But Shere Ali put it yet a second time, after a pause, and this time there was no trace of irony.
"But I will not go alone," he said, suddenly raising his eyes from the flame of the lamp and looking towards Ahmed Ismail.
Ahmed did not understand.

But also he did not interrupt, and Shere Ali spoke again, with a smile slowly creeping over his face.
"I will not go alone to Mecca.

I will follow the example of Sirdar Khan." The saying was still a riddle to Ahmed Ismail.
"Sirdar Khan, your Highness ?" he said.

"I do not know him." Shere Ali turned his eyes again upon the flame of the lamp, and the smile broadened upon his face, a thing not pleasant to see.

He wetted his lips with the tip of his tongue and told his story.
"Sirdar Khan is dead long since," he said, "but he was one of the five men of the bodyguard of Nana, who went into the Bibigarh at Cawnpore on July 12 of the year 1857.