'She says that they were here, and that they have gone. She heard I was coming and she put them out. She had made up her mind that we should not meet. Curses—a thousand curses—on her head!'
'Why did she tell my master this?' said Hoosanee.
'She did not tell me at first. It came out. That is why I think it may be true. She was enraged that I would not do what she wished, and then she threw it in my teeth. If I believed her, and escaped as I might do, and if I found out afterwards that she had lied to me—or if, on the other hand, I remained here while they were going through danger and hardship outside—oh! Hoosanee—my brother, advise me! What shall I do?'
'Listen, my master,' said the good fellow, who, while his master had been speaking, had taken his own measure of the situation. 'You will stay here for an hour. Yes. I beseech you, do as I say! It will be best. Alone no one will suspect me. I will join my friend, the chowkedar, and go with him on his rounds. I will hear the last news of the place. If the prisoners are still here, or if they have been put out, as the White Ranee says, will soon be known to me. When I know, I will return to my master, and he will decide what we had best do.'
It seemed the most feasible plan. In any case, so Hoosanee has told me, it was adopted. He left his master, hoping that he would compose himself in his absence, and went out into the court. The first person he met was Ganesh. Ganesh looked wild and unnatural. Hoosanee stopped for a moment to tax him with treachery. The Brahmin threw back the word in his teeth, and they parted. Ganesh went to the door of their master's room. Hoosanee joined the friendly chowkedar. They were smoking a pipe together, and the bearer was gradually drawing out the information he required, when in the courtyard there was a sudden clamour. One of the sentinels, posted outside, came rushing in breathless with the news that the Gora-log or European-folk were upon them. The chowkedar sprang up and ran headlong to the quarter of the fort where Dost Ali Khan and his captains were sleeping, and Hoosanee made at full speed for his master's room. Ganesh was there before him, so the young rajah had already heard of the panic. He was standing up fully dressed, with a revolver in one hand and a sword in the other, and Ganesh was beseeching him to remain where he was. 'We may escape,' he said, 'if we remain where we are. If we go out amongst them we are doomed.'
'But the prisoners!' cried Tom, who must have been nearly beside himself.
'If they are in the fort—' began Ganesh.
'They are not—they are not,' shrieked Hoosanee.
'The chief thinks so, but he is mistaken. The Soubahdar Sufder Jung was ordered yesterday by the White Ranee to take them away.'
'The Soubahdar Sufder Jung!' echoed Tom, and his arms dropped from his hands, and his limbs seemed to fail under him. 'The Soubahdar Sufder Jung!'