Neither of them saw an elbow laid on the window-ledge of a room above the arch; it disappeared, and very gingerly a bared black head replaced it.

Then the head too disappeared.
The girl's eyes sparkled as the reassurance came that at least one good fighting man was waiting to do nothing but assist her.

For the moment she threw caution to the winds and remembered nothing but her plight and her father's stubbornness.
"My father will not come away, but--" Ali Partab's eyes betrayed no trace of concern.
"But--I thought--Are you all alone ?" "All alone, Miss-sahib, but your servant." "Oh! I thought--perhaps that"-- she checked herself, then rushed the words out as though ashamed of them--"that, if you had men to help you, you might carry him away against his will! Where are these others who are to be trusted ?" Ali Partab grinned and then drew himself up with a movement of polite dissent.

It was not for him to question the suggestions of a Miss-sahib; he conveyed that much with an inimitable air.

But it was his business to keep strictly to the letter of his orders.
"Miss-sahib, I cannot do that.