Then at a wave of his skeleton arm the two men threw upon the thatched
roof of a hut a grey preparation of gunpowder which was but a
pyrotechnical trick, and immediately the thatch burst into flames.

"There, accursed ones--unbelievers! Kali has spoken!" the yogi
declared solemnly, and turning on his heels went back to the camp.

The headman and his men, with howls of dismay, rushed back to stop the
conflagration. And just then the jewel merchant arrived in his cart.
The curtains of the canopy were thrown back and the fat Hindu sat
blinking his owl eyes in consternation. At sight of Ajeet he
descended, salaamed, and asked:

"Has there been a decoity in the village--is it war and bloodshed?"

Ajeet assumed the haughty condescending manner of a Rajput prince, and
explained, with a fair scope of imagination that the _patil_ was a man
of ungovernable temper who gave protection to thieves and outlaws, that
the village itself was a nest for them. That two of his servants,
having gone into the village to purchase food, had been set upon,
beaten and robbed; that the conflagration had been caused by the fire
from a gun that one of the debased villagers had poked through a hole
in the roof to shoot his servants.

"As my name is Ragganath, it is a visitation upon these scoundrels,"
the merchant declared.

"It is indeed, Sethjee."

Ajeet had diplomatically used the "Sethjee," which was a friendly