Page:Treasure of the mosque.djvu/6

138 held the sword upward so that the sunlight ﬂashed upon the steel.

“Allah Akbar!” he muttered. “There are many things to be settled. What does Dunkar Rao’s piglet of a son do slinking near the mosque after night fall?”

“Aye!” ejaculated Lambert, who suddenly perceived a connection between the whisperings under his window and the bit of news just disclosed by his landlord.

“Aye, too, sahib,” responded Firoz Khan, grimly. “What does that proﬂigate, for whose evil ways Dunkar Rao squeezes the people, do near a Mohammedan mosque after nightfall?”

For answer Lambert professed complete ignorance, but when he went up on to the roof that evening there lurked in his mind the idea of somehow warning the pretty girl that it was unwise for a mullah’s daughter to waste her affection on a worthless piglet, even though he were the son of the King’s minister. Further, and this he thought would be more effective, he might hint he knew a gentleman with a muscular arm and a supple blade close on the piglet’s trail. If she were reckless of her own safety, she would probably consider her lover’s safety after the manner of women, and the end desired thus brought about. But though he sat and waited for some hours, rather wondering why he seemed to be watched in turn by the monkeys, not a glimpse did he catch of the mullah’s daughter. So ﬁnally he went down to the not too luxurious repose of his string bed. Lambert had fallen into a comfortable done when he was suddenly roused to wakefulness by a feeling that there was some one in the room. Opening his eyes he beheld a black form apparently going through his pockets.