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Updated: June 8, 2025
"They are both here." "Then my letter is for both of them." Cunningham and Mahommed Gunga each took one step forward, and the Sikh gave Cunningham a tiny, folded piece of paper, stuck together along one edge with native gum. He tore it open, read it in the light of a trooper's lantern, and then read it again aloud to Mahommed Gunga, pitching his voice high enough for Alwa to listen if he chose.
So said Mahommed Gunga: 'When the hag brings word, then take three horses and bear the Miss-sahib and her father to my cousin Alwa's place. I stand ready to obey, but the padre-sahib comes not against his will." "To whose place?" "Alwa's, Miss-sahib." "And who is he?" She seemed bewildered. "I had hoped to be escorted to some British residency." "That would be for Alwa, should he see fit.
The Maharajah looked from the company of guards that lined the palace-steps to the priests and his brother and the crowd and then to the McCleans again. He remembered Alwa and his Rangars, thought of the messenger whom he had sent, remembered that a regiment of lance-armed horsemen would be worth a risk or two to win over to his side, and made decision.
She knew that there were not enough Rangars on the whole countryside to oppose the army that would surely come to his rescue. And whether he were dead or living, she knew well enough that the vengeance would be wreaked on every living body on the hill. Alwa might feel confident, not she.
I know, for I have taken care to know, that a cousin of yours Mahommed Gunga is interested for the British. So so I am interested to have word with you." Alwa laughed ironically. "And the tiger asked the wolf pack where good hunting was!" he mocked. "I and my men strike which way suits us when the hour comes." "My palace has many chambers in it!" hinted Howrah.
Unless we are all killed in the meantime we should number more than fifteen hundred when we come. Expect either all or none of us. The situation here is critical, but our course seems clear, and we ought to pull through. Mahommed Gunga sends salaams. Your obedient servant, "Would God I could see the clear course!" laughed Alwa. "Call the Sikh, please."
We threw our weight behind him when he led, letting everything except obedience go where the devil wanted it! What came of that? Good tithes, good report, good feeling, peace!" "And then, the zemindary laws!" growled Alwa. "Then the laws that took away from us full two-thirds of our revenue!" "We had had no revenue, except for Cunnigan-bahadur!"
Mahommed Gunga left his squadron, too, to canter beside Alwa. "I am all ears, sahib!" he asserted, reining his horse until his stride was equal to the others. "The key to the situation is that treasure," asserted Cunningham. "Howrah wants it. Jaimihr wants it. The priests want it. I know that much for certain, from the McCleans. All right.
"It is done, sahib," said the leader of the guard, and one man hurried off to execute the order. Ten minutes later they were ten impatient minutes, during which the horses sensed the fever of anxiety and could be hardly made to stand Ali Partab stood arrayed in clean, new khaki that fitted him reasonably well. "A sword, now!" demanded Alwa. "Thy sword! This man had a sword when he was taken!
He understood why Byng had signed the transfer, and he knew knew knew deep down inside him that his chance had come! "It seems that another Cunningham is to have the honor of preserving Rangars' titles for them," he smiled. "How many horsemen could the Alwa-sahib raise?" "That would depend!" Alwa was in no mood to commit himself.
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