The Veiled Candidates

The troops swaggered about, overbearing. They were soon to get their
pay. The gold and silver were rotting in the treasury. Why leave it
there, since gold and silver were minted to be spent?

There were elephant fights in the reconstructed arena; tigers attacked
wild boars, who fought with enormous razor-like tusks, as swift and
deadly as any Malay kris. The half forgotten ceremony of feeding the
wild pig before sundown each day was given life again. And drove after
drove came in from the jungles for the grain, which was distributed
from a platform. And wild peacocks followed the pigs. A wonderful
sight it was to see several thousand pigs come trotting in, each drove
headed by its fighting boar. When the old fellows met there was
carnage; squealing and grunting, they fought. The peacocks shrilled
and hopped from back to back for such grain as fell upon the bristly
backs of the pigs. Here and there a white peacock would be snared, or
a boar whose tusks promised a battle royal with some leopard or tiger.

And through all this turmoil and clamor Ahmed and Lal Singh moved,
sounding the true sentiments of the people. They did not want white
kings or white queens; they desired to be ruled by their kind, who
would not start innovations but would let affairs drift on as they had
done for centuries.

Nor was Bruce inactive. Many a time Umballa had stood within an arm's
length of death; but always Bruce had resisted the impulse. It would
be rank folly to upset Ramabai's plans, which were to culminate in
Umballa's overthrow.