Cunningham leaned over, and beheld a mounted column, trailing along the
desert road in wonderfully good formation.

"Where are they from?" he asked.

"Jaimihr's men, from Howrah!"

"That means," growled Alwa, "that the Hindoo pig Jaimihr has more than
half the city at his back. He has left behind ten men for every one he
brings with him--sufficient to hold Howrah in check. Otherwise he
would never have dared come here. He hopes to settle his little private
quarrel with me first, before dealing with his brother! Who told him, I
wonder, that I was pledged to Howrah?"

"He reckons he has caught thee napping in this fort of thine!" laughed
Mahommed Gunga. "He means to bottle up the Rangars' leader, and so
checkmate all of them!"

The eight hundred horsemen on the plain below rode carelessly through
Alwa's gardens, leaving trampled confusion in their wake, and lined
up--with Jaimihr at their head--immediately before the great iron
gate. A moment later four men rode closer and hammered on it with their
lance-ends.

"Go down and speak to them!" commanded Alwa, and a man dropped down the
zigzag roadway like a goat, taking short cuts from level to level, until
he stood on a pinnacle of rock that overhung the gate. Ten minutes later
he returned, breathing hard with the effort of his climb.

"Jaimihr demands the missionaries--particularly the Miss-sahib--also
quarters and food!" he reported.

"Quarters and food he shall have!" swore Alwa, looking down at the
Prince who sat his charger in the centre of the roadway. "Did he deign a
threat?"

"He said that in fifteen minutes he will burst the gate in, unless he is
first admitted!"

Duncan McClean walked over, limping painfully, and peered over the
precipice.

"Unfriendly?" he asked, and Mahommed Gunga heard him.

"Thy friend Jaimihr, sahib! His teeth are all but visible from here!"

"And--?"

"He demands admittance--also thee and thy daughter!"

"And--?"

"Sahib--art thou a priest?"

"I am."

"One, then, who prays?"

"Yes."

"For dead men, ever? For the dying?"

"Certainly."

"Aloud?"

"On occasion, yes."

"Then pray now! There will be many dead and dying on the plain below
in less than fifteen minutes! Hindoos, for all I know, would benefit by
prayer. They have too many gods, and their gods are too busy fighting
for ascendancy to listen. Pray thou, a little!"

There came a long shout from the plain, and Alwa sent a man again to
listen. He came