"I thank you for your kindness," said I, "and should I want anything more I will not scruple to send for it. Salam, Sahib!"
"Salam!" he returned; "I wish you a safe journey and a successful one."
"Thanks again to you, good Aumil, for your last words," said I to myself as I went away: "Inshalla! it will be as successful as it has hitherto been. Well indeed Mahomed Ali has met his deserts; and it is better perhaps for him that he lies cold and dead as he is, than that he should have lived to be haunted by an evil conscience, and to fall into the hands of those he has cheated and deceived, who would have tortured him to death, if they had not immured him in a miserable prison to pine out the remainder of his days.
"Verily a good deal has been done, and my old father will laugh heartily when he hears how I have behaved, and how I have baffled suspicion by the commission I have brought with me, of which these papers are good proof. I have got his true name too, and it is hard if with this clue I do not get hold of the money for the bills of exchange which my sagacious parent would have destroyed. Shabash! Ameer Ali, do thou go on in this way, and whose dog is he who shall compete with thee, either in cunning or in daring!"
As I thought he would, my father laughed heartily at the business I had undertaken. "It would be a good joke," he said, "to send for Kumal Khan's head, and put it at the gate of the village; they would then be at rest about him, and Mohun Lall's friend would be obliged to disgorge a little of the coin I have no doubt he has helped himself to out of the revenue."
"By Alla," said I, "it is an excellent thought, and I will send a couple of Lughaees to bring it."
"No, no," said my father; "I did but jest; it is now nearly evening, and it would not do to risk them on that lonely road at nightfall; besides, they could not well be back before we start."
"As you will," said I; but at the same time I made an inward determination to mention it to one or two of them. When I reached my tent, I sent for three Lughaees, enterprising fellows. "Now," said I, "my lads, I have got an adventure for you, and here are five rupees apiece if you will do it."
"Your commands are on our heads and eyes," said they; "you have only to order us, and we will perform your wishes."