Part 35 (1/2)
”Not from that door, but from the one nearest to the kitchen. You go right down that corridor, and then take the first turning to the right. There is a flight of stairs at its end. We come out at the door just at its head. At the foot of the stairs there is a long pa.s.sage, and at the end of that is a large room, with tables, on which the dishes are placed in readiness for us to bring back.”
”Well, if it is necessary to speak to you at once, one of us will meet you in the pa.s.sage between the bottom of the stairs and the room where the food is. If you see one of us, you will know that the matter is urgent, and as soon as you can possibly slip away, you must come here.
In the evening you had better again look out from the door where you first met me.
”Now, as to the disguise, it will be better for you to go as a boy. It would be strange to see a girl riding behind two of the officers of the Palace. You won't mind that, will you?”
”Not at all, Sahib.”
”Not at all, d.i.c.k,” he corrected. ”Well, I will have a dress ready for you here. You will find it in that corner, and there will be a bottle of stain on the table. It will be only necessary for you to colour your neck, hands, and feet, but you must cut off your hair, behind, to a level with your ears, so that none of it will show below the turban.
You must do that, of course, before you stain your neck, and must stain the skin where you have cut off your hair, also. I am giving you these instructions now, because when the time comes there may not be a minute to spare, though, of course, I hope there will be no desperate hurry.”
”I understand,” she said, ”and will look out for you, three times a day.”
”Of course,” he went on, ”if you are suddenly told that you are to be given to any one, you must slip out at once, and come here. You will find everything ready for you to disguise yourself, and you must do that at once, and wait here till one of us comes. Even if you are missed, it will be some time before any search is made, and it would be thought much more likely that you had gone down into the town, than that you were hiding in the Palace, so there would be no chance of their looking for you here before we return. Anyhow, we shall be able to have another talk before Tippoo comes back. We shall be here every morning until nine, and if you are able to get away again, come and see us.
”It will be better, perhaps, for you not to wait any longer, now. I suppose you have been charged with some message or other, and it would not do for you to be too long gone.”
The girl stood up at once.
”I have to go down to the Pettah, to get some sewing silk to match this;” and she drew out a small fragment of yellow silk.
”Very well, then. You had better go and do it, or they may think that you are too long away.
”Goodbye, Annie. I hope that in another week, or ten days at the latest, I shall have you out of this;” and he held out his hand to her.
She took it timidly, and would have raised it to her forehead, but d.i.c.k said, laughing:
”That is not the way, Annie. English girls don't treat their friends as if they were lords and masters. They just shake hands with them, as if it were two men, or two girls.”
”I shall know better, in time,” she said, with a faint smile, though her eyes were full of tears. ”I want to do something, though I don't know what. You saved my life from the tiger, and now you are going to save me again. I should like to throw myself down, and kiss your feet.”
”You would make me horribly uncomfortable, if you did anything of the sort, Annie. I can understand that you feel strange and out of your element, at present, but you will soon get over that, when you come to know me better.
”There, goodbye, la.s.sie. I hope to see you again, tomorrow or next day, and then you will be able to tell me more about yourself.
”Is the coast clear, Surajah?”
Surajah looked out through the curtains.
”There is no one in sight,” he said, a moment later.
The girl pa.s.sed silently out, and went down the corridor. Surajah returned from his post by the door.
”The poor girl is shy and awkward, as yet,” d.i.c.k said, ”but I think she will be plucky enough, when the time comes. You heard what we said. The first thing will be to get her disguise ready for her. What do you think? Had we better take Ibrahim with us? I think he is to be trusted.”
”I am sure he is,” Surajah agreed. ”He is a Hindoo of Coorg, and was carried away as a slave, six years ago. In the first place, he will be delighted at the prospect of getting away; and in the next, I am sure that he is very fond of you. But there is no occasion to tell him that you are English.”
”No, it will be time enough to do that when we get over the ghauts. It will be better that he should get the disguise. In the first place, he will know exactly what is wanted; and in the next, it would look rum for either of us to be buying such a thing. Of course, we could ask Pertaub to get it for us, but if we take Ibrahim with us he may as well buy it.
”We shall want a couple more horses. These, of course, we can buy ourselves, and saddles and things. When we have got them, we had better leave them at some place on the other side of the river.
Pertaub would help us, there. He is sure to know someone who will look after them for a few days. Then Ibrahim and the girl can start together, go over there and saddle them, so as to be in readiness to mount, directly we come along. We will stop at the wood and dig up the caskets. There is nothing like taking them away with us, when there is a chance, and it is not likely that we shall come back to Seringapatam again--it would be like putting our heads into a tiger's den.”