" laughed Mahommed Khan. "Farward! Farm twos
Ter-r-r-ott!"

In went the spur, and the snorting, rattling, clanking cavalcade sidled
and pranced out of the temple into the sunshine, with Ruth and Suliman
in the midst of them.

"Gallop!" roared the Risaldar, the moment that the last horse was clear
of the temple-doors. And in that instant he saw what the High Priest's
whispering had meant.

Coming up the street toward them was a horde of silent, hurrying Hindus,
armed with swords and spears, wearing all of them the caste-marks of
the Brahman--well-fed, indignant relations of the priests, intent on
avenging the defilement of Kharvani's temple.

"Canter! Fronnnt--farm--Gallop! Charge!"

Ruth found herself in the midst of a whirlwind of flashing sabers,
astride of a lean-flanked Katiawari gelding that could streak like
an antelope, knee to knee with a pair of bearded Rajputs, one of whom
gripped her bridle-rein--thundering down a city street straight for a
hundred swords that blocked her path. She set her eyes on the middle of
Mahommed Khan's straight back, gripped the saddle with both hands, set
her teeth and waited for the shock. Mahommed Khan's right arm rose and
his sword flashed in the sunlight as he stood up in his stirrups. She
shut her eyes. But there was no shock! There was the swish of whirling
steel, the thunder of hoofs, the sound of bodies falling. There was a
scream or two as well and a coarse-mouthed Rajput oath. But when she
dared to open her eyes once more they were thundering still, headlong
down the city street and Mahommed Khan was whirling his sword in mid-air
to shake the blood from it.

Ahead lay the city gate and she could see another swarm of Hindus
rushing from either side to close it. But "Charge!" yelled Mahommed Khan
again, and they swept through the crowd, through the half-shut gate, out
on the plain beyond, as a wind sweeps through the forest, leaving fallen
tree-trunks in its wake.

"Halt!" roared the Risaldar, when they were safely out of range. "Are
any hurt? No? Good for us that their rifles are all in the firing-line
yonder!"

He sat for a minute peering underneath his hand at the distant, dark,
serried mass of men and the steel-tipped lines beyond it, watching the
belching cannon and the spurting flames of the close-range rifle-fire.

"See, heavenborn!" he said, pointing. "Those will be your husband's
guns! See, over on the left, there. See! They fire! Those two! We can
reach