"Ay, indeed! Boy's tricks, boy's tricks, Habeeb; yet that Fazil Khan was accounted a steady youth: but he is in trouble about last night."
"Ah, master! we have all been like him once," said the barber, chuckling. "I suppose it was one of the new dancers——"
"Except that we did no murder, friend," returned the Kótwal, interrupting him.
"Is my lord very particular about a noble slaying a thief, or a night brawler?" asked the barber.
"O no! and it will be settled. And now you may go, Habeeb—find out who was visited last night; perhaps ... no matter ... and thou shalt have thy mouth filled, after our Persian fashion, with gold zecchins and sugar-candy. There are a couple in earnest of more."
"May the sun of your splendour increase in brightness, master!" returned the man, taking the money, and retreating backwards till he gained the door. "I will inquire——"
"And now for this boy and his rough father," said Jehándar Beg, speaking to himself, as the door closed on the barber; "if they could be gained? Well, I must see. If not—we cannot allow them to live; they are too powerful," and he rose and went into the outer hall.
"And no one has passed here, Jaffur?" said Jehándar Beg to the Nubian slave, who, with some others, watched the door of the court where Afzool Khan was confined.
"No one, my lord, except the servants with their meal."
"Did they speak to him?"