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I would go on swinging till she wanted me to stop." So the winter came on, but still Dearest-Lady did not return.
Again he found no clear cause for decision there; so he said doubtfully: "Until you return?" "Nay! swear it," came the high, insistent voice. "Say before them all, 'By the memory of my dear father no harm shall come to the child ere you return." Half unwillingly Kumran repeated the words and Dearest-Lady gave a sigh of relief. She had gained her point.
So it was Kumran's turn to grow pale. "August lady," he replied, evading her question, "this is a matter of policy with which women have naught to do. King Humâyon hath taken Kandahâr, he hath imprisoned and degraded his brother Askurry, and for this, I, Kumran, challenge him!" "And wherefore?" asked Dearest-Lady boldly. "Did not Askurry deserve it? Nay! did he not deserve death?
All the same the interruption prevented Dearest-Lady's question from being answered, for the spell was broken. "Yea! thou wilt be true to the very uttermost, of that I am sure," said Dearest-Lady, half pleased, half amused at the young Râjput's quick leap to arms, "and so long as I have charge of the Heir-to-Empire thou shalt be his esquire. So go call the litter-men, boy, it is time we returned.
I must remember I am gaoler as well as grand-aunt." If Dearest-Lady was in truth a gaoler, she was a very kind one, and her prison the pleasantest prison in the world. It would take too long to tell how happily the next four months passed, not only for the two children, but for Roy and Foster-father, Head-nurse and Foster-mother.
A fresh bubbling spring ran through it, and beneath the Judas trees, whose leafless branches were flushed with pink blossoms, stretched great carpets of spring flowers. "Pluck him yonder tulips, Mirak," said Dearest-Lady with a smile. "He loved to count their kinds and those as he wrote are 'yellow, double, and scented like a rose'!"
And out of this arose the only sadness of the happy May days when the little party once more journeyed out to Babar's tomb towards evening to sit under the arghawân trees and watch the sunset. Of course Dearest-Lady was not there, but all the others were assembled, and Down, the cat, purred as loud as ever, while Tumbu, the dog, frolicked round even more like a golliwog than before.
"And anyhow it matters little if either or both of you be Kings, since ye are in cruel Kumran's power." "Not till my Dearest-Lady returns," dissented little Akbar gravely. "Head-nurse said so; and if cruel Uncle Kumran is to get me, Dearest-Lady won't come back. I know she won't so there!" And, as events turned out, the Heir-to-Empire was right!
Now, however, it was near to the death. There could be no more talk or thought of escape. Kumran, ever half-hearted, tried it one night and failed, losing many followers in the attempt. After that his face hardened. He went about dreaming of revenge revenge on Humâyon, even revenge on Dearest-Lady, who had tied his hands. "Till I return!" No! Dead folks can never return to the worldly.
Tumbu, who was with him at the time, made a gallant show of resistance, and actually bit one of the kidnapper's calves to the bone; but when he found himself confronted with a whole regiment of armed men who ran out to their assistance, he gave up the hopeless fight, and flew off to tell Roy what had happened. And Roy, missing his little master, fled to tell Dearest-Lady.
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