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Updated: June 25, 2025
Without a sound a door at Amber's elbow that had escaped his cursory notice, so cunningly was it fitted in the wall, swung open, and a remembered voice boomed in his ears, not without a certain sardonic inflection: "Welcome, my lord, welcome to Khandawar!" Amber swung upon the speaker with a snarl. "Salig Singh!" "Thy steward bids thee welcome to thy kingdom, hazoor!"
Amber began to suspect that the troops had been furnished as a guard less of honour than of espionage, less in formal courtesy than in demonstration of the unsleeping vigilance of the Eye kindly assisted by the Maharana of Khandawar. A man who, warmed by the ardour of his first love, feels suddenly the shadow of death falling cold upon him, is apt to neglect nothing.
The word renegade describes him aptly, I think: he was born and bred a Brahmin, a Rajput, of the hottest and bluest blood in Rajputana; he died to all intents and purposes a European with an English heart. He is was by rights Maharana of Khandawar. As the young Maharaj he was sent to England to be educated. I'm told his record at Oxford was a brilliant one.
"You mean they've been cut?" "Something of the sort." "And that means " "That this infernal conspiracy is scheduled to come to a head to-night as you must have inferred, my dear fellow: this is the last night of your probation. The cutting off of Khandawar from all British India is a bold move and shows Salig Singh's confidence. It means simply: 'Governmental interference not desired.
The rounded little chin went up a trifle and her eyes gleamed angrily. "Am I no longer thy Naraini, then? Or wouldst thou deny that thou art Har Dyal, my king and my beloved? Hast thou indeed forgotten the child that was given thee for wife when thy father reigned in Khandawar and thou wert but a boy a boy of ten, the Maharaj Har Dyal?
"I myself can fill in the gap," Labertouche volunteered. "She joined some of Salig's underlings in Paris and went thence direct to Khandawar, assuming the name of one of the old queens who had elected opportunely to die.... Queer case singular instance of reversion to type."
When he looked again, some two or three minutes later, Naraini, the sowar, and the horses had vanished as completely as if the earth had opened to receive them. He rubbed his eyes, stared, and gave it up. So he was alone!... With a shrug, he plodded on. The causeway down which the horsemen of forgotten kings of Khandawar had clattered forth to war, in its age-old desuetude had come to decay.
I am no child; what I know I know. If thou art indeed not Har Dyal Rutton, how is it that thou dost wear upon thy finger the signet of thy house" Salig Singh indicated the emerald which Amber had forgotten "the Token sent thee by the Bell? If thou are not my lord the rightful Maharana of Khandawar, how is it that thou hast answered the summons of the Bell?
"So I have told thee," she assented equably. "He will come, because Naraini bids him." "It may be so. If not, another lure shall draw him." She started with annoyance. "The Englishwoman of the picture?" "Have I named her?" He lifted his heavy brows in affected surprise. "Nay, but " "Secret for secret," he offered: "mine for thine. Is it a bargain, O Pearl of Khandawar?"
He became a convert to Christianity that was predestined was admitted to the Church of England, a communicant. When his father died and he was summoned to take his place, Rutton at first refused. Pressure was brought to bear upon him by the English Government and he returned, was enthroned, and for a little time ruled Khandawar. It was then that I knew him.
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