The Rajah's Fortress

The Rajah's Fortress, a serial novel by William Murray Graydon, begins in Mandalay, Burma, where a proclamation offers 50,000 rupees for the capture of the notorious dacoit Pandou Ras ("Pandy"), whose band terrorizes the region. Four young men—British military officers Captain Guy Chutney and Lieutenant Jack Carew, American Vance Terril (seeking his missing brother Loyd), and journalist Melton Forbes—gather to discuss the reward. Chutney theorizes Pandy may be Nana Sahib, an Indian Mutiny fugitive, noting the dacoit's exceptional organizational skills and hatred for Englishmen. Forbes produces Hassam, a Burman gold-leaf worker, who claims to have encountered Pandy three years earlier at Pazan while working on a temple, prior to the British invasion. The narrative combines adventure and mystery across colonial Burma.