t.

In burst the Risaldar's half-brother, breathing heavily and bearing a
load nearly as big as he was.

"The pig caught my wrist within the opening!" he growled, tossing his
gagged and pinioned burden on the floor. "See where he all but broke
it!"

"What is thy wrist to the service of the Raj? Is he the right one?"

"Aye!" He stooped and tore a twisted loin-cloth from his victim's face,
and the Risaldar walked to the lamp and brought it, to hold it above the
prostrate form. Ruth left the divan and stood between the men, terrified
by she knew not what fear, but drawn into the lamplight by insuperable
curiosity.

"This, heavenborn," said the Risaldar, prodding at the man with his
scabbard-point, "is none other than the High Priest of Kharvani's temple
here, the arch-ringleader in all the treachery afoot--now hostage for
thy safety!"

He turned to his half-brother. "Unbind the thing he lies with!" he
commanded, and the giant unwrapped a twisted piece of linen from the
High Priest's mouth.

"So the big fox peeped through the trapdoor, because he feared to
trust the other foxes; and the big fox fell into the trap!" grinned the
Risaldar. "Bring me that table over yonder, thou!"

The half-brother did as he was told.

"Lay it here, legs upward, on the floor.

"Now, bind him to it--an arm to a leg and a leg to a leg.

"Remove his shoes.

"Put charcoal in yon brazier. Light it. Bring it hither!"

He seized a brass tongs, chose a glowing coal and held it six inches
from the High Priest's naked foot.

Ruth screamed.

"Courage, heavenborn! Have courage! This is naught to what he would have
done to thee!... Now, speak, thou priest of infidels! What plans are
laid and who will rise and when?"

III.

"Sergeant!"

"Sir!"

The close-cropped, pipe-clayed non-commissioned officer spurred his
horse into a canter until his scabbard clattered at young Bellairs'
boot. Nothing but the rattling and the jolting of the guns and
ammunition-wagon was audible, except just on ahead of them the
click-clack, click-click-clack of the advance-guard. To the right and
left of them the shadowy forms of giant banian-trees loomed and slid
past them as they had done for the past four hours, and for ten paces
ahead they could see the faintly outlined shape of the trunk road that
they followed. The rest was silence and a pall of blackness obscuring
everything. They had ridden along a valley, but they had emerged on
rising ground