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"I was to say, 'Hasten, hazoor, for the night " "I've heard that, too. You mean you're to lead me to somebody, somewhere you can't say where?" "Aye, hazoor, even so." "Get over there, in the corner, while I think this over and don't move or I'll make you a present of a nice young bullet, Dulla Dad." "That is as Allah wills; only remember, hazoor, the injunction for haste."
There were few lights visible in the city, and the quiet of it was notable; so likewise with the wards outside the walls and the lakeside palaces and villas. Only in a distant temple a drum was throbbing, throbbing. In the water at their feet a light boat was gently nosing the marble bund. Dulla Dad, squatting, drew it broadside to the steps and motioned Amber to enter.
But his ignorance of the neighbouring topography was too great a handicap to be overcome; and now that Labertouche had gone, he was without a friendly, guiding hand. He could but deliver himself into the hands of the enemy and do what he might thereafter. He lifted his voice and called: "Ohe, Dulla Dad!"
And in his heart he cursed, not Naraini, not Salig Singh, but himself for his inept folly in bringing to India the photograph which had been stolen from him and so had discovered to the conspirators his interest in the girl. He thought swiftly of Dulla Dad's parting admonition: "You shall find but one way to Kathiapur." "Well, sir? Well?"
There was a landing to the left, a rather narrow ledge, with a low, heavy door, bossed with iron, in the wall beyond. Shaking his head, he lifted himself cautiously out of the boat. "You stay right there, Dulla Dad," he warned the native, "until I see what happens. If I catch you trying to get away the boat'll show up nicely against the opening, you know I'll give you cause for repentance."
The Virginian boarded it gingerly, seating himself at the stern. Dulla Dad dropped in forward and pushed off. The boat moved out upon the bosom of the lake with scarce a sound, and the native, grasping a double-bladed paddle, dipped it gently and sent the frail craft flying onward with long, swift, and powerful strokes, guiding it directly toward the walls of the Raj Mahal.
"I did but think to anticipate your impatience, knowing that you would assuredly come." "Ah, you knew that, Dulla Dad? How did you know?" The man giggled softly, plying a busy paddle. "Am I not of the palace, hazoor? What are secrets in the house of kings? Gossip of herders and bazaar-women!" "And how much more do you know, Dulla Dad?" Amber's tone was ominous. "I, hazoor?
"My lord will not forget?" "Be sure of that, Dulla Dad.... Well, what are you waiting for?" "We are arrived, hazoor," said the native calmly. "If you will be pleased to step ashore, having care lest you overturn the boat, the steps are on your left." "Where?... Oh!" Amber's tentative hand, groping in obscurity, fell upon a slab of stone, smooth and slippery, but solid. "You mean here?"
Amber rose and stepped ashore, very tired and very much inclined to believe he would presently wake up to a sane and normal world. "Hazoor," the voice of Dulla Dad hailed him. He turned. "Hazoor, I was to say that at the third hour after sunset to-night this boat will be in waiting here. You are to call me by name, and I will put in for you, hazoor." "What's that?
The boat was resting motionless on the tide, as if suspended in an abyss of night, fathomless and empty. "Well, what now?" he demanded harshly. "Be careful, Dulla Dad!" "Still my lord distrusts me? There is naught to fear, none here to lift hand against you. Your servant lives but to serve you in all loyalty." "Indeed?" "My lord may trust me." "It seems to me I have too far."
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