rightful owner of the sugar-cane, who cursed
and wept and called Akbar an honest rajah, by way I suppose of
expressing his opinion of all the tax-levying powers that be.

There happened to be a thing they call a "constabeel" going by, and the
owner of the sugar-cane appealed to him for justice and relief. So the
"constabeel" prodded Akbar's rump with his truncheon, and helped
himself, too, to sugar-cane by way of balancing accounts. And while the
owner of the sugar-cane was bellowing red doctrine about that, Ismail
went out and helped himself likewise, only more liberally, carrying in
an armful of the stuff, and slamming the gate in the faces of all
concerned. In cynical enjoyment of the blasphemy outside he sat down
then in the shadow of the wall to chew the cane and count the change
extorted from the mahout.

"Behold India self-governed!" I said, turning to beckon through the arch
between the two courtyards.

But the Mahatma was gone! And unlike the Cheshire cat, he had not even
left a smile behind him--had not even left Athelstan King behind him.
The two had disappeared as silently and as utterly as if they had never
been there!

CHAPTER X

A DATE WITH DOOM

I hunted about, looked around corners, searched the next courtyard, and
drew blank. Then I asked Ismail, and he mocked me.

"The Mahatma? You are like those fools who pursue virtue. There never
was any!"

"That mahout named you rightly just now," said I. "He knew your
character perfectly."

"That may be," Ismail answered, rising to his feet. "But he was on an
elephant where I could not reach him. You think you are a strong man?
Feel of that then!"

He was old, but no mean adversary. Luckily for him he did not draw a
knife. I hugged the wind out of him, whirled him until he was dizzy and
threw him down into his dog's corner by the gate, not much the worse
except for a bruise or two.

"Now!" I said. "Which way went King sahib and the Gray Mahatma?"

"All ways are one, and the one way leads to _her_!"

That was all I could get out of him. So I took the one way, straight
down through the courtyards and under the arches, past the old black
panther's cage--the way that King and I had taken when we first arrived.
But it seemed like a year since I had trodden those ancient flagstones
side by side with King--more than a year! It seemed as if a dozen
lifetimes intervened. And it also occurred to me that I was growing
famished and desperately sleep