“Then we must search my lord’s baggage.”
“You can search where you like, but you cannot make me tell you where the treaty is. I presume you do not intend to search the baggage of the ladies?”
“Nay, my lord! What hiding-place is so safe or so probable as among a woman’s belongings? But there need be no search if my lord will only tell what he knows. Did he bring the treaty into the fortress with him?”
“I refuse to say. One word, Abd-ur-Rahim. There can be no idea of searching the ladies’ things. You may ask what questions you like, but the ladies must have notice beforehand, and it must be in the presence of one of us, or—well, whoever goes into the harem, you will not be alive to do it.”
“My lord need have no fear. He may go now and bid the women prepare for my coming. I will but question them, and believe what they say, for the English always tell the truth. I would accept the word of my lord even now, if he could assure me that he had not the treaty with him when he entered the fortress.”
There was some eagerness in the old man’s tone, as though he found his task distasteful, and would have welcomed this chance of dispensing with the performance of it; but Stratford shook his head.
“I can say nothing. Stand at the door, North, while I go in to warn the ladies. And keep cool. Cheek may possibly bring us through this fix yet, as it did through the other.”
With a frowning brow, Dick took up the position indicated, and Stratford entered the passage and knocked at the door. Georgia looked up from her doleful examination of her possessions as he came in.
“We are trying to discover what we have saved from the wreck of our fortunes,” she said, lightly. “But what is the matter, Mr Stratford? Does your venerable old friend intend to murder us after all?”
“Not unless he is obliged,” returned Stratford; “but it may come to that yet. He means to get hold of the treaty. Fath-ud-Din seems to think that if he enables the King to destroy it, he will be restored to power. I don’t think the King is in the plot at present, but far be it from me to say that he wouldn’t come into it with a good grace if he got the chance.”