of every
rupee by Holkar and Sindhia; they take turn about at him. Holkar is up
there now, where we have chased him--threatened to sack Udaipur unless
he were paid seventy lakhs, seven million rupees--the accursed thief!
We have managed to get an envoy to the Rana with a view to having him,
and the other smaller rulers of Mewar, join forces with us to crush
forever the Mahratta power--drive them out of Mewar for all time. The
Rajputs are a brave lot--men of high thought, and it is too bad to have
these accursed cut-throats bleeding to death such a race. If the Rana
would sign this paper also as an assurance of friendship, to be shown
the Pindari Chief, it would help greatly."

"I understand, Colonel. You wish me to get that from the Rana?"

"Yes, Captain; and I may say that if you can get through with all this
there will be no question about your Majority; you might even go higher
up than Major."

"By Jove! as to that, my dear Colonel, this trip is just good sport--I
love it: less danger than playing polo with these rotters. I'll swing
over to Udaipur first--it's just west of the Pindari camp,--been there
once before on a little pow-wow--then I'll switch back to Amir Khan."

"I wish you luck, Captain; but be careful. If we can feel sure that
this horde of Pindaris are not hovering on our army's flank, like the
Russians hovered on Napoleon's in the Moscow affair, it will be a great
thing--you will have accomplished a wonderful thing."

"Right you are, Sir," Barlow exclaimed blithely. The stupendous task,
for it was that, tonicked him; he was like a sportsman that had
received news of a tiger within killing distance. He rose, and
stretched out his hand for the paper, saying: "I've got a job of
cobbling to do--I'll put this between the soles of my sandal, as it was
carried before--it's the safest place, really. To-morrow I'll become
an apostate, an Afghan; and I'll be busy, for I've got to do it all
myself. I can trust no one with a dark skin."

"Not even the Gulab, I fear, Captain; one never knows when a woman will
be swayed by some mental transition." He was thinking of Elizabeth.

"You're right, Colonel," Barlow answered. "I fancy I could trust the
Gulab--but I won't."

CHAPTER XVI

Captain Barlow had been through a busy day. The very fact that all he
did in preparation for his journey to the Pindari camp had been done
with his own hands, held under water, out of sight, had increased the
st