And I said to him: "'Sahib,' said I, 'am I a badmash?
A scoundrel ?' "'No,' said he, 'not unless you changed your morals when you left the service.' "Said I, 'I am still in the service.' "'Good,' said he.

'What then ?' "'I go listening again in no-man's land,' said I, and he whistled softly.

'Is there not a roof below your window ?' I asked him, and he nodded.
"'Then let me use it, sahib, and return the same way presently.' "So he threw back the shutter, asking no more questions, and I climbed out.

The window of the room where Yussuf Dakmar and the five were stood open, but the lattice shutter was closed tight, so that I could stand up on the flat roof of the kitchen and listen without being seen.

And, sahib, I could recognize the snarl of Yussuf Dakmar's voice even before my ear was laid to the open lattice.