ed a way.
Sepoys' uniforms were easily to be got; he would obtain one at his next
visit to the bazar; clad in that and provided with arms, Ahmed must
march out with a mutinous regiment and take an opportunity of escaping
from them. He would, it was true, run the risk of being shot himself as
a rebel; but among risks there was little to choose. The khansaman would
acquaint him with a favourable time for making the attempt.

Ahmed remained for several days in the doctor's company. They heard from
the khansaman of Minghal's fury when he discovered the disappearance of
his prisoner. As Ahmed had guessed, he imputed it to the agency of
Rahmut Khan, and regarded the locked door merely as an additional proof
of the malicious cunning of the old chief. At last the uniform and the
arms were provided, and one morning very early, before the household was
astir, Ahmed was cautiously let out of the house by the khansaman. A few
hours later he joined himself unquestioned to a body of troops made up
of many different components, ordered to reinforce the mutineers holding
the suburb of Kishenganj. There was some delay as they marched past the
Mosque. Some one had told the king that the sepoys, clamorous for pay,
were about to attack him in his palace, and orders were sent through the
city that not a soldier should move until the report had been
investigated.

While the soldiers stood at ease near the Mosque, Ahmed noticed Fazl Hak
moving leisurely among the onlookers, occasionally addressing a word or
two to the sepoys he passed. As he came near, Ahmed accosted him.

"Salaam, worthy maulavi, what is the news?"

Fazl Hak stopped; he looked surprised, then took Ahmed a little apart.

"There is no news, sepoy," he said in a low tone, "later than this
command of the king."

"Hast thou not heard of the fifteen elephants taken from the English
yesterday?"

"Nay, I had not heard of that."

"Hai! that is strange. Nor that a fakir departed from the city yesterday
to travel to Peshawar, and cut the throat of Jan Larrens?"

"Sayest thou?"

"Nor that a black-bearded banijara selling shawls was lately stripped of
his beard and shown to be as smooth of cheek as I myself--a wretched spy
of the Feringhis?"

"Hai! I know of such a banijara, and I could have said he would prove
but a broken reed as a spy."

"And dost thou not know that our great Bakht Khan has driven a hundred
mines beneath the Ridge, and when the moon is full the Feringhi