"Nay! That is a secret!" grinned the priest. "He who can may find
the opening! Here can the woman and her servant stay until we need them."
"Here in this place?"
"Where else? No man but I knows of this crypt! The ladder there
leads to another room, where there is yet another ladder, and that
one leads out through a secret door I know of, straight into the
temple. Art ready? There is need for haste!"
"Wait!" said the Risaldar.
"These soldiers!" sneered the priest. "It is wait--wait--wait with
them, always!"
"Hast thou a son."
"Ay! But what of it?"
"I said `hast,' not `hadst'!"
"Ay. I have a son.
"Where?"
"In one of the temple-chambers overhead."
"Nay, priest! Thy son lies gagged and bound and trussed in a place
I know of, and which thou dost not know!"
"Since when?"
"Since by my orders he was laid there."
"Thou art the devil! Thou liest, Rajput!"
"So? Go seek thy son!"
The priest's face had blanched beneath the olive of his skin, and
he stared at Mahommed Khan through distended eyes.
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