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Updated: June 8, 2025
The five behind even the mule-drivers too detected excitement in the air, and the little column closed in on its leaders. All eyes watched the neck-and-neck approach of Alwa's men, until Cunningham at last could see their turbans and make out that they were Rangars, not Hindoos. Then he and the Risaldar drew rein. There were twenty who raced toward them, but no Alwa.
"Men say that Alwa has no right to it; they lie! His father's father won the dower-right!" He was interrupted by the rising of the iron gate. It seemed solid, without even an eyehole in it. It was wide enough to let four horses under side by side, and for all its weight it rose as suddenly and evenly as though a giant's hand had lifted it.
I and my men have a personal dispute with Jaimihr. Stay thou here!" Mahommed Gunga's five and Ali Partab came clattering out so fast as to lead to the suspicion that their horses had been already saddled. Mahommed Gunga mounted. "Lead on, cousin!" he exclaimed. "I will follow thy lead, but I come!" Then Alwa did what a native nearly always will do.
He has her with him in a carriage, under guard, for all his men are with him and he could spare no great guard for his palace. See! Look, sahib! Jaimihr's palace is in flames!" Alwa all but fell from his charger, laughing volcanically. The Rajput, who never can agree, can always see the humor in other Rajputs' disagreement. "Ho, but they are playing a great game with each other!" he shouted.
But they needed something more than words before they pledged the word that no Rajput gentleman will ever break. "Find us a Cunnigan bring him to us prove him to us and if a blade worth having from end to end of Rajputana is not at his service, I myself will gut the Hindoo owner of it! That is my given word!" said Alwa. "He had a son," said Mahommed Gunga quietly. "True.
All of his precepts, taken singly or collectively, bid him be nothing but a man, and no law forbids him accept the hospitality of soldiers of another creed. So Jaidev Singh walked off to feed on curried beef that would have made a Hindoo know himself for damned. Cunningham then turned on Alwa. "Now is the time, Alwa-sahib," he said in a level voice.
"Now, swore the Risaldar into his beard, we shall see the reaching of decisions! Now, by the curse of the sack of Chitor we shall know who is on whose side, or I am no Rangar, nor the son of one!" "I have a suggestion to make, sahib," smiled Alwa, closing the door of the rock-hewn chamber on the three of them. "Hear mine first!" said Cunningham, with a hint of iron in his voice. "Ay!
Immediately behind it, like an actor waiting for the stage-curtain to rise, Alwa bestrode his war-horse in the middle of a roadway. He saluted with drawn sabre, and this time Cunningham replied. Almost instantly the man who had led the gallopers and had saluted Mahommed Gunga spurred his horse up close to Cunningham and whispered: "Pardon, sahib! I did not know! Am I forgiven?"
"My party can start off with this man and our answer, if your answer is no. If your answer is yes, then the Sikh can bear that answer for us." "You would none of you ride half a mile alive!" laughed Alwa. "I none the less require an answer, Alwa-sahib." Alwa stared hard at him. That was the kind of talk that went straight to his soldier heart.
Before the lines could form again the whole nine wheeled as a wind-eddy spins on its own axis and burst through back again, the horses racing neck and neck, and the sabres cutting down a swath to screech and swear and gurgle in among the trampled garden stuff. They came back in a line, all eight abreast, Alwa leading only by a length.
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