The Hidden Treasure
new, however, and just whitewashed. A room with niches
round it was cleared of the Ajuzan's things, except his cere-
monial curved sword which they left hanging on a nail.
A camp bed was in one corner. In the fullness of time, a
boy called Iskandar appeared with hot water, a tray, and a
basin: I ensured a precarious privacy by draping cotton cur-
tains over the doorless entrances; and for the first time since
leaving Iraq, found myself in the comfortable isolation of
four walls.
My saddle-bags disclosed in their depths a crumpled gown
and a powder-puff, of which I made the best use I could, and
finally emerged to meet my host more or less like a lady.
He was waiting under the portico with a friend, a soft
flabby young Persian of the worst kind. The Ajuzan himself,
however, was a man of the world, very much on his guard,
but pleasant, and evidently determined to get my secrets
out of me by kindness. To this I had no objection. "We
settled down to a general preliminary conversation, like
two fencers feeling each other's blades.
There were four points which quite naturally caused the
authorities of Husainabad to look on my expedition with
suspicion and disfavour. I might be coming from Iraq as a
spy, to add to the intrigues which visibly enough were creep-
ing about in favour of the Vali of Pusht-i-Kuh; the fact of
my being with Shah Riza, who had been brought up in the
old potentate's household, caused a serious prejudice in this
direction. Secondly, I might be, as I declared, a student
of ancient histories, but possibly merely with the object of
digging up and smuggling away the country's buried
treasures. Thirdly, I might be an innocent traveller, who
was learning far more about the general state of the country
and the troubles in Lakistan than the Persians like to have
known abroad. And fourthly, apart from all this, I might
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