low a second Cunnigan,
could such be found."

"And this is he!" vowed Mahommed Gunga.

"Ho! But we Rangars have a leader! A man of men!"

"But this plan of his? This loosing of the trapped wolf--what of that?"

"I neither know nor care, as yet! I trust him! I am his man, as I was
his father's! I have seen him; I have heard him; I have felt his pulse
in the welter of the wrath of God. I know him. Whatever plans he makes,
whatever way he leads, those are my plans, my road! I serve the son of
Cunnigan!"

CHAPTER XXIX

Did he swear with his leg in a spring-steel trap
And a tongue dry-cracked from thirst?
Or down on his knees at his lady's lap
With the lady's lips to his own, mayhap,
And his head and his heart aburst?
Nay! I have listened to vows enough
And never the oath could bind
Save that, that a free man chose to take
For his own good reputation's sake!
They're qualified--they're tricks--they break--
They're words, the other kind!

MAHOMMED GUNGA had long ago determined to "go it blind" on Cunningham.
He had known him longest and had the greatest right. Rosemary McClean,
who knew him almost least of all, so far as length of time was
concerned, was ready now to trust him as far as the Risaldar dared go;
her limit was as long and as devil-daring as Mahommed Gunga's. Whatever
Scots reserve and caution may have acted as a brake on Duncan McClean's
enthusiasm were offset by the fact that his word was given; so far as
he was concerned, he was now as much and as obedient a servant of the
Company as either of the others. Nor was his attitude astonishing.

Alwa's was the point of view that was amazing, unexpected, brilliant,
soldierly, unselfish--all the things, in fact, that no one had the least
right to expect it to turn out to be. Two or three thousand men looked
to him as their hereditary chieftain who alone could help them hold
their chins high amid an overwhelming Hindoo population; his position
was delicate, and he might have been excused for much hesitation,
and even for a point-blank refusal to do what he might have preferred
personally. He and his stood to lose all that they owned--their
honor--and the honor of their wives and families, should they fight on
the wrong side. Even as a soldier who had passed his word, he might have
been excused for a lot of wordy questioning of orders, for he had enough
at stake to make anybody cautious.

Yet, having sai