"How many horsemen could the Alwa-sahib raise ?" "That would depend!" Alwa was in no mood to commit himself.
"At the most--at a pinch--in case of direst need, and for a cause that all agreed on ?" "Two thousand." "Horsed and armed ?" "And ready!" "And you, Alwa-sahib--are you pledged to fight against the British ?" "Not in so many words.

I swore to uphold Howrah on his throne.

He is against the British." "You swore to help smash his brother, Jaimihr ?" "If I were needed." "And Jaimihr too is against the British ?" "Jaimihr is for Jaimihr, and has a personal affair with me!" "I must think," said Cunningham, getting up.

"I can think better alone.
D'you mind if I go outside for a while, and come back later to tell you what I think ?" Alwa arose and held the door open for him--stood and watched him cross the courtyard--then turned and laughed at Mahommed Gunga.
"Straight over to the woman!" he grinned.

"This leader of thine seems in leading-strings himself already!" Mahommed Gunga cursed, and cursed again as his own eyes confirmed what Alwa said.
"I tried him all the ways there are, except that one way!" he declared.
"May Allah forgive my oversight! I should have got him well entangled with a woman before he reached Peshawur! He should have been heart-broken by this time--rightly, he should have been desperate with unrequited love! Byng-bahadur could have managed it! Byng-bahadur would have managed it, had I thought to advise him!" He stood, looking over very gloomily at Cunningham, making a dozen wild plans for getting rid of Miss McClean--by no means forgetting poison--and the height of Alwa's aerie from the plain below! He would have been considerably calmer, could he have heard what Cunningham and Miss McClean were saying.
The missionary was with her now--ill and exhausted from the combined effects of excitement, horror, and the unaccustomed ride across the desert--most anxious for his daughter--worried, to the verge of desperation, by the ghastly news of the rebellion.
"Mr.Cunningham, I hope you are the forerunner of a British force ?" he hazarded.
But Cunningham was too intent on cross-examination to waste time on giving any information.
"I want you to tell me, quite quietly and without hurry, all you can about Howrah," he said, sitting close to Miss McClean.