"In my keeping."
"Bah! Who would trust a Hindu priest!"
The Rajput was plainly wavering and the priest stood up, to argue
with him the better.
"What need to trust me? You, sahib, will know the secret, and none
other but myself will know it. Would I, think you, be fool enough
to tell the rest, or, by withholding just payment from you, incite
you to spread it broadcast? You and I will know it and we alone.
To me the power that it will bring--to you all the wealth you ever
dreamed of, and more besides!"
"No other priest would know?"
"Not one! They will think the woman escaped!"
"And she--where would you keep her?"
"In a secret place I know of, below the temple."
"Does any other know it?"
"No. Not one!"
"Listen!" said the Risaldar, stroking at his beard. "This woman never
did me any wrong--but she is a woman, not a man. I owe her no fealty,
and yet--I would not like to see her injured. Were I to agree to
thy plan, there would needs be a third man in the secret."
"Who? Name him," said the priest, grinning his satisfaction.
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