"Walter, a week of this would drive me stark mad!" exclaimed Denis.
"I will ask our good-natured Ali Khan to close the door when he comes next time," said Walter; and as he spoke the young Afghan appeared with the prisoners' food. This food consisted of a loaf, or rather lump of black bread, most repulsive in appearance, only half-baked, and the flour of which it was made mixed with bits of straw and grains of sand.
"That stuff is not fit for hounds!" exclaimed Denis; "the very pigs would despise it! I've a mind to fling it back at the fellow's head!"
"Do not make an enemy of the only being who has shown a grain of humanity!" cried Walter. "I suppose that as regards our food, prisoners must not be choosers." Then turning towards Ali Khan, young Gurney with courtesy inquired who had just arrived in the fort.
"My uncle, our brave chief, Assad Khan."
Denis caught the sound of the name, and his whole countenance brightened.
"Then it is as I hoped!" he exclaimed; "we are in the hands of a gallant warrior whom we have laid under deep obligation, and who will be delighted to serve us. It is the old story of Androcles and the lion,—gratitude is the one virtue of savages and wild beasts."
"I hope not confined to them," said Walter; "nor would I have you build your hopes too high on the gratitude of an Afghan."
"Bid Ali Khan tell his chief that the preserver of his child is here, and with him his friend, able and willing to reward liberally all who serve him faithfully. And let him tell Assad Khan that the first favour which I shall ask at his hands is that he should soundly bastinado the ruffians who have robbed, insulted, and imprisoned me here."
Walter translated but a portion of Denis's speech, adding a request to Ali Khan that the prisoners might not be subjected to sudden inroads from crowds, at least till the captives had been granted an interview with the leader.