"You are afraid!" and he sneered as he spoke.
"And if I am?" protested the other. "I am bound to obey, and lose my life, if I must, in paying for the saving of it during the feast of Nag-Panchmi. Who is your enemy, Aurung Zeeb?"
Ben Ali struck the ground with his clinched fist.
"Aurung Zeeb is a coward!" he exclaimed. "He fled and left me to work out my vengeance alone. Hurkutjee! Let us speak no more of him. You knew of my brother, the rajah? How our sister married the feringhi, Captain Lionel Manners, of the English army? How he died, and his wife perished in the ghats, by suttee? Of the daughter they left, Margaret Manners? How, out of hatred to the rajah, I brought the girl to this country and destroyed her will by the power of the eyes? How we traveled with the show of Burton Sahib?"
Dhondaram nodded gravely.
"I know," he replied.
"But you do not know of the feringhi boy, the one who flies in the bird machine, and who is called Motor Matt. Because of him I have lost the girl, and she was making much money for me. I was mahout in the show for Burton Sahib's worst elephant, Rajah. No other could drive him, or take care of him. You are a sapwallah, a charmer of serpents, but you are also a charmer of elephants. You can drive them, Dhondaram, as well as I. You can take care of this Rajah beast as well as I."
"I learned to work with the elephants from my brother, the muni," observed Dhondaram. "You have lost the niece you called Haidee?"
"She is under the care of the British ambassador, but she is staying in this town. Perhaps I may get her back—that I do not know. But my vow, Dhondaram, against this feringhi boy, Motor Matt. That is for you to carry out. He has wrecked my plans. I will wreck his. He has put me in danger of my life. Through me, he shall be in danger of his own."
"What am I to do?" queried Dhondaram.