escendants of
the stranglers throughout India you can count surely."

"You have not mentioned my name?" the Rajah said suddenly, looking
closely at the man as he put the question.

"Assuredly not, your highness; I have simply said deliverance is at
hand; the hour foretold for the end of the Raj of the men from beyond
the sea will soon strike, and they will disappear from the land like
fallen leaves; then will the glory of Kali return, then again will the
brotherhood take to the road and gather in victims. I can promise that
every one of those whose fathers or grandfathers or other kin died by
the hand of the Feringhee, or suffered in his prisons, will do his share
of the good work, and be ready to obey to the death the orders which
will reach him."

"It is good," the Rajah said; "you and your brethren will have a rich
harvest of victims, and the sacred cord need never be idle. Go; it is
well nigh morning, and I would sleep."

But not for some time did the Rajah close his eyes; his brain was busy
with the schemes which he had long been maturing, but was only now
beginning to put into action.

"It must succeed," he said to himself; "all through India the people
will take up arms when the Sepoys give the signal by rising against
their officers. The whites are wholly unsuspicious; they even believe
that I, I whom they have robbed, am their friend. Fools! I hold them in
the hollow of my hand; they shall trust me to the last, and then I will
crush them. Not one shall escape me! Would I were as certain of all the
other stations in India as I am of this. Oude, I know, will rise as
one man; the Princes of Delhi I have sounded; they will be the leaders,
though the old King will be the nominal head; but I shall pull the
strings, and as Peishwa, shall be an independent sovereign, and next in
dignity to the Emperor. Only nothing must be done until all is ready;
not a movement must be made until I feel sure that every native regiment
from Calcutta to the North is ready to rise."

And so, until the day had fully broken, the Rajah of Bithoor thought
over his plans--the man who had a few hours before so sumptuously
entertained the military and civilians of Cawnpore, and the man who was
universally regarded as the firm friend of the British and one of the
best fellows going.

The days and weeks passed on, messengers came and went, the storm was
slowing brewing; and yet to all men it seemed that India was never more
contented nor