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 when we earned our pensions beyond the black water?”

“Try me, sahib—only try me,” came the quick answer. “I have feared that I was growing fat and soft in this city of laziness, where the tame polis use not the ways known to you and me, O leader of midnight pursuits. But that look in your eye brings back the old heart-hunger. I want a quarry, sahib, fleet of foot and strong of arm and wily of tongue, to match with all those of thine and mine. Show me such an one, sahib.”

“So will I, Azimoolah—not one, but twenty quarries, maybe, whom it will tax all our ancient skill to defeat,” said the General, with a frosty smile for his follower’s eagerness. “Take heed while I give orders.”

The conclave that ensued lasted until luncheon, at which it was noticed, though not remarked upon, by Mrs. Sadgrove that Azimoolah Khan did not as usual station himself behind his master’s chair. The General, too, made no reference to his retainer’s absence, but plunged at once into a totally unfounded explanation of the wholesale invitation to Prior’s Tarrant. The Duke of Beaumanoir, he averred, wished to be kind to his young