h the old professor whispering to me, and his
face growing more and more terrible, till, to my terror, I saw that it
was not the professor of Sanscrit, but the old fakir who had taken such
a dislike to me; and, fully awake now, I found myself gazing up in his
fierce eyes.

For the nightmare had passed off, and in the reality I was gazing up at
my enemy, who had evidently stolen into my tent, knife-armed--for there
it was, gleaming in his hand--to rid himself and his country of an enemy
of his religion and his race.

And I could not move, even when I felt his left hand steal once into my
breast, which hardly heaved, so utterly paralysed was I by my nightmare
dream; ten times it seemed to me more terrible than the serpent I had
found where the fakir's hand now lay.

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.

In my horror, as I saw the knife flash, and as my senses became under my
control, I was about to cry aloud for help, but grasping this, the
hideous-looking being clapped his hand over my mouth, pressing it down
tightly, while he quickly bent down his head till he could place his
lips close to my ear, and whisper in English--

"Not a word, sahib! Don't you know me! I am Dost."

I uttered a low sigh, and then gazed at him, sick and dizzy, but with my
heart beginning to beat wildly with a strange delight.

For at last help had come, and my task now was first to warn my faithful
follower of the peril he had incurred, as I lay in mute admiration of
the skill with which he had played his part, and, after struggling in
vain to reach my well-watched tent, had by his ruse contrived to have
himself brought to my side by my guards. The rest he had managed by
himself.

I could not speak for some minutes. I dared not even try, lest he
should hear how my voice trembled. At last, though, after lying quite
still, holding my faithful follower's hand, I whispered--

"How did you get here?"

"Cut the bottom of the tent, sahib," he said in the same hard tone,
"with this knife, and scrambled through."

"But they will see the opening, and you will be taken."

"Yes; they will see it," he replied, "but you must make the hole larger,
and fasten it open. They will think you have cut the tent to make it
cool. You are the master here, and can do as you please."

"Yes; but tell me--Captain Brace?"

"Quite well, sahib."

"Then he was not beaten and driven away?"

"No, sahib; but the fight went against him and the white colonel. They
we