"Where else would she be safe, Khan?"
"Not with you, at all events," was the dubious response.
Zohrab coloured perceptibly, and a covert gleam flashed in his glossy black eyes, as he said,
"My head may answer for this project, Khan, if I am taken."
"Taken—how? Do you mean to fly?" asked Shireen, with another keen glance.
"Nay—nay; not if I can help it," stammered Zohrab, who saw that the Khan's sunken eyes were full of strange light.
"If it becomes known that she is here, the fact will embroil me with Ackbar; but, bah! what matter is it?" said Shireen, proudly. "The city is divided against him, and he knows I can bring five thousand red caps into the field; and she will be one more prisoner for Shireen of the Kuzzilbashes!" he muttered under his beard. "Go then, Zohrab; go and prosper."
"May I not accompany him?" asked Denzil, eagerly, as for months he had never been beyond the wall and ditch of the fort, and he longed to make a reconnaissance with a future eye to escape.
"Nay," said Zohrab, "you know not what you propose, Sahib. Your presence would but encumber me, and add to the lady's peril: it is not to be thought of."
Rose added her entreaties that he would not think of it either; for she might lose her lover, and not regain her sister, so suddenly, so recently, heard of; and then an emphatic and brief command from the Khan ended the matter, so far as poor Denzil was concerned, and he felt himself compelled to succumb.