"Then, the plunder!" said Alwa, showing a double row of wonderful white
teeth. The other four grinned like his reflections. "Ay, there will
be plunder--for the priests! And we Rajputs will have new masters
over us! Now, as things are, we have honorable men. They are fools,
for any man is a fool who will not see and understand the signs. But
they are honest. They ride straight! They look us straight between
the eyes, and speak truth, and fear nobody! Will the Hindoo priests,
who will rule India afterward, be thus? Nay! Here is one sword for
the British when the hour comes!"

"I have yet to see a Hindoo priest rule me or plunder me!" said Alwa
with a grin.

"You will live to see it!" said Mahommed Gunga. "Truly, you will live
to see it, unless you throw your weight into the other scale! What are
we Rajputs without a leader whom we all trust? What have we ever
been?" He swung on his heels suddenly--angrily--and began to pace
the floor again--then stopped.

"Divided, and again subdivided--one-fifth Mohammedan and four-fifths
Hindoo--clan within clan, and each against the other. Do we own
Rajputana? Nay! Do we rule it? Nay! What were we until
Cunnigan-bahadur came?"

"Ah!" All five men rose with a clank in honor to the memory of that
man. "Cunnigan-bahadur! Show us such another man as he was, and I and
mine ride at his back!" said Alwa. "Not all the English are like
Cunnigan! A Cunnigan could have five thousand men the minute that he
asked for them!"