ed!"

"He must go with us to the hiding-place and stay there as her servant."

"Is he a silent man?"

"Silent as the dead, unless I bid him speak!"

"Then, that is agreed; he and thou and I know of this secret, and none
other is to know it! Why wait? Let us remove her to the hiding-place!"

"Wait yet for Suliman. How long will I be gone, think you, on my
pretended flight?"

"Nay, what think you, sahib?"

"I think many hours. There may be those that watch, or some that ride
after me. I think I shall not return until long after daylight, and then
there will be no suspicions. Give me a token that will admit me safely
back into Hanadra--some sign that the priests will know, and a pass to
show to any one that bids me halt."

The priest held out his hand. "Take off that ring of mine!" he answered.
"That is the sacred ring of Kharvani--and all men know it. None will
touch thee or refuse thee anything, do they have but the merest sight of
it!"

The Risaldar drew off a clumsy silver ring, set with three stones--a
sapphire and a ruby and an emerald, each one of which was worth a
fortune by itself. He slipped it on his own finger and turned it round
slowly, examining it.

"See how I trust thee," said the priest.

"More than I do thee!" muttered the Risaldar.

"I hear my brother!" growled the Risaldar after another minute. "Be
ready to show the way!"

He walked across the room to Ruth, tore a covering from a divan and
wrapped her in it; then he opened the outer door for his half-brother.

"Is it well?" he asked in the Rajput tongue.

"All well!" boomed the half-brother, eying the unbound priest with
unconcealed surprise.

"Do any watch?"

"Not one! The priests are in the temple; all who are not priests man the
walls or rush here and there making ready."

"And the priestling?"

"Is where I left him."

"Where?--I said."

"In the niche underneath the arch, where I trapped the High Priest!"

"Are the horses fed and watered?"

"Ha, sahib!"

"Good! How is the niche opened where the priestling lies?"

"There is the trunk of an elephant, carved where the largest stone of
all begins to curve outward, on the side of the stone as you go outward
from the courtyard."

"On which side of the archway, then?"

"On the left side, sahib. Press on the trunk downward and then pull; the
stone swings outward. There are steps then--ten steps downward to the
stone floor where the priestling lies."

"Good! I can find h