o visit his adoptive father. Old
Ahsan, bent, and very frail, knew him before he reached the gate, and
his withered face beamed as he saluted him: "Salaam, hazur: truly Allah
is great!"

Rahmut Khan gave him a royal welcome.

"Still art thou my son!" he cried, "and the sight of thee is very good."

He had loyally held to his compact with Jan Larrens, and the British raj
had no warmer friend on the frontiers than he. Age had laid its icy
finger on him; the tale of his years was well-nigh told. Only one thing
troubled his peace of mind: neither Dilasah nor Minghal Khan had tasted
his vengeance. Dilasah had fled from the village at the first news that
the chief was returning home; and of Minghal, though he had sought
diligently, he had discovered no trace.

Barclay wondered whether the two men, like Nana Sahib and Bakht Khan and
other figures in the great rebellion, had disappeared for ever. But a
year or so later, when he was being shown over the jail at Agra by the
governor, he was taken to see two notorious ruffians who were serving a
term of fifteen years' imprisonment for highway robbery with violence.
And remembering that Rahmut Khan had been imprisoned in that very jail,
he thought it a just retribution when he recognized, in the two fettered
prisoners tramping round and round at the pole of the oil-mill, Dilasah
and Minghal Khan. He sent word of his discovery to the old chief, and in
due time received an answer written by the village scribe, Dinga Ghosh.

"The house of the wicked shall not prosper. I would I had slain them;
but what must be, will be. Allah be with thee!"

GLOSSARY

The vowels are pronounced (approximately) as in German. The accent
indicates a long vowel.

_almirah_, cupboard.

_ayah_, nurse, lady's-maid.

_badmash_, bad character, hooligan.

_bakr-id_, Mohammedan festival in honour of Abraham's intended sacrifice
of Ishmael (not Isaac, as in the Bible story).

_bang_, or _bhang_, an intoxicating drink.

_banijara_, trader.

_bariya_, swordgrinder.

_bas_, enough.

_bazar_, market-place.

_begam_, lady of rank (Musalman).

_bhatiyara_, innkeeper.

_bhisti_, water-carrier.

_chapati_, thin unleavened cake.

_chaprasi_, messenger.

_charpoy_, bedstead.

_chit_, note.

_chogah_, sleeveless cloak of camel's hair.

_chup_, silence!

_dafadar_, sergeant of cavalry (native).

_darbar_, king's court, levee.

_darwan_, doorkeeper.

_dasturi_, commission.