And then Fazl Hak laid down his pen and smiled. It was as though he was satisfied with having impressed Ahmed with a sense of his knowledge and of his own insignificance.
"Come, let us talk as friends," he said. "You are but a youth in these things, in spite of your beard." ("He does not know of my disguise, then," thought Ahmed; this was a little cheering.) "And for one who is but beginning you have not done amiss. I perceive that you have a quick eye and a ready ear, and if, when these troubles are over, you care to enter my service, without doubt you will in due time become the possessor of many rupees."
"I thank you," said Ahmed, the sting of his humiliation somewhat mollified; "but when I have found the hakim I shall return to my own place."
"The hakim! What is this about a hakim?"
The maulavi's evident surprise pleased Ahmed: here was something else that he did not know.
"I came not only to learn things about the rebels," he said, "but to discover the whereabouts of an English hakim who is concealed somewhere in the city—Craddock Sahib; maybe you know somewhat of him?"
"It was told me that he was slain. How know you that he is yet alive?"
"A chit was carried from him to his daughter in Karnal; therefore am I here."
"I knew it not, and it is good knowledge, for Craddock Sahib is a good hakim, and cured me of a fever."
"Then you will help me to find him?"