th a shudder.

I had by degrees pretty well got the plan of the place in my mind, but
at the same time woke to the fact that the rajah's was no empty boast,
for the palace was surrounded by sentries, who were changed as regularly
as in our service. Besides, I felt that every servant was a sentry over
my actions, and that any attempt at evasion for some time to come was
out of the question.

And so the days glided by with no news from outside, and for aught I
knew, the war might be over, and the country entirely in the hands of
the mutineers.

Once or twice I tried to get a little information from Salaman, but he
either did not know or would not speak.

I tried him again and then again, and at last, in a fit of temper, I
cried--

"You do know, and you will not speak."

"I am to attend on my lord," he said deprecatingly, "not to bear news.
If I told my lord all I knew to-day, I should have no head to tell him
anything to-morrow."

I was in the territory of a rajah who did as he pleased with his people,
and I did not wonder at Salaman's obstinate silence any more.

So there I was with my plans almost in the same state as on my first day
at the palace. There were the curtains waiting to be turned into ropes;
there were the servants with their white garments; but I had no walnuts,
and I knew of nothing that would stain my skin; and I was beginning to
despair, when a trifling thing sent a flash of hope through me, and told
me that I was not forsaken.

It was one hot day when everything was still but the flies, which were
tormenting in the extreme; and, after trying first one room and then the
other, I was about to go and lie down in the place set apart for my bath
as being the coolest spot there was, when I heard a dull thud apparently
in the next room where I had been sitting at the window, and I was about
to go and see what it was, but stooped down first to pick up my
handkerchief which had fallen.

I was in the act of recovering it, when I heard a faint rustling sound,
and knew what that was directly--Salaman looking in from behind the
curtain to see if anything was wrong.

Apparently satisfied, he drew back, and a splashing sound drew me to the
window.

That sound was explained directly, for just below me a couple of
bheesties, as they are called, were bending low beneath the great
water-skins they carried upon their backs, while each held one of the
legs of the animal's skin, which had been formed into