"Sit still and say nothing is my advice; we will be all ready to help ourselves when the hour comes!" "It is this way," said Mahommed Gunga, standing straddle-legged to face all five of them, with his back to the window.

He stroked his black beard upward with one hand and fingered with the other at his sabre-hilt.

"Without aid when the hour does come, the English will be smashed--worn down--starved out--surrounded--stamped out--annihilated--so!" He stamped with his heel descriptively on the hard earth floor.

"And then, what ?" "Then, the plunder!" said Alwa, showing a double row of wonderful white teeth.

The other four grinned like his reflections.