ed
Bakht Khan, bridling. "I am a fighter, and I know the marks of a
fighter."

"Shoes are proved on the feet, not on the last," said the prince. "Is it
not easy to prove the truth? Asadullah has not yet done battle with the
English. Let him go forth and show himself a man of war. As for me,
verily I believe that when the time comes he will be found wanting. Did
not the fox say he would rather suffer a hundred hungers than behold one
dog's face?"

The commander-in-chief fell into the trap. He vowed that Asadullah
should indeed go forth and fight, and he was ready to wager that the
Pathan would acquit himself well. A great sortie was planned for the
following night--the night of Bakr-Id, the first of August--the day on
which Abraham's sacrifice of Ishmael was commemorated by the slaying of
a bull, a great day among good Mohammedans. Asadullah should be
commanded to lead an attack on one part of the British lines, and by his
conduct then should the dispute be decided. The three men sat long
discussing the details of the proposed operations. It was late before
the party broke up, and when the visitors had gone, and Minghal had
retired to bed, the khansaman came in sleepily to clear away the
remnants of their refreshments and put out the lamp. He carried the tray
into the other room, listened, as if to make sure that all the household
was in repose, then slid the panel of the almirah and disappeared in the
hole in the wall, carrying his tray with him.

A moment later, a figure crept out from beneath a divan against the wall
of the dining-room. He crossed the landing to the opposite room, went to
the almirah, and slid back the panel. But then he was baulked--the wall
appeared solid. There was no lock, no handle by which the door in it
could be opened. Ahmed felt up and down, from right to left, and was
almost in despair, when the wall opened slowly, as of itself. He started
back, thinking the khansaman was returning; but finding that all was
silent he approached again. Unknowing, he had pressed a little wooden
button cunningly let into the stone, and released the spring that held
the slab in place. He crept through, and took the precaution of pushing
the stone back, then began to descend the steps of the narrow spiral
staircase on which he found himself. He counted the steps--they were
thirty; and then he came to a low passage, as narrow as the staircase,
through which only one person could pass at a time. It was so low th