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"That is what we desire," replied the captain with a knowing look at his silent troopers. "I must buy you." The captain salaamed. "But after I have bought you?" ironically. "Heaven born; our blood is yours to spill where and when you will." From under the teak table Umballa drew forth two heavy bags of silver coin.
At Umballa I carried the news of the bay mare's pedigree. After what he had seen in the garden, he was not going to write of white stallions. 'Slower a little. What has a bay mare to do ... Is it Mahbub Ali, the great dealer? 'Who else? I have been in his service. Take more ink. Again. As the order was, so I did it.
His confreres appreciated the danger in which their power stood. They announced that it was decreed to give the queen a respite of seven days in which to yield. It would at least hold the bold troopers on the leash till they could be brought to see the affair in its true light by the way of largess in rupees. Umballa consented because he was at the bottom of the sack.
"The Oriental loves pomp," went on the colonel. "He can't give you a chupatty " "What's that?" asked Winnie. "Something like hardtack. Well, he can't give you that without ceremonial. When I arrived at the lodge with Ahmed the old boy he had the complexion of a prima donna the old boy sat on his portable throne, glittering with orders. Standing beside him was a chap we called Umballa.
Even as Lal Singh picked up his mouthpiece again and Ahmed sallied forth into the bazaars Umballa had brought to him in the armory that company of soldiers who had shown such open mutiny, not against the state but against him. Gravely he questioned the captain. "Pay our wages, then, heaven born," said the captain, with veiled insolence.
A dozen times Umballa eyed Ramabai's back, murder in his mind and fear in his heart. Blind fool that he had been not to have seen this man in his true light and killed him! Now, if he hired assassins, he could not trust them; his purse was again empty.
Let us begone to the house of Ramabai." "The Colonel Sahib is safe for the time being." "And will be so long as he refuses to open the treasury door to Umballa. There is a great deal to smile about, Lal Singh. Here is a treasury, guarded by seven leopards, savage as savage can be.
He jumped off the tabouret and dashed to the door. "Follow me!" he cried. "Later, Colonel Hare, later!" he threatened. The colonel remained silent. Up above, in the palace, Umballa summoned a dozen troopers and gave them explicit orders. He was quite confident that Kathlyn would be carried at once to her father's bungalow, if only for a change of clothes. It was a shrewd guess.
She was very lovely to the picturesque savage who stood at her elbow. As he looked down at her, in his troubled soul Umballa knew that it was not the throne so much as it was this beautiful bird of paradise which he wished to cage. "Be brave," he said, "like your father. I do not wish to use force, but you must go. It is useless to struggle. Come."
But he had to gain entrance through a window in the zenana. He would not trust either his servants, his slaves, or his chief eunuch. To the women of his own zenana he had always been carelessly kind, and women are least bribable of the two sexes. Umballa entered at once his secret chamber and food and water were brought, one of the women acting as bearer.
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