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Updated: June 1, 2025
It is in our blood to be ruled by kings, oppressed; we should not know what to do with absolute freedom. There! Fear not. Why should I betray thee? The mines. The arena is of wood." "But there will be many of my friends there," said the bewildered Ramabai. Who was this strange man who seemed to know everything? "Put the mines in the center of the arena. What we want is merely terror and confusion.
Pundita, who was staring out of the window, turned and asked her lord what he was sending the Colonel Sahib that he could not give him at the banquet. "A surprise, an agreeable surprise." The majordomo cocked his ears; but Ramabai said nothing more. At the colonel's bungalow there was rejoicing.
And Ramabai promised, hoping that he could adjust and regulate his affairs without foreign assistance. They went on, this time with Ahmed. Toward the end of the journey they would be compelled to cross a chasm on a rope and vine bridge. Umballa, knowing this, circled and reached this bridge before they did.
Ramabai lost no time in taking this news to Kathlyn. "Ramabai, I have saved your life; save mine. Go at once to him and tell him that I am a prisoner but am called a queen; tell him I am Colonel Hare's daughter, she who traveled with him on the same ship from Hongkong to Singapore. Go! Tell him all, the death of my father and Umballa's treachery. Hasten!"
"We have a thousand guns and ten thousand rounds of ammunition," murmured Lal Singh. "Perhaps we had best prevail upon Ramabai to strike at once. But wait. The Colonel Sahib understands. He knows that if he signs anything it will directly proved his death-warrant. There is still an obstacle at Umballa's feet. Listen!" Sadly Umballa recounted his adventure in full.
More than this, he declared that Pundita, the wife of Ramabai, should ultimately rule; for of a truth the principality was lawfully hers. He would make his will at once, but in order that this should be legal he would have to destroy the previous will he had given to Colonel Hare, his friend. "Forgive me, my friend," he said. "I acted unwisely in your case.
"It seems that the majordomo gave the poison to Ramabai, but the white goddess . . ." "The white goddess!" cried Umballa, as if stung by a cobra's fang. "Ay, Highness. She did not die on that roof. Nothing can harm her. It is written." "And I was never told!" She lived, lived, and all the terrors he had evoked for her were as naught!
The old camaraderie was gone; there seemed to be some invisible barrier between them now. "She will discover herself, then," proceeded Ramabai. "Umballa will at once start to order her capture, when she shall stay him by crying that she is willing to face the arena lions. Remember, there will be a trap and a tunnel." "And outside?" said Ahmed, still doubting. "There will be soldiers, my men.
If he failed to catch them all he had to do was to sit down and wait for them to return of their own volition. Ramabai, however, was a menace; and Umballa wondered how he was going to lay hold of him. While waiting for his elephants to be harnessed he summoned the council. Ramabai's property must be confiscated and Ramabai put to death.
Umballa remained in the palace, burning with the fires of murder. Messenger after messenger came to report that the fugitives were still at large. Contrary to Ahmed's expectations, Umballa did not believe that his enemies would be foolhardy enough to seek refuge in the house of Ramabai. The four roads leading out of the city were watched, the colonel's bungalow and even the ruins of Bruce's camp.
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