uld not be difficult to prove that he had been the
Company's friend all along.

Under all the circumstances he considered it best to be false to
everybody and strike for no hand but his own, and with that reconsidered
end in view he decided on a master-stroke. He sent word to his brother,
the Maharajah, saying that the Rangars had accepted service with the
Company and purposed a raid on Howrah; therefore, he proposed that they
unite against the common enemy and set a trap for the Rangars.

Howrah sent back to ask what proof he had of the Rangars' taking service
with the British. Jaimihr answered that Cunningham and Mahommed Gunga
were both on Alwa's crag. He also swore that as Alwa's prisoner he had
been able to over-hear the Rangars' plans.

The Maharajah was bewildered, as Jaimihr had expected that he would
be. And with just as Eastern, just as muddle-headed, just as dishonest
reasoning, he made up his mind to play a double game with everybody,
too. He agreed to join Jaimihr in opposition to the Rangars. He agreed
to send all his forces to meet Jaimihr's and together kill every Rangar
who should show himself inside the city. And he privately made plans to
arrive on the scene too late, and smash Jaimihr's army after it had been
reduced in size and efficiency by its battle with Alwa's men.

Jaimihr, unknowingly, fitted his plan into his brother's by determining
to get on the scene early enough to have first crack at the treasure. He
meant to get away with that, leave his brother to deal with Alwa's men,
circle round, and then attack his brother from the rear.

Finally, he made up his mind once and for all that Rosemary McClean must
remain inviolate until he was quite certain that the English had been
driven out of India. He expected that good news within a week.

He was delighted when Joanna, dressed as a man, turned up at his
palace-gates and cajoled her way in past the guards. To be asked for
an escort to bring the McCleans into Howrah fitted in with his role
of protector as a key might fit a lock. Now they could never
pretend--nobody could ever pretend--that he had seized them. He sent a
carriage out for them, and when they arrived placed a whole wing of his
palace at their disposal, treating them like royalty. He made no attempt
to molest or interfere with either of them, except that he prevented
them from going in and out; and he told off plenty of witnesses who
would be able to swear subsequently that they ha