You shall again be my cook, and I will eat the food as you prepare it for me." "I am my lord's slave," the man said in a low tone.

"My life is his." Charlie nodded, and the guard standing on either side of the prisoner stepped back, and without another word he left the room, a free man.
Charlie's officers remonstrated with him upon having not only pardoned the man, but restored him to his position of cook.
"I think I have done wisely," Charlie said.

"I must have a cook, for Tim Kelly here is not famous that way; and although he might manage for me, when alone, he certainly could not turn out a dinner which would be suitable, when I have some of the rajah's kinsmen and officers dining with me.

Did I get another cook, he might be just as open to the offers of my enemies as Hossein has been; and do you not think that, after what has passed, Hossein will be less likely to take bribes than any other man ?" Henceforth the oven was removed from the antechamber, and Charlie took his meals as Hossein prepared them for him.

The man said little, but Charlie felt sure, from the glances that he cast at him, that he could rely upon Hossein now to the death.
Tim Kelly, who felt the strongest doubts as to the prudence of the proceeding, observed that Hossein no longer bought articles from men who brought them up to sell to the soldiers, but that every morning he went out early, and purchased all the supplies he desired from the shopkeepers in the town.