or was it a dream?" I added to myself.

"The great rajah came, and went while my lord slept. It is time he ate
and drank, for he is still weak."

"Yes," I replied, as I recalled all that had passed--"so weak, so very
weak, that this man seems to master even my very will."

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

The doctor came the next day, and did not seem satisfied; the fact being
that, on awakening, my mind was all on the fret. For I was always face
to face with the thought of what had become of my mother and sister at
Nussoor. Of course I sorrowed, too, about my father's fate; but I was
not so anxious about him. He was a soldier, with some hundreds of
trusty Englishmen at his back, and I knew that he would be ready to meet
any difficulties.

Then there was Brace to fidget about, and my other friends of the troop.
I wanted to know whether they had been scattered, as Ny Deen had
assured me, and whether the English rule really was coming to an end.

"He thinks so," I said; "but I will not believe it yet."

Then I worried about being a prisoner, and with no prospect of getting
free. It was very pleasant to be waited on, and treated as the rajah's
friend, and there were times when I almost wondered at myself for
refusing the costly gifts he had offered. But I soon ceased wondering,
and began to feel that jewelled swords and magnificent horses were
worthless to one who was a prisoner.

The days passed drearily by in spite of bright sunshine and breezes and
delicious fruits, with every attention a convalescent could wish for.
By degrees I reached the stage when I was borne out through the shady
edge of the forest in a palanquin, plenty of bearers being forthcoming
when needed, and then disappearing again, leaving me wondering whence
they came, and how far away the rajah's principal city might be.

Everything I asked for was obtained directly; but I was a prisoner, and
not the slightest information could I get. The only inkling I had of my
whereabouts was obtained one day when I was being borne along in the
shade by my bearers, with Salaman at my side. They halted at the edge
of what was almost a precipice, to give me a view through an opening of
a far-spreading plain at a considerable depth below; and this taught me
at once that I had been placed, of course by the rajah's command, in the
shady forest somewhere on a mountain slope, where the air was
comparatively cool, and where I was far more likely to recover than i