ou were released now what would you proceed to do?"

"To obey my orders."

Jaimihr changed his tactics and assumed the frequently successful legal
line of pretending to know far more than he really did.

"I am told by one who overheard you speak that you were to take the
missionary and his daughter to Alwa's place. How much is my brother
Howrah paying for Mahommed Gunga's services in this matter? It is well
known that he and Alwa between them could call out all the Rangars in
the district for whichever side they chose. Since they are not on my
side, they must be for Howrah. How much does he pay? I might offer
more."

"I know not," said Ali Partab, perfectly ready to admit anything that
was not true.

"It is true, then, that Howrah has designs on the missionary's daughter?
Alwa is to keep her prisoner until the great blow is struck, and Howrah
dare take possession of her?"

"That is not my business," answered Ali Partab, with the air of a man
who knew all of the secret details but would not admit it. Jaimihr began
to think that he had lit at random on the answer to the riddle.

"Where is Mahommed Gunga?"

"I know not."

"At Alwa's place?"

"Am I God that I should know where any man is whom I cannot see?"

"Oh! So he is at Alwa's, eh?" That overdose of opium had rendered
Jaimihr's brain very dull indeed; he considered himself clever, and
overlooked the fact that Ali Partab would be almost surely lying to him.
In India men never tell the truth to chance-met strangers or to their
enemies; the truth is a valuable thing, to be shared cautiously among
friends.

"If Mahommed Gunga is at Alwa's," reasoned Jaimihr, "then he is much
too close at hand to take any chances with. I must keep this man close
confined." He raised his voice in a high-pitched command, and the guards
opened the door instantly; at a sign from the Prince they seized Ali
Partab by the wrists.

"I will send a message to Mahommed Gunga for thee," said Jaimihr. "On
his answer will depend your release or otherwise." He nodded. The guards
took their prisoner out between them--led him past the wrinkled old
woman in the courtyard--and halted him in a far corner, where an
evil-smelling cage of a place stood open to receive him. A moment later,
in order to make sure, the master of the horse sent for the old woman
and made her sweep out the cell a little; then he drove her away with
a fierce injunction not to let herself be caught anywhere near the cell