padre-sahibs! They all preach peace and
goad the lust that breeds war and massacre! Does a priest serve any but
himself? Since when? There will come this rising that the priests speak
of--yes! Of a truth, there will, for the priests will see to it! There
is a padre-sahib here in Howrah now for the Hindoo priests to whet their
hate on. You saw the woman ride past here a half-hour gone? There is a
pile of tinder ready here, and any fool of a priest can make a spark!
There will be a rising, and a big one!"

"There will! Of a truth, there will!" Alwa, his cousin, crossed one leg
above the other with a clink of spurs and scabbard. He had no objection
to betraying interest, but declined for the present to betray his hand.

"There will be a blood-letting that will do no harm to us Rajputs!"
said another man, whose eyes gleamed from the darkest corner; he,
too, clanked his scabbard as though the sound were an obbligato to his
thoughts. "Sit still and say nothing is my advice; we will be all ready
to help ourselves when the hour comes!"

"It is this way," said Mahommed Gunga, standing straddle-legged to face
all five of them, with his back to the window. He stroked his
black beard upward with one hand and fingered with the other at his
sabre-hilt. "Without aid when the hour does come, the English will
be smashed--worn down--starved out--surrounded--stamped
out--annihilated--so!" He stamped with his heel descriptively on the
hard earth floor. "And then, what?"

"Then, the plunder!" said Alwa, showing a double row of wonderful white
teeth. The other four grinned like his reflections. "Ay, there will be
plunder--for the priests! And we Rajputs will have new masters over us!
Now, as things are, we have honorable men. They are fools, for any
man is a fool who will not see and understand the signs. But they are
honest. They ride straight! They look us straight between the eyes, and
speak truth, and fear nobody! Will the Hindoo priests, who will rule
India afterward, be thus? Nay! Here is one sword for the British when
the hour comes!"

"I have yet to see a Hindoo priest rule me or plunder me!" said Alwa
with a grin.

"You will live to see it!" said Mahommed Gunga. "Truly, you will live to
see it, unless you throw your weight into the other scale! What are we
Rajputs without a leader whom we all trust? What have we ever been?"
He swung on his heels suddenly--angrily--and began to pace the floor
again--then stopped.

"Divided,