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Updated: May 31, 2025
I have a thousand friends in yonder city, ready at my call. Only, this is not the time. Still, I can call to them, and by to-morrow there will not be a stone of the palace upon another. Be not alarmed. Pundita will return, but mayhap alone." So they waited. Now, Pundita, being a woman, was wise in the matter of lure. She entered the city unquestioned.
It would be rank folly to upset Ramabai's plans, which were to culminate in Umballa's overthrow. But upon a certain hour Ramabai came to Bruce, much alarmed. During his absence with Pundita at some palace affair his home had been entered, ransacked, and ten thousand rupees had been stolen. His real fortune, however, was hidden securely.
She ate again at sundown and builded high the sacred fire and tried to plan some manner of escape; for she did not propose to be a demi-goddess any longer than was necessary. From Pundita she had learned many words and a few phrases in Hindustani, and she ventured to speak them to the holy men, who seemed quite delighted.
"We obey, on one condition that the new queen shall in no manner interfere with her old religion nor attempt to force her new religion into the temple." To this Pundita agreed. "Ramabai, soldiers! To the house of Umballa! We shall find him there," cried Ahmed. Umballa squatted upon his cushions on the terrace. The second bar had been removed.
The guards jumped to their feet and scrambled away for dear life to the nearest hut, crying the alarm. Bruce opened the door, which had no lock, and peered forth. It was natural that the leopards should give their immediate attention to the two men in flight. Bruce, realizing what had happened, called softly to Ramabai and Pundita; and the three of them stole out into the night, toward the camp.
He swung his legs free of the primitive stirrups and whistled the airs which had been popular in America at the time of his departure. There was no lightness in the expressions of Ramabai and Pundita. They were about to lose these white people forever, and they had grown to love, nay, worship them. More, they must return to face they knew not what.
But, thereafter, when he arrived with the day's business she contrived to have Pundita near and Ramabai within call. On the sixth day he cast all discretion to the winds and seized her violently in his arms. And, though she defended her lips, her cheeks and neck were defiled. She stepped back; the hidden dagger flashed. "A step nearer," she cried, low voiced, "and I will strike."
Through the veil Pundita's black eyes sparkled with hatred. When Kathlyn came in it was at once explained to her that the woman's husband had been taken for murder; by law his wife became the queen's property, to dispose of as she willed. The veil was plucked from Pundita's face. She was ordered to salaam in submission to her queen. Pundita salaamed, but stoutly refused to kneel.
Unfortunately, there was no knowing when the men-folk would return from their chase of the horses, nor how long the wolves would lay siege. The two women tried shooting, though Pundita was the veriest tyro, being more frightened at the weapon in her hands than at the howling animals outside. They did little or no damage to the wolves, for the available cracks were not at sufficiently good angles.
This time we'll place her far beyond the reach of Umballa." "Either my money or my life. In a month from now . . ." "What?" asked Ahmed. "Ah, I must not tell." Pundita stole close to Ramabai. Ahmed smiled. "We have elephants but a little way outside the city. We have pulling chains. Let us be off at once. It is not necessary to enter the city, for this window, Ahmed says, is on the outside.
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