But Alwa walked up openly--drew his heavy sabre--and saved the situation for her.
"That may help to jog his recollection of the bargain!" he laughed, severing the rope with a swinging cut and peering over to see, if he could, how Jaimihr landed.

By a miracle the Prince landed on his feet.
He sat down for a moment to recover from the shock, and then walked off awkwardly to where his cavalry were sleeping by their horses.
He had some trouble in persuading the outposts who he really was, and there was an argument that could be quite distinctly heard from the summit of the rock, and made Alwa roar with laughter before, finally, the whole contingent formed and wheeled and moved away, ambling toward Howrah City at a pace that betokened no unwillingness.
Five minutes later the Sikh's horse thundered out across the plain from under Alwa's iron gate, and the news, such as it was, was on its way to Byng-bahadur.
"A clear road at the price of a horse-hide rope!" laughed Alwa.

"Now for some real man's work!" Rosemary stole off to argue with her father and her conscience, but Alwa went to his troopers' quarters and told off ten good men for the task of manning the fortress in his absence.

They were ten unwilling men; it needed all his gruff authority, and now and then a threat, to make them stay behind.
"I must leave ten men behind," he insisted.

"It takes four men, even at a pinch, to lift the gate.