SO THEY BOTH TOUCHED THE COLD MARBLE FLOOR WITH THEIR
WARM LITTLE FOREHEADS 98

AHEAD OF THEM, A SHADOW SHOWED, A SHAMBLING SHADOW!
TUMBU ... WITH A BOUND WAS OFF FULL TILT AFTER IT 126

AND ONE DAY THE DOOR DID OPEN.... "MY SON--MY LITTLE SON!" 166

"LADIES! UNVEIL!" 176

"I STAY MY HAND WHILE I COUNT TEN--NO MORE" 198




CHAPTER I

FAREWELL


_Bismillah Al-la-hu Akbar!_

These queer-looking, queer-sounding words, which in Arabic mean "thanks
be to God," were shrilled out at the very top of Head-nurse's voice. Had
she been in a room they would have filled it and echoed back from the
walls; for she was a big, deep-chested woman. But she was only in a
tent; a small tent, which had been pitched in a hurry in an
out-of-the-way valley among the low hills that lead from the wide plains
of India to Afghanistan. For Head-nurse's master and mistress, King
Humâyon and Queen Humeeda, with their thirteen months' old little son,