Desmond felt a strange sinking at heart. The smile upon these dark faces
awakened a vague uneasiness; it was so like Diggle's smile. He supposed
that the man had gone in to report that he had arrived with the captain's
answer. The note still remained with him; the Marathas apparently knew
that it was to be delivered personally; yet he was left at the door, and
his guide stood by in an attitude that suggested he was on guard.
How long was he to be kept waiting? he wondered. Captain Barker had
ordered him to return at once; the penalty for disobedience he knew only
too well; yet the minutes passed, and lengthened into two hours without
any sign of the man who had gone in with the message. Desmond spoke to
the guide, but the man shook his head, knowing no English. Becoming more
and more uneasy, he was at length relieved to see the messenger come back
to the door and beckon him to enter. As he passed the sentries they made
him a salaam in which his anxious sensitiveness detected a shade of
mockery; but before he could define his feelings he reached a third door
guarded like the others, and was ushered in.
He found himself in a large chamber, its walls dazzling with barbaric
decoration--figures of Ganessa, a favorite idol of the Marathas, of
monstrous elephants, and peacocks with enormously expanded tails. The
hall was so crowded that his first confusion was redoubled. A path was
made through the throng as at a signal, and at the end of the room he saw
two men apart from the rest.
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