No questions were asked, as they passed the guard. They at once perceived Hossein, standing a little way off, and followed him through the busy streets. They soon turned off into a quieter quarter, and stopped at a house, in a street in which scarcely anyone was stirring. Hossein glanced round, as he opened the door, and beckoned to them to enter at once. This they did, and were glad, indeed, to set down the heavy baskets of plantains.
"My lord's room is upstairs," Hossein said, and led the way to a comfortably furnished apartment. "I think that you might stay here, for months, unsuspected. A sweeper comes, every day, to do my rooms downstairs. He believes the rest of the house to be untenanted, and you must remain perfectly quiet, during the half hour he is here. Otherwise, no one enters the house but myself."
Hossein soon set to work, and prepared an excellent breakfast. Then he left them, saying that he would now devote himself to finding out whether the young white lady was in the town palace of the rajah. He returned in the afternoon.
"She is here, Sahib," he said. "I got into conversation with one of the retainers of the rajah; and by giving him some wonderful bargains, in Delhi jewelry, succeeded in opening his lips. I dare not question him too closely, but I am to meet him tomorrow, to show him some more silver bracelets."
"It is fortunate, Hossein, that you have some money, for neither Tim nor I have a rupee."
"Thanks to the generosity of my lord," Hossein said, "I am well supplied."
The next day, Hossein discovered that the windows of the zenana were at the back of the palace, looking into the large garden.
"I hear, however," he said, "that the ladies of the zenana are, next week, going to the rajah's other palace. The ladies will, of course, travel in palanquins; but upon the road I might get to talk with one of the waiting women, and might bribe her to pass a note into the hands of the white lady."
"I suppose they will have a guard with them, Hossein?"
"Surely, a strong guard," Hossein answered.