Cut off a cobra's head and it could only wriggle until sunset.

Umballa gave the vanishing captain two weeks.
Then he should vanish indeed.
The next morning while the council and Umballa were in session relative as to what should be done with Kathlyn in the event of her refusal to bend, two soldiers entered, bringing with them a beautiful native young woman, one Pundita, wife of Ramabai, found in murder.
Umballa wiped his betel stained lips and salaamed mockingly.

Not so long ago he had been attentive to this young woman--after her marriage.
She had sent him about his business with burning ears and a hot cheek, made so by the contact of her strong young hand.

Revenge, great or small, was always sweet to Umballa.
To the slave girl who attended Pundita he said: "Go summon the queen.
It is for her to decide what shall be done with this woman." Through the veil Pundita's black eyes sparkled with hatred.
When Kathlyn came in it was at once explained to her that the woman's husband had been taken for murder; by law his wife became the queen's property, to dispose of as she willed.

The veil was plucked from Pundita's face.