be hanged to-morrow morning, or perhaps, if you like it better, beheaded, in front of the palace.'
Now as soon as Seventee Bai got home, she sent for her head servants, and said to them, 'Go at once to the prison, and order the guard to give you up the Fakeer I gave into their charge, and bring him here in a palanquin, but see that he does not escape.' Then Seventee Bai ordered them to lock up Logedas in a distant part of the palace, and commanded that he should be washed, and dressed in new clothes, and given food, and that a barber should be sent for, to cut his hair and trim his beard. Then Logedas said to his keepers, 'See how good the Rajah is to me! He will not surely hang me after this.' 'Oh! never fear,' they answered; 'when you are dressed up and made very smart, it will be a much finer sight to see you hanged than before.' Thus they tried to frighten the poor man. After this Seventee Bai sent for all the greatest doctors in the kingdom, and said to them, 'If a Rajah wanders about for twelve years in the jungle, until all trace of his princely beauty is lost, how long will it take you to restore him to his original likeness?' They answered, 'With care and attention it may be done in six months.' 'Very well,' said Seventee Bai, 'there is a friend of mine now in my palace of whom this is the case. Take him and treat him well, and at the end of six months I shall expect to see him restored to his original health and strength.'
So Logedas was placed under the doctors' care; but all this time he had no idea who Seventee Bai was, nor why he was thus treated. Every day Seventee Bai went to see him and talk to him. Then he said to his keepers, 'See, good people, how kind this great Rajah is, coming to see me every day; he can intend for me nothing but good.' To which they would answer, 'Do not be in a hurry; none can fathom the hearts of kings. Most probably, for all this delay, he will in the end have you taken and hanged.' Thus they amused themselves by alarming him.
Then, some day, when Seventee Bai had been more than usually kind, Logedas Rajah would say again, 'I do not fear the Rajah's intentions towards me. Did you not notice how very kind he was to-day?' And to this his keepers would reply—
'Doubtless it is very amusing for him, but hardly so, we should think, for you. He will probably play with you for some time (as a cat does with a mouse); but in three months is the Rajah's birthday: most likely he is keeping you to kill you then.' And so the time wore on.
