s to one, Babu," grunted the blind man, and spat.

"I would urge upon this august assemblee," piped a youthful weedy
person, "that recreemination is not argument, and that many words butter
no parsneeps, so to speak. We are met to decide as to whether the
treasure shall be removed to Pirgunge or still we keep it with us here
in view of sudden sallies of foes. I hereby beg to propose and my
honourable friend Mister----"

"Sit down, crow," said the blind faquir unkindly and there was a
snigger. "The treasure will be removed at once--this night, or I will
remove myself from Gungapur with all my followers--and go where deeds
are being done. I weary of waiting while pi-dogs yelp around the walls
they cannot enter. Cowards! Thousands to one--and ye do not kill two of
them a day. Conquer and slay them? Nay--rather must our own treasure be
removed lest some night the devil, in command there, swoop upon it,
driving ye off like sheep and carrying back with him----"

"Flesh and blood cannot face a machine-gun, Moulvie," said the
squint-eyed Hindu. "Even _your_ holy sanctity would scarcely protect you
from bullets. Come forth and try to-morrow."

"Nor can flesh and blood--such flesh and blood as Gungapur
provides--surround the machine-gun and rush upon it from flank and rear
of course," replied the blind man. "Do machine guns fire in all
directions at once? When they ran the accursed thing down to the
market-place and fired it into the armed crowd that listened to my
words, could ye not have fled by other streets to surround it? Had all
rushed bravely from all directions how long would it have fired? Even
thus, could more have died than did die? Scores they slew--and retired
but when they could fire no longer.... And ye allowed it to go because a
dozen men stood between it and you----," and again the good man spat.

"I do not say 'Sit down, crow' for thou art already sitting," put in a
huge, powerful-looking man, arrayed in a conical puggri-encircled cap,
long pink shirt over very baggy peg-top trousers, and a green waistcoat,
"but I weary of thy chatter Blind-Man. Keep thy babble for fools in the
market-place, where, I admit, it hath its uses. Remain our valued and
respected talker and interfere not with fighting men, nor criticize. And
say not 'The treasure will be removed this night,' nor anything else
concerning command. _I_ will decide in the matter of the treasure and I
prefer to keep it here under mine hand...."

"Doub