“But we must have the rope, sahib, to get down from the top of the wall,” he said; and he pulled away at the line more quickly, the end falling directly after with a sharp crushing sound among the bushes. This had evidently been heard, for a lanthorn rapidly approached us out of the darkness, and as we crouched down, the face of a man could be seen at last, with the eyes flashing as he held up his light.
But, as is the case on a dark night, the man who bears a light is far easier to see than the one who watches or hides, and I crouched there, wondering at last, as the man held up his lanthorn nearly over me, why it was that he could not detect my presence.
But he did not, and after looking carefully round, he turned and walked away, just where, had he taken a couple or so steps nearer to the palace, he would have come in contact with one of us.
“Saved!” I breathed to myself, as he walked away, and his light disappeared among the trees.
“The rope, sahib,” whispered Dost; and I rapidly drew it up and twisted it round me.
“Now your hand,” he said; and as I gave it to him, he led me cautiously in and out among the trees, avoiding the men easily enough, for their lanthorns showed exactly the direction in which they were going, though, had a few been about without lights, we must have been taken! It was slow work, and, as we crept along, the moving lights behind the windows and the shouts and commands that came made me aware that a careful search was being made for me, and, moment by moment, our chance of escape appeared more hopeless.
But Dost did not seem to be in the slightest degree troubled. He kept on right through the grounds toward where lights flitted about in the window of a building, and he whispered—
“They are searching it, sahib. When they have done, we will go there.”
I felt hopeless, but kept on close to his side, thinking all the time that we must be taken before long.
Just now the capture was imminent, for men approached us, but in every case something took off their attention, and we reached the great building, to find it now all dark, as if the search there was at an end, and the place deserted.