A sudden light dawned on him.

Here was a means, at least, of trying to make use of Ali Partab.

"Go--do thy sweeping!" he commanded, and the hag slunk off.
For ten minutes longer, Jaimihr sat still and flicked at the stone column with his whip,--then he sent for his master of the horse, whose mistaken sense of loyalty had been the direct cause of Ali Partab's capture.

He had acted instantly when the fat Hindoo brought him word, and he had expected to be praised for quick decision and rewarded; he was plainly in high dudgeon as he swaggered out of a dark door near the stables and advanced sulkily toward his master.
"Remove the prisoner from that cell, taking great care that the hag yonder sees what you do--yes, that hag--the new one; she is a spy.

Bring the prisoner in to me, where I will talk with him; afterward place him in a different cell--put him where we kept the bear that died--there is a dark comer beside it, where a man might hide; hide a man there when it grows dark.