"
"If it were not such a good action on your part I would have nothing to
do with it. But since you mean to risk your neck for your own peculiar
views of what is right, I will endeavour that you shall not break it. I
will meet you a day's journey before you reach Keitung, somewhere on the
road, and we will go together and do the business. But if I am to help
you I will not promise not to perform some miracles, as you call them,
though you know very well they are no such thing. Meanwhile, do as you
please about the tiger-hunt; I shall say no more about it." He paused,
and then, withdrawing one delicate hand from the folds of his _caftan_,
he pointed to the wall behind Isaacs and me, and said, "What a very
singular piece of workmanship is that yataghan!"
We both naturally turned half round to look at the weapon he spoke of,
which was the central piece in a trophy of jewelled sabres and Afghan
knives.
"Yes," said Isaacs, turning back to answer his guest, "it is a ----" He
stopped, and I, who had not seen the weapon before, lost among so many,
and was admiring its singular beauty, turned too; to my astonishment I
saw that Isaacs was gazing into empty space. The divan where Ram Lal had
been sitting an instant before, was vacant. He was gone.
"That is rather sudden," I said.
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