thanking him in Father's name for the
kindness that he has always shown him, saying who I am, why I came
here, and asking his pardon for the deception that I have been obliged
to play upon him. He is a good old fellow, and I should think it would
please him."

"I should think it would," Surajah agreed.

"I will do up my brace of pistols in a packet, and put them with the
note," Dick went on, "and will say, in it, that I hope he will accept
them as a token of our esteem and gratitude. They are well-finished
English pistols, and I have no doubt he will prize them. I will
mention, too, that we shall have made our escape at eleven o'clock,
and therefore, by the time he receives my letter, we shall be far
beyond the reach of pursuit. I daresay that will decide him upon
letting the matter pass quietly, and he will see himself that, by
making no fuss over it, no one outside the fortress will ever know
that a prisoner has escaped."

The next day passed comparatively quietly. A good many soldiers and
women came up from below, and before sunset their goods were
completely cleared out. The governor came over in the afternoon and
had a talk with them. They expressed their satisfaction at the result
of their trading, and said that they should be off before sunrise.

"I hope you will come again," he said; "but not for another six
months, for assuredly you will take away with you pretty nearly every
rupee in the fortress. My wife and the other ladies are all well
content with their purchases, and agree that they would not have got
them cheaper at Seringapatam, or Bangalore."

"We try to buy cheaply and sell cheaply," Surajah said modestly. "In
that way we turn over our money quickly. But it is seldom, indeed,
that we find so good a market as we have done here. When we left
Bangalore, we thought that it might be a month before we should have
to go back there to replenish our packs from our magazine; but we
shall only have been away five or six days."

"I am glad that you are content, for you are honest traders, and not
like some of the rascals that have come up to the forts I have
commanded, and fleeced the soldiers right and left."

Although not given to blushing, Dick felt that he coloured under his
dye at the praise; for although they had certainly sold cheaply, he
doubted whether the term honest could be fairly applied to the whole
transaction.

As ten o'clock approached, the two friends sat with open door,
listening in