ions, she is still
but a young girl, but as your people out here marry when the girls are
but of the age of this child, it is different altogether."

"She does not suspect that you are English?"

"No. As I told you, I had only just discovered that she was so, when I
heard a footstep in the distance. But I shall see her again, tomorrow
or next day."

"You will be running a great risk," Surajah said gravely.

"Not much risk, I think," Dick replied. "She is only a little slave
girl, and as the tiger was standing over her when I fired, no doubt I
did save her life, and it would be natural enough that she would, on
meeting me, speak to me and express her thanks."

"That would be a good excuse," Surajah agreed. "But a suspicious
tyrant, like Tippoo, might well insist that this was only a pretence,
and that the girl was really giving you a letter or message from one
of the inmates of the zenana."

Dick was silent for a time.

"I will be very careful," he said. "I must certainly see her again,
and it seems to me, at present, that whatever risk there may be, I
must try to save this poor girl from the fate that awaits her. I
cannot conceal from myself that, however much I may refuse to admit
it, the hopes of my finding and saving my father are faint indeed; and
although this girl is nothing to me, I should feel that my mission had
not been an entire failure, if we could take her home with us and
restore her to her friends.

"No, I don't think," he went on, in answer to a grave shake of
Surajah's head, "that it would add to our danger in getting away. We
know that, if we try to escape and are caught, our lives will be
forfeited in any case; and if she were disguised as a boy, we could
travel with her without attracting any more observation than we should
alone. She would not be missed for hours after she had left, and there
would be no reason, whatever, for connecting her departure with ours.
I don't say, Surajah, that I have made up my mind about it--of course
it has all come fresh to me, and I have not had time to think it over
in any way. Still, it does seem to me that when the time for our
leaving comes, whether we ride off openly as Tippoo's officers, or
whether we go off in disguise, there ought to be no very great
difficulty in taking her away with us. You see that yourself, don't
you?"

"I can't give any opinion about it, at present," Surajah replied. "I
do think that it will add to our difficulties, however we