Returning from the terrace into the harem, Georgia began to examine the waifs and strays of luggage which had been cast up with her on this hill-top. Sir Dugald had been conveyed into one of the inner rooms, and Lady Haigh, with the assistance of Chanda Lal, was engaged in making him comfortable. In the large hall, into which the other rooms opened, lay a confused heap of boxes and cases, just as they had been left by the porters who had carried them in.
“Let us see what we have, Rahah,” said Georgia to her handmaid. “You had my dressing-case and my small medicine-chest on the mule with you, so they are safe, at any rate, and your own clothes too. That box there has books in it, I know, and here are our folding-chairs. I don’t see any of my clothes—any of my own things at all, in fact. I shall have to borrow some from Lady Haigh, for I see that two of her tin boxes are there. Those cases are Sir Dugald’s, of course; and now there are only these two great boxes left, marked with my name. What can they have in them? Nothing very useful, I’m afraid—no dresses, at any rate. Just borrow a hammer and chisel from Chanda Lal, Rahah. He was opening a packing-case a minute ago.”
Returning quickly with the desired implements, Rahah forced open part of the lid of one of the boxes.
“Medical stores!” said Georgia, bringing out a packet of cotton-wool, and a tin case containing a roll of prepared india-rubber. “I might be going to start a dispensary up here. Well, we are satisfactorily provided with medicines and surgical appliances, at any rate. Now the other box, Rahah. I only wish there was the slightest possibility of finding some of my clothes in it.”
But no. Rahah drew back with a scream when she plunged her hand into the mass of crumpled paper which guarded the contents of the box; and Georgia, guessing the state of affairs, brought out a huge, carefully-stoppered bottle, containing a gruesome-looking object swimming in a muddy yellow fluid.
“The collection!” she said, disdainfully. “And of course that particularly detestable snake turns up first of all! Well, Rahah, we are in a nice plight, with no clothes or fancy-work or sketching materials, but with a good many of those creatures to amuse us instead.”
Rahah’s countenance expressed unutterable disgust, and her mistress was not proof against a modified feeling of the same character, for it is the reverse of agreeable, even for a highly qualified lady doctor, to find oneself reduced to a single dress, and that a riding-habit. But while this small although sufficiently unpleasant matter was occupying the minds of Georgia and her maid, Stratford and Dick were experiencing a very bad quarter of an hour in their part of the building. When their host left them they had occupied themselves in sorting the few possessions that remained to them; but while they were in the midst of this somewhat melancholy process, Abd-ur-Rahim returned, accompanied by two or three of his officers.
“Is my lord graciously pleased to be contented with the accommodation afforded by my poor house?” asked the old man.
“I am sure we could ask nothing better,” returned Stratford, pleasantly.
“That is well, seeing that it will now be my lord’s abode during certain days,” said Abd-ur-Rahim.