ng!" answered Jaimihr.

"But to the priests of Siva, who are waiting, sahib?"

"Tell them I said nothing."

CHAPTER XVI

Eyes in the dark, awake and keen,
See and may not themselves be seen;
But--and this is the tale I tell--
What if the dark have eyes as well?

BESIDE the reeking bear's cage in which Ali Partab stood and swore was
a dark, low corner space in which at one time and another sacks and
useless impedimenta had been tossed, to become rat-eaten and decayed. In
among all the rubbish, cross-legged like the idol of the underworld, a
nearly naked Hindoo sat, prick-eared. He was quite invisible long before
the sun went down, for that was the dingiest corner of the yard; when
twilight came, he could not have been seen from a dozen feet away.

Joanna, sweeping, sweeping, sweeping, in the courtyard, with her back
very nearly always turned toward the cage, appeared to take no notice
of the falling darkness; unlike the other menials, who hurried to their
rest and evening meal, she went on working, accomplishing very little
but seeming to be very much in earnest about it all. Very, very
gradually she drew nearer to the cage. When night fell, she was within
ten feet of it. A few lamps were lit then, here and there over doorways,
but nobody appeared to linger in the courtyard; no footfalls resounded;
nothing but the neigh of stabled horses and the chatter around the big,
flat supper pans broke on the evening quiet.

Joanna drew nearer. Ali Partab came forward to the cage bars, but said
nothing; it was very dark inside the cage, and even the sharp-eyed
old woman could not possibly have seen his gestures; when he stood,
tight-pressed, against the bars she might have made out his dark shape
dimly, but unless he chose to speak no signal could possibly have passed
from him to her. He said nothing, though, and she-still sweeping, with
her back toward him--passed by the cage, and stooped to scratch at some
hard-caked dirt or other close to the rubbish hole where the Hindoo
waited. Still scratching, still working with her twig broom, still
with her back toward the rubbish hole, she approached until the darkest
shadow swallowed her.

There were two in the dark then--she and the man who listened. He,
motionless as stone, had watched her; peering outward at the lesser
darkness, he lost sight of her for a second as she backed into the
deepest shadow unexpectedly. Before he could beco