Ania ran home through the Kabul gate of the city, unperceived, while Karim entered by the Ajmer gate, and passed first through the encampment of Hindoo Rao, to efface the traces of his horse’s feet.  When he reached their lodgings, he found Ania there before him; and Rupla, the groom, seeing his horse in a sweat, told him that he had had a narrow escape—­that Mr. Fraser had been killed, and orders given for the arrest of any horseman that might be found in or near the city.  He told him to hold his tongue, and take care of the horse; and calling for a light, he and Ania tore up every letter he had received from Firozpur, and dipped the fragments in water, to efface the ink from them.  Ania asked him what he had done with the blunderbuss, and was told that it had been thrown into a well.  Ania now concealed three flints that he kept about him in some sand in the upper story they occupied, and threw an iron ramrod and two spare bullets into a well near the mosque.

The next morning, when he heard that the city gates had been all shut to prevent any one from going out till strict search should be made, Karim became a good deal alarmed, and went to seek counsel from Moghal Beg, the friend of his master; but when in the evening he heard that they had been again opened, he recovered his spirits; and the next day he wrote a letter to the Nawab, saying that he had purchased the dogs that he wanted, and would soon return with them.  He then went to Mr. McPherson, and actually purchased from him for the Nawab some dogs and pictures, and the following day sent Rupla, the groom, with them to Firozpur, accompanied by two bearers.  A pilgrim lodged in the same place with these men, and was present when Karim came home from the murder, and gave his horse to Rupla.  In the evening, after the departure of Rupla with the dogs, four men of the Gujar caste came to the place, and Karim sat down and smoked a pipe with one of them,[15] who said that he had lost his bread by Mr. Fraser’s death, and should be glad to see the murderer punished—­that he was known to have worn a green vest, and he hoped he would soon be discovered.  The pilgrim came up to Karim shortly after these four men went away, and said that he had heard from some one that he, Karim, was himself suspected of the murder.  He went again to Moghal Beg, who told him not to be alarmed, that, happily, the Regulations were now in force in the Delhi Territory, and that he had only to stick steadily to one story to be safe.

He now desired Ania to return to Firozpur with a letter to the Nawab, and to assure him that he would be stanch and stick to one story, though they should seize him and confine him in prison for twelve years.  He had, he said, already sent off part of his clothes, and Ania should now take away the rest, so that nothing suspicious should be left near him.