lanes where groups of people argued at the corners, and sometimes a
would-be holy man preached that the end of the world had come.

* * * * *

They reached Yasmini's from the corner farthest from the Chandni
Chowk, and sprang out of the carriage the instant that the risaldar
drew rein.

"Wait within call!" commanded Kirby, and the risaldar raised his whip.

Then, with his adjutant at his heels, Colonel Kirby dived through
the gloomy opening in a wall that Yasmini devised to look as little
like an approach to her--or heaven--as possible.

"Wonder if he's brought us to the right place?" he whispered,
sniffing into the moldy darkness.

"Dunno, sir. There're stairs to your left."

They caught the sound of faint flute music on an upper floor, and as
Kirby felt cautiously for his footing on the lower step Warrington
began to whistle softly to himself. Next to war, an adventure of this
kind was the nearest he could imagine to sheer bliss, and it was all
he could do to contrive to keep from singing.

The heavy teak stairs creaked under their joint weight, and though
their eyes could not penetrate the upper blackness, yet they both
suspected rather than sensed some one waiting for them at the top,