got
back the outlay. Of course, I should not have cared if we had got
nothing back. Still, it is satisfactory to have cleared oneself.

"I wonder how Ibrahim is getting on, down in the wood."

"He won't be expecting us today," Surajah replied, "but I have no
doubt he will begin to feel anxious by tomorrow night. I wish we could
have seen some way of getting the horses down. It will be awkward
doing without them."

"Yes. I hope we shall get a good start. Of course, we must put on our
peasant's dresses again. I am glad enough to be rid of that rope,
though I have had to put on two or three additional things, to fill me
out to the same size as before. Still, I don't feel so bound in as I
did, though it is horribly hot."

"I am sure I shall be glad to get rid of all this stuffing," Surajah
said. "I felt ready to faint today, when the room was full."

"Well, we have only one more day of it," Dick said. "I do hope Father
will be able to get out by ten o'clock. Then, before eleven we shall
be at the edge of the rock. Say we are two hours in getting down, and
walking round to join Ibrahim. That will take us till one, and we
shall have a good five hours before Father's escape will be
discovered. They will know that he can't have gone down the road, and
it will take them fully two hours to search the fort, and all over the
rock. It will be eight o'clock before they set out in pursuit, and by
that time we ought to be well on the road between Cenopatam and
Anicull.

"If we can manage to buy horses at Cenopatam, of course we will do so.
We shall be there by five o'clock, and ought to be able to get them in
a couple of hours. Once on horseback, we are safe. I don't think they
will pursue very far--perhaps not even so far as Cenopatam; for the
governor will see that he had better not make any fuss about a white
captive having escaped, when it was not known that he had one there at
all. I think it more likely that, when he finds Father has got fairly
away, he will take no steps at all. They have no cavalry here, and he
will know, well enough, that there will be no chance of our being
tracked and overtaken by footmen, if we had but a couple of hours'
start."

"I think that is so, Dick. He has done his duty in keeping your father
a prisoner, but I don't think he will be, at heart, at all sorry that
he has made his escape."

"I think, Surajah, I will write a letter to him, and leave it here, to
be found after we have got away,