t a loophole in the gate tower, and the officer
handed to him a paper. A minute later the gate was opened sufficiently
for him to pass in, and was then closed behind him.

"They are evidently pretty strict," Bathurst said. "I don't think,
Rujub, there is much chance of our doing anything there."

Rujub shook his head. "No, sahib, it is clear they have strict orders
about opening and shutting the gate."

"It would not be very difficult to scale the wall of the house,"
Bathurst said, "with a rope and a hook at its end; but that is only the
first step. The real difficulty lies in getting the prison room open in
the first place--for no doubt they are locked up at night--and in the
second getting her out of it, and the building."

"You could lower her down from the top of the wall, sahib."

"Yes, if one could get her out of the room they are confined in without
making the slightest stir, but it is almost too much to hope that one
could be able to do that. The men in charge of them are likely to keep
a close watch, for they know that their heads would pay for any captive
they allowed to escape."

"I don't think they will watch much, sahib; they will not believe that
any of the women, broken down as they must be by trouble, would attempt
such a thing, for even if they got out of the prison itself and then
made their escape from the building, they would be caught before they
could go far."

"Where does the prison house lie, Rabda?" Bathurst asked.

"It is on the left hand side as you enter the gate; it is the farthest
door. Along that side most of the buildings--which have been used for
storehouses, I should say, or perhaps for the guards when the place
was a palace--have two floors, one above the other. But this is a large
vaulted room extending from the ground to the roof; it has windows with
iron gratings; the door is very strong and heavy."

"And now, sahib, we can do nothing more," Rujub said. "I will return
home with Rabda, and then go over to Bithoor."

"Very well, Rujub, I will stay here, and hear what people are talking
about."

There were indeed a considerable number of people near the building:
the fact that the white prisoners were within seemed to exercise a
fascination, and even women brought their children and sat on the
banks which marked where gardens had once been, and talked of the
white captives. Bathurst strolled about among the groups of Sepoys and
townspeople. The former talked in loud tones