"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.