ve tried to anticipate the terms of your
agreement--then--then--there would be an end of bargaining and
promises, Jaimihr-sahib, and your life would be surely forfeit! Do you
understand?"

"Surely, sahiba!"

"Do you agree?"

"I already have agreed. They are my terms. I named them!"

"I would like to hear you promise, on your honor."

"I swear by all my gods and by my honor. I swear by my love, that is
dearer to me than a throne, and by the name and the honor of a Rajput!"

"Be ready, then. I am going now to hide the rope in the shadow of the
wall. It will take perhaps fifteen minutes. Be ready."

He made a quick movement to embrace her, but she slipped out and escaped
him; and he thought better of his sudden plan to follow her, remembering
that her word was likely to be good, whatever his might be. He elected
to wait inside until she returned for him. He little knew that he
missed the downward swing of Alwa's sabre, that was waiting, poised and
balanced for him, in the darkness by the door.

"Bismillah! I would have had a right to kill him had he followed her
and broken faith so early in the business!" Alwa swore, excusing his
impatience to Mahommed Gunga. "Have no fear, sahib!" he counselled
Cunningham a moment later, laying a heavy hand on the boy's arm. "Let
her keep her promises. That Hindoo pig will not keep his! We will
be after her, and surely--surely we will find good cause for some
throat-slitting as well as the cancelling of marriage promises!"

"Do you understand, Alwa-sahib, that--if Jaimihr keeps his promise to
her, she must keep hers to him? Do you realize that?"

"Allah! Listen to him! Yes, sahib. Truly, bahadur, I appreciate! I also
know that I have given certain promises which I, too, must fulfil! She
is not the only bargainer! I am worrying more about those guarantees
that Howrah was to give--I am anxious to see how, with fifteen hundred,
we are to get the better of a Rajah and his brother and their total of
ten thousand! I want to see those promises performed! Ay! The Miss-sahib
has done well. She has done her share. Let her continue. And do thou thy
share, bahadur! I am at thy back with my men, but give us action!"

Cunningham held up a lantern, and looked straight at Duncan McClean.
The missionary had held his daughter's hand while she recounted what had
happened in the cell. Whatever he may have thought, he had uttered no
word of remonstrance.

"Of course, we go to Howrah ahead of you