I heard the very orders given for the opening of a great war.' 'Hah!' Mahbub nodded with deepest eyes afire.

'The game is well played.

That war is done now, and the evil, we hope, nipped before the flower--thanks to me--and thee.

What didst thou later ?' 'I made the news as it were a hook to catch me victual and honour among the villagers in a village whose priest drugged my lama.

But I bore away the old man's purse, and the Brahmin found nothing.