in every particular. He knew that the members of the
little band on Alwa's rock would keep their individual and collective
word, and therefore that Rosemary McClean would come to him. He
suspected, though, that there would prove to be a rider of some sort to
her agreement as regarded marrying him, for he had young Cunningham in
mind; and he knew enough of Englishmen from hearsay and deduction to
guess that Cunningham would interject any obstacle his ingenuity could
devise.

Natives of India do not like Englishmen to marry their women. How much
less, then, would a stiff-necked member of a race of conquerors care
to stand by while a woman of his own race became the wife of a native
prince? He did not trust Cunningham, and he recalled that he had had no
promise from that gentleman.

Therefore, he proposed to forestall Cunningham if possible, and, if
that were inconvenient or rash, he meant to take other means of making
Rosemary McClean his, beyond dispute, in any case.

Next to Rosemary McClean he coveted most the throne of Howrah. With
regard to that he was shrewd enough not to conceal from himself for a
second the necessity for scotching the priests of Siva before he dare
broach the Howrah treasure, and so make the throne worth his royal
while. Nor did he omit from his calculations the public clamor that
would probably be raised should he deal too roughly with the priests.
And he intended to deal roughly with them.

So the proposed allegiance of the Rangars suited him in more ways than
one. His army and his brother's were so evenly matched in numbers and
equipment that he had been able to leave Howrah without fear for the
safety of his palace while his back was turned. The eight hundred whom
he had led on the unlucky forray to Alwa's were scarcely missed, and,
even had the Maharajah known that he was absent with them, there were
still too many men behind for him to dare to start reprisals. The
Maharajah was too complete a coward to do anything much until he was
forced into it.

The Rangars, he resolved, must be made to take the blame for the
broaching of the treasure. He proposed to go about the broaching even
before hostilities between himself and his brother had commenced, and he
expected to be able to trick the Rangars into seeming to be looting. To
appear to defend the treasure would probably not be difficult; and it
would be even less difficult to blame the Rangars afterward for the
death of any priest who mig