Page:In times of peril.djvu/154

 While they were speaking, the two chief personages of the party had taken their seats in a pavilion close to tho spot where the young Warreners were hidden.

Ned translated the purport of the talk to Dick, and both agreed that the way of safety had opened to them.

Seeing that their mistress was not in the humor for laughter and mirth, and would rather talk quietly with her chief friend and adviser, the attendants gradually left them and gathered in a distant part of the garden.

Then Ned and Dick crept out of their hiding place, and appeared suddenly at the entrance to the pavilion, where they fell on one knee in an attitude of supplication, and Ned said:

"Oh, gracious lady, have pity upon two fugitives!"

The ranee and her counselor rose to their feet with a little scream, and hastily covered their heads.

"Have pity, lady," Ned went on, earnestly; "we are alone and friendless; Oh, do not give us up to our enemies."

"How did you get here?" asked the elder woman.

"We climbed the wall," Ned said. "We knew not that this garden was the ladies' garden, or we might not have invaded it; now we bless Providence that has brought us to the feet of so kind and lovely a lady."

The ranee laughed lightly behind her veil.

"They are mere boys, Ahrab."

"Yes, your highness, but it would be just as dangerous for you to shelter boys as men. And what will you do, as you have to go to Cawnpore to-morrow?"

"Oh, you can manage somehow, Ahrab—you are so clever," the ranee said coaxingly, "and I could not give them up to be killed; I should never feel happy afterward."

"May heaven bless you, lady!" Ned said, earnestly;