"Hanani," she said, "I don't quite understand everything. How did you get me here?"
Hanani's veiled head was bent. She turned it towards her slowly, almost reluctantly it seemed to Stella.
"I carried you, mem-sahib," she said.
"You—carried—me!" Stella repeated the word incredulously. "But it is a long way—a very long way—from Kurrumpore."
Hanani was silent for a moment or two, as though irresolute. Then: "I brought you by a way unknown to you, mem-sahib," she said. "Hafiz—you know Hafiz?—he helped me."
"Hafiz!" Stella frowned a little. Yes, by sight she knew him well. Hafiz the crafty, was her private name for him.
"How did he help you?" she asked.
Again Hanani seemed to hesitate as one reluctant to give away a secret. "From the shop of Hafiz—that is the shop of Rustam Karin in the bazaar," she said at length, and Stella quivered at the name, "there is a passage that leads under the ground into the jungle. To those who know, the way is easy. It was thus, mem-sahib, that I brought you hither."
"But how did you get me to the bazaar?" questioned Stella, still hardly believing.
"It was very dark, mem-sahib; and the budmashes were scattered. They would not touch an old woman such as Hanani. And you, my mem-sahib, were wrapped in a saree. With old Hanani you were safe."