iron gate in front of them and
garden land on either side--watered by the splashing streamlet from the
heights above.

"Men of the house of Kachwaha have owned and held this place, sahib,
since Allah made it!" whispered Mahommed Gunga. "Men say that Alwa has
no right to it; they lie! His father's father won the dower-right!"

He was interrupted by the rising of the iron gate. It seemed solid,
without even an eyehole in it. It was wide enough to let four horses
under side by side, and for all its weight it rose as suddenly and
evenly as though a giant's hand had lifted it. Immediately behind it,
like an actor waiting for the stage-curtain to rise, Alwa bestrode his
war-horse in the middle of a roadway. He saluted with drawn sabre, and
this time Cunningham replied.

Almost instantly the man who had led the gallopers and had saluted
Mahommed Gunga spurred his horse up close to Cunningham and whispered:

"Pardon, sahib! I did not know! Am I forgiven?"

"Yes," said Cunningham, remembering then that a Rajput, and a Rangar
more particularly, thinks about points of etiquette before considering
what to eat. Alwa growled out a welcome, rammed his sabre home, and
wheeled without another word, showing the way at a walk--which was all
a wild goat could have accomplished--up a winding road, hewn out of the
solid mountain, that corkscrewed round and round upon itself until it
gave onto the battlemented summit. There he dismounted, ordered his men
to their quarters, and for the first time took notice of his cousin.

"I have thy missionary and his daughter, three horses for thee, and thy
man," he smiled.

"Did Ali Partab bring them?"

"Nay. It was I brought Ali Partab and the rest! My promise is redeemed!"

Mahommed Gunga thrust his sword-hilt out and smiled back at him.
"I present Raff-Cunnigan-sahib--son of Pukka-Cunnigan-bahadur!" he
announced.

Alwa drew himself up to his full height and eyed young Cunningham as a
buyer eyes a war-horse, inch by inch. The youngster, who had long since
learned to actually revel in the weird sensation of a hundred pairs of
eyes all fixed on him at once, felt this one man's gaze go over him
as though he were being probed. He thanked his God he had no fat to be
detected, and that his legs were straight, and that his tunic fitted
him!

"Salaam, bahadur," said Alwa slowly. "I knew thy father.
So--thou--art--his--son. Welcome. There is room here always for a guest.
I have other guests with wh