d take care of the horse;
and calling for a light, he and Ania tore up every letter he had
received from Firozpur, and dipped the fragments in water, to efface
the ink from them. Ania asked him what he had done with the
blunderbuss, and was told that it had been thrown into a well. Ania
now concealed three flints that he kept about him in some sand in the
upper story they occupied, and threw an iron ramrod and two spare
bullets into a well near the mosque.

The next morning, when he heard that the city gates had been all shut
to prevent any one from going out till strict search should be made,
Karim became a good deal alarmed, and went to seek counsel from
Moghal Beg, the friend of his master; but when in the evening he
heard that they had been again opened, he recovered his spirits; and
the next day he wrote a letter to the Nawab, saying that he had
purchased the dogs that he wanted, and would soon return with them.
He then went to Mr. McPherson, and actually purchased from him for
the Nawab some dogs and pictures, and the following day sent Rupla,
the groom, with them to Firozpur, accompanied by two bearers. A
pilgrim lodged in the same place with these men, and was present when
Karim came home from the murder, and gave his horse to Rupla. In the
evening, after the departure of Rupla with the dogs, four men of the
Gujar caste came to the place, and Karim sat down and smoked a pipe
with one of them,[15] who said that he had lost his bread by Mr.
Fraser's death, and should be glad to see the murderer punished--that
he was known to have worn a green vest, and he hoped he would soon be
discovered. The pilgrim came up to Karim shortly after these four men
went away, and said that he had heard from some one that he, Karim,
was himself suspected of the murder. He went again to Moghal Beg, who
told him not to be alarmed, that, happily, the Regulations were now
in force in the Delhi Territory, and that he had only to stick
steadily to one story to be safe.

He now desired Ania to return to Firozpur with a letter to the Nawab,
and to assure him that he would be stanch and stick to one story,
though they should seize him and confine him in prison for twelve
years. He had, he said, already sent off part of his clothes, and
Ania should now take away the rest, so that nothing suspicious should
be left near him.

The next morning Ania set out on foot, accompanied by Islamullah, a
servant of Moghal Beg's, who was also the bearer