percy went to the window and looked out. there were three of these, mere arrow slits, and from each of them he had a view of the wood stretching away down the hillside into a narrow valley, which a short distance down took a turn and the hills cut off further view.

"where are we, think you, akram chunder?"

"i have no idea, sahib, beyond the fact that by the position of the sun we are looking eastward. i should say the place where we halted yesterday was some thirty miles to the north-east of the fortress; it may have been more, but it certainly was not less, or i would have known the country. to-day we were mounting all the time till the last hour, and then i could feel that we descended sharply. i should say that we were some six hours on horseback; we travelled part of the way at a trot, but more often walked, so at five miles an hour we should be thirty from our camp of last night. if we travelled straight to the east all the time we may have crossed the main crest of the hills; if not, we may be anywhere among them, for they tied the bandages so carefully over my eyes that i could see nothing, not even the road under the horse's feet."

"it would not have helped you much had you done so," percy said with a laugh; "one road is a good deal like another."

"the shadows would have shown me the direction in which we were travelling, sahib, more accurately than i could tell by the heat of the sun."

"so they would, akram. i did not think of that. at any rate we may take it that we are in some very out-of-the-way spot, where it would be difficult for anyone to find us without a guide."

"that is so, sahib. i can see nothing but trees, and no signs of human handiwork. this place could not be seen at a great distance, for it does not rise very much above the tops of the trees. the rock was about thirty feet high where we mounted it, though it must be well-nigh double that on the lower face. the building itself is not any great height; though it could be seen well enough from that valley down there, it could not be made out from above, and even from the hillside was scarcely visible. it would be a difficult place to capture except by a force provided with cannon, for it occupies the whole of the top of this crag, and, as far as i could see, that is quite unclimbable except by the path up which we mounted. above the gate there was a projecting turret, and the loopholes of those at the corners both commanded it. a dozen men with muskets ought to be able to hold that path against any number; for even if they got up to the gate, i noticed as i entered that there are holes in the floor of the turret above by which they could fire down or pour hot lead on the heads of any trying to break open the gate."

"you heard what they said about the ransom?"

"i heard them, sahib, and only hope that they will go direct to the colonel; but i am afraid they will try ghoolab singh first. they know that he has plenty of money in his treasure-chests."

"i am afraid so too, akram. the fact that ghoolab tried to catch me before shows that he thinks he could work upon my uncle through me; and as he seems to have set his mind upon obtaining possession of the fortress, i should think he would pay any sum these scoundrels elected to ask."

the man nodded. "he will pay anything, sahib; it is not only that he wants the place, but that he owes the colonel a grudge for having held it so stoutly in spite of him, and ghoolab never forgets an injury or forgives one he hates."

"i see no chance of making our escape," percy said, again examining the windows.

"none, sahib; a rat could hardly creep through these loopholes, and had we means to cut away the stone we should be no nearer escape, unless we had also a rope, and that a long one, for we are at the lower angle of the rock, and i should say these loopholes must be eighty feet above the ground. we have nothing to make a rope of, as you see they have stripped me to my cumberband, and have taken away your coat; so our clothes, if torn up and twisted together, would scarce make a rope eighty feet long that would support its own weight. i see no shadow of a chance of escape that way, nor in any way if the guard is vigilant. we may have a better chance if we are taken to ghoolab; he would not have us at jummoo, for should any complaint be laid against him on your account, he would, of course, deny that he knows aught about you; but wherever we are taken, we shall probably find better chances of escape than there are here. once free, we might manage; it is not likely that any of these dacoits can know that i'm from cashmere, and you may be sure i shall not let them find out that i speak the language. if we could get out, then, i could pass as a peasant, and however hot the pursuit, we ought to be able to evade it."

five days passed; the prisoners had nothing to complain of in their treatment, being kept well supplied with food. this was always brought in by two armed men, while two others stood at the door, partly, percy guessed, to prevent any attempt to escape, partly to see that they held no conversation with those who brought in the food.

"they can't trust each other," akram chunder said; "they know well enough that the bribe you could offer for assistance to escape would be too much for any single dacoit to resist, and their leader is wise not to trust them."

"the sooner we are out of this the better," percy said. "i am heartily tired of looking out of these loopholes, and don't care how soon i am on my way to cashmere. how long will it be, do you think, before a message can come from ghoolab singh?"

"if he is at jummoo a messenger should be able to go and come in five or six days, sahib; but it will probably be some little time before he can get an interview with ghoolab. this is the fifth day since we were brought here; if we hear nothing to-morrow it will be either that he is not there, or that the dacoit has demanded so large a sum for you that he is unwilling to give it. ghoolab is too fond of money to pay if he can help it; and it is quite possible that when the messenger gets there he will seize and torture him until he reveals the position of this place, and will then send a force to capture you without the necessity of paying for you. i wonder whether the dacoits have foreseen that possibility. it is just the sort of thing that ghoolab would delight in."

"i hope he won't attempt anything of the sort," percy said; "if the dacoits find themselves surrounded and attacked here, they would likely enough avenge themselves upon him by cutting our throats before his men could force their way in."

"that is just what they would do, sahib; but as ghoolab would foresee the risk, it will, i hope, prevent him from carrying out that plan. he will learn from the messenger that the place can hardly be taken by a sudden surprise, and, therefore, he may think it better to pay the sum demanded, provided it is not too large, to running the risk of losing you altogether. he would not be ill-pleased to hear of your death, for he would reckon that were you out of the way, sooner or later the fortress and district would fall into his hands; but doubtless he would rather have you, in order that he may drive a good bargain with the colonel and get him to hand the place over in exchange for you."

"i hope my uncle will do nothing of the sort," percy said.

akram chunder shook his head. "you are his son by adoption," he said, "and to save your life he will give up the fortress."

"well, i hope at any rate he will negotiate for some time, akram, in which case it will be hard if we don't manage to slip away somehow. i wish we had our knives with us."

"what for, sahib? the stonework of the windows is solid, and it would take us an immense time to enlarge one of the loopholes so that we could slip through."

"i was not thinking of that; but if we had our knives we could get off one of the back legs of the charpoy, so that its loss would not be noticed, and cut it up into wedges, which we could drive in all round the door if we heard a row going on outside. the door is a very strong one, and if we could fasten it like that inside they might not be able to break it open before ghoolab's men could fight their way in."

"that is a good idea, sahib, and if we had knives we would carry it out, but without them i don't see that we could do anything. we might move the two charpoys against the door, but half a dozen men pushing on the other side would soon drive them out of the way."

"no, there is nothing to be done," percy agreed; "and i do hope that ghoolab will quite see that in the event of his trying to take the place, the dacoits will be pretty sure to finish me before his men can get in."

that evening they unlashed the thin binding that held one of the beds together, and each armed himself with one of the legs.

"it is not much of a weapon," percy said, "but it is something anyhow, and it would be a thousand times better to make a fight of it than to stand still and have one's throat cut. we will take it by turns to keep awake to-night, so as to hear if there is anything stirring."

the night, however, passed without any unusual sound being heard. just after daybreak they heard a shout.

"that is likely to be the messenger returning," akram chunder said. "if it had been an enemy, they would have come in the dark."

"but they would not be able to find their way," percy objected.

"they would make the messenger act as their guide, sahib; there would be no difficulty about that. besides if it had been an enemy, we should have heard other shouts; the whole place would be in a turmoil. i have no doubt that it is the messenger, and we shall presently hear what ghoolab says."

an hour passed, and then the door opened and the men brought in food. "you are to eat this quickly," one said, speaking for the first time since they had been imprisoned; "you have to mount and ride in a quarter of an hour; and goolam tej bade me tell you that you had best eat a good meal, for you have a long ride before you, and may not get another before nightfall."

when, after eating a hearty meal, percy and his follower mounted and made off, escorted by twelve of the dacoits, they congratulated themselves that they had escaped the danger they feared.

"i think that your life is quite safe now, sahib," akram said. "whatever ghoolab singh may threaten, he will scarcely venture to do you harm. he was always opposed to war with the english, knowing that they would assuredly defeat the soldiers, and he is far-sighted enough to see that ere long the punjaub will belong to them. it is true that another time the sikhs might put a larger force in the field than that with which they last fought; but so can the english, for had the war lasted two weeks longer, the army that was coming up from scinde would have joined that which fought at sobraon and would have well-nigh doubled its strength. this being so, ghoolab singh, who has received the kingdom of cashmere at the hands of the english, would fear that, did he murder one of your race, troubles would arise when the english became masters of the punjaub. in the case of your uncle he would have no scruples, for, as all know, englishmen who take service with native princes do so without the consent of their government, and forfeit all right to their protection. besides, it will be represented that the colonel was in fact a rebel against the durbar, since he held by force the government of which he had been deprived by the orders of runjeet singh and his ministers, and that his life was thereby forfeited. he may not know that you have been serving as an officer in the english army; but you must let him hear that, and that the governor-general himself has promised you an appointment in the company's service, and has taken great interest in you, and that, should anything befall you, he will assuredly punish whoever may be the author of the deed. i think that if ghoolab had known that, he would not have accepted the dacoits' offer. before, you were only a relative of a man with no friends save his own soldiers, and had he executed you publicly as a rebel in the market-place of jummoo there would have been no one to gainsay him. but now that you are known to the governor-general and the commander-in-chief, he will see that he cannot act as he will without drawing upon himself the anger of the english authorities, when the colonel reports the fact to them."

"there is something in that, akram, but not much. were he asked to explain why he had put one of english blood to death, he would simply reply that he was the nephew of a man who had set the government of lahore at defiance, had maintained himself by arms, had inflicted heavy losses on the force sent to place the lawful governor appointed by the durbar in power; that the person executed had taken part in this act of rebellion, and that his life was justly forfeited. as all this would be in a way true, there could really be no answer to it, and the english would certainly not embroil themselves with a powerful prince, with whom they were anxious to keep on good terms, on such a matter. still, if i do see ghoolab himself, i shall certainly make the most of the kind expressions of sir henry hardinge and the commander-in-chief when i left them at lahore. i should hardly think, however, that he will see me. he would prefer being able to deny, without chance of contradiction, that he knew anything at all about me."

"but in that case, sahib, how could he use you as the means of forcing the colonel to give up the fortress and his governorship of the district?"

"i should think that most likely he will send word to my uncle that he has learned i have fallen into the hands of some dacoits, and that if my uncle will surrender the fortress he will take measures to rescue me from these men, who will otherwise put me to death."

"the colonel will never believe that," akram said decidedly; "he will guess at once that you are in the hands of ghoolab."

"very likely he will, akram, but he won't be able to prove it, and ghoolab will know well enough that if he were to put me out of the way my uncle could not accuse him of my death, as he would have no evidence of my death to produce in support; and indeed, if bhop lal recovered and took him the news of our being carried off, all he could say would be a confirmation of ghoolab's story, and would show that i had indeed been carried off by a band of dacoits. it will most likely be known that goolam tej's band were in the neighbourhood, and were doubtless the party who attacked us."

akram chunder was silent. he could not gainsay percy's argument, and it seemed to him that ghoolab singh had indeed the game completely in his hands.

"i am afraid it is as you say, sahib," he remarked after a while, "and that we shall have, as we agreed, to slip out of their hands somehow. i see no chance at present."

"certainly not," percy agreed; "we have no arms, and though they have not tied us this time, they must be sure that we dare not try to escape, surrounded as we are by them, for they would be able to shoot us down before we had ridden ten yards. moreover, the wood is too dense for us to force our way through, and even if we got away at first, we should be overtaken."

the road they were traversing was a mere track cut through the dense forest, and it was with difficulty that they rode two abreast. six of the dacoits rode ahead of them, six behind, those immediately following them having, as they observed when they mounted, their pistols in their hands, in readiness to shoot at the first indication of an attempt to escape.

"do you think we are going towards jummoo?" percy asked after they had ridden for some three hours.

"i cannot say for certain, sahib, but i think not. i feel sure that jummoo lies much to the right, and i believe that we shall come down into the valley of cashmere somewhere between that and serinagur. winding about as we have been doing in the bottom of valleys, it is very difficult to judge which way we are really going."

"i agree with you, akram. i have been watching the way in which the sun falls upon us, and as you say, though we have wound and turned a good deal, i do not think we have ridden to the right as we should have done had we been making for jummoo. it does not make much difference whether we are taken there or to serinagur," percy said; "the end of the journey will be a prison in any case."

"there is no doubt about that, but i would rather they took us to serinagur, sahib. ghoolab singh has been years at jummoo, and you may be sure that in that time he has built new and strong prisons, from which it would be very hard to escape. serinagur is an old place, and its prisons would not be like those of jummoo, and ought to be much easier to get out of; besides, being so much farther from the frontier, they might not watch us so closely, thinking we should know it would be next to impossible for men ignorant of the language to make their way down the valley, however disguised."

percy awakes, to find that the guards are vigilant

percy awakes, to find that the guards are vigilant

half an hour later they passed through a village, and as the forest thinned as they approached it, and the path became broader, the dacoits closed in on both sides of the prisoners and completely surrounded them. the inhabitants fled into their houses as the troop rode through. no halt was made, and they presently came upon a broad road, and following this again began to mount. all day they travelled among very lofty hills, but towards evening made a long and steep descent.

"i think i know that last pass we went through," akram chunder said; "i believe we are now descending into the valley of cashmere. if i am right, this road will fall into it ten miles below serinagur."

shortly afterwards a halt was called, the dacoits turned their horses loose to graze, and proceeded to light a fire to cook the food they had brought with them. they gave the prisoners a share, but when the meal was concluded tied them securely hand and foot and placed two guards over them. these were relieved at short intervals, and one of the men kept the fire burning briskly. percy woke several times in the night, and each time found the guard vigilant; and being convinced that there was no possibility of an escape while in their charge, he at once went off to sleep again.

in the morning their bonds were loosed, and they resumed their journey. about mid-day they came down into a wide flat valley. a large river meandered with many turns and windings down it, and smaller streams fell into it at many points.

"are those small rivers for the most part navigable?" percy asked, pointing to the silver threads among the bright green expanse of vegetation.

"yes, sahib, the rivers are the roads throughout the valley; it is by them that the peasants take in their products to serinagur. i do not say they would carry a large barge, but small boats can make their way along them right up to the foot of the hills."

"it must be a very rich country judging from the numbers of villages scattered about."

"it is, sahib; with good government cashmere would be a paradise. it is never very hot or very cold; the air is soft and balmy, the soil is so rich that everything grows in abundance with but little trouble to the cultivator; he has but to gather his crops and pitch them into his boat, and he can make his way to market without the necessity for horse or bullock. but the government is bad, and has been so for long. ghoolab is a hard master, but no harder than its former rulers have been. the people would be rich and contented indeed under such a rule as that of the english, firm and just, for in addition to agriculture they have many other means of earning their living, there are the shawl-weavers and silver workers, and those who paint on lacquer, and every member of the family can help to earn something.

"the mountains abound with game, and there is pasturage for countless flocks and herds. the poets of india have always sung of cashmere as the fairest and most blest by nature of any spot south of the hindoo koosh; and they have not spoken a bit too strongly. with good rulers it would be that and much more. the fault is that the country is so fair, the climate so balmy, and life so easy, that the people are too soft in their habits to make good soldiers, and the country has therefore been overrun countless times by more warlike races. at present the sikhs are masters, but their rule is likely to be even shorter than that of others who have conquered it. when the english are lords of the punjaub, they will see how fair and how rich is this valley of cashmere, and that they have but to stretch out their hand to take it. it will be a blessed day indeed for the people when they do so."

"i don't think they want further conquests, akram; they would gladly have left the punjaub alone, but they were forced against their will into annexing first the provinces beyond the sutlej, now jalindar, and next time perhaps the rest of the country, but there can be no aggressions from cashmere."

"no, sahib, but the same necessity may arise here as elsewhere. the english hate oppression, and if ghoolab or his successors grind down the people beyond a certain point, they will interfere. moreover, cashmere is necessary to them. through it runs the best road over the great northern chain of mountains. it is, quite as much as afghanistan, the door of india, and round the valley at its northern end are troublesome tribes, whom the rulers of cashmere have never been able to keep in order; the boundaries of china are not far away. a generation or two at the outside and the english will be rulers at serinagur i think, sahib. what a blessing it would be to the country! in the first place, there would be neither over-taxation nor oppression. all would live and till their lands and work their loom, secure of enjoying their earnings in peace. money would flow into the country, for the sahibs would come in great numbers from the plains, for health and for sport, and would spend their money freely, and would buy our manufactures from the weavers and silversmiths at first hand, while now they have to be sent down to market at great expense, and in troublous times at great risk. there, you see, sahib, we are taking the northern road; in two hours we shall be at serinagur."

"all the better, akram; this is a lovely view, and i should be a long time before i was tired of looking at it; but i am eager to see what kind of a place we are going to be shut up in so as to judge our chance of escape. i wish we could get hold of a couple of long knives and hide them somewhere about us, before we reach the town;" for the clothes they had worn when they were captured had been restored to them before starting.

"one might persuade one of these fellows riding by us to part with his knife, sahib; but our pockets are empty; at least mine are, and i don't suppose they have left you any better provided."

"no, akram, but i have twenty gold pieces wrapped up in flannel and stowed away in a flap-pocket at the bottom of my holster. my uncle had it made on the day i left him. he said that it might be useful to have a small store of money there in case i ever fell among thieves; and it is so contrived that even if anyone put his hand right down to the bottom of the holster he would not suspect that there was a pocket there, for the flap exactly fits it, and makes a sort of false bottom. the money was stowed away there, and i have never thought of it since."

"it must be well hidden, sahib," akram chunder said with a laugh, "for i have put the saddle on and off a hundred times, and put your pistols and sometimes food into the holster, and never for a moment suspected that there was money lying there. are you sure that it hasn't been taken?"

percy put his hand down into the holster.

"it is all right, akram, i can feel the roll of flannel under the flap."

"well, sahib, if you can get out four pieces it is hard if i don't manage to get a couple of knives from this fellow next to me; as for the rest, if we can but hide them about us they may prove the means of our getting free from prison. thinking it over, it seemed to me that our greatest difficulty was that we had no means of bribing anyone."

percy managed to get out four gold pieces, and passed them quietly to his follower.

"comrade," the latter said in a low voice to the dacoit riding beside him, "you have two knives in your girdle, at what do you value them?"

the man looked keenly at his prisoner. their clothing had been searched with scrupulous care, and he felt sure that no hiding-place could have been overlooked.

"it depends on who wanted to buy," he said cautiously.

"suppose i wanted to buy."

"then they would be worth two gold pieces each."

"that is beyond my means. i would not mind giving a gold piece for each of them."

"where are the pieces to come from?"

"that is my business; perhaps i have them hidden in my mouth or my ears, or my hair."

"i dare not do it," the man said; "it might be noticed."

"not if you managed it well," akram said. "you might ride close up to me when the road happens to be narrow, and pass them in a moment; besides we are not thinking of escape now; but they may be useful to us afterwards."

"it is too great a risk," the man repeated irresolutely.

"well, i will give you three pieces for the two, though it is hard that you should beggar me."

the man nodded, and presently akram saw him shift the two knives to the side of his girdle next to him. a short distance farther on he glanced round at the two men riding behind. they were laughing and talking together, and evidently paying but little attention to the prisoners. a moment later he touched his horse's rein, and his knee rubbed against akram's. the latter passed three gold pieces into his hand, snatched the knives from his girdle, and thrust them under his coat, and the dacoit at once drew off to his former position. riding close together, akram had no difficulty in passing one of the knives to percy, who then again opened the flap in the holster and took the money from its flannel inclosure and handed seven pieces to akram.

"where do you mean to hide them?" he asked.

"in the folds of my waist-sash; that is the only place to put them at present. of course if they search us they will discover the money and the knives, but they will be so sure that the dacoits have taken everything from us that they may not think it worth while to do so. if they once leave us in a room alone we can hide them away so that nothing but a careful search will find them; but at present we must trust to chance."

they were now approaching the town, which extends some two miles on either side of the river jelum, across which several bridges are thrown. percy was disappointed at the appearance of the place, which contained no buildings of sufficient importance to tower above the rest. he was most struck with the green appearance of the roofs. on remarking this to akram, the latter replied:

"they are gardens, sahib; the roofs are for the most part flat, and they are overlaid with a deep covering of earth, which keeps the houses warm in winter and cool in summer. the soil is planted with flowers, and forms a terrace, where the family sit in the cool of the evening."

"that explains it. it is a pity the same thing is not done in other towns; it looks wonderfully pretty."

the people they passed on the road were dressed somewhat differently to those of india; the men wore large turbans and a great woollen vest with wide sleeves; while the women were for the most part dressed in red gowns, also with large loose sleeves. bound the head was a red twisted handkerchief, over which was thrown a white veil, which did not, however, cover the face.

"is the language at all like punjaubi?" percy asked.

"no, sahib, it differs altogether from all the indian tongues, so far as i have heard, and is therefore very difficult to be learned by the natives of other parts."

before reaching the town the horsemen turned off from the main road, and making a wide detour so as to avoid it altogether, continued their course along the foot of the hills on the left of the valley, and after proceeding some two miles above the upper end of the city, mounted the hill, and in half an hour reached a building standing at considerable height above the valley.

"that is just as we expected, sahib. you see we have avoided the town, and ghoolab will, if questioned, be able to affirm that we have never been brought there. none of the people we met on the road will have noticed us, dressed as we are, in the middle of this band, whom they will take to be the following of some sirdar."

"if that is to be our prison, akram, it does not look anything like such a difficult place to get out of as the dacoit's castle; but of course it all depends on where they put us."

they stopped at the entrance to the building. they were evidently expected, for an officer came out at once, followed by six armed men. he addressed no questions to the dacoits, but simply nodded as they led the two prisoners forward. two of the men took the bridles of the horses and led them inside the gates, which were then closed.

percy and akram dismounted, and the officer, entering a door from the court-yard, ordered them in punjaubi to follow him. to percy's great satisfaction he led the way up a staircase, instead of, as the lad had feared might be the case, down one leading into some subterranean chamber. after ascending some twenty steps they went along a narrow passage, at the end of which was a strong door studded with nails. one of the men produced a key and opened it, and on entering percy found himself in a chamber some fifteen feet square. it was not uncomfortably furnished, and had two native bedsteads. the floor was covered with rugs. a low table stood in the centre, and there were two low wooden stools near it. percy's first glance, however, was towards the window. it was of good size, and reached to within a foot from the floor. it was, however, closed by a double grating of strong iron bars, with openings of but four or five inches square.

"do not fear, no harm is intended you," the officer said. "for a time you must make yourselves as comfortable as you can here. your servant will be allowed to be with you. if there is anything you require it will be supplied to you."

so saying he left the room, and the door was then locked.

"thank goodness you are left with me, akram," percy exclaimed. "the thing i have been dreading most of all is that we should be separated; and if that had been so, i should have lost all hope of escape."

"i have feared that too, sahib, though i did not speak of it; but before we think of anything farther, let us hide one of the knives and half the money in the beds."

"why not hide them both?" percy asked.

"because we might be moved suddenly, sahib. ghoolab might order us to be taken to another prison, or might send for us down to jummoo; there is never any saying; so it is well to keep some of the money about us. of course we may be searched, but in that case we should lose but half. however, i do not think they will do that now. they will make quite sure that the dacoits will have taken everything there was to take."