“Nothing could be clearer, sahib. If you choose to help her she will escape from the palace and join you at an agreed place. If your only desire is to make for the sea I am pledged to her on Ganges water to aid you with money and life.”
“But she is poor, you said, obliged to adorn others not worthy to adjust her gown if beauty were alone to wait on the most beautiful?”
“There is money in plenty for the removal of Jahangir,” was the laconic answer.
“Hearest thou, Roger?” said Mowbray, reaching out to touch his comrade’s arm in the dark.
“Aye, lad, I hear,” came the giant’s low growl. “’Tis a pity affairs are ordered differently, else we should see some pretty fighting.”
Jai Singh, too, leaned forward. He thought they were agreeing that he had planned most excellently. Already he could sniff the sacking of Agra fort, in which the accumulated treasure was so great, when Akbar had an inventory made, that four hundred pairs of scales were kept at work five months weighing silver, gold, and precious stones. His breath came thick and fast. His voice gurgled just as it did under the pressure of Mowbray’s hands on his windpipe. A revolt now, properly handled, would mean the loot of a century.
“’Twill soon be sunrise, sahiba,” he said. “I must be going. Remember, the eleventh hour—three hoots—”
“Stay, Jai Singh,” said Walter, quietly. “There must be no attempt at a rescue. If any attack be made on the column, Sainton-sahib and I will strike hard for Fateh Mohammed. We have given our bond to accompany him to the very presence of Jahangir. God helping us we will maintain our honor in this matter as in all others. Go you, and tell Nur Mahal what I have said. There is no other way. We are pledged to meet the Emperor face to face as his prisoners, and he must do with us what he wills, or, rather, what God wills.”
“Sahib, you know not what you are refusing.”
“Go, nevertheless, Jai Singh, and tell Nur Mahal that I have refused. Perchance, now, she may hasten alone to Burdwán.”