behind these rocks here he has men enough
stationed to account for us all five or six times over.”
“Then we are trapped!” said Dick, grimly, drawing his sword half out
of its scabbard and feeling the edge. “Well, better here under the
open sky than between stone walls. We can give a good account of two
or three times our number, posted as we are here, and they won’t get
much change out of us.”
“North, you bloodthirsty villain! Think of the poor women and the
Chief, and don’t talk of running amuck in that cast-iron way.”
“Don’t I think of the women? Do you imagine I am made of stone,
Stratford? My first shot is for Georgia, and after that--well, I
suppose I shall run amuck.”
“Draw in a little, old man. That way madness lies. Keep cool, and
listen to me for a moment. Since I have no one specially to look
after, it may be that I am able to see things more calmly than you
are. At any rate, it strikes me, leaving out of sight that ferocious
idea of yours, that if we were cut to pieces we could do no possible
good to any one--whereas if we accept Abd-ur-Rahim’s overtures in a
friendly spirit, and go with him, keeping possession of our weapons
and holding together, we might spot a chance of escape, and at any
rate we should be no worse off than we are now. If I were you, I
should be thankful to keep clear of murder a little longer.”
“Don’t talk to me!” said Dick, savagely. “You have not my reasons for
anxiety.”
“Nor your reasons for prudence, either. Look at things quietly, North.
I am certain this old fellow is not quite on the square, or he
wouldn’t refuse to eat and drink with us; but I don’t think his
intentions are necessarily murderous. If they were, he could easily
have wiped us all out here and now, without taking the trouble to get
us up to the fort. My own impression is that he means to hold us as
hostages for Fath-ud-Din’s safety. If that is the case, we shall
certainly be in no danger. It will only mean a slight delay, for when
our Government find out from Hicks that we ought to reach the frontier
soon after him they will send to inquire after us if we don’t turn
up.”
“But supposing Abd-ur-Rahim’s intentions are murderous after all?”
“Then we shall end up with a big fight, I presume, and the result will
be much the same in the fort as it would be here. Come, North, don’t
let us give up hope too soon. If the worst comes to the worst, the
ladies have revolvers and can use them--and I don’t know two women
anywhere who would be more certain to use them if it was necessary.
Just you go to the tent and tell them quietly the state of affairs,
while I inform Abd-ur-Rahim that we accept his offer of a night’s
lodging. Then you and Kustendjian had better come and be presented. We
will do everything in style, and with the most lively imitation
possible of perfect confidence. The great thing is to avoid giving
them the slightest excuse or opportunity of depriving us of our arms.”
Doggedly and unwillingly Dick took his way to the tent, while
Stratford returned to Abd-ur-Rahim, who had remained stationary, with
his immediate followers, during the colloquy. But he had profited by
the interval to draw closer the cordon of armed men of whom Stratford
had caught sight behind the rocks, and it was evident that, if such a
fight as that contemplated by Dick had taken place, there would have
been no possibility of escape for any member of the English party.
“I must apologise for keeping you waiting so long, Abd-ur-Rahim,” said
Stratford, as he approached. “My friend is a great soldier, and very
zealous in carrying out the business with which we are charged. He
feared to lose even this half-day’s journey; but I have succeeded in
making him see that it is the act of a wise man to accept rest and
refreshment whenever it is proffered by one worthy of respect.”
“Truly the wisdom of my lord is great!” responded Abd-ur-Rahim, a
smile of gratification curling his white moustache, while an officer
behind him muttered to a companion some words in Ethiopian which
sounded to Stratford like, “It is not so easy to hoodwink the soldier
as the man of many words,” a remark which was distinctly unjust to the
listener. He made no sign of having heard it, however, but went on
speaking to Abd-ur-Rahim in Arabic.
“There is only one thing I should like to say before we accept your
hospitality, Abd-ur-Rahim. It is our habit to guard with great
jealousy the women of our party. I believe your own custom in Ethiopia
is much the same, and you will not, therefore, take it amiss if we
surround them closely while on our march with you?”
“Surely not,” responded Abd-ur-Rahim, somewhat puzzled. “The customs
of my lord’s land are even as our own, and his care for the household
of his master gives the lie to the shameless tales that have been told
me as to the habits of his nation. I have even heard it said that in
Khemistan the women of the English go about unveiled!”
Stratford was saved from the necessity of either confirming or denying
this tremendous accusation by the approach of Dick and Kustendjian,
whom he presented formally by name to Abd-ur-Rahim, mentioning the
rank held by each in the Mission. The old man looked at them in some
surprise.
“Are these all the English that are with my lord?” he asked. “I heard
that he had three white men under him.”
“There is one other,” said Stratford, “a youth; but we have seen
nothing of him since the storm broke upon us, and we fear that he has
missed his way and been lost.”
“Let not my lord be troubled about the young man,” said Abd-ur-Rahim.
“The storm did not last long enough for him to have come to any harm.
Surely he has but taken shelter in some cave or hollow of the rocks,
and my young men shall go in search of him, and bring him again to my
lord.”
Having acknowledged this offer in suitable terms, Stratford and the
rest returned to superintend the arrangement of their party under the
new conditions. The tent was taken down and packed on its camel again,
the mules were harnessed afresh to the litter which carried Sir
Dugald; the ladies, mere masses of white linen, were helped to their
saddles; the diminished cavalcade of baggage-animals was ranged in
order, and the column was ready to start. Stratford considered it only
polite and expedient that he should ride beside Abd-ur-Rahim, much to
the annoyance of Dick, who brought up again the memory of the murdered
Macnaghten, and urged _sotto voce_ that if any one’s life was to be
risked, Kustendjian’s was the one that could be best spared. Stratford
laughed at the idea, and retained his place, and the other two rode on
either side of the litter, with the ladies following close behind
them, while Ismail Bakhsh and his men formed a modest bodyguard. The
household servants and the few muleteers and camel-men who had not
been scattered by the stampede followed with the baggage-animals, and
before and behind and all around, when the column had advanced into
the open plain, came Abd-ur-Rahim’s wild soldiery. A few stray mules
and camels were picked up by the way and added to the cavalcade, and
presently the procession wound round a spur of the cliffs, and began
to ascend the winding road which led up to the hill-fortress of
Bir-ul-Malik, the stronghold of Fath-ud-Din.
The town itself was small in extent, and it was evident that the
garrison formed the larger proportion of its inhabitants, for the
rock-hewn streets were almost deserted when Abd-ur-Rahim passed
through the gate with his guests. The town-walls surrounded a
considerable area on the summit of the cliff, and this in its turn
sloped upwards at its further extremity, on which was erected the
citadel, which thus commanded the town on one side and a sheer
declivity on the other. Towards this fortification the procession made
its way, Dick glancing grimly at the tortuous streets and massive
walls of the town as he rode, and muttering to himself that he and his
party were in a trap which would take a good deal of getting out of.
Passing in at the gate of the citadel, they found themselves in a
large courtyard, above which rose a pile of buildings, constructed on
and in the sloping face of the rock, the roofs of those lower down
forming terraces by which the higher ones could be approached. The
lower range of dwellings appeared to form the quarters of the garrison
and servants, and those next above them the abodes of the officers,
while the highest pile of buildings was evidently intended as the
residence of the governor of the city. It was in this building,
Abd-ur-Rahim intimated, that he had caused a lodging to be prepared
for the illustrious English party; and Stratford, while appreciating
the honour done him, felt that he could readily have dispensed with
it, since escape would be out of the question save by passing all the
lower dwellings and the inner and outer circuit of defences, the only
alternative being the possibility of finding some means of descending
the precipitous cliff on the other side.
It was necessary to dismount in the courtyard, and to ascend to the
Governor’s palace by a winding path cut in the rock and varied by
several flights of steps. There was considerable difficulty in
conveying Sir Dugald’s litter up this path, and what remained of the
luggage had also to be carried up piece by piece, at a large
expenditure of time and trouble. When the palace was once reached,
however, there was no fault to find with the rooms allotted to the
Mission. It was evident that they had remained uninhabited for some
time, and they were rather dirty, rather dilapidated, and particularly
bare of furniture; but they were large and airy, and, as Stratford and
Dick noticed with great satisfaction, the apartments appropriated to
the ladies, which had formed part of the original harem, could only be
approached by a passage from their own portion of the building.
Behind, they looked out on a terrace formed by the top of the
ramparts, beneath which the cliff fell steep and unbroken to the
desert below. It was an alarming experience to come suddenly to the
brink of this declivity, from which the unwary were protected merely
by a crumbling parapet, and Rahah only consented to contemplate it
when standing at least six yards from the edge, and holding firmly to
her mistress’s clothes.
Returning from the terrace into the harem, Georgia began to examine
the waifs and strays of luggage which had been cast up with her on
this hill-top. Sir Dugald had been conveyed into one of the inner
rooms, and Lady Haigh, with the assistance of Chanda Lal, was engaged
in making him comfortable. In the large hall, into which the other
rooms opened, lay a confused heap of boxes and cases, just as they had
been left by the porters who had carried them in.
“Let us see what we have, Rahah,” said Georgia to her handmaid. “You
had my dressing-case and my small medicine-chest on the mule with you,
so they are safe, at any rate, and your own clothes too. That box
there has books in it, I know, and here are our folding-chairs. I
don’t see any of my clothes--any of my own things at all, in fact. I
shall have to borrow some from Lady Haigh, for I see that two of her
tin boxes are there. Those cases are Sir Dugald’s, of course; and now
there are only these two great boxes left, marked with my name. What
can they have in them? Nothing very useful, I’m afraid--no dresses, at
any rate. Just borrow a hammer and chisel from Chanda Lal, Rahah. He
was opening a packing-case a minute ago.”
Returning quickly with the desired implements, Rahah forced open part
of the lid of one of the boxes.
“Medical stores!” said Georgia, bringing out a packet of cotton-wool,
and a tin case containing a roll of prepared india-rubber. “I might be
going to start a dispensary up here. Well, we are satisfactorily
provided with medicines and surgical appliances, at any rate. Now the
other box, Rahah. I only wish there was the slightest possibility of
finding some of my clothes in it.”
But no. Rahah drew back with a scream when she plunged her hand into
the mass of crumpled paper which guarded the contents of the box; and
Georgia, guessing the state of affairs, brought out a huge,
carefully-stoppered bottle, containing a gruesome-looking object
swimming in a muddy yellow fluid.
“The collection!” she said, disdainfully. “And of course that
particularly detestable snake turns up first of all! Well, Rahah, we
are in a nice plight, with no clothes or fancy-work or sketching
materials, but with a good many of those creatures to amuse us
instead.”
Rahah’s countenance expressed unutterable disgust, and her mistress
was not proof against a modified feeling of the same character, for it
is the reverse of agreeable, even for a highly qualified lady doctor,
to find oneself reduced to a single dress, and that a riding-habit.
But while this small although sufficiently unpleasant matter was
occupying the minds of Georgia and her maid, Stratford and Dick were
experiencing a very bad quarter of an hour in their part of the
building. When their host left them they had occupied themselves in
sorting the few possessions that remained to them; but while they were
in the midst of this somewhat melancholy process, Abd-ur-Rahim
returned, accompanied by two or three of his officers.
“Is my lord graciously pleased to be contented with the accommodation
afforded by my poor house?” asked the old man.
“I am sure we could ask nothing better,” returned Stratford,
pleasantly.
“That is well, seeing that it will now be my lord’s abode during
certain days,” said Abd-ur-Rahim.
“How is that?” asked Stratford. “You offered us merely a night’s
lodging, and we accepted it.”
“True; but a man of my lord’s wisdom will not need to be reminded that
it is only fools who allow the gifts of destiny to slip through their
fingers. My lord and his companions have been brought into my hand,
and here they will remain so long as our lord Fath-ud-Din is kept in
prison at Kubbet-ul-Haj.”
“Thank you. There’s nothing like knowing what one has to expect. How
many years do you intend to entertain us here?”
“That depends upon another matter. The liberation of Fath-ud-Din hangs
upon the treaty that my lord holds, for if that is destroyed, our lord
the King is free to do as he will, and the treaty, on account of the
means by which it was gained, he finds disgraceful and irksome to
him.”
“Show me the King’s mandate demanding the surrender of the treaty,”
said Stratford, quickly.
Abd-ur-Rahim shook his head.
“My lord knows that there are certain services that a man may render
to his sovereign for which no orders can be given beforehand, although
they may be richly rewarded when performed,” he said. “Of such a kind
is this matter of the treaty.”
“Don’t you wish you may get it?” asked Stratford, aware that Dick’s
fingers were gripping his revolver.
“My lord must know that we shall get it. We have but to compass the
death of my lord and his companions, and the treaty must be found; but
we would fain not shed blood. Let my lord tell his servant where the
treaty is hidden.”
“I absolutely decline to say,” returned Stratford.
“Then we must search my lord’s baggage.”
“You can search where you like, but you cannot make me tell you where
the treaty is. I presume you do not intend to search the baggage of
the ladies?”
“Nay, my lord! What hiding-place is so safe or so probable as among a
woman’s belongings? But there need be no search if my lord will only
tell what he knows. Did he bring the treaty into the fortress with
him?”
“I refuse to say. One word, Abd-ur-Rahim. There can be no idea of
searching the ladies’ things. You may ask what questions you like, but
the ladies must have notice beforehand, and it must be in the presence
of one of us, or--well, whoever goes into the harem, you will not be
alive to do it.”
“My lord need have no fear. He may go now and bid the women prepare
for my coming. I will but question them, and believe what they say,
for the English always tell the truth. I would accept the word of my
lord even now, if he could assure me that he had not the treaty with
him when he entered the fortress.”
There was some eagerness in the old man’s tone, as though he found his
task distasteful, and would have welcomed this chance of dispensing
with the performance of it; but Stratford shook his head.
“I can say nothing. Stand at the door, North, while I go in to warn
the ladies. And keep cool. Cheek may possibly bring us through this
fix yet, as it did through the other.”
With a frowning brow, Dick took up the position indicated, and
Stratford entered the passage and knocked at the door. Georgia looked
up from her doleful examination of her possessions as he came in.
“We are trying to discover what we have saved from the wreck of our
fortunes,” she said, lightly. “But what is the matter, Mr Stratford?
Does your venerable old friend intend to murder us after all?”
“Not unless he is obliged,” returned Stratford; “but it may come to
that yet. He means to get hold of the treaty. Fath-ud-Din seems to
think that if he enables the King to destroy it, he will be restored
to power. I don’t think the King is in the plot at present, but far be
it from me to say that he wouldn’t come into it with a good grace if
he got the chance.”
“And you want me to hide the treaty?”
“Certainly not. By no manner of means. I merely came to tell you that
Abd-ur-Rahim insists on questioning you and Lady Haigh as to whether
you know anything about it. He will come in here when he has finished
ransacking our place, so put your _burkas_ on again, please.”
“But, Mr Stratford, where is the treaty?”
“Here,” said Stratford, exhibiting the front of his coat, “in a pocket
which my bearer and I contrived for it. You see, it goes between the
cloth and the lining, and is sewn in. It is rolled up so tightly that
it does not show at all under ordinary circumstances; but if they
search me, they are bound to find it immediately.”
“And what then?”
“I can’t give it up, of course, so that if they attempt to search us,
we must show fight. We must only hope they won’t, for our opposing the
idea would arouse suspicion at once.”
“If they have any sense whatever, it is the first thing they will do,”
said Georgia, promptly. “No, Mr Stratford, I am not going to allow you
and Dick to run such a risk, and perhaps bring destruction upon us
all. Give me the treaty, and I will hide it.”
“And transfer the risk to yourself? Now, Miss Keeling, do you really
think me capable of doing such a thing?”
“There will be no risk whatever. I have an idea. Take off your coat,
Mr Stratford--quick!” with a stamp of the foot--“there is no time to
lose. Give me those scissors, Rahah, and thread a needle with grey
cotton. That’s it; now sew up that slit as neatly as you can.”
“What are you going to do?” inquired Stratford, standing helplessly by
in his shirt-sleeves, while Georgia was rolling the fateful parchment
into the smallest possible compass, and Rahah stitched up with
marvellous rapidity the yawning hole in his coat.
“Never mind, for I won’t tell you. You are to know nothing. There is
your coat, Mr Stratford. Keep Abd-ur-Rahim outside for two minutes,
and then let him do his worst.”
Half-reluctant and wholly perplexed, Stratford allowed himself to be
gently impelled in the direction of the door, and went out, to find
Dick, still on guard, protesting vehemently that he would never allow
himself to be searched, and that the first man that laid a finger on
him with that purpose in view would have little opportunity for
repenting his rashness afterwards. Perceiving at once that his friend
guessed he had the treaty upon him, and was endeavouring to divert
suspicion to himself, Stratford proceeded, not without a little
malicious pleasure in the circumstance, to cut the ground from under
Dick’s feet by remarking calmly--
“Keep cool, North; we are prisoners, though we were seized by a mean
trick, and we must submit to the treatment our jailers think fit to
inflict upon us. Abd-ur-Rahim”--he turned with dignity to his too
hospitable host--“we are your prisoners. As to the means by which you
induced us to put ourselves in your power I say nothing. Still, I ask
you as a gentleman, is this insult necessary?”
“By no means,” returned Abd-ur-Rahim, promptly. “If my lord and his
friends will give their word that they have not the treaty about them,
they shall not be touched.”
To the utter stupefaction of Dick, Stratford at once gave the required
assurance, which was repeated by his friend and Kustendjian. Some
demur was made as to accepting the word of the latter, on the ground
that he was not an Englishman; but on Stratford’s volunteering the
assurance that he was speaking the truth, his statement also was
considered satisfactory.
In the meantime, Georgia and her maid were not idle in the inner room.
The moment that the door had closed behind Stratford, Georgia flew to
the box which contained the collection, and drew out the bottle
enshrining the historic snake. The roll of prepared india-rubber from
the case of medical stores was the next requisite, and, unfastening
it, she made Rahah cut off a piece a little longer than the treaty in
its rolled-up form, and wide enough to wrap round it twice. When the
roll had been made as tight and smooth as possible, she tied up the
ends very securely.
“Now, Rahah, take off the bladder from the top of that bottle as
carefully as you can. Don’t break it, whatever you do. Now get the
cork out. Dig it out with the point of the scissors if it won’t come
easily; we mustn’t use a cork-screw. Turn your head away if you don’t
like the smell. There,--what a good thing that the spirit has sunk a
little!” She dropped the roll containing the treaty into the great
bottle, in the midst of the coils of the snake, replaced the cork,
tied the bladder over it again, and, holding the bottle up, looked at
it critically. The effect was perfect. The dull-brown of the
india-rubber wrapping combined with the bolder tones of the serpent’s
skin and the unpleasant yellow of the spirit so completely, that
scarcely a trace of the intruder was perceptible even to her practised
eye.
[image: images/img_10.jpg
caption: The effect was perfect.]
“So far, so good. Now on with our _burkas_, Rahah. That’s right, put
the bottle back into the box. There is a smell of the spirit about.
Knock over that bottle of camphor and break it. Oh, they are coming!
Kneel down, Rahah, and be nailing the cover on the box in a most
tremendous hurry.”
Rahah entered into her part with keen delight, jerked the
camphor-bottle to the floor with her elbow, and jumped up with a most
artistically guilty start when Dick and Stratford entered with the
four Ethiopians, while Georgia dropped the hammer with a clatter on
the stones.
“What is in that box which the women are nailing up?” demanded
Abd-ur-Rahim, sharply, while the faces of his followers betrayed much
excitement, not unmixed with triumph.
“Do they really want to know?” asked Georgia, with something like pity
in her tones, when the question was translated to her. “Well, I will
show them if they are so anxious to see it.”
Lifting the lid, she drew out with one hand the bottle containing the
snake, and with the other one which enclosed a very evil-looking
deformed frog, and held them out to the inquisitors, who recoiled
precipitately.
“They are the devils which obeyed the English doctor who was carried
off by Shaitan from his house at Kubbet-ul-Haj!” was the murmur which
went round.
“There are plenty more in the box,” said Georgia, cheerfully. “You can
unpack them for yourselves if you would like to look at them; only I
would advise you for your own sakes to take care not to break the
bottles.”
“Is it true that if the bottles were opened the devils would get
loose?” asked one of the Ethiopians, in an awful whisper.
“It is quite true that if the bottles are opened what is in them will
come out,” responded Georgia, setting down on the box the two she had
been holding; “but you shall see for yourselves what will happen.”
She lifted the bottle containing the frog, as though to hurl it in the
direction of the visitors, but Abd-ur-Rahim interposed hastily in much
agitation.
“Let my lord entreat the doctor lady to let the evil things remain
where they are,” he said to Stratford. “Surely he must know that I
have but obeyed the commands I have received, and that I have done my
best to save him and his company from all annoyance. Moreover, though
the doctor lady should destroy these men and myself by her magic, my
soldiers outside would certainly set the palace on fire, and burn her
and all my lord’s company, when they found out what had happened.
Suffer her not, then, to work us evil, and we will but ask her a few
questions and depart.”
With a face of the utmost gravity, Stratford translated the entreaty,
and the questions which followed it, to Georgia, who was much
impressed by the opinion entertained by Abd-ur-Rahim as to her powers
and her willingness to use them.
“Has the doctor lady the treaty concealed about her, or has her maid
got it?”
“Certainly not.”
“Is it in any of those boxes?”
“No, it is not in any of them.”
“Is it hidden anywhere in the floor or the walls?”
“Nowhere in the floor or the walls.”
“Does the doctor lady know where it is?”
“I refuse to say.”
“Who can trust the words of a woman?” asked one of the officers,
rudely. “The doctor lady has it hidden.”
“Tell them that I am St George Keeling’s daughter, Mr Stratford,”
cried Georgia, angrily, guessing the drift of the remark from the
tone, “and ask them whether it is likely that I should tell a lie?”
Stratford translated the words, and the name produced an impression
which showed that the fame of the Warden of the Marches had spread
beyond his own border.
“In my youth,” said Abd-ur-Rahim, “I have faced Sinjāj Kīlin in
peace and war, and I know well that no son or daughter of his house
could be a liar.”
Georgia’s wrath calmed down, and Rahah, feeling that she was
responsible for maintaining the honour of the house of Keeling,
suppressed the falsehood which rose to her lips when she was asked
whether she knew where the treaty was, and imitated her mistress in
declining to say.
“And now we need only question the great lady,” said Abd-ur-Rahim,
when Rahah’s examination was over; and Georgia went in search of Lady
Haigh, and brought her into the hall, worried and protesting, and
determined that no one should approach Sir Dugald’s sick-room. She was
much easier to deal with than the rest.
“I haven’t an idea where the treaty is, and if I had, I wouldn’t tell
you,” was her answer to Abd-ur-Rahim’s question. “Why do you come
bothering me about treaties? Ask Mr Stratford; he is the proper
person.”
“But is it not hidden anywhere in the great lady’s apartments?”
“I should think not, indeed! I have something else to do besides
hiding treaties. Georgie, I want you to come and see Sir Dugald at
once. I am sure he is not so well.”
“The man of many words must have dropped the treaty into the sand as
he came hither,” said one of the Ethiopians in a low voice to his
chief, as Georgia retired with Lady Haigh.
“Nay, that he could not have done without my seeing him,” objected
Abd-ur-Rahim.
“He may have hidden it among the rocks where we first came upon these
English,” suggested another.
“It is well thought of; I will have the place searched,” said
Abd-ur-Rahim. “But mark me--my opinion is that none of those here know
where it is. It has been given to the youth who is missing, and he is
to escape with it or to hide it. Therefore let the youth be pursued
and taken. The rest are trying to lead us to think that they have it
concealed among them here, that so he may get away in safety.”
This explanation of their defeat appeared to satisfy the Ethiopians,
and they returned to the outer rooms, accompanied by Dick and
Stratford, who were almost as much mystified as they were.