"Those who have fled will be on their way to Chunda, and they
will tell of the slaying of Amir Khan. The Dewan will be pleased, and
they will be given honour and rich reward; they will be allowed to
return to Karowlee."
"Yes," Barlow interposed; "that Hunsa goes not back will simply be
taken as an affair of war, that he was captured and killed; there will
be nobody to relate that you revealed the plot. When you arrive there
you, also, will be showered with favours, and Ajeet Singh will owe his
life to you; they will set him at liberty."
"And as to Nana Sahib?" Bootea asked, and there was pathetic dread in
her eyes.
"What is it--you fear him?"
"Yes, Sahib, he will claim Bootea; a Mahratta never keeps faith. There
will be a fresh covenant, because he is like a beast of the jungle."
Barlow paced back and forth the small confine of the tent, muttering.
"It's hell!" He pictured the Gulab in the harem of Nana Sahib--in a
gaudy prison chained to a serpent. To interfere on her behalf would be
to sacrifice what came first, his duty as an officer of state, to what
would be called, undoubtedly, an infatuation.
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