"Well, then, hold out thine hand, brother," returned Pahar Singh, taking up a few coins and dropping them into his hand. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Good gold, good gold, Lallajee!" he said, looking up: "but it is of no use giving it to him: he will only spend it on women and liquor. Better I should have the rest, who can take care of it, Lalla, and give it him as he needs it--dost thou not think so? Yet, stay, I may as well--nine, ten, that's two hundred rupees, brother--enough for thee. Who would have thought of a bundle of old papers bringing so many bright ashruffees. And after all, O Lalla--by your head--were they true or false, O mean thief?" "True; I swear by your head and eyes, by the holy Krishna and his temple at Muttra. Canst thou doubt, after what has passed, O Jemadar?" cried the Lalla earnestly. "Nay, how could I understand thy jabbering of Persian? That was no honest talk, Maun Singh; they meant to cheat us by it, and this slave joined in it. Twenty-one, twenty-two,"--he was counting the remainder of the gold, and dropping the coins into his own bag as he spoke, "twenty-three. Dost thou think, O Lalla, that I am a cheating Mutsuddee, like thyself?--twenty-four, twenty-five.--Ill-begotten clerk, say--am I--Pahar Singh--a liar and a thief like thyself?"---- "May I be your sacrifice, Maharaj, no," cried the Lalla, terrified at his manner, and watching, with evident and ill-concealed uneasiness, coin after coin disappearing into the bag. "Why should my lord be angry if I spoke in Persian?" "Ho, ho, thou art frightened again--art thou? Well, perhaps thou couldst not help the Persian, as the letter had to be read; but I understood it all the time, O Lalla. Thou couldst not have cheated me--listen!" he continued in that language, speaking it with a broad Mahratta accent; "what part of this sum dost thou expect for thy share--twenty-six, twenty-seven. There is yet much, Lalla. What sayeth the poet Saadi? Expectation----No matter, I forget the verses we used to learn at school. How much?" "Nay, Maharaj, I know not," returned the man in a bewildered manner. "My lord said half would be mine, and the Meerza told us there were more than ten thousand rupees." "Good, O Lalla, thou patron of valiant men like me: but dost thou expect it? Five thousand rupees! dost thou think that such a sum will come to thee?" and his hand passed to the hilt of his sword.