"Men?—to take Maloosray?" cried Bulwunt. "O Meah, you are simple to think it. Maloosray will have twenty, aye fifty, spies out, and old Rama is chief of them. One soldier a coss off, and Tannajee would be warned. But why go, Meah?" he continued, after a pause. "I will take my own men and bring him. O," cried Bulwunt, speaking through his teeth and to himself, "for one good chance and a fair field with him now!"
"No, Bulwunt, I must go; it is the King's business," returned Fazil; "besides Persian may be spoken, and you do not understand it."
"Persian, my lord? then this is a Moghul affair?"
"I cannot say, friend," returned Fazil; "all I have discovered is, that Maloosray will be in the temple, or in the mudud khana, and a 'Lalla.' There is no good, I am sure, at the bottom of it, and we must find out what it is. We know the Moghul emissaries are busy, and it is important to check their plots."
"And Sivaji Bhóslay's also, Meah, they bode no good; for my people write to me that he and Tannajee have leagued together, and——; in short, they write foolish things, sir."
"Bhóslay? that is your family name, Bulwunt," said Fazil, musing.
"Yes," he replied, "and we are of the same house; but he is rich and I am poor. And now people tell wonderful things of him; how the Mother—that is, Bhowani, speaks in him sometimes, and he prophesies great events. One thing is certain, Meah, Sivaji Bhóslay is no friend to Beejapoor, nor to any Mussulman; and if Maloosray has come here for him, it is with some object which is worth the risk to discover."
"Then they are friends?" asked Fazil.
"Ay, Meah, as thou and I, and nearer still. Maloosray believes Sivaji to be an incarnation of the gods, and would give his life for him. So, too, many another; and the people have begun to write ballads about him, which are sung in Beejapoor even sometimes, and they set one's blood dancing. No wonder the people of the wild valleys love them; wild places, Meah, which ye know little of as yet."
"Yes, it is worth the risk to find out what is doing. One thread of those dark intrigues in my hand and I am not my father's son if I do not discover more," replied Fazil; "but you said we should be disguised."