be found."

The men briefly said that they would watch, and that no one had been in
the grounds; after which they went off, leaving me breathless, as I hung
there, listening for the departure of the first man, who seemed to be
watching me.

So silent was everything that I felt that he must be just beneath me,
and my fingers crisped up, ready to seize my sword. But the moments
glided by, and he still did not move, my suspense, in both senses of the
word, being brought to an end by Dost lowering me down quickly.

By the time I reached the ground, I had drawn my sword, ready to resist
attack; but, to my utter surprise, I found that the door was closed, the
man having retired so silently that I had not heard a sound.

The moment I had convinced myself that I had no attack to fear, I lay
down, turning myself into a counterpoise as Dost threw down the other
end of his rope, and began rapidly to descend.

As I felt the rope give jerk after jerk, I listened to the sounds within
the palace. Men being apparently running in all directions, as if
searching for me; and Dost muttered something to the same effect, as he
dropped lightly by my side, after I had been wondering whether the
rustling noise he made in his descent would be heard.

The noise he made, though, was greater as he drew the rope round the
projection which held it above, and I caught his wrist in horror as we
stood there in the darkness, he pulling and I twisting the rope round
and round my chest.

"Don't," I whispered; "some one will hear."

"But we must have the rope, sahib, to get down from the top of the
wall," he said; and he pulled away at the line more quickly, the end
falling directly after with a sharp crushing sound among the bushes.
This had evidently been heard, for a lanthorn rapidly approached us out
of the darkness, and as we crouched down, the face of a man could be
seen at last, with the eyes flashing as he held up his light.

But, as is the case on a dark night, the man who bears a light is far
easier to see than the one who watches or hides, and I crouched there,
wondering at last, as the man held up his lanthorn nearly over me, why
it was that he could not detect my presence.

But he did not, and after looking carefully round, he turned and walked
away, just where, had he taken a couple or so steps nearer to the
palace, he would have come in contact with one of us.

"Saved!" I breathed to myself, as he walked away, and his light
di