Long ago I gave your Highness a sign of friendship when I prayed you to pass by the Delhi Gate of Lahore." Shere Ali turned Ahmed Ismail towards the inner part of the house and loosed his neck.
"Go forward, then.

Light a lamp," he said, and Ahmed moved noiselessly along the passage.

Shere Ali heard the sound of a door opening upstairs, and then a pale light gleamed from above.

Shere Ali walked to the end of the passage, and mounting the stairs found Ahmed Ismail in the doorway of a little room with a lighted lamp in his hand.
"I was this moment coming down," said Ahmed Ismail as he stood aside from the door.

Shere Ali walked in.