f which I hold the jagheer. However, so long as Nana
lives and retains power I shall remain a soldier; but at his death
I shall serve no other master, and shall take to country life
again.

"Does Nana know that you are English?"

"Yes, I have told him my story. I was obliged to give my reasons
for resigning and, as Nana has the support of the Government of
Bombay, there was no risk in my doing so.

"How long will it be before I get quite rid of this colour,
Sufder?"

"That I cannot say. I should think that in a fortnight the greater
part of it will have faded out, but maybe Soyera knows of something
that will remove it more rapidly."

Soyera, when asked, said that she knew of nothing that would remove
the dye at once; but that if he washed his hands and face, two or
three times a day, with a strong lye made from the ashes of a plant
that grows everywhere on the plain, it would help to get rid of it.

"I will go out, tomorrow morning, and fetch some in."

When she had made the lye, and mixed it with oil, it made a very
strong soap.

"How do you mean to dress, to go down, Harry?"

"I have no choice; but even if I had, I should ride out of here in
my best court suit, and change it for English clothes when we got
down the Ghauts. I may have to come up here again, for aught I
know; and it is better, therefore, that no one should know that I
am English."

Mr. Malet, however, solved the difficulty; for when, in the
evening, Harry went to enquire about the time that they would
start, he said:

"I had been thinking of offering you a suit to ride down in but,
unfortunately, my clothes would be a great deal too small for you.
However, I think that, after all, it is best you should go down as
you are. In the first place, you would not show to advantage in
English clothes, in which you would feel tight and uncomfortable,
at first; and in the second place, I think that it is perhaps as
well that the Council should see you as you are, then they would
the better understand how you have been able to pass as a Mahratta,
all these years.

"I will introduce you, now, to Colonel Palmer. It is important that
he should know you, for possibly you may be sent up here on some
mission or other--for which, having the favour of Nana, you would
be specially fitted."

Accordingly, the next morning they started early. Soyera had
prepared the liquid soap, but as it was decided that he should go
in native dress, Harry thought it as w