he hounds and run with the hare. If it's the
prospect of sharing a title with me, a rotter would have eaten the
leek. Yes, Elizabeth is class."

CHAPTER XVIII

Dewan Sewlal was in a shiver of apprehension over the killing of the
two sepoys; there would be trouble over this if the Resident came to
know of it.

But Hunsa had assured him that the soldiers and their saddles had been
buried in the pit with the others, and that nobody but the decoits knew
of their advent.

Then when he learned that Ajeet Singh had been to the Resident he was
in a panic. But as that British official made no move, said nothing
about the decoity, he fancied that perhaps Ajeet had not mentioned
this, in fact he had no proof that he had made a confession at all.
But Ajeet's complicity in the decoity where the merchant and his men
had been killed, gave the Dewan just what he had planned for--the power
of death over the Chief. As to his own complicity he had taken care to
speak of the decoity to no one but Hunsa. The yogi had been inspired,
of course, but the yogi would not appear as a witness against him, and
Hunsa would not, because it would cost him his head.

So now, at a hint from Nana Sahib, the Dewan seized upon Ajeet, voicing
a righteous indignation at his crime of decoity, and gave him the
alternative of being strangled with a bow-string or forcing the Gulab
to go to the camp of Amir Khan to betray him. Not only would Ajeet be
killed, but Bootea would be thrust into the _seraglio_, and the other
Bagrees put in prison--some might be killed. Ajeet was forced to yield
to these threats. The very complicity of the Dewan made him the more
hurried in this thing. Also he wanted to get the Bagrees away to the
Pindari camp before the Resident made a move.

The mission to Amir Khan would be placed in the hands of Hunsa and
Sookdee, Ajeet being retained as a pawn; also his wound had
incapacitated him. He was nominally at liberty, though he knew well
that if he sought to escape the Mahrattas would kill him.

The jewels that had been stolen from the merchant were largely retained
by the Bagrees, though the Dewan found, one night, very mysteriously, a
magnificent string of pearls on his pillow. He did not ask questions,
and seemingly no one of his household knew anything about the pearls.

When the yogi asked Hunsa about the ruby, the Akbar Lamp, Hunsa, who
had determined to keep it himself, as, perhaps, a ransom for his life
in