yard, alive?" asked Cumner. Pango Dooni smiled. "Let us
go and see."

Cumner wiped the sweat and dust and blood from his face, and turned to
McDermot.

"Was I right when I sent the lad?" said he proudly. "The women and
children are safe."

VI. CONCERNING THE DAUGHTER OF CUSHNAN DI

The British flag flew half-mast from the Palace dome, and two others
flew behind it; one the black and yellow banner of the hillsmen, the
other the red and white pennant of the dead Dakoon. In the Palace yard
a thousand men stood at attention, and at their head was Cushnan Di with
fifty hillsmen. At the Residency another thousand men encamped, with a
hundred hillsmen and eighty English, under the command of Tang-a-Dahit
and McDermot. By the Fountain of the Sweet Waters, which is over against
the Tomb where the Dakoon should sleep, another thousand men were
patrolled, with a hundred hillsmen, commanded by a kinsman of Pango
Dooni. Hovering near were gloomy, wistful crowds of people, who drew
close to the mystery of the House of Death, as though the soul of a
Dakoon were of more moment than those of the thousand men who had fallen
that day. Along the line of the Bazaar ranged another thousand men,
armed only with krises, under the command of the heir of the late
Dakoon, and with these were a hundred and fifty mounted hillsmen,
watchful and deliberate. These were also under the command of a kinsman
of Pango Dooni.

It was at this very point that the danger lay, for the nephew of the
Dakoon, Gis-yo-Bahim, was a weak but treacherous man, ill-fitted to
rule; a coward, yet ambitious; distrusted by the people, yet the heir to
the throne. Cumner and Pango Dooni had placed him at this point for
no other reason than to give him his chance for a blow, if he dared
to strike it, at the most advantageous place in the city. The furtive
hangers-on, cut-throats, mendicants, followers of Boonda Broke, and
haters of the English, lurked in the Bazaars, and Gis-yo-Bahim should
be tempted for the first and the last time. Crushed now, he could never
rise again. Pango Dooni had carefully picked the hillsmen whom he had
sent to the Bazaar, and their captain was the most fearless and the
wariest fighter from the Neck of Baroob, save Pango Dooni himself.

Boonda Broke was abroad still. He had escaped from the slaughter before
the Residency and was hidden somewhere in the city. There were yet in
Mandakan ten thousand men who would follow him that would promi