ht succumb during the ensuing struggle. He
counted on the populace, more than on his own organized forces, to make
the Rangars powerless when the time should come for them to try to
take the upper hand. The mob would suffer in the process, but its
fanaticism--its religious prejudice and numbers--would surely win the
day.

As for Rosemary McClean, the more he considered her the more his brown
eyes glowed. He had promised to make her Maharanee. But he knew too
thoroughly what that would mean not to entertain more than a passing
doubt as to the wisdom of the course. He was as ready to break his word
on that point as on any other.

A woman of his own race, however wooed and won, would have been content
to accept the usual status of whisperer from behind the close-meshed
screens. Not so an Englishwoman, with no friends to keep her company
and with nothing in the world to do but think. She, he realized, would
expect to make something definite of her position, and that would suit
neither his creed (which was altogether superficial), nor custom (which
was iron-bound and to be feared), nor prejudice (which was prodigious),
nor yet convenience (which counted most).

He came to the conclusion that the fate in store for her was not such as
she would have selected had she had her choice. Nor were his conclusions
in regard to her such as would commend him in the eyes of honest men.

But, after all, the throne was the fulcrum of his plotting; and the
lever had to be the treasure, if his plans were to succeed beyond
upsetting. He changed his plans a dozen times over before he arrived at
last at the audacious decision he was seeking.

Like many another Hindoo in that hour of England's need, he did not lose
sight altogether of the distant if actual possibility that the Company's
servants might--by dint of luck and grit, and what the insurance papers
term the Act of God--pull through the crisis. Therefore, he decided that
under no circumstances should Rosemary McClean be treated cavalierly
until the Rangars were out of the way and he could pose as her protector
if need be.

He would be able to prove that Rosemary and her father had come to
him of their own free will. He would say that they had asked him for
protection from the Rangars. He had evidence that his brother Howrah had
been in communication with the Rangars. So, should the Company survive
and retain power enough to force an answer to unpleasant questions,
he thought it wo