Not even the thoughtfulness of Siva's priests could have anticipated that ten horse-men would be riding out of nowhere, with the spirit in them that ignores side issues and leads them only straight to their objective.
Alwa, as a soldier, knew exactly where fresh horses could be borrowed while his tired ones rested.

A little way beyond the outskirts of the city lived a man who was neither Mohammedan nor Hindoo--a fearful man, who took no sides, but paid his taxes, carried on his business, and behaved--a Jew, who dealt in horses and in any other animal or thing that could be bought to show a profit.
Alwa had an utterly complete contempt for Jews, as was right and proper in a Rangar of the blood.

He had not met many of them, and those he had had borne away the memory of most outrageous insult gratuitously offered and rubbed home.

But this particular Jew was a money-lender on occasion, and his rates had proved as reasonable as his acceptance of Alwa's unwritten promise had been prompt.

A man who holds his given word as sacred as did Alwa respects, in the teeth of custom or religion, the man who accepts that word; so, when the chance had offered, Alwa had done the Jew occasional favors and had won his gratitude.