o him in a dialect he had no knowledge of and gesticulating
wildly. A trooper spurred down on him, brought him up all standing with
an intercepted lance, examined him through puckered eyes, and then,
roaring with laughter, picked him up and carried him to Cunningham.

"A woman, sahib! By the beard of Abraham, a woman!"

"Joanna!"

"Ha, sahib! Ha, sahib!"

She babbled to him, word overtaking word and choking all together in
a dust-dry throat. Cunningham gave her water and then set her on the
ground.

"Translate, somebody!" he ordered. "I can't understand a word she says."

Babbled and hurried and a little vague it might be, but Joanna had the
news of the minute pat.

"Jaimihr is looting the treasure now, sahib. He has tricked his brother.
They were to join, and both fight against you, but Jaimihr tried to get
the treasure out before either you or his brother came. He is trying
now, sahib!"

"Miss McClean! Ask her where Miss McClean is! Ask for Miss Maklin,
sahib!"

"Jaimihr has told her that thou and Alwa and Mahommed Gunga are all
dead, and the British overwhelmed throughout all India! He has her with
him in a carriage, under guard, for all his men are with him and he
could spare no great guard for his palace. See! Look, sahib! Jaimihr's
palace is in flames!"

Alwa all but fell from his charger, laughing volcanically. The Rajput,
who never can agree, can always see the humor in other Rajputs'
disagreement.

"Ho, but they are playing a great game with each other!" he shouted. But
Cunningham decided he had wasted time enough. He shouted his orders, and
in less than thirty seconds his three squadrons were thundering in the
direction of Jaimihr's army and the palace-wall. They drew rein again
within a quarter of a mile of it, to discover with amazed military eyes
that Jaimihr had no artillery.

It was then, at the moment when they halted, that Jaimihr reached a
quick decision and the wrong one. He knew by now that his brother had
won the first trick in the game of treachery, for he could see the smoke
and flames of his burning palace from where he sat his horse. He
decided at once that Alwa and his Rangars must have taken sides with the
Maharajah, for how, otherwise, he reasoned, could the Maharajah dare
let the Rangars approach unwatched and unmolested. It was evident to him
that the Rangars were acting as part of a concerted movement.

He made up his mind to attack and beat off the new arrivals without
f