"A girl!" cried I; "truly this is most wonderful. For the sake of Alla satisfy my curiosity—what is all this about? By your head," said I to the leader, "but that it seems a serious matter, I feel much tempted to laugh at the idea of my poor camp being searched for a girl,—some slave, I presume, who has run away or been carried off by her lover; say, sahib, what has happened?"
"Why, it is no laughing matter to us, whatever it may be to you," said the leader; "send your men out of hearing, and you shall have the whole story."
"Away with you!" cried I to our men, who had crowded round; "this is no tale for your ears."
"The affair is this," said the man: "Until last night, there was in the zenana of the Nuwab a dancing-girl of surpassing beauty and accomplishments; but early this morning her apartment was found empty, marks of violence everywhere about it, blood on the sheets of her bed, and some of her hair and portions of her clothes strewn about the room. There was no alarm in the night, the gates of the town were closed and guarded as usual; and it seems some work of the Shitan that this should have taken place, and that we should have had dirt thrown on our beards without knowing by whom. There is the Nuwab raving and swearing like a madman; his zenana is all in confusion; and, what is worst of all, he threatens to discharge every one of us, without we either bring back the girl or get him intelligence of her within three days."
"Protection of Alla!" cried both I and my father; "this is most extraordinary. And have you no suspicion who has insulted you in this manner?"
"Why," said the man, "you were first suspected, as being strangers and a large party, and we were desired to search your camp; but here we find nothing but bales of goods,—and, indeed, you are not likely persons to have carried her off, for I question whether you ever saw her."
"I dare say," said I, "she was one of the women who were in the durbar the other night, when I paid a visit to the Nuwab."
"Very likely," he returned; "were those you saw good-looking?"
"They were both so," said I; "one was tall and fair, the other was shorter and not so fair, but very handsome."
"That was the girl," said the man; "I have seen her myself once or twice, when I could get inside of a night. But I am wasting my time here, and must return; you may depend upon my fully exonerating you from any suspicion in the matter."