unga comes?"

"He will be dead when Mahommed Gunga comes, if only what we await has
first happened. But this rising that is planned hangs fire. Were I
Maharajah I would like to see the Rangar who dare flout me or ask
questions! I would like but to set eyes on that Rangar once! But I
am not yet Maharajah; I am a prince--a younger brother--surrounded,
counselled, impeded, hampered, rendered laughable by fat idiots!"

"My belly but shows your highness's generosity. At whose cost have I
grown fat?"

"Ay, at whose cost? I should have kept thee slim, on prison diet, and
saved myself a world of useless problems! Cease prattling! Get away from
me! If I have to poison this Ali Partab, or wring his casteless neck, I
will make thee do it, and give thee to Mahommed Gunga to wreak vengeance
on. Leave me to think!"

The fat former occupant of the room above the arch of the caravansary
waddled to the far end of the cloister, and sat down, cross-legged,
to grumble to himself and scratch his paunch at intervals. His master,
low-browed and irritable, continued to strike the stone column with his
cane. He was in a horrid quandary.

Mahommed Gunga was one of many men he did not want, for the present,
to offend seriously. Given a fair cause for quarrel, that irascible
ex-Risaldar was capable of going to any lengths, and was known,
moreover, to be trusted by the British. Nobody seemed to know whether or
not Mahommed Gunga reciprocated the British regard, and nobody had cared
to ask him except his own intimates; and they, like he, were men of
close counsel.

The Prince had given no orders for the capture of Ali Partab; that had
been carried out by his men in a fit of ill-advised officiousness. But
the Prince had to solve the serious problem caused by the presence of
Ali Partab within a stone-walled cell.

Should he let the fellow go, a report would be certain to reach Mahommed
Gunga by the speediest route. Vengeance would be instantly decided on,
for a Rajput does not merely accept service; he repays it, feudal-wise,
and smites hip and thigh for the honor of his men. The vengeance would
be sure to follow purely Eastern lines, and would be complicated; it
would no doubt take the form of siding in some way or other with his
brother the Maharajah. There would be instant, active doings, for
that was Mahommed Gunga's style! The fat would be in the fire months,
perhaps, before the proper time.

The prisoner's presence was maddening in a m