odcutters. I had
known them well; they were poor, but of mine own people, and instantly
in my heart I vowed that I would be avenged.

"The little girl, Brenda her name, as she told me in her childish way of
confidence, had hidden in the brushwood all day, trembling and afraid.
But at last she divined that the men had come to slay me, for as the
afternoon advanced they disposed themselves among bushes and behind
trees, also in the hut of her dead parents. And even now were the
assassins in waiting for me, for the girl had seen our party ride forth
in the early morning, and she knew that I had not yet returned.

"When, with wonderful intuition for a child so tender in years, the
thought came to her mind that I was to be assailed, she stole down the
gorge, moving cautiously through the undergrowth, and awaited at the
spot we found her to give me warning.

"The child had described to me the leader of the gang, and I had
immediately recognized Gunesh Tanti, accursed son of a pig, a robber
from across the desert of Sindh, who had more than once ravaged peaceful
villages of Rajputana. He would know that I had treasure in the fort,
and of an instant I could read his wily plan. Moving through the
country, he had doubtless heard a day or two before of this projected
expedition of mine for the killing of the man-eating tiger. So he had
designed to slay me on my homeward way, and, the deed accomplished,
would rely on gaining access to the citadel by loading his ruffians into
the howdahs of my elephants. Once over the drawbridge and within the
portcullised gateway, his murderous scheme might have been easy, for my
score of men-at-arms on duty would have been taken by surprise and so at
a disadvantage.

"But knowing now the danger, I laughed in my beard, for Gunesh Tanti,
this human tiger and slayer of innocent men, just as had been the tiger
now slung across the back of my elephant, was fairly delivered into my
hand. He who had come to trap me was himself entrapped. And thanks all
to this little maid of the glen! At the thought, I patted her soft cheek
with my hand, and in response she smiled up into my eyes with wondrous
trust and winsomeness.

"Our party, as I have said, numbered twelve, this without counting the
three mahouts, lithe and active men, and brave as any one of us. The
neck of the gorge was narrow, and for a hundred yards on either side
there were steep precipices down which rocks could be tumbled on fleeing
men.