"The life of any one of us is worth more than that."
"Then, sahib, I shall go out and meet Wana Affghar face to face, and offer to give him the diamond, if he will let us go."
"When will you do that?" asked the astonished Avery.
"Now, sahib; let all gather around me where we are not so close to the entrance, and I will make known my plan."
The party quickly grouped themselves near Luchman, who made known his extraordinary scheme.
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE PLEDGE.
Without giving the words of Luchman and the numerous questions and answers that passed, his intentions may thus be described:
The native had racked his brain for some feasible means of getting the fugitives out of the temple and on the road to Kurnal again. But there was no such means. They were surrounded by the Ghoojurs, and as helpless as were the wives and daughters whom Nana Sahib some time afterward shut up and massacred in Cawnpore. Nothing, therefore, remained but to buy off the ruffians.
The ladies learned for the first time that Luchman had in his possession the famous diamond, the Star of India, with which he proposed to ransom them; but they asked how it was possible to do that when dealing with such a conscienceless miscreant as the Ghoojur chieftain.