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Updated: May 3, 2025
That incident, and her intimation that the missionaries were in Howrah's palace, took Alwa back up the black, blind side street; and before he emerged from it he saw Jaimihr and his ten go thundering past, their eyes on the sky-line for a hint of conflagration, and their horses belly-to-the-earth racing as only fear, or enthusiasm, or grim desperation in their riders' minds can make them race.
Jaimihr stood upright as four men closed in on him, and looked straight in the eyes of every one in turn. Rosemary McClean stepped back, to hide herself behind Cunningham's broad shoulders, but Jaimihr saw her and his proud smile broadened to a laugh of sheer amusement. He let his captors wait for him while he stared straight at her, sparing her no fragment of embarrassment.
But Jaimihr had to stalk lesser game and content himself with pricking at the ever-growing hate that gradually rendered the Maharajah decisionless and sorry only for himself.
He raised his voice in a high-pitched command, and the guards opened the door instantly; at a sign from the Prince they seized Ali Partab by the wrists. "I will send a message to Mahommed Gunga for thee," said Jaimihr. "On his answer will depend your release or otherwise." He nodded.
Either of the brothers, when he happened to be thirsty, would call his least-trusted counsellor to drink first from the jewelled cup, and would watch the man afterward for at least ten minutes before daring to slake his thirst; but Jaimihr had the moral advantage of an aspirant; Howrah, on the defensive, wilted under the nibbling necessity for wakefulness, while Jaimihr grinned.
The high priest started to protest, but Jaimihr silenced him with coarse-mouthed threats. "I, too, can play double when occasion calls for it!" he swore. And with that hint at coming trouble he clattered on home to his palace.
Men said afterward that Jaimihr had whispered to him advice which he knew was barbed because it was his brother whispering, and that he promptly did the opposite; but, whatever the motive, he drew himself up in all his jewelled splendor and demanded: "What do you people wish?" The McCleans were given no time to reply.
"At the most at a pinch in case of direst need, and for a cause that all agreed on?" "Two thousand." "Horsed and armed?" "And ready!" "And you, Alwa-sahib are you pledged to fight against the British?" "Not in so many words. I swore to uphold Howrah on his throne. He is against the British." "You swore to help smash his brother, Jaimihr?" "If I were needed."
A little later, in groups and scattered fours, and one by one, his heavy-breathing troopers followed, cursing the order that had sent them abroad with-out their horses, damning as none but a dismounted cavalryman can damn the earth's unevenness, their swords, their luck, their priests, the night, their boots, and Jaimihr.
The deduction was not too far-fetched that the retainer had been left as a protection against Jaimihr, and consequently that the Rangars, at the behest of Mahommed Gunga, had decided on at least the white girl's safety. Therefore, he argued, if he now proceeded to protect the McCleans, he would, at all events, not incur the Rangars' enmity.
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