eaned over and swished his charger
with her little whip, and slipped past him.

He swore, deep and fiercely, as he spurred and wheeled, and cantered
after her. His great stallion could overhaul her pony in a minute, going
stride for stride; the wall was more than two miles long with no break
in it other than locked gates; there was no hurry. He watched her
through half-closed, glowering, appraising eyes as he cantered in her
wake, admiring the frail, slight figure in the gray cotton habit, and
bridling his desire to make her--seize her reins, and halt, and make
her--admit him master of the situation.

As he reached her stirrup, she reined in and faced him, after a hurried
glance that told her her duenna had failed her. The old woman was
invisible.

"Will you leave that body to lie there in the dust and sun?" she asked
indignantly.

"I am no vulture, or jackal, or hyena, sahiba!" he smiled. "I do not eat
carrion!" He seemed to think that that was a very good retort, for he
showed his wonderful white teeth until his handsome face was the epitome
of self-satisfied amusement. His horse blocked the way again, and all
retreat was cut off, for his escort were behind her, and three of them
had ridden to the right, outside the row of trees, to cut off possible
escape in that direction. "Was it not well that I was near, sahiba?
Would it have been better to die at the hands of a Maharati of no
caste--?"

"Than to see blood spilt--than to be beholden to a murderer? Infinitely
better! There was no need to kill that man--I could have quieted him.
Let me pass, please, Jaimihr-sahib!"

He reined aside; but if she thought that cold scorn or hot anger would
either of them quell his ardor, she had things reversed. The less she
behaved as a native woman would have done--the more she flouted him--the
more enthusiastic he became.

"Sahiba!"--he trotted beside her, his great horse keeping up easily with
her pony's canter--"I have told you oftener than once that I make a good
friend and a bad enemy!"

"And I have answered oftener than once that I do not need your
friendship, and am not afraid of you! You forget that the British
Government will hold your royal brother liable for my safety and my
father's!"

"You, too, overlook certain things, sahiba." He spoke evenly, with a
little space between each word. With the dark look that accompanied it,
with the blood barely dry yet on the dusty road behind, his speech
was not calculated t