"Where is he? Where is the yellow-haired?" exclaimed Assad Khan, gazing around in surprise at finding only Walter within.
"Where is he?" echoed the wondering attendants.
Walter had resolved to answer no questions. Every minute's delay was, he felt, important, as giving to Dermot Denis a better chance of escape.
"Where is the Kafir dog?" exclaimed the furious chief, when no doubt remained that the prisoner had vanished indeed.
Not a word from the lips of Walter.
"Who saw him last?" roared out the chief; "who brought the food which I sent more early than usual?"
"I took it," answered an Afghan.
"Was the yellow-haired here? Did you see him?"
"I did not see him, for he," pointing to Walter, "took the food from my hand, and I did not enter the room."
Several voices spoke at once; they bore witness that the yellow-haired had been in the room when Walter was carried in on the charpai; but nothing had been seen of him since.