FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134  
135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>   >|  
getting rid of Jaimihr, she was endangering the liberty and life of Alwa--the one man able to do anything for the McCleans! That thought sent her scooting over housetops, diving down dark alleyways, racing, dodging, hiding, dashing on again, and brought her in the nick of time to a ditch, from whose shelter she sprang and seized the hand of Ali Partab. That incident, and her intimation that the missionaries were in Howrah's palace, took Alwa back up the black, blind side street; and before he emerged from it he saw Jaimihr and his ten go thundering past, their eyes on the sky-line for a hint of conflagration, and their horses--belly-to-the-earth--racing as only fear, or enthusiasm, or grim desperation in their riders' minds can make them race. A little later, in groups and scattered fours, and one by one, his heavy-breathing troopers followed, cursing the order that had sent them abroad with-out their horses, damning--as none but a dismounted cavalryman can damn--the earth's unevenness, their swords, their luck, their priests, the night, their boots, and Jaimihr. Forewarned, Alwa held on down the pitch-dark side street, into whose steep-sided chasm the moon's rays would not reach for an hour or two to come, and once again he led his party in a sweeping, wide-swung circle, loose-reined and swifter than the silent night wind--this time for Howrah's palace. There was his given word, plighted to Mahommed Gunga, to redeem. CHAPTER XX Ha! my purse may be lean, but my 'scutcheon is clean, And I'm backed by a dozen true men; I've a sword to my name, and a wrist for the same; Can a king frown fear into me, then? IT is the privilege of emperors, and kings and princes, that--however little real authority they have, or however much their power is undermined by men behind the throne--they must be accorded dignity. They must be, on the face of things, obeyed. Inspection of the treasure finished and an hour-long mummery of rites performed, the thirty wound their way, chanting, in single file back again. The bronze-enforced door, that was only first of half a hundred barriers between approach and the semi-sacred hoard, at last clanged shut and was locked with three locks, each of whose individual keys was in the keeping of a separate member of the three--Maharajah, Prince, and priest. The same keys fitted every door of the maze--made passages, but no one door would open without all three. Spea
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134  
135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Jaimihr
 

horses

 

street

 

Howrah

 

palace

 
racing
 
privilege
 

emperors

 
undermined
 

princes


authority

 

scutcheon

 
CHAPTER
 

plighted

 
Mahommed
 

redeem

 
backed
 
thirty
 

individual

 

keeping


separate

 

locked

 

sacred

 

clanged

 

member

 

Maharajah

 

passages

 

priest

 

Prince

 

fitted


approach

 
finished
 

treasure

 

mummery

 

Inspection

 
obeyed
 

dignity

 
accorded
 

things

 
performed

hundred
 

barriers

 
enforced
 
bronze
 

chanting

 

single

 
throne
 

emerged

 
incident
 

Partab