"'Go,' I said. He hesitated, but my look was firm, and he went.
"Once or twice since their fat was gone they had attempted to escape, but the last time I lashed the man unmercifully, and said if they tried to escape again I would let the panther deal with them. That cowed them thoroughly, and thenceforward they hung on every glance of my eye.
"But their enforced marchings were no longer such a terror as they had been, and I determined to make an end. But while I thought of it he came before me again.
"'Master,' he said, 'let me kill her; give me my life for hers.'
"I did not reply, neither did my glance forbid him. I could only think of Margaret, with the blood on her fair hair. I turned from him without a word.
"'Master,' he said again, 'will you set me free if I do?'
"He turned and left me. I sat on the river bank and waited. In half an hour he returned and said—
"'Master, come and see.' And I followed him to a small open space in the jungle. What had been the Begum, lay there cold and still. The arch-villain had strangled her.
"I made a sign to the panther. With a bound he was on him; and the head that had conceived the horrors of Cawnpore cracked between the panther's teeth. My vengeance was complete.
"After that, it seems, I must have wandered for years, until you found me. I remember nothing, except that the panther was always with me."