initial commit of ebook 16752HEADmain

7 files changed, 16288 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/16752-8.txt b/16752-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d40060a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/16752-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8136 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Caste, by W. A. Fraser
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Caste
+
+Author: W. A. Fraser
+
+Release Date: September 26, 2005 [EBook #16752]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CASTE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+CASTE
+
+BY
+
+W. A. FRASER
+
+
+
+
+AUTHOR OF "RED MEEKINS," "BULLDOG CARNEY," "THE THREE SAPPHIRES," "THE
+LONE FURROW," "THOROUGHBREDS," ETC.
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1922,
+
+BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+
+
+CASTE. II
+
+
+PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+
+
+
+CASTE
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+The three Mahrattas, Sindhia, Holkar, and Bhonsla, were plotting the
+overthrow of the British, and the Peshwa was looking out of brooding
+eyes upon Hodson, the Resident at Poona.
+
+Up on the hill, in the temple of Parvati, the priests repeated prayers
+to the black goddess calling for the destruction of the hated whites.
+
+Each one of the twenty-four priests as he came with a handful of
+marigolds laid them one by one at the feet of the four-armed hideous
+idol, repeating: "_Om, Parvati_!  _Om, Parvati_!" the comprehensive,
+all-embracing "_Om_" that meant adoration and a clamour for favour.
+Even to Nandi, the brass bull that carried Shiva, he appealed, "_Om
+Shiva_!"
+
+But down on the rock-plateau, where gleamed in the hot sun marble
+palaces, a more malign influence was at work.  Dandhu Panth, the
+adopted son of the Peshwa, had come back from Oxford, and the English
+believed he had been changed into an Englishman, Nana Sahib.
+
+Outwardly he was a sporting, well-dressed gentleman, such as Oxford
+turns out; but in his heart was lust of power, and hatred of the white
+race that he felt would make his inheritance, the Peshwaship, but a
+vassalage.  His dreams of ruling India would fade, and he would sit a
+pensioner of the British.  The Mahrattas had been stigmatised by a
+captious Mogul ruler, "mountain rats."  As Hindus there was a sharp
+cleavage of character; the Brahmins, fanatical, high up in the caste
+scale, and all the rest of the breed inferior, vicious, blood-thirsty,
+a horde of pirates.  Even the man who first made them a power, Sivaji,
+had been of questionable lineage, a plebeian; and so the body corporate
+was of inflammable material--little restraint of breeding.
+
+And for all Nana Sahib's veneer of English class, mental development,
+beneath the English shirt he wore the _junwa_, the three-strand sacred
+thread, insignia of the twice-born,--the Brahmin.
+
+From Governor General to the British officers who played polo with the
+Peshwa's son, they all accepted him as one of themselves; considered it
+good diplomacy that he had been sent to Oxford and made over.
+
+There was just one man who had misgivings, the Resident at Poona.  He
+was a small, tired, worn-out official--an executive, a perpetual wheel
+in the works, always close to the red-tape-tied papers, always.
+Strange that one not a dreamer, no sixth-sense, should have attained to
+an intuition--which it was, his distrust of the cheery, sporty Nana
+Sahib.  That Hodson's superiors intimated that India was getting to his
+liver when he wrote, very cautiously, of this obsession, made no
+difference; and clinging to his distrust, he achieved something.
+
+After all it was rather strange that the matter had not been taken out
+of his hands, but it wasn't.  A sort of departmental formula running;
+"Commissioner So-and-So has the matter in hand--refer to him."  And so,
+when a new danger appeared on the distressed horizon, Amir Khan and a
+hundred thousand massed horsemen, Captain Barlow was sent to consult
+with the Resident.  That was the way; a secretive, trusty, brave man,
+for in India the written page is never inviolate.
+
+Captain Barlow was sent--ostensibly as an assistant to the Resident, in
+reality to acquire full knowledge of the situation, and then go to the
+camp of Amir Khan with the delicate mission of persuading him not to
+join his riding spear-men to the Mahratta force, but to form an
+alliance with the British.
+
+The Resident had asked for Barlow.  He had explained that any show of
+interest, two men, or five, or twenty, an envoy, even men of pronounced
+position, would defeat their object; in fact, believing Nana Sahib to
+be what he was, he conceived the very simple idea of playing the
+Oriental's Orientalism against him.
+
+Barlow would be the last man in India to whom one as suspicious as the
+Peshwa's son would attribute a subtlety deep enough for a serious
+mission.  He was a great handsome boy; in his physical excellence he
+was beautiful; courage was manifest in the strong content of his deep
+brown eyes.  Incidentally that was one of the reasons the Resident had
+asked for him, though he would have denied it, even to his daughter,
+Elizabeth, though it was for her sake--that part of it.
+
+The affair with Elizabeth had been going on for two or three years;
+never quite settled--always hovering.
+
+Indeed the Resident's daughter was not constituted to raise a cyclone
+of passion, a tempest of feeling that brings an impetuous declaration
+of love from any man.  She was altogether proper; well-bred; admirable;
+perhaps somewhat of the type so opposite to Barlow's impressionable
+nature that ultimately, all in good time, they would realise that the
+scheme of creation had marked them for each other.  And Colonel Hodson
+almost prayed for this.  It was desirable in every way.  Barlow was of
+a splendid family; some day he might become Lord Barradean.
+
+Anyway Captain Barlow was there playing polo with Nana Sahib--one of
+the Prince's favourites; and waiting for a certain paper that would be
+sent to the Resident that would contain offers of an alliance with the
+Pindari Chief.
+
+And this same hovering menace of the Pindari force was causing Nana
+Sahib unrest.  Perhaps there had been a leak, as cautiously as the
+Resident had made every move.  If the Pindari army were to join the
+British, ready at a moment's notice to fall on the flank of the
+Mahrattas, harass them with guerilla warfare, it would be serious; they
+were as elusive as a huge pack of wolves; unencumbered by camp
+followers, artillery, foraging as they went, swooping like birds of
+prey, they were a terrible enemy.  Even as the tiger slinks in dread
+from a pack of the red wild-dogs, so a regular force might well dread
+these flying horsemen.
+
+And it was Amir Khan that Nana Sahib, and the renegade French
+commander, Jean Baptiste, dreaded and distrusted.  Overtures had been
+made to him without result.  He was a wonderful leader.  He had made
+the name of the Pindari feared throughout India.  He was the magnet
+that held this huge body of fighting devils together.
+
+Thus with the gigantic chess-board set; the possession of India
+trembling in the balance; intellects of the highest development
+pondering; Fate held the trump card, curiously, a girl; and not one of
+the players had ever heard her name, the Gulab Begum.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The white sand plain surrounding Chunda was dotted with the tents of
+the Mahratta force Sirdar Baptiste commanded.  And the Sirdar, his soul
+athirst for a go at the English, whom he hated with the same rabid
+ferocity that possessed the soul of Nana Sahib, was busy.  From
+Pondicherry he had inveigled French gunners; and from Goa, Portuguese.
+Also these renegade whites were skilled in drill.  If Holkar and
+Bhonsla did their part it would be Armageddon when the hell that was
+brewing burst.
+
+But Baptiste feared the Pindari.  As he swung here and there on his
+Arab the horse's hoofs seemed to pound from the resonant sands the
+words "Amir Khan--Amir Khan!  Pin-dar-is, Pin-dar-is!"
+
+It was as he discussed this very thing with his Minister, Dewan Sewlal,
+that Nana Sahib swirled up the gravelled drive to the bungalow on his
+golden-chestnut Arab, in his mind an inspiration gleaned from something
+that had been.
+
+His greeting of the two was light, sporty; his thin well-chiselled face
+carried the bright indifferent vivacity of a fox terrier.
+
+"Good day, Sirdar," he cried gaily; and, "How listen the gods to your
+prayers, my dear Dewani?"
+
+Baptiste, out of the fulness of his heart soon broached the troublous
+thing: "Prince," he begged, "obtain from the worthy Peshwa a command
+and I'll march against this wolf, Amir Khan, and remove from our path
+the threatened danger."
+
+Nana Sahib laughed; his white, even teeth were dazzling as the
+black-moustached lip lifted.
+
+"Sirdar, when I send two Rampore hounds from my kennel to make the kill
+of a tiger you may tackle Amir Khan.  Even if we could crumple up this
+blighter it's not cricket--we need those Pindari chaps--but not as dead
+men.  Besides, I detest bloodshed."
+
+The Dewan rolled his bulbous eyes despairingly: "If Sindhia would send
+ten camel loads of gold to this accursed Musselman, we could sleep in
+peace," he declared.
+
+"If it were a woman Sindhia would," Nana Sahib sneered.
+
+Baptiste laughed.
+
+"It is a wisdom, Prince, for that is where the revenue goes: women are
+a curse in the affairs of men," the Dewan commented.
+
+"With four wives your opinion carries weight, Dewani," and Nana Sahib
+tapped the fat knee of the Minister with his riding whip.
+
+Baptiste turned to the Prince.  "There will be trouble over these
+Pindaris; your friends, the English--eh, Nana Sahib--"
+
+As though the handsome aquiline face of the Peshwa's son had been
+struck with a glove it changed to the face of a devil; the lips
+thinned, and shrinking, left the strong white teeth bare in a wolf's
+snarl.  Under the black eyebrows the eyes gleamed like fire-lit amber;
+the thin-chiselled nostrils spread and through them the palpitating
+breath rasped a whistling note of suppressed passion.
+
+"Sirdar," he said, "never call me Nana Sahib again.  The English call
+me that, but I wait--must wait; I smile and suffer.  I am Dandhu Panth,
+a Brahmin.  The English so loved me that they tried to make an
+Englishman of me, but, by Brahm! they taught me hate, which is their
+lot till the sea swallows the last of the accursed breed and
+Mahrattaland is free!"
+
+Nana Sahib was panting with the intensity of his passion.  He paced the
+floor flicking at his brown boots with his whip, and presently whirled
+to say with a sneering smile on his thin lips:
+
+"The English can teach a man just one thing--to die for his ideals."
+
+"Yes, Prince, of a certainty the Englishman knows how to die for his
+country," Baptiste agreed in a soldier's tribute to courage.
+
+"And for another nation's country," Nana Sahib rasped.  "He is a born
+pirate, a bred pirate--we in India know that; and that, General, is why
+I am a Brahmin, because they alone will free Mahrattaland--faith,
+ideals.  Forms! the gods to me are not more than show-pieces.  That
+Kali spreads the cholera is one with the idea that the little
+red-daubed stone Linga gets the woman a male child, false; these things
+are in ourselves, and in Brahm.  The priests sacrifice to Shiva, but I
+will sacrifice to Mahrattaland, which to me is the supreme God."
+
+Jean Baptiste looked out of his wise grey eyes into the handsome face
+and felt a thrill, an awakening, the terrible sincerity of the speaker.
+At times the ferocity in the eyes when he had spoken of sacrifice
+caused the free-lance soldier to shiver.  A blur of red floated before
+his eyes--something of a fateful forecasting that some day the awful
+storm that was brewing would break, and the fanatical Brahmin in front
+of him would call for English blood to glut his hate.  It was the more
+appalling that Nana Sahib was so young.  Closing his eyes Baptiste
+heard the voice of an English Oxonian that perhaps should be chortling
+of polo and cricket and racing; and yet the more danger--the
+youthfulness of the agent of destruction; like a Napoleon--a corporal
+as a boy.  "_C'est la guerre_!" the French officer murmured.
+
+Then, as a storm passing is often followed by smiling sunshine, so the
+mood of Nana Sahib changed.  He had the volatile temperament of a
+Latin, and now he turned to the Minister, his face having undergone a
+complete metamorphosis: "Dewani," he said, "do you remember when a
+certain raja sent his Prime Minister and twenty thousand men to punish
+Pertab for not paying his taxes, and Pertab gave one Bhart, a Bagree,
+ten thousand rupees and a village to bring him the Minister's
+head--which he did, tied to the inside of his brass-studded shield?"
+
+"Yes, Prince; that is a way of this land."
+
+Nana Sahib drew forth a gold cigarette case, lighted a cigarette from a
+fireball that stood in a brass cup, and gazed quizzically at the Dewan.
+There was a little hush.  This story had set Jean Baptiste's nerves
+tingling; there was something behind it.
+
+The Dewan half guessed what was in the air, but he blinked his big eyes
+solemnly, and reaching for a small lacquer box took from it a Ran leaf,
+with a finger smeared some ground lime on it, and wrapping the leaf
+around a piece of betel-nut popped it into his capacious mouth.
+
+"These Bagrees are in the protection of Rajas, Karowlee, are they not?"
+Nana Sahib asked.
+
+"Yes, Prince; even some of Bhart's relatives are there--one Ajeet
+Singh; he's a celebrated leader of these decoits."
+
+"And Sindhia took from Karowlee some territory, didn't he?"
+
+"Yes; Karowlee refused to pay the taxes."
+
+"I should think the Raja would like to have it back."
+
+"No doubt, Prince."
+
+Nana Sahib, holding the cigarette to his lips between two fingers gazed
+mockingly at the large-paunched Brahmin.  Then he said; "I see the
+illuminating light of understanding in your eyes, Dewani--a subtle
+comprehension.  Small wonder that you are Minister to the delightful
+Sindhia.  If you are making any promises to Karowlee, I should make
+them in the name of Sindhia--through Sirdar Baptiste, of course.  And,
+Dewani, this restless cuss, Amir Khan, might make a treaty with the
+English any time.  The dear fish-eyed Resident has been particularly
+active--my spies can hardly keep up with him.  I shouldn't lose any
+time--Ajeet Singh sounds promising."
+
+Nana Sahib drew a slim flat gold watch from his pocket.  "I now must
+leave you two interesting gentlemen," he said, "for I am to play a few
+chuckers of polo with--particularly, Captain Barlow.  He is jackal to
+the bloodless Resident.  I really thought a couple of days ago that he
+would have to be sent home on sick leave.  One of my officers rode him
+off the ball in a fierce drive for goal, and by some devilish mistake
+the post hadn't been sawed half-through, so when Barlow crashed into it
+it stood up.  As he lay perfectly still after his cropper it looked as
+though Resident Hodson had lost his jackal.  But Barlow is one of those
+whip-cord Englishmen that die of old age; he was in the saddle again in
+two days.  Well, _au revoir_ and salaam."
+
+When the clattering scurry of Nana Sahib's Arab had died out Baptiste
+turned to the Dewan, saying:
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I will write the letter to Raja Karowlee, but you must sign it,
+Sirdar; also furnish a fast riding camel and a trusty officer," the
+Dewan answered simply.
+
+"But Nana Sahib was nebulous--we may be made the goat of sacrifice."
+
+"It is a wisdom, Sirdar; but, also, it is from the Prince an order; and
+my office is always one of blame when there are excuses to make--it is
+always that way.  When a head is required the Dewan's is always
+offered."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+In answer to the Dewan's request Raja Karowlee sent a force of two
+hundred Bagrees to Jean Baptiste's camp.  Evidently the old Raja had
+run the official comb through his territories, for the decoit force was
+composed of a hundred men from Karowlee, under Ajeet Singh, and a
+hundred from Alwar, led by Sookdee.
+
+The two leaders were commanded to obey Sirdar Baptiste implicitly; and
+Baptiste passed an order that they were to receive a thousand rupees a
+day for their maintenance.
+
+In addition there was a fourth officer, Hunsa, who was a jamadar, a
+lieutenant, to Ajeet Singh.  And if then and there the ugly head had
+been cut from his body, the things that happened would not have
+happened.
+
+From the advent of the Bagrees, even on their way from Karowlee, Hunsa
+had been plotting evil.  He was a man who would have shrivelled up,
+become atrophied, in an atmosphere of decency--he would have died.
+
+Hunsa caused Sookdee to believe that he should have been the leader and
+not Ajeet Singh.
+
+A document was written out by Dewan Sewlal promising that in the event
+of the decoits carrying out the mission they had come upon the estate
+would be restored to Raja Karowlee, and that he would be compelled to
+assign to the three decoit leaders villages within that territory in
+rent free tenure.  The Dewan, with wide precaution, took care that the
+document was so worded that General Baptiste was the official promiser,
+putting in a clause that he, Sewlal, the Minister, would see that the
+General carried out these promises on behalf of Sindhia.
+
+Baptiste set his lips in a sardonic smile when he read and signed the
+paper.  However, he cared very little; no concern of his whether
+Karowlee attained to his lands or not--it would be a matter of the King
+disposes.  Even that the Dewan stood in Baptiste's shadow in the affair
+was another something that only caused the Frenchman to remark
+sardonically:
+
+"Dewani, the English sahibs have a delectable game of cards named poker
+in which there is an observance called passing the buck; when a player
+wishes to avoid the responsibility of a bet he passes the buck to the
+next man.  Dewani, you have the subtlety of a good poker player and
+have passed the buck to me."
+
+The Brahmin looked hurt.  "Sirdar," he said, "you are the commander of
+matters of war, which this is.  You stand here in the city of tents as
+Sindhia; I am but the man of accounts; it is well as it is.  And now
+that we have signed the promise the decoits will also sign, then I will
+make them take the oath according to their patron goddess, Bhowanee.
+They are just without--I will have them in."
+
+When the three jamadars had been summoned to the Dewan's presence, he
+said: "Here is the paper of promise as to the reward from Sindhia for
+the service you are to render.  You will also sign here, making your
+seal or thumb print; then it will be required that you take the oath of
+service according to your own method and your gods."
+
+Ajeet consulted a little apart with Sookdee and then coming forward
+said: "We Bagrees are an ancient people descended from the Rajputs, and
+we keep our word to our friends; therefore we will take the oath after
+the manner of Bhowanee, beneath the pipal tree.  If Your Honour will
+give us but an hour we will take the oath."
+
+A mile down the red road from the bungalow, looking like a huge beehive
+with its heavy enveloping roof of thatch, that was Jean Baptiste's
+head-quarters, was a particularly sacred pipal of huge growth.  It was
+an extraordinary octopus-like tree, and most sacred, for perched in the
+embrace of its giant arms was a shrine that had been lifted from its
+base in the centuries of the tree's growth.
+
+And now, an hour later, the pipal was surrounded by thousands of
+Mahratta sepoys, for word had gone forth,--the mysterious rumour of
+India that is like a weird static whispering to the four corners of the
+land a message,--had flashed through the tented city that the men from
+Karowlee were to take the oath of allegiance to Sindhia.
+
+The fat Dewan had come down in a _palki_ swung from the shoulders of
+stout bearers, while Jean Baptiste had ridden a silver-grey Arab.
+
+And then just as a bleating, mottled white-and-black goat was led by a
+thong to the pipal, Nana Sahib came swirling down the road in a brake
+drawn by a spanking pair of bay Arabs with black points.  Beside him
+sat the Resident's daughter, Elizabeth Hodson, and in the seat behind
+was Captain Barlow.
+
+At the pipal Nana Sahib reined in the bays sharply, saying, "Hello,
+General, wanted to see you for a minute--called at the bungalow, and
+your servant said you had gone down this way.  What's up?" he
+questioned after greetings had passed between Baptiste, Barlow and
+Elizabeth Hodson.
+
+"Just some new recruits, scouts, taking the oath of service," and
+Baptiste closed an eye in a caution-giving wink.
+
+A slight sneer curled the thin lips of Nana Sahib; he understood
+perfectly what Baptiste meant by the wink--that the Englishman being
+there, it would be as well to say little about the Bagrees.  But the
+Prince had no very high opinion of Captain Barlow's perceptions, of his
+finer acuteness of mind; the thing would have to be very plainly
+exposed for the Captain to discover it.  He was a good soldier, Captain
+Barlow--that happy mixture of brain and brawn and courage that had
+coloured so much of the world's map red, British; he was the terrier
+class--all pluck, with perhaps the pluck in excelsis--the brain-power
+not preponderant.
+
+"Who is the handsome native--he looks like a Rajput?" Elizabeth asked,
+indicating the man who was evidently the leader among the others.
+
+"That is Ajeet Singh, chief of these men," Baptiste answered.
+
+"He is a handsome animal," Nana Sahib declared.
+
+"He is like an Arab Apollo," Elizabeth commented; and her tone
+suggested that it was a whip-cut at the Prince's half-sneer.
+
+The girl's description of Ajeet was trite.  The Chief's face was almost
+perfect; the golden-bronze tint of the skin set forth in the enveloping
+background of a turban of blue shot with gold-thread draped down to
+cover a silky black beard that, parted at the chin, swept upward to
+loop over the ears.  The nose was straight and thin; there was a
+predatory cast to it, perhaps suggested by the bold, black, almost
+fierce eyes.  He was clothed with the full, rich, swaggering adornment
+of a Rajput; the splendid deep torso enclosed in a shirt-of-mail, its
+steel mesh so fine that it rippled like silver cloth; a red velvet
+vestment, negligently open, showed in the folds of a silk sash a
+jewel-hilted knife; a _tulwar_ hung from his left shoulder.  As he
+moved here and there, there was a sinuous grace, panther-like, as if he
+strode on soft pads.  At rest his tall figure had the set-up of a
+soldier.
+
+As the three in the brake studied the handsome Ajeet, a girl stepped
+forward and stood contemplating them.
+
+"By Jove!" the exclamation had been Captain Barlow's; and Elizabeth,
+with the devilish premonition of an acute woman knew that it was a
+masculine's involuntary tribute to feminine attractivity.
+
+She had turned to look at the Captain.
+
+Nana Sahib, little less vibrant than a woman in his sensitive
+organisation, showed his even, white teeth: "Don't blame you, old
+chap," he said; "she's all that.  I fancy that's the girl they call
+Gulab Begum.  Am I right, Sirdar?"
+
+"Yes, Prince," Jean Baptiste answered.  "The girl is a relative of the
+handsome Ajeet."
+
+"She's simply stunning!" Captain Barlow said, as it were, meditatively.
+
+But Nana Sahib, knowing perfectly well what this observation would do
+to the austere, exact, dominating daughter of a precise man, the
+Resident, muttered to himself: "Colossal ass! an impressionable cuss
+should have a _purdah_ hung over his soul--or be gagged."
+
+"One of their _nautch_ girls, I suppose;" Elizabeth thus eased some of
+the irritation over Barlow's admiration in a well-bred sneer.
+
+"Yes," Baptiste declared; "it is said she dances wonderfully."
+
+"You name her the Gulab Begum, General,--that is a Moslem title and,
+from the turbans and caste-marks on the men, they seem to be Hindus; I
+suppose Gulab Begum is her stage name, is it?"
+
+Elizabeth was exhibiting unusual interest in a native--that is for
+Elizabeth, and Nana Sahib chuckled softly as he answered: "Names mean
+little in India; I know high-caste Brahmins who have given their
+children low-caste names to make them less an object of temptation to
+the gods of destruction.  Also, the Gulab may have been stolen from the
+harem of some Nawab by this bandit."
+
+The Gulab suggested more a Rajput princess than a dancing girl.  No
+ring pierced the thin nostrils of her Grecian nose; neither from her
+ears hung circles of gold or brass, or silver; and the slim ankles that
+peeped from a rich skirt were guiltless of anklets.  On the wrist of
+one arm was a curious gold bangle that must have held a large ruby, for
+at times the sun flicked from the moving wrist splashes of red wine.
+Indeed the whole atmosphere of the girl was simplicity and beauty.
+
+"No wonder they call her the Rose Queen," Barlow was communing with
+himself.  For the oval face with its olive skin, as fair as a Kashmiri
+girl's, was certainly beautiful.  The black hair was smoothed back from
+a wide low forehead, after the habit of the Mahratti women; the prim
+simplicity of this seeming to add to the girlish effect.  A small
+white-and-gold turban, even with its jauntiness, seemed just the very
+thing to check the austere simplicity.  The girl's eyes, like Ajeet's,
+were the eyes of some one unafraid, of one born to a caste that felt
+equality.  When they turned to those who sat in the brake they were
+calmly meditative; they were the eyes of a child, modest; but with the
+unabashed confidence of youth.
+
+Elizabeth, perhaps unreasonably, for the three of them sat so close
+together in the brake, fancied that the Gulab's gaze constantly picked
+out the handsome Captain Barlow.
+
+An imp touched Nana Sahib, and he said: "I'd swear there was Rajput
+blood in that girl.  If I knew of some princess having been stolen I'd
+say she stood yonder.  The eyes are simply ripping; baby eyes, that,
+when roused, assist in driving a knife under a man's fifth rib.  I've
+seen a sambhur doe with just such eyes cut into ribbons a Rampore hound
+with her sharp hoofs."
+
+"Well, Prince," Elizabeth said, "I suppose you know the women of this
+land better than either Captain Barlow or myself, and you're probably
+right, for I see in a belt at her waist the jewelled hilt of a dagger."
+
+Nana Sahib laughed: "My dear Miss Hodson, I never play with edged
+tools, and Captain--"
+
+But Nana Sahib's raillery was cut short by a small turmoil as the
+bleating goat of sacrifice was dragged forward to a stone daubed with
+vermillion upon which rested a small black alabaster image of Kali;
+while a _guru_, with sharpened knife, hung near like a falcon over a
+quivering bird.  Three times the goat's head was thrust downward in
+obeisance to the black goddess; there was a flash of steel in the
+sunlight, and hot blood gushed forth, to dye with its crimson flood the
+base of the idol.
+
+A Bagree darted forward and with a stroke of his _tulwar_ clipped the
+neck from a pitcher and held it beneath the gurgling flood till it was
+filled.
+
+From where Elizabeth sat she looked across the shoulder of Nana Sahib
+as they watched the sacrifice; she saw him quiver and lean forward, his
+shoulders tip as though he would spring from the brake.  His face had
+drawn into hard lines, his lips were set tight in intensity across the
+teeth so that they showed between in a thin line of white.  The blood
+seemed to have fascinated him; he was oblivious of her presence.  She
+heard him murmur, "Parvati, Parvati!  There is blood, blood--wait,
+thou, Parvati."
+
+The bay Arabs--perhaps their sensitive nostrils drank in the smell of
+fresh blood--sprang into their collars as if they would bolt in fright.
+The two syces, squatting on their heels at the horses' heads, had
+sprung to their feet, and now were caressing the necks of the Arabs as
+they held them each with a hand by the bit.
+
+There was a curious look in the Prince's eyes as he turned them on
+Elizabeth; a mingling of questioning and defiance was in them.
+
+Now the holder of the pitcher stood up and the _guru_ drew upon it four
+red lines and dropped through its shattered mouth a woman's bracelet of
+gold lacquer beads.  Then the pitcher was placed upon the Kali shrine;
+raw sugar was inclosed in a cloth and tied to a branch of the pipal.
+
+The voice of the Bagree Chief, somewhat coarse in its fulness, its
+independence, now was heard saying: "Sirdar Sahib, and Dewan Sahib, we
+men of the nine castes of the Bagrees now make the sacred oath.  Come
+close that ye may observe."
+
+Jean Baptiste edged his horse to the side of the road, and the Dewan,
+heaving from the _palki_, stood upright.
+
+Ajeet dipped a tapering finger in the pitcher of blood, touched the
+swaying bag of sugar, and laying the hand against his forehead said, in
+a loud voice:
+
+"If I, Ajeet Singh, break faith with Maharaja Sindhia, may Bhowanee
+punish me!"
+
+Sookdee and Hunsa each in turn took the same solemn oath of allegiance.
+
+As Hunsa turned from the ordeal and passed the Gulab Begum to where the
+Bagrees stood in line, Nana Sahib said, "Do you know, General, what
+that baboon-faced jamadar made oath to?"
+
+"The last one, my Prince?"
+
+"Yes, he of the splendid ugliness.  He testified, 'If I fail to thrust
+a knife between the shoulder-blades of Ajeet Singh may Bhowanee cast me
+as a sacrifice.'"
+
+"He is jamadar to the other, Prince--but why?"
+
+"He looked upon the Rose Lady as he passed, and as the blooded finger
+lay upon his forehead he looked upon Ajeet, and in his pig eyes was
+unholiness."
+
+The cold grey eyes of the Frenchman rested for a second upon the
+burning black eyes of the speaker, and again he shivered.  He knew that
+the careless words meant that Hunsa was an instrument, if needs be.
+But the Prince's teeth were gleaming in a smile.  And he was saying:
+"If the play is over, Sirdar, turn your mount over to the _syce_ and
+pop up here beside Captain Barlow--I'll tool you home.  The Captain
+might like a peg."
+
+The bay Arabs swirled the brake along the smooth roadway that lay like
+a wide band of coral between giant green walls of gold-mohr and
+tamarind; and sometimes a pipal, its white bole and branches gleaming
+like the bones of a skeleton through leaves of the deepest emerald, and
+its roots daubed with the red paint of devotion to the tree god.  Here
+and there a neem, its delicate branches dusted with tiny white star
+blossoms, cast a sensuous elusive perfume to the vagrant breeze.  Once
+a gigantic jamon stretched its gnarled arms across the roadway as if a
+devilfish held poised his tentacles to snatch from the brake its
+occupants.
+
+When they had swung in to the Sirdar's bungalow and clambered down from
+the brake, Elizabeth said: "If you don't mind, General Baptiste, I'll
+just drift around amongst these beautiful roses while you men have your
+pegs.  No, I don't care for tea," she said, in answer to his
+suggestion.  There was a mirthless smile on her lips as she added: "I'm
+like Captain Barlow, I like the rose."
+
+The three men sat on the verandah while a servant brought
+brandy-and-soda, and Nana Sahib, with a restless perversity akin to the
+torturing proclivity of a Hindu was quizzing the Frenchman about his
+recruits.
+
+"You'll find them no good," he assured Baptiste--"rebellious cusses,
+worthless thieves.  My Moslem friend, the King of Oudh, tried them out.
+He got up a regiment of them--Budhuks, Bagrees--all sorts; it was named
+the Wolf Regiment--that was the only clever thing about it, the name.
+They stripped the uniforms from the backs of the officers sent to drill
+them and kicked them out of camp; said the officers put on swank;
+wouldn't clean their own horses and weapons, same as the other men."
+
+Then he switched the torture--made it more acute; wanted to know what
+Sirdar Baptiste had got them for.
+
+The Frenchman fumed inwardly.  Nana Sahib was at the bottom of the
+whole murderous scheme, and here, like holding a match over a keg of
+powder, he must talk about it in front of the Englishman.
+
+When the brandy was brought Nana Sahib put hand over the top of his
+glass.
+
+"Not drinking, Prince?" Barlow asked.
+
+"No," Nana Sahib answered, "a Brahmin must diet; holiness is fostered
+by a shrivelled skin."
+
+"But pardon me, Prince," Barlow said hesitatingly, "didn't going across
+the black-water to England break your caste anyway--so why cut out the
+peg?"
+
+"Yes, Captain Sahib,"--the Prince's voice rasped with a peculiar harsh
+gravity as though it were drawn over the jagged edge of intense
+feeling,--"my caste _was_ broken, and to get it back I drank the dregs;
+a cup of liquid from the cow, and not milk either!"
+
+Baptiste coughed uneasily for he saw in the eyes of Nana Sahib
+smouldering passion.
+
+And Barlow's face was suffused with a sudden flush of embarrassment.
+
+Perhaps it had been the sight of the blood sacrifice that had started
+Nana Sahib on a line of bitter thought; had stirred the smothering hate
+that was in his soul until frothing bubbles of it mounted to his lips.
+
+"I was born in the shadow of Parvati," Nana Sahib said, "and when I
+came back from England I found that still I was a Brahmin; that the
+songs of the Bhagavad Gita and the philosophy of the Puranas was more
+to me than what I had been taught at Oxford.  So I took back the caste,
+and under my shirt is the _junwa_ (sacred thread)."
+
+A quick smile lighted his face, and he laid a hand on Barlow's arm,
+saying in a new voice, a voice that was as if some one spoke through
+his lips in ventriloquism: "And all this, Captain, is a good thing for
+my friends the English.  The Brahmins, as you know, sway the Mahrattas,
+and if I am of them they will listen to me.  The English boast--and
+they have reason to--that they have made a friend of Nana Sahib.  Here,
+Baptiste, pour me a glass of plain soda, and we'll drink a toast to
+Nana Sahib and the English."
+
+"By Jove! splendid!" and Captain Barlow held out a hand.
+
+But Baptiste, saying that he would find Miss Hodson, went out into the
+sunshine cursing.
+
+"Now we will go back," Nana Sahib was saying as the French General
+brought Elizabeth from among the oleanders and crotons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+The day after the Bagrees had taken the oath of allegiance to Sindhia
+the jamadars were summoned to the Dewan's office to receive their
+instructions for the carrying out of the mission.
+
+In writing the Raja of Karowlee for the decoits, Dewan Sewlal had not
+stated that the mission was for the purpose of bringing home in a bag
+the head of the Pindar Chief.  As the wily Hindu had said to Sirdar
+Baptiste: "We will get them here before speaking of this dangerous
+errand.  Once here, and Karowlee's hopes raised over getting territory,
+if they then go back without accomplishing the task, that rapacious old
+man will cast them into prison."
+
+So when the Bagree leaders, closeted with Baptiste and the Dewan in a
+room of the latter's bungalow, learned what was expected of them they,
+to put it mildly, received a shock.  They had thought that it was to be
+a decoity of treasure, perhaps of British treasure, and in their
+proficient hands such an affair did not run into much danger generally.
+
+The jamadars drew to one side and discussed the matter; then Ajeet
+said: "Dewan Sahib, what is asked of us should have been in the written
+message to our Raja.  We be decoits, that is true, it is our
+profession, but the mission that is spoken of is not thus.  Hunsa has
+ridden with Amir Khan upon a foray into Hyderabad, and he knows that
+the Chief is always well guarded, and that to try for his head in the
+midst of his troops would be like the folly of children."
+
+The Dewan's fat neck swelled with indignation; his big ox-like eyes
+bulged from their holding in anger:
+
+"Phut-t-t!" he spat in derision.  "Bagrees!" he sneered; "descendants
+of Rajputs--bah!  Have you brought women with you that will lead this
+force?  And danger!" he snarled--he turned on Sookdee: "You are
+Sookdee, son of Bhart, so it was signed."
+
+"Yes, Dewan, it is true."
+
+"_You_ are the son of your mother, not Bhart," the Dewan raved; "he was
+a brave man, but _you_ speak of danger--bah!"
+
+The Dewan's teeth, stained red at the edges from the chewing of _pan_,
+showed in a sneering grin like a hyena's as he added: "Bah!  Ye are but
+thieves who steal from those who are helpless."
+
+Ajeet spoke: "Dewan Sahib, we be men as brave as Bhart--we are of the
+same caste, but there is a difference between such an one as he took
+the head of and a Pindari Chief.  The Pindaris are the wild dogs of
+Hind, they are wolves, and is it easy to trap a wolf?"
+
+But the Dewan had worked himself into a frenzy at their questioning of
+the possibilities; he waved his fat hands in a gesture of dismissal
+crying: "Go, go!"
+
+As the jamadars stood hesitatingly, Sewlal swung to the Frenchman:
+"Sirdar Sahib, make the order that I cease payment of the thousand
+rupees a day to these rebels, cowards.  Go!" and he looked at Ajeet;
+"talk it over amongst yourselves, and send to me one of your wives that
+will lead a company--lend your women your tulwars."
+
+Ajeet's black eyes flashed anger, and his brows were drawn into a knot
+just above his thin, hawk-like nose; suppressed passion at the Dewan's
+deadly insult was in the even, snarling tone of his voice:
+
+"Dewan Sahib, harsh words are profitless--" his eyes, glittering, were
+fixed on the bulbous orbs of the man of the quill--"and the talk of
+women in the affairs of men is not in keeping with caste.  If you pass
+the order that we are not to have rations now that we are far from
+home, what are we to do?  Think you that Raja Karowlee--"
+
+"Do! do! if you serve not Sindhia what care I what you do.  Go back to
+your honourable trade of thieving.  And as to Raja Karowlee, a man who
+keeps a colony of cowards--what care I for him.  Go, go!"
+
+The jamadars with glowering eyes turned from the Dewan, even the harsh
+salaam they uttered in going sounded like a curse.
+
+And when they had gone, Baptiste was startled by a gurgling laugh
+bubbling up from the Dewan's fat throat.
+
+"Sirdar," he chuckled, "I've given that posing Rajput a poem to commit
+to memory.  Ha-ha!  They have two strong reasons now for going--their
+shame and lean stomachs."
+
+"They won't go," Baptiste declared.  "When a man is afraid of anything
+he can find a thousand reasons for not making the endeavour.  If
+Sindhia will give me the troops I will make an end of Amir Khan."
+
+"And make enemies of the Pindaris: that we do not want; we want them to
+fight with us, not against us.  The great struggle is about to take
+place; Holkar and Bhonsla and Sindhia, perhaps even the King of Oudh,
+leagued together, the accursed English will be driven from India.  But
+even now they are trying to win over Amir Khan and his hundred thousand
+horsemen by promises of territory and gold.  With the Chief out of the
+way they would disband; he is a great leader, and they flock to his
+flag.  You saw the Englishman, Captain Barlow?"
+
+"Yes, Dewani.  Good soldier, I should say."
+
+"Well, Sirdar, we think that he waits here to undertake some mission to
+Amir Khan.  You see, no office can be conducted without clerks, and
+sometimes clerks talk."
+
+The Frenchman twisted nervously at his slim grey moustache.  "I
+comprehend, Dewani," he said presently; "it is expedient that Amir Khan
+be eliminated."
+
+"It would be a merciful thing," Sewlal added--"it would save bloodshed."
+
+"Well, Dewani, I must depart now.  It will be interesting to see what
+your Bagrees do, especially when they become hungry."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+For two days the Bagrees sat nursing their wrath at the reproaches of
+Dewan Sewlal.
+
+And the Dewan, in spite of his bold denunciation of the decoits, was
+uneasy.  If they went back to Karowlee with a story of ill treatment,
+of broken promises, that hot-headed old Rajput would turn against
+Sindhia.  And the present policy of the Mahratta Confederacy was to
+secure allies in the revolt against the British which was being
+secretly planned.  The Dewan was also afraid of Nana Sahib.  He saw in
+that young man a coming force.  The Peshwa was actually the ruler of
+Mahrattaland; he had a commanding influence because he was the head of
+the Brahmins--the Brahmins were the real power--and his adopted son,
+his inborn subtle nature developed by his residence in England, now had
+great influence over him.  The Dewan knew that; and if he failed to
+carry out this mission of removing the dangerous one from Nana Sahib's
+path it might cost him his place as Minister.
+
+In his perplexity the Dewan asked Baptiste to formulate some excuse for
+getting Nana Sahib up to Chunda--some matter affecting the troops, so
+that he might casually get a sustaining suggestion from the wily Prince.
+
+It so happened that when Nana Sahib swung up the gravelled drive to the
+Sirdar's bungalow on a golden chestnut Arab, Sewlal was there.  But
+when, presently, Baptiste's _durwan_ came in to say that Jamadar Hunsa
+of the new troops was sending his salaams to the Dewan, the latter
+gasped.  He would have told the Bagree to wait, but Nana Sahib,
+catching the name Hunsa, commanded:
+
+"By all means, my dear Baptiste, have that living embodiment of murder
+in.  His face is a delight.  You know"--and he smiled at the
+General--"that that frightfulness of expression is the very reason why
+the genial Kali has such a hold upon our people.  You've seen her,
+Baptiste; four arms, one holding a platter to catch the blood that
+drips from a head she suspends above it by another arm; the third hand
+clasps a sword, and the fourth has the palm spread out as much as to
+say, 'That is what will happen to you.'"
+
+The Frenchman shivered.  He was snapping a finger and thumb in mental
+torture.
+
+But Nana Sahib chuckled: "Her tongue protrudes thirsting for more
+blood--"
+
+But the Sirdar protested: "Prince--pardon, but--"
+
+"My dear Baptiste, when the Hunsa comes in observe if these things are
+not all stamped by Brahm on his frontispiece; he fascinates me."
+
+The Dewan, devout Brahmin, had been running his fingers along a string
+of lacquered beads that hung about his neck, muttering a prayer against
+this that was like sacrilege.
+
+When the jamadar was shown into the room his face took on a look of
+uneasiness.  It but added to the ferocity of the square scowling
+massive head.  His huge shoulders, stooped forward as he salaamed,
+suggested the half-crouch of a tiger--even the eyes, the mouth, induced
+thoughts of that jungle killer.
+
+Nana Sahib, a sneer on his lips, turned to the Minister: "Play him,
+Dewani, as you love us.  There is some rare deviltry afloat."
+
+"Why have you come, Jamadar?" the Dewan asked.
+
+Hunsa's pig eyes shifted from Sewlal's face to roam over the other two,
+and then returned a question in them.
+
+"Tell him," Nana Sahib suggested, "that he has nothing to fear from us."
+
+The jamadar was troubled by the English exchange, but the Dewan
+explained: "The Prince says you are to speak what is on your mind."
+
+"It is this, Sahib Bahadur," Hunsa began, "there is a way that the head
+of Amir Khan might be obtained as a gift for Maharaja Sindhia.  Then
+Raja Karowlee would be pleased for he would receive his commission and
+we would be given a reward."
+
+"What is the way?" Sewlal queried.
+
+"The Chief of the Pindaris, after the habit of Moslems, is one whose
+heart softens toward a woman who is beautiful and is pleasing to his
+eye."
+
+"Ancient history," Nana Sahib commented in English, "and not confined
+to Musselmen."
+
+"Speak on," the Dewan commanded curtly.
+
+"When I rode with Amir Khan," Hunsa resumed, "in loot there fell to the
+Chief's share a dancing girl, and Amir Khan, perhaps out of respect to
+his two wives, would visit her at night quietly in the tent that was
+given her as a place of residing."
+
+"Amir Khan seems to be less a Pindari and more a human than I thought
+him," Nana Sahib commented drily.
+
+"The world is a very small place, Prince," Baptiste added.
+
+"But why has Hunsa brought this tale to men of affairs?" Sewlal queried.
+
+Hunsa cast a furtive look over his shoulder toward the verandah, and
+his coarse voice dropped a full octave.  "The Presence has observed
+Bootea, the one called Gulab Begum, who is with Ajeet Singh?"
+
+"Ah-ha!"  It was Nana Sahib's exclamation.
+
+"Yes," the Dewan answered drily.
+
+"If a party of Bagrees were to go to the Pindari camp disguised as
+players and wrestlers, and the Gulab as a _nautchni_, Amir Khan might
+be enticed to her tent for she causes men to become drunk when she
+dances.  Once she danced for Raja Karowlee, and, though he is old and
+fat and has more of wives than other possessions he became covetous of
+the girl.  It is because of these things, that Ajeet keeps her within
+the length of his eye.  Thus the Gulab would hold Amir Khan in her
+hand, and some night as he slept in her tent I would crawl neath the
+canvas and accomplish that which is desired."
+
+"By Jove!" Nana Sahib exclaimed, "this jungle man has got the right
+idea.  But if Ajeet goes on that trip he'll never come back--Hunsa will
+see to that."
+
+Then the son of the Peshwa took a quick turn to the door and gazed out
+as if he had his Arab in mind--something wrong; but a sweet bit of
+deviltry had suddenly occurred to him.  He had noticed the young
+Englishman's interest in Bootea; had known that the girl's eyes had
+shown admiration for the handsome sahib.  A woman--by Jove! yes.  If he
+could bring the two of them together; have the Gulab get Barlow
+sensually interested she might act as a spy, get Barlow to talk.  No
+instrument like a woman for that purpose.  Nana Sahib turned back to
+where the Dewan had been questioning Hunsa.
+
+"That description of the Gulab as a _nautch_ girl tickles my fancy,
+Dewani," he said.  "Between ourselves I think the Resident's jackal,
+the impressionable young Captain, was rather taken with her.  I'm
+giving a _nautch_ this week, and the presence of Miss Gulab is
+desired--commanded."
+
+"But Ajeet--"
+
+Nana Sahib smiled sardonically.  "You and Hunsa are planning to send
+her on a more difficult mission, so I have no doubt that this can be
+accomplished.  The Ajeet should esteem it an honour."
+
+The Dewan, also speaking in English, said, "I doubt if Ajeet would
+consent to the girl's going to the Pindari camp."
+
+Nana Sahib swung on his heel to face Baptiste.  "Sirdar, when you give
+an order to a soldier and he refuses to obey, what do you do?"
+
+"Pouf, _mon_ Prince," and Jean Baptiste snapped a thumb and finger
+expressively.
+
+"See, Dewani?" Nana Sahib queried; "I like Hunsa's idea; and you've
+heard what the Commandant says."
+
+The Dewan turned to the Bagree, "Will Ajeet consent to the Gulab acting
+thus?"
+
+Hunsa's answer was illuminating: "The Chief will agree to it if he
+can't help himself."
+
+There was a lull, each one turning this momentous thing over in his
+mind.
+
+It was the jamadar who broke the silence; somewhat at a tangent he
+said: "As to a decoity, Your Honour said that we being of that
+profession should undertake one."
+
+The Dewan roared; the burden of his expostulation was the word liar.
+
+But Nana Sahib laughed tolerantly.  "Don't mind me, Dewani; fancy all
+the petty rajas and officials stand in with these decoits for a share
+of the loot--I don't blame you, old chap."
+
+Hunsa, taking the accusation of being a liar as a pure matter of
+course, ignored it, and now was drooling along, wedded to the one big
+idea that was in his mind:
+
+"If a decoity were made perhaps it might even happen that one was
+killed--"
+
+"Lovely! the 'One' will be, and his name is Ajeet," Nana Sahib cried
+gleefully.
+
+But Hunsa plodded steadily on.  "In that case Ajeet as Chief would be
+in the hands of the Dewan; then it could be mentioned to him that the
+Gulab was desired for this mission."
+
+"That might be," the Dewan said quietly.  "I will demand that Ajeet
+takes the Gulab to help secure Amir Khan and if he refuses I will give
+them no rations so that he will go on the decoity."
+
+"No, Dewan Sahib," Hunsa objected; "say nothing of the Gulab, because
+Ajeet will refuse, and then he will not go on a decoity, fearing a
+trap.  If you will refuse the rations now, I will say that you have
+promised that we will not be taken up if we make a decoity; then Ajeet
+will agree, because it is our profession."
+
+"I must go," Nana Sahib declared; "this Hunsa seems to have brains as
+well as ferocity."  He continued in English: "If you do go through with
+this, Dewan, tell Hunsa if anything happens when they make the
+decoity--and if I'm any reader of what is in a man's heart, I think
+something will happen the Ajeet--tell Hunsa to bring the Gulab to me.
+I like his idea, and we can't afford to let the girl get away.  Don't
+forget to arrange for the Gulab at my _nautch_."
+
+When Nana Sahib had gone Baptiste diplomatically withdrew, saying in
+English to the Minister: "Dewan Sahib, possibly this simple child of
+the jungle would feel embarrassment in opening his heart fully before a
+sahib, so you will excuse me."
+
+This elimination of individuals gave the Dewan a fine opportunity;
+promises made without witnesses were sure to be of a richer texture;
+also surely the word of a Dewan was of higher value than the word of a
+decoit if, at a future time, their evidences clashed.
+
+Then Hunsa was entrusted with a private matter that filled his ugly
+soul with delight.  He assured Sewlal Sookdee, if he were promised, as
+he had been, full protection, would join in the enmeshing of Ajeet
+Singh.
+
+Sewlal pledged his word to the jamadar that no matter if an outcry were
+raised over a decoity they would be protected--the matter would be
+hushed up.
+
+Hunsa knew that this was no new thing; he had been engaged in many a
+decoity where men of authority had a share of the loot, and had
+effectually side-tracked investigation.  In fact decoits always lived
+in the protection of some petty raja; they were an adjunct to the
+state, a source of revenue.
+
+The Dewan had intimated that Hunsa and his men were to wait until a
+messenger brought them word where and when to make the decoity.  Also
+if he betrayed them, failed to keep his compact with them, it would
+cause him the loss of his ugly head.
+
+The jamadar quite believed this; it would be an easy matter, surrounded
+as they were by Mahratta troops.
+
+So then for the next few days Hunsa and Sookdee cautiously developed a
+spirit of desire for action amongst the decoits, and a feeling of
+resentment against Ajeet who was opposed to engaging in a punishable
+crime so far from their refuge.
+
+The Dewan sent for Ajeet and explained to him, as if it were a very
+great honour, that Nana Sahib, having heard of Bootea's wonderful
+grace, had asked her to appear at a _nautch_ he was giving to the
+Sahibs and Hindu princes at his palace.  No doubt Bootea would receive
+a handsome present for this, also it would incline the heart of the
+Prince to the Bagrees.
+
+Ajeet was suspicious, but to refuse permission he knew would anger the
+Dewan; and he was in the Minister's hands.  His position was none too
+secure; there was treachery in his own camp.  He asked for a day to
+consult Bootea over the matter; in reality he wanted to consider it
+more fully before giving an answer.
+
+Of course Hunsa knew about it, and he told Sookdee; and when the matter
+came up in camp they professed indignation at Ajeet's stupidity in not
+appreciating the honour; dancers were only too glad to appear before
+such people as the Prince and the Resident at a palace dance, they
+explained.
+
+Of course the matter of Bootea's mission to the Pindari Chief had not
+been conveyed to Ajeet as yet; and Hunsa felt that this affair of the
+_nautch_ was a propitious thing--an inserting of the thin edge of the
+wedge.
+
+Somewhat grudgingly Ajeet consented, for Bootea, strangely enough, was
+quite eager over it.  As Nana Sahib had fancied the girl had taken an
+unexplainable liking for Captain Barlow.  Of course that, the call, is
+rarely explainable on reasonable grounds--it is a matter of a higher
+dispensation; just two pairs of eyes settle the whole business; one
+look and the thing is done.
+
+The Sahib would see her in a new light--in an appealing light.  In her
+thoughts there was nothing of a serious intent; just that to look upon
+him, perhaps to see in his eyes a friendly pleasure, would be
+intoxication.
+
+So Ajeet took her to the palace to dance, but, of course, he had to
+cool his heels without the _durbar_ chamber--smoke the hooka and chat
+with other natives while the one of desire was within.
+
+The girl had an exquisite sense of the beauty of simplicity--both in
+dress and manner, and in her art; it was as if a lotus flower had been
+animated--given life.  Her dancing was a floaty rhythm, an undulating
+drifting to the soft call of the _sitar_; and her voice, when she sang
+the _ghazal_, the love-song, was soft, holding the compelling power of
+subdued passion--it thrilled Barlow with an emotion that, when she had
+finished, caused him to take himself to task.  It was as if he had
+said, "By Jove! fancy I've had a bit too much of that champagne--better
+look out."
+
+Nana Sahib and the Captain were sitting side by side, and the Gulab,
+when she had finished the song, had swept her sinuous lithe form back
+in a graceful curtsy in front of the two, and, as if by accident, a red
+rose had floated to the feet of Captain Barlow.  Surely her soft, dark,
+languorous eyes had said: "For thee."
+
+With a cynical smile Nana Sahib picked up the rose and presented it to
+Barlow saying: "My dear Captain, you receive the golden apple--beauty
+will out."
+
+Barlow's fingers trembled with suppressed emotion as he took the flower
+and carefully slipped it into a buttonhole.
+
+Elizabeth, who sat next him, saw this by-play, and her voice was cold
+as she commented: "Homage is a delightful thing, but it spoils
+children."
+
+Nana Sahib leaned across Barlow: "My dear Miss Hodson, these dancers
+always play to the gods--it is their trade.  But there is safety in
+caste--in _varna_, which is the old Brahmin name for caste, meaning
+colour.  When the Aryans came down into Hind they were olive-skinned
+and the aborigines here were quite black, so, to draw the line, they
+created caste and called it _varna_, meaning that they of the light
+skin were of a higher order than the aborigines--which they were.  A
+white skin is like a shirt-of-mail, it protects morally, socially, in
+India."
+
+"Ultimately, no doubt, Prince.  And, of course, a dance-girl is one of
+the fourth caste, practically an outcast--an 'untouchable,'" Elizabeth
+commented.
+
+Barlow knew this as a devilish arraignment of himself, for he had felt
+a strong attraction.  He said nothing; but he was aware of a feeling of
+repulsion toward Elizabeth; her harshness, on so slight a provocation,
+suggested vindictiveness--a narrow exaction.
+
+Nana Sahib was filled with delight--his evil soul revelled in this
+discord.  Then and there, if he could have managed it, he would have
+suggested to the Captain that he would arrange for the Gulab to meet
+him--might even have her sent to his bungalow.  But he had the waiting
+subtlety of a tiger that crouches by a pool for hours waiting for a
+kill; so, somewhat reluctantly, he let the opportunity pass.  While he
+considered Barlow to be an Englishman possessed of rather slow
+perception, he knew that the Captain had a quixotic sense of honour,
+and possibly such a proposal might destroy his influence.
+
+And Bootea went back to the camp with Ajeet, suffused to silence by the
+strange thing that had happened, the strange infatuation--for it was
+that--that had so suddenly filled her heart for the handsome sahib
+whose soft, brave eyes had looked through hers into her very soul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Nana Sahib had assumed a gracious manner toward Ajeet Singh when Bootea
+had been brought to the _nautch_.  He had bestowed a handsome gift upon
+the Chief, ten gold _mohrs_; and for Bootea there had been the gift of
+a ruby, also ten gold _mohrs_.
+
+This munificence,--for Hunsa and Sookdee declared it to be a rare
+extravagance,--was not so much as reward for Bootea's _nautch_ as a
+desire on the part of the astute Prince to prepare for the greater
+service required.
+
+The Dewan also was very gracious to Ajeet over his compliance; but, at
+the same time, declared that an order had been passed by Baptiste that
+if the Bagrees would not obey the command to go after Amir Khan he
+would not pay them a thousand rupees a day out of the treasury.  He put
+all this very affably; raised his two fat hands toward heaven declaring
+that he was helpless in the matter--Baptiste was the commander, and he
+was but a dewan.  With a curious furtive look in his ox-eyes he advised
+Ajeet to consult with Hunsa over a method of obtaining money for the
+decoits.  He would not commit himself as to making a decoity, for when
+they had seized upon the Chief for the crime Ajeet could not then say
+that the Dewan had instigated it; there would be only Hunsa's word for
+this, and, of course, he would deny that the Minister was the father of
+the scheme.
+
+And in the camp Hunsa and Sookdee were clamouring at Ajeet to undertake
+a decoity for they were all in need, and to be idle was not their way
+of life.
+
+Hunsa went the length of telling Ajeet that the Dewan would even send
+them word where a decoity of much loot could be made and in a safe way,
+too, for the Dewan would take care that neither sepoys nor police would
+be in the way.
+
+And then one day there came to the Bagree camp a mysterious message.  A
+yogi, his hair matted with filth till it stood twisted and writhed on
+his head like the serpent tresses of Medusa, his lean skeleton
+ash-daubed body clothed in yellow, on his forehead the crescent of
+Eklinga, in his hand a pair of clanking iron tongs, crawled wearily to
+the tents where were the decoits, and bleared out of blood-shot blobs
+of faded brown at Ajeet Singh.
+
+He had a message for the Chief from the god Bhyroo who galloped at
+night on a black horse, and the message had to do with the decoits, for
+if they were successful they could make offering to the priests at the
+temple of Bhowanee, for in her service decoity was an honourable
+occupation and of great antiquity.
+
+Hunsa and Sookdee had come to sit on their heels, and as they listened
+they knew that the wily old Dewan had sent the _yogi_ so that it could
+not be said that he, the Minister, had told them this thing.
+
+A rich jewel merchant of Delhi was then at Poona on his way to the
+Nizam's court.  He had a wealth of jewels--pearls the size of a bird's
+egg, emeralds the size of a betel nut, and diamonds that were like
+stars.  This was true for the merchant had paid the duty as he passed
+the border into Mahrattaland.
+
+Ajeet gave the yogi two rupees for food, though, viewing the animated
+skeleton, it seemed a touch of irony.
+
+Then the jamadars considered the message so deeply wrapped in
+mysticism.  Hunsa unhesitatingly declared that the yogi was a messenger
+from the Dewan, and if they did not take advantage of it they would
+perhaps have to fare forth on lean stomachs and in disgrace--perhaps
+would be beaten by the Mahratta sepoys--undoubtedly they would.
+
+Sookdee backed up the jamadar.
+
+"Very well," declared Ajeet, "we will go on this mission.  But remember
+this, Hunsa, that if there is treachery, if we are cast into the hands
+of the Dewan, I swear by Bhowanee that I will have your life."
+
+"Treachery!"  It was the snarl of an enraged animal, and Hunsa sprang
+to his feet.  He whirled, and facing Sookdee, said: "Let Bhowanee
+decide who is traitor--let Ajeet and me take the ordeal."
+
+"That is but fair," Sookdee declared.  "The ordeal of the heated cannon
+ball will surely burn the hand of the traitor if there is one," and he
+looked at Ajeet; and though suspicious that this was still another
+trap, Ajeet without cowardice could not decline.
+
+"I will take the ordeal," he declared.
+
+"We will take the ordeal to-night," Hunsa said; "and we should prepare
+with haste the method of the decoity, for the merchant may pass, and we
+must take the road in a proper disguise.  There is the village to be
+decided upon where he will rest in his journey, and many things."
+
+Even Ajeet was forced to acquiesce in this.
+
+Boastfully Hunsa declared: "The ordeal will prove that I am thinking
+only of our success.  This method of livelihood has been our profession
+for generations, and yet when we are in the protection of the powerful
+Dewan Ajeet says I am a traitor to our salt."
+
+For an hour they discussed the best manner of sallying forth in a way
+that would leave them unsuspected of robbing.  One of their favourite
+methods was adopted; to go in a party of twenty or thirty as mendicants
+and bearers of the bones of relatives to the waters of the sacred
+Ganges.  No doubt the yogi would accompany them as their priest,
+especially if well paid for the service.
+
+The plot was elaborated on, or rather adapted from past expeditions.
+Ajeet would be represented as a petty raja, with his retinue of
+servants and his guard.  The Gulab Begum would be convincing as a
+princess, the wife of the raja.  The wife of Sookdee could be a
+lady-in-waiting.
+
+As a respectable strong party of holy men, and a prince, they would
+gain the confidence of the merchant, even of the _patil_ of the village
+where he would rest for a night.
+
+They would send spies into Poona to obtain knowledge of the jewel
+merchant's movements.  The spies, two men who were happy in the art of
+ingratiating themselves into the good graces of prospective victims,
+would attach themselves to the merchant's party, and at night slip away
+and join the robber band so that they might judge where he would camp
+next night; at some village that would be a day's march.
+
+When questioned, the _yogi_ told them where they would find the
+merchant; he was stopping with a friend in Poona.  So the two set off,
+and the Bagrees prepared for their journey.
+
+For the ordeal a cannon ball was needed and a blacksmith to heat it.
+And as Hunsa had been the father of the scheme, Sookdee declared that
+he must procure these from the Mahratta camp.
+
+Hunsa agreed to this.
+
+The Bagrees were encamped to one side of the Mahratta troops in a small
+jungle of _dhak_ and slim-growing bamboos that afforded them privacy.
+
+In negotiating for the loan of a blacksmith Hunsa had impressed upon a
+sergeant his sincerity by the gift of two rupees; and two rupees more
+to the blacksmith made it certain that the heating of the cannon ball
+would not make the test unfair to Hunsa.
+
+A peacock perched high in the feathery top of a giant _sal_ tree was
+crying "miaow, miaow!" to the dipping sun when, in the centre of the
+Bagree camp the blacksmith, sitting on his haunches in front of a
+charcoal fire in which nested the iron cannon ball, fanned the flames
+with his pair of goat-skin hand-bellows.
+
+Lots were cast as to which of the two would take the ordeal first, and
+it fell to Ajeet.  First seven paces were marked off, and Ajeet was
+told that he must not run, but take the seven steps as in a walk,
+carrying the hot iron on a pipal leaf on his palm.
+
+"This food of the cannon is now hot," the blacksmith declared, dropping
+his bellows and grasping a pair of iron tongs.
+
+As Sookdee placed a broad pipal leaf upon the jamadar's palm, Ajeet
+repeated in a firm voice: "I take the ordeal.  If I am guilty, Maha
+Kali, may the sign of thy judgment appear upon my flesh!"
+
+"We are ready," Sookdee declared, and the waiting blacksmith swung the
+instrument of justice from its heat in the glowing charcoal to the
+outstretched hand of the jamadar.
+
+Hunsa's hungry eyes glowed in pleased viciousness, for the blacksmith
+had indeed heated the metal; the green pipal leaf squirmed beneath its
+heat like a worm, as Ajeet Singh, with the military stride of a
+soldier, took the seven paces.
+
+Then dropping the thing of torture he extended his slim small hand to
+Sookdee for inspection.
+
+Hunsa's villainy had worked out.  A white rime, like a hoar frost,
+fretting the deep red of the scorched skin, that was as delicate as
+that on a woman's palm.
+
+Sookdee muttered a pitying cry, and Hunsa declared boastfully: "When
+men have evil in their hearts it is known to Bhowanee; behold her sign!"
+
+But Ajeet laughed, saying: "Let Hunsa have the iron; he, too, will know
+of its heat."
+
+"Put it again in the fire," declared Sookdee, "for it is an ordeal in
+which only the guilty is punished; but the ball must be of the same
+heat."
+
+And once more the shot was returned to the charcoal.
+
+Gulab Begum pushed her way rapidly to where the jamadars stood; but
+Sookdee objected, saying: "When men appeal to Bhowanee it is not proper
+that women should be of the ceremony; it will indeed anger our mother
+goddess."
+
+"Thou art a fool, Sookdee," Bootea declared.  "The hand of your chief
+is in pain though he shows it not in his face.  Shall a brave man
+suffer because you are without feeling!"
+
+She turned to the Chief.  "Here I have cocoanut oil and a bandage of
+soft muslin.  Hold to me your hand, Ajeet."
+
+"It is not needed, Gulab, star-flower," the Chief declared proudly.
+
+The Gulab had poured from a ram's horn cool soothing cocoanut oil upon
+the burns, and then she wrapped about the hand a bandage of shimmering
+muslin, bound in a wide strip of silk-like plantain leaf, saying: "This
+will keep the oil cool to your wound, Chief; it will not let it dry out
+to increase the heat."
+
+There was another band of muslin passed around the leaf, and as the
+Gulab turned away, she said: "Think you, Sookdee, that Bhowanee will be
+offended because of mercy.  Some day, Jamadar, fire will be put upon
+your face, when the head has been lopped from your body, to hide the
+features of a decoit that it may not bear witness against the tribe."
+
+"You have delayed the ordeal," Sookdee answered surlily, "and because
+of that Bhowanee will have anger."
+
+The blacksmith, though pumping with both hands at his pair of bellows,
+had felt the impress of the two silver coins in his loin cloth, and,
+true to the bribe from Hunsa, had adroitly doctored his fire by dusting
+sand here and there so that the shot had lost, instead of gained heat.
+Now he cried out: "This kabob of the cannon is cooked, and my arms are
+tired whilst you have talked."
+
+Rising he seized his tongs asking, "Who now will have it placed upon
+his palm?"
+
+"Put it here," Sookdee said, as he laid a pipal leaf of twice the
+thickness he had given Ajeet upon the palm of Hunsa.
+
+Then Hunsa, having repeated the appeal to Bhowanee, strode toward the
+goal, and reaching it, cast the iron shot to the ground, holding up his
+hand in triumph.  His was the hand of a gorilla, thick skinned, rough
+and hard like that of a workman, and now it showed no sign of a burning.
+
+"What say you, Ajeet Singh?" Sookdee asked.
+
+"As to the ordeal," the Chief answered, "according to our faith
+Bhowanee has spoken.  But know you this, though the scar is in my palm,
+in my heart is no treachery.  As to Hunsa, the ordeal has cleared him
+in your minds, and perhaps it is true.  We will go forth to the decoity
+and what is to be will be.  We are but servants of Bhowanee, and if we
+make vow to sacrifice a buffalo at her temple perhaps she will keep us
+in her protection."
+
+Ajeet knew that he had been tricked somehow, but to dispute the ordeal,
+the judgment of the black goddess, would be like an apostacy--it would
+turn every Bagree against him--it would be a shatterment of their
+tenets.  So he said nothing but accepted mutely the decree.
+
+But Bootea's sharp eyes had been busy.  She had watched the blacksmith,
+to whom Ajeet had paid little attention.  In the faces of Hunsa and
+Sookdee she had caught flitting expressions of treachery.  She knew
+that Ajeet had been guiltless of treason to the others, for she had
+been close to him.  Besides she had, when roused, an imperious temper.
+The Bagree women were allowed greater freedom than other women of
+Hindustan, even greater freedom than the Mahratta females who, though
+they appeared in public unveiled, in the homes were treated as
+children, almost as slaves.  The Bagree women at times even led gangs
+of decoits.  Her anger had been roused by Sookdee earlier, and now
+rising from where she sat, she strode imperiously forward till she
+faced the jamadars:
+
+"Your Chief is too proud to deny this trick that you, Sookdee and
+Hunsa, and that accursed labourer of another caste, the blacksmith,
+that shoer of Mahratta horses whom Hunsa has bribed, have put upon him
+in the name of Bhowanee."
+
+Sookdee stared in affrighted silence, and Hunsa's bellow of rage was
+stilled by Ajeet, who whirling upon him, the jade-handled knife in his
+grip, commanded: "Still your clamour!  The Gulab has but seen the
+truth.  I, also, know that, but a soldier may not speak as may one of
+his women-kind."
+
+There was a sudden hush.  A tremor of apprehension had vibrated from
+Bagree to Bagree; the jamadars felt it.  A spark, one lunge with a
+knife, and they would be at each other's throats; the men of Alwar
+against the men of Karowlee; even caste against caste, for the Bagrees
+from Alwar were of the Solunkee caste, while the Karowlee men were of
+Kolee caste.
+
+And there the slim girl form of Bootea stood outlined, a delicate bit
+of statuary, like something of marble that had come from the hand of
+Praxiteles, the white muslin sari in its gentle clinging folds showing
+against the now darkening wall of bamboo jungle.  There was something
+about the Gulab, magnetic, omnipotent, that subdued men, that enslaved
+them; an indescribable subtlety of gentle strength, like the
+bronze-blue temper in steel.  And her eyes--no one can describe the
+compelling eyes of the world, the awful eyes that in their fierce
+magnetism act on a man like _bhang_ on a Ghazi or, like the eyes of
+Christ, smother him in love and goodness.  The _karait_ of India has a
+dull red eye without pupil, of which it is the belief that if a man
+gaze into it for a time he will go mad.  To say that Bootea's eyes were
+beautiful was to say nothing, and to describe their compelling force
+was impossible.
+
+So as they rested on the sullen eyes of Sookdee he quivered; and the
+others stood in silence as Ajeet took Bootea by the arm saying, "Come,
+my lotus flower," led her to the tent.
+
+There the jamadar put his sinewy arms about the slender girl, and bent
+his handsome face to implant a kiss on her red lips, but she thrust his
+arms from her and drew back saying, "No, Ajeet!"
+
+"Why, lotus--why, Gulab?  Often from thy lips I have heard that there
+is no love in thy heart for any man even for me, but is it not a lie,
+the curious lie of a woman who resents a master?"
+
+Ajeet in a mingling of awe and anger had dropped into the formal "thou"
+pronoun instead of the familiar "you."
+
+"No, Ajeet, it is the truth; I do not tell lies."
+
+"But out there thou denounced those sons of depraved parents in defence
+of Ajeet; thou bound up his hand as a mother dresses the wounds of a
+child in her love--even mocked Bhowanee and the ordeal; then sayest
+thou there is no love in thy heart for Ajeet."
+
+"There is not; just the tie such as is between us, that is all.  I
+never learned love--I was but a pawn, a prize.  Seest that, Ajeet?" and
+Bootea laid a finger upon the iron bracelet on her arm--the badge of a
+widow.
+
+Ajeet Singh sneered: "A metal lie, a--"
+
+"Stop!" The girl's voice was almost a scream of expostulation.  "To
+speak of that means death, thou fool.  And thou hast sworn--"
+
+Ajeet's face had blanched.  Then a surge of anger re-flushed it.
+
+"Gulab," he said presently, "take care that the love thou say'st is
+dead--but which is not, for it never dies in the heart of a woman, it
+is but a smouldering fire--take care that it springs not into flame at
+the words of some other man, the touch of his hands, or the light of
+his eyes, because then, by Bhowanee, I will kill thee."
+
+The Gulab stamped a foot upon the earth floor of the tent: "Coward! now
+I hate thee!  Only the weak, the cowards, threaten women.  When thou
+art brave and strong I do not hate if I do not love.  'Tis thou, Ajeet,
+who art to take care."
+
+Outside Guru Lal was casting holy oil upon the troubled waters of a
+disputed ordeal.  The wily old priest knew well how omens and ordeals
+could be manipulated.  Besides, unity among the Bagree leaders, leading
+to much loot, would bring him tribute for the gods.
+
+"It may be," he was saying to Sookdee, "that the blacksmith, who is not
+of our tribe, nor of our nine castes, but is of the Sumar caste, has
+sought to put shame upon our gods by a trick.  At best he was a surly
+rascal of little thought.  It may be that the iron shot was made too
+hot for the hand of the Chief.  An ordeal is a fair test when its
+observance is equal between men; it is then that the goddess judges and
+gives the verdict--her way is always just.  Have not we many times read
+wrongly her omens, and have misjudged the signs, and have suffered.
+And Ajeet acted like one who is not guilty."
+
+"And think you, Guru, that Ajeet will give you a present of rupees for
+this talk that is like the braying of an ass?" Hunsa growled.
+
+But Sookdee objected, saying: "Guru Lal is a holy man of age, and his
+blood runs without heat, therefore if he speaks, the words are not a
+matter for passion, but to be considered.  We will go upon a decoity,
+which is our duty, and leave the ordeal and all else in the hands of
+Bhowanee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Perhaps it was the customs official that told Dewan Sewlal about the
+_Akbar Ka Diwa_, the Lamp of Akbar, the ruby that was so called because
+of its gorgeous blood-red fire, as being in the iron box of the
+merchant.
+
+This ruby had been an eye in one of the two gorgeous jewelled peacocks
+that surmounted the "Peacock Throne" at Delhi in the time of Akbar to
+the time when the Persian conqueror, Nadir Shah, sacked Delhi and took
+the Peacock Throne and the Kohinoor, and everything else of value back
+to Persia.  But he didn't get the ruby for the Vizier of the King of
+Delhi stole it.  Then Alam, the eunuch, stole it from the Vizier.  Its
+possession was desirable, not only because of its great value as a
+jewel, but because it held in its satanic glitter an unearthly power,
+either of preservation to its holder or malignant evil against his
+enemies.
+
+At any rate Sewlal sent for Hunsa the night of the ordeal and explained
+to him, somewhat casually, that a jewel merchant passing through
+Mahrattaland had in his collection a ruby of no great value, but a
+stone that he would like to become possessed of because a ruby was his
+lucky gem.  The Dewan intimated that Hunsa would get a nice private
+reward for this particular gem, if by chance he could, quite secretly,
+procure it for him.
+
+Next day was a busy one in the Bagree camp.
+
+Having followed the profession of decoits and thugs for generations it
+was with them a fine art; unlimited pains were taken over every detail.
+As it had been decided that they would go as a party of mendicants and
+bearers of family bones to Mother Ganges, there were many things to
+provide to carry out the masquerade--stage properties, as it were; red
+bags for the bones of females, and white bags for those of the males.
+
+In two days one of the spies came with word that Ragganath, the
+merchant, had started on his journey, riding in a covered cart drawn by
+two of the slim, silk-skinned trotting bullocks, and was accompanied by
+six men, servants and guards; on the second night he would encamp at
+Sarorra.  So a start was made the next morning.
+
+Sookdee, Ajeet Singh, and Hunsa, accompanied by twenty men, and Gulab
+Begum took the road, the Gulab travelling in an enclosed cart as
+befitted the favourite of a raja, and with her rode the wife of Sookdee
+as her maid.
+
+Ajeet rode a Marwari stallion, a black, roach-crested brute, with bad
+hocks and an evil eye.  The Ajeet sat his horse a convincing figure, a
+Rajput Raja.
+
+Beneath a rich purple coat gleamed, like silver tracery, his steel
+shirt-of-mail; through his sash of red silk was thrust a
+straight-bladed sword, and from the top of his turban of
+blue-and-gold-thread, peeped a red cap with dangling tassel of gold.
+
+In the afternoon of the second day the Bagrees came to the village of
+Sarorra.
+
+"We will camp here," the leader commanded, "close to the mango _tope_
+through which we have just passed, then we will summon the headman, and
+if he is as such accursed officials are, the holy one, the yogi, will
+cast upon him and his people a curse; also I will threaten him with the
+loss of his ears."
+
+"The one who is to be destroyed has not yet come," Hunsa declared, "for
+here is what these dogs of villagers call a place of rest though it is
+but an open field."
+
+Ajeet turned upon the jamadar: "The one who is to be destroyed, say
+you, Hunsa?  Who spoke in council that the merchant was to be killed?
+We are men of decoity, we rob these fat pirates who rob the poor, but
+we take life only when it is necessary to save our own."
+
+"And when a robbed one who has power, such as rich merchants have, make
+complaint and give names, the powers take from us our profit and cast
+us into jail," Hunsa retorted.
+
+"And forget not, Ajeet, that we are here among the Mahrattas far from
+our own forests that we can escape into if there is outcry," Sookdee
+interjected.  "If the voices are hushed and the bodies buried beneath
+where we cook our food, there will be only silence till we are safe
+back in Karowlee.  The Dewan will not protect us if there is an
+outcry--he will deny that he has promised protection."
+
+The Bagrees were already busy preparing the camp, the camp of a
+supposed party of men on a sacred mission.
+
+It was like the locating of a circus.  The tents they had brought stood
+gaudily in the hot sun, some white and some of cotton cloth dyed in
+brilliant colours, red, and blue, and yellow.  In front of Ajeet's tent
+a bamboo pole was planted, from the top of which floated a red flag
+carrying a figure of the monkey god, Hanuman, embroidered in green and
+yellow.
+
+The red and white bags carrying bones, which were supposed to be the
+bones of defunct relatives, were suspended from tripods of bamboo to
+preserve them from the pollution of the soil.
+
+And presently three big drums, Nakaras, were arranged in front of the
+yogi's tent, and were being beaten by strong-armed drummers, while a
+conch shell blared forth a discordant note that was supposed to be
+pleasing to the gods.
+
+Some of the Bagrees issued from their tents having suddenly become
+canonised, metamorphosed from highwaymen to devout yogis, their bodies,
+looking curiously lean and ascetic, now clothed largely in ashes and
+paint.
+
+"Go you, Hunsa," Ajeet commanded, "into this depraved village and
+summon the _patil_ to come forth and pay to the sainted yogi the usual
+gift of one rupee four annas, and make his salaams.  Also he is to
+provide fowl and fruits for us who are on this sacred mission.  He may
+be a son of swine, such as the lord of a village is, so speak, Jamadar,
+of the swords the Raja's guards carry.  Say nothing as to the expected
+one, but let your eyes do all the questioning."
+
+Hunsa departed on his mission, and even then the villagers could be
+seen assembled between the Bagrees and the mud huts, watching curiously
+the encampment.
+
+"Sookdee," Ajeet said, "if we can rouse the anger of the _patil_--"
+
+The Jamadar laughed.  "If you insist upon the payment of silver you
+will accomplish that, Ajeet."
+
+Ajeet touched his slim fingers to Sookdee's arm: "Do not forget,
+Jamadar--call me Raja.  But as to the village; if we anger them they
+will not entertain the merchant; they will not let him rest in the
+village.  And also if they are of an evil temper we will warn the
+merchant that they are thieves who will cut his throat and rob him.  We
+will give him the protection of our numbers."
+
+"If the merchant is fat--and when they attain wealth they always become
+fat--he will be happy with us, Raja, thinking perhaps that he will
+escape a gift of money the _patil_ would exact."
+
+"Yes," Ajeet Singh answered, "we will ask him for nothing when he
+departs."
+
+After a time Hunsa was seen approaching, and with him the
+grey-whiskered _patil_.
+
+The latter was a commoner.  He suggested a black-faced, grey-whiskered
+monkey of the jungles.  Indeed the pair were an anthropoid couple,
+Hunsa the gorilla, and the headman an ape.  Behind them straggled a
+dozen villagers, men armed with long ironwood sticks of combat.
+
+The headman salaamed the yogi and Ajeet, saying, "This is but a poor
+place for holy men and the Raja to rest, for the water is bad and
+famine is upon us."
+
+"A liar, and the son of a wild ass," declared Ajeet promptly.  "Give to
+this saint the gift of silver, lest he put the anger of Kali upon you,
+and call upon her of the fiery furnace in the sacred hills to destroy
+your houses.  Also send fowl and grain, and think yourself favoured of
+Kali that you make offering to such a holy one, and to a Raja who is in
+favour with Sindhia."
+
+But the villager had no intention of parting with worldly goods if he
+could get out of it.  He expostulated, enlarged upon his poverty,
+rubbed dust upon his forehead, and called upon the gods to destroy him
+if he had a breakfast in the whole village for himself and people,
+declaring solemnly; "By my Junwa!"--though he wore no sacred
+thread,--"there is no food for man or horse in the village."  Then he
+waxed angry, asking indignantly, who were these stragglers upon the
+road that they should come to him, an official of the Peshwa, to demand
+tribute; he would have them destroyed.  Beyond, not two _kos_ away,
+were a thousand soldiers,--which was a gorgeous lie,--who if he but
+sent a messenger would come and behead the lot, would cast the sacred
+bones in the gaudy bags upon the dunghill of the village bullocks.
+
+"To-morrow, monkey-man, the gift will be doubled," Ajeet answered
+calmly, "for that is the law, and you know it."
+
+But the _patil_, thinking there would be little fight in a party of
+pilgrims and mendicants, called to his stickmen to bring help and they
+would beat these insolent ones and drive them on their way.
+
+"Take the yogi, Hunsa," Ajeet said, "and the men that have the
+fire-powder and throw it upon the thatched roof of a hut in the way of
+a visitation from the gods, because this ape will not leave us in peace
+for our mission until he is subdued."
+
+In obedience as Hunsa and the yogi moved toward the village, the
+_patil_ cried.  "Where go you?"
+
+"We go with a message from the gods to you who offer insult to a holy
+one."
+
+The villagers armed with sticks, retreated slowly before the yogi,
+dreading to offer harm to the sainted one.  Muttering his curses, his
+iron tongs clanking at every step, the yogi strode to the first
+mud-wall huts, and there raising his voice cried aloud: "Maha Kalil
+consume the houses of these men of an evil heart who would deny the
+offering to Thee."
+
+Then at a wave of his skeleton arm the two men threw upon the thatched
+roof of a hut a grey preparation of gunpowder which was but a
+pyrotechnical trick, and immediately the thatch burst into flames.
+
+"There, accursed ones--unbelievers!  Kali has spoken!" the yogi
+declared solemnly, and turning on his heels went back to the camp.
+
+The headman and his men, with howls of dismay, rushed back to stop the
+conflagration.  And just then the jewel merchant arrived in his cart.
+The curtains of the canopy were thrown back and the fat Hindu sat
+blinking his owl eyes in consternation.  At sight of Ajeet he
+descended, salaamed, and asked:
+
+"Has there been a decoity in the village--is it war and bloodshed?"
+
+Ajeet assumed the haughty condescending manner of a Rajput prince, and
+explained, with a fair scope of imagination that the _patil_ was a man
+of ungovernable temper who gave protection to thieves and outlaws, that
+the village itself was a nest for them.  That two of his servants,
+having gone into the village to purchase food, had been set upon,
+beaten and robbed; that the conflagration had been caused by the fire
+from a gun that one of the debased villagers had poked through a hole
+in the roof to shoot his servants.
+
+"As my name is Ragganath, it is a visitation upon these scoundrels,"
+the merchant declared.
+
+"It is indeed, Sethjee."
+
+Ajeet had diplomatically used the "Sethjee," which was a friendly
+rendering of the name "Seth," meaning "a merchant," and the wily Hindu,
+not to be outdone in courtesy, promoted Ajeet.
+
+"Such an outrage, Maharaja, on the part of these low-caste people in
+the presence of the sainted one, and the pilgrims upon such a sacred
+mission to Mother Gunga, has brought upon them the wrath of the gods.
+May the village be destroyed; and the _patil_ when he dies come back to
+earth a snake, to crawl upon his belly."
+
+"The headman even refused to give the holy one the gift of
+silver--tendering instead threats," Ajeet added.
+
+The merchant spat his contempt: "Wretches!" he declared; "debased
+associates of skinners of dead animals, and scrapers of skulls; Bah!"
+and he spat again.  "And to think but for the Presence having arrived
+here first I most assuredly would have gone into the village, and
+perhaps have been slain for my--"
+
+He stopped and rolled his eyes apprehensively.  He had been on the
+point of mentioning his jewels, but, though he was amongst saints and
+kings, he suddenly remembered the danger.
+
+"We would not have camped here," Ajeet declared, "had we not been a
+strong party, because this village has an evil reputation.  You have
+been favoured by the gods in finding honest men in the way of
+protection, and, no doubt, it is because you are one who makes
+offerings to the deity."
+
+"And if the Maharaja will suffer the presence of a poor merchant, who
+is but a shopkeeper, I will rest here in his protection."
+
+Ajeet Singh graciously consented to this, and the merchant commanded
+his men to erect his small tent beneath the limbs of the deep green
+mango trees.
+
+The decoits watched closely the transport of the merchant's effects
+from the cart to the tent.  When a strong iron box, that was an evident
+weight for its two carriers, was borne first their eyes glistened.
+Therein was the wealth of jewels the flying horsemen of the night had
+whispered to the yogi about.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+When the merchant's tent had been erected, and he had gone to its
+shelter, the jamadars, sitting well beyond the reach of his ears, held
+a council of war.  Ajeet was opposed to the killing of Ragganath and
+his men, but Hunsa pointed out that it was the only way: they were
+either decoits or they were men of toil, men of peace.  Dead men were
+not given to carrying tales, and if no stir were made about the decoity
+until they were safely back in Karowlee they could enjoy the fruits Of
+their spoils, which would be, undoubtedly, great.  By the use of the
+strangling cloth there would be no outcry, no din of battle; they of
+the village would think that the camp was one of sleep.  Then when the
+bodies had been buried in a pit, the earth tramped down flat and solid,
+and cooking fires built over it to obliterate all traces of a grave,
+they would strike camp and go back the way they had come.
+
+Ajeet was forced to admit that it was the one thorough way, but he
+persisted that they were decoits and not thugs.
+
+At this Sookdee laughed: "Jamadar," he said, "what matters to a dead
+man the manner of his killing?  Indeed it is a merciful way.  Such as
+Bhowanee herself decreed--in a second it is over.  But with the spear,
+or the sword--ah! I have seen men writhe in agony and die ten times
+before it was an end."
+
+"But a caste is a caste," Ajeet objected, "and the manner of the caste.
+We are decoits, and we only slay when there is no other way."
+
+Hunsa tipped his gorilla body forward from where it rested on his heels
+as he sat, and his lowering eyes were sullen with impatience:
+
+"Chief Ajeet," he snarled, "think you that we can rob the _seth_ of his
+treasure without an outcry--and if there is an outcry, that he will not
+go back to those of his caste in Poona, and when trouble is made, think
+you that the Dewan will thank us for the bungling of this?  And as to
+the matter of a thug or a decoit, half our men have been taught the art
+of the strangler.  With these,"--and extending his massive arms he
+closed his coarse hands in a gnarled grip,--"with these I would, with
+one sharp in-turn on the _roomal_, crack the neck of the merchant and
+he would be dead in the taking of a breath.  And, Ajeet, if this that
+is the manner of men causes you fear--"
+
+"Hunsa," and Ajeet's voice was constrained in its deadliness, "that
+ass's voice of yours will yet bring you to grief."
+
+But Sookdee interposed:
+
+"Let us not quarrel," he said.  "Ajeet no doubt has in his mind Bootea
+as I have Meena.  And it would be well if the two were sent on the road
+in the cart, and when our work is completed we will follow.  Indeed
+they may know nothing but that there is some jewel, such as women love,
+to be given them."
+
+"Look you," cried Hunsa thrusting his coarse hand out toward the road,
+"even Bhowanee is in favour.  See you not the jackal?"
+
+Turning their eyes in the direction Hunsa indicated, a jackal was seen
+slinking across the road from right to left.
+
+"Indeed it is an omen," Sookdee corroborated; "if on our journeys to
+commit a decoity that is always a good omen."
+
+"And there is the voice!" Hunsa exclaimed, as the tremulous lowing of a
+cow issued from the village.
+
+He waved a beckoning hand to Guru Lal, for they had brought with them
+their tribal priest as an interpreter of omens chiefly.  "Is not the
+voice of the cow heard at sunset a good omen, Guru?" he demanded.
+
+"Indeed it is," the priest affirmed.  "If the voice of a cow is heard
+issuing at twilight from a village at which decoits are to profit, it
+is surely a promise from Bhowanee that a large store of silver will be
+obtained."
+
+"Take thee to thy prayers, Guru," Ajeet commanded, "for we have matters
+to settle."  He turned to Sookdee.  "Your omens will avail little if
+there is prosecution over the disappearance of the merchant.  I am
+supposed to be in command, the leader, but I am the led.  But I will
+not withdraw, and it is not the place of the chief to handle the
+_roomal_.  We will eat our food, and after the evening prayers will sit
+about the fire and amuse this merchant with stories such as honest men
+and holy ones converse in, that he may be at peace in his mind.  As
+Sookdee says, the women will be sent to the grove of trees we came
+through on the road."
+
+"We will gather about the fire of the merchant," Sookdee declared, "for
+it is in the mango grove and hidden from sight of the villagers.  Also
+a guard will be placed between here and the village, and one upon the
+roadway."
+
+"And while we hold the merchant in amusement," Hunsa added, "men will
+dig the pits here, two of them, each within a tent so that they will
+not be seen at work."
+
+"Yes, Ajeet," Sookdee said with a suspicion of a sneer, "we will give
+the merchant the consideration of a decent burial, and not leave him to
+be eaten by jackals and hyenas as were the two soldiers you finished
+with your sword when we robbed the camel transport that carried the
+British gold in Oudh."
+
+"If it is to be, cease to chatter like jays," Ajeet answered crossly.
+
+In keeping with their assumed characters, the evening meal was ushered
+in with a peace-shattering clamour from the drums and a raucous blare
+from conch-shell horns.  Then the devout murderers offered up prayers
+of fervency to the great god, beseeching their more immediate branch of
+the deity, Bhowanee, to protect them.
+
+And at the same time, just within the mud walls of Sarorra, its people
+were placing flowers and cocoanuts and sweetmeats upon the shrine of
+the god of their village.
+
+Just without the village gate the elephant-nosed Ganesh sat looking in
+whimsical good nature across his huge paunch toward the place of crime,
+the deep shadow that lay beneath the green-leafed mango trees.
+
+In the hearts of the Bagrees there was unholy joy, an eager
+anticipation, a gladsome feeling toward Bhowanee who had certainly
+guided this rapacious merchant with his iron box full of jewels to
+their camp.
+
+Indeed they would sacrifice a buffalo at her temple of Kajuria, for
+that was the habit of their clan when the booty was great.  The taking
+of life was but an incident.  In Hindustan humans came up like flies,
+returning over and over to again encumber the crowded earth.  In the
+vicissitudes of life before long the merchant would pass for a
+reincorporation of his soul, and probably, because of his sins as an
+oppressor of the poor, come back as a turtle or a jackass; certainly
+not as a revered cow--he was too unholy.  In the gradation of humans he
+was but a merchant of the caste of the third dimension in the great
+quartette of castes.  It would not be like killing a Brahmin, a sin in
+the sight of the great god.
+
+This philosophy was as subtle as the perfume of a rose, unspoken, even
+at the moment a floaty thought.  Like their small hands and their erect
+air of free-men, the Rajput atmosphere, it had grown into their created
+being, like the hunting instinct of a Rampore hound.
+
+The merchant, smoking his _hookah_, having eaten, observed with keen
+satisfaction the evening devotions of the supposed mendicants.  As it
+grew dark their guru was offering up a prayer to the Holy Cow, for she
+was to be worshipped at night.  The merchant's appreciation was largely
+a worldly one, a business sense of insurance--safety for his jewels and
+nothing to pay for security--men so devout would have the gods in their
+mind and not robbery.  When the jamadars, and some of the Bagrees who
+were good story tellers, and one a singer, did him the honour of coming
+to sit at his camp-fire he was pleased.
+
+"Sit you here at my right," he said to Hunsa, for he conceived him to
+be captain of the Raja's guard.
+
+Sookdee and the others, without apparent motive, contrived it so that a
+Bagree or two sat between each of the merchant's men, engaging them in
+pleasant speech, tendering tobacco.  And, as if in modesty, some of the
+Bagrees sat behind the retainers.
+
+"This is indeed a courtesy," the merchant assured Hunsa; "a poor trader
+feels honoured by a visit from so brave a soldier as the captain of the
+Raja's guard."
+
+He noticed, too, with inward satisfaction, that the jamadars had left
+their weapons behind, which they had done in a way of not arousing
+their victim's fears.
+
+"Would not it be deemed a courtesy," the merchant asked, "if one like
+myself, who is a poor trader, should go to pay his respects to the Raja
+ere he retires, for of course it would be beneath his dignity to come
+to his servant?"
+
+"No, indeed," declared Hunsa quickly, thinking of the graves that were
+even then being dug; "he is a man of a haughty temper, and when he is
+in the society of the beautiful dancing girl who is with him, he cares
+not to be disturbed.  Even now he is about to escort her in the cart
+down the road to where there is a shrine that women of that caste make
+offering to."
+
+It had been arranged that Ajeet would escort Bootea, with two Bagrees
+as attendants, to the grove of trees half a mile down the road.  He had
+insisted on this in the way of a negative support to the murder.  As
+there would be no fighting this did not reflect on his courage as a
+leader.  And as to complicity, Hunsa knew that as the leader of the
+party, Ajeet would be held the chief culprit.  It was always the leader
+of a gang of decoits who was beheaded when captured, the others perhaps
+escaping with years of jail.  And Hunsa himself, even Sookdee, would be
+safe, for they were in league with the Dewan.
+
+There was an hour of social talk; many times Hunsa fingered the
+_roomal_ that was about his waist; the yellow-and-white strangling
+cloth with which Bhowanee had commanded her disciples, the thugs, to
+kill their victims.  In one corner of it was tied a silver rupee for
+luck.  The natural ferocity of his mind threw him into an eager
+anticipation: he took pride in his proficiency as a strangler; his
+coarse heavy hands, like those of a Punjabi wrestler, were suited to
+the task.  Grasping the cloth at the base of a victim's skull, tight to
+the throat, a side-twist inward and the trick was done, the spine
+snapped like a pipe-stem.  And he had been somewhat out of practice--he
+had regretted that; he was fearful of losing the art, the knack.
+
+About the fat paunch of the merchant was a silver-studded belt.  Hunsa
+eyed this speculatively.  Beyond doubt in its neighbourhood would be
+the key to the iron box; and when its owner lay on his back, his
+bulbous eyes glaring upward to where the moon trickled through the
+thick foliage of the mango tree beneath which they sat, he would seize
+the keys and be first to dabble his grimy fingers in the glittering
+gems.
+
+Beyond, the village had hushed--the strident call of voices had ceased.
+Somewhere a woman was pounding grain in a wooden mortar--a dull
+monotonous "thud, thud, swish, thud" carrying on the dead air.
+Night-jars were circling above the trees, their plaintive call,
+"chy-eece, chy-e-ece!" filtering downward like the weird cry of
+spirits.  Once the deep sonorous bugling note of a _saurus_, like the
+bass pipe of an organ, smote the stillness as the giant crane winged
+his way up the river that lay beyond, a mighty ribbon of silver in the
+moonlight.  A jackal from the far side of the village, in the fields,
+raised a tremulous moan.
+
+Sookdee looked into the eyes of Hunsa and he understood.  It was the
+_tibao_, the happiest augury of success, for it came over the right
+shoulder of the victim.
+
+Hunsa, feeling that the moment to strike had come, rose carelessly,
+saying: "Give me tobacco."
+
+That was a universal signal amongst thugs, the command to strike.
+
+Even as he uttered the words Hunsa had slipped behind the merchant and
+his towel was about the victim's neck.  Each man who had been assigned
+as a strangler, had pounced upon his individual victim; while Sookdee
+stood erect, a knife in his hand, ready to plunge it into the heart of
+any one who was likely to overcome his assailant.
+
+Hunsa had thrown the helpless merchant upon his face, and with one knee
+between his shoulder-blades had broken the neck; no sound beyond a
+gurgling breath of strangulation had passed the Hindu's lips.  There
+had been no clamour, no outcry; nothing but a few smothered words,
+gasps, the scuffle of feet upon the earth; it was like a horrible
+nightmare, a fantastic orgy of murderous fiends.  The flame of the
+campfire flickered sneers, drawn torture, red and green shadows in the
+staring faces of the men who lay upon the ground, and the figures of
+the stranglers glowed red in its light, like devils who danced in hell.
+
+Hunsa had turned the merchant upon his back and his evil gorilla face
+was thrust into the face of his victim.  No breath passed the thick
+protruding lips upon which was a froth of death.
+
+As the Jamadar tore the keys from the waist-band, snapping a silver
+chain that was about the body, he said: "Sookdee, be quick.  Have the
+bodies carried to the pits.  Do not forget to drive a spear through
+each belly lest they swell up and burst open the earth."
+
+"You have the keys to the chest, Hunsa?" Sookdee said, with suspicion
+in his voice.
+
+"Yes, Jamadar; I will open it.  We will empty it, and place the iron
+box on top of the bodies in a pit, for it is too heavy to carry, and if
+we are stopped it might be observed."
+
+"Take the dead," Sookdee commanded the Bagrees; "lay them out; take
+down the tents that are over the pits, and by that time I will be there
+to count these dead things in the way of surety that not one has
+escaped with the tale.
+
+"Come," he said to Hunsa, "together we will go to the iron box and open
+it; then there can be no suspicion that the men of Alwar have been
+defrauded."
+
+Hunsa turned malignant eyes upon Sookdee, but, keys in hand, strode
+toward the tent.
+
+Sookdee, thrusting in the fire a torch made from the feathery bark of
+the _kujoor_ tree, followed.
+
+Hunsa kneeling before the iron box was fitting the keys into the double
+locks.  Then he drew the lids backward, and the two gasped at a glitter
+of precious stones that lay beneath a black velvet cloth Hunsa stripped
+from the gems.
+
+Sookdee cried out in wonderment; and Hunsa, slobbering gutturals of
+avarice, patted the gems with his gorilla paws.  He lifted a large
+square emerald entwined in a tracery of gold, delicate as the
+criss-cross of a spider's web, and held it to his thick lips.
+
+"A bribe for a princess!" he gloated.  "Take you this, Sookdee, and
+hide it as you would your life, for a gift to the son of the Peshwa,
+who, methinks, is behind the Dewan in this, we will be men of honour.
+And this"--a gleaming diamond in a circlet of gold--"for Sirdar
+Baptiste," and he rolled it in his loin cloth.  "And this,"--a string
+of pearls, that as he laid it on the black velvet was like the tears of
+angels,--"This for the fat pig of a Dewan to set his four wives at each
+other's throats.  Let not the others know of these, Sookdee, of these
+that we have taken for the account."
+
+Suddenly there was a clamour of voices, cries, the clang of swords, the
+sharp crash of a shot, and the two jamadars, startled, eyes staring,
+stood with ears cocked toward the tumult.
+
+"Soldiers!" Sookdee gasped.  His hand brushed Hunsa's bare arm as he
+thrust it into the chest and brought it forth clasping jewels, which he
+tied in a knot of his waistcloth.  "Take you something, Hunsa, and lock
+the box till we see," he said darting from the tent.
+
+Hunsa filled a pocket of his brocaded Jacket, but he was looking for
+the Akbar Lamp, the ruby.  He lifted out a tray and ran his grimy hands
+through the maze of gold and silver wrought ornaments below.  His
+fingers touched, at the very bottom, a bag of leather.  He tore it
+open, and a blaze of blood-red light glinted at him evilly where a ruby
+caught the flame of the torch that Sookdee had thrown to the earth
+floor as he fled.
+
+With a snarl of gloating he rolled the ruby in a fold of his turban,
+locked the box, and darted after Sookdee.
+
+He all but fell over the seven dead bodies of the merchant and his men
+as he raced to where a group was standing beyond.  And there three more
+bodies lay upon the ground, and beside them, held, were two horses.
+
+"It is Ajeet Singh," Sookdee said pointing to where the Chief lay with
+his head in the lap of a decoit.  "These two native soldiers of the
+English came riding in with swiftness, for behind them raced Ajeet who
+must have seen them pass."
+
+"And here," another added, "as the riders checked at sight of the dead,
+Ajeet pulled one from his horse and killed him, but the other, with a
+pistol, shot Ajeet and he is dead."
+
+"The Chief is not dead," said the one who held his head in his lap; "he
+is but shot in the shoulder, and I have stopped the blood with my hand."
+
+"And we have killed the other soldier," another said, "for, having seen
+the bodies, we could not let him live."
+
+From Sookdee's hand dangled a coat of one of the dead.
+
+"This that is a leather purse," he said, "contains letters; the red
+thing on them I have looked upon before--it is the seal of the Englay.
+It was here in the coat of that one who is a sergeant--the other being
+a soldier."
+
+He put the leather case within the bosom of his shirt, adding: "This
+may even be of value to the Dewan.  Beyond that, there was little of
+loot upon these dogs of the Englay--eight rupees.  The coats and the
+turbans we will burn."
+
+Hunsa stooped down and slipped the sandals from the feet of the one
+Sookdee had pointed out as the officer.
+
+"The footwear is of little value, but we will take the brass cooking
+pots of the merchant," Sookdee said, eyeing this performance; there was
+suspicion in his eyes lighted from the flare of their camp fires.
+
+"Sookdee," Hunsa said, "you have the Englay leather packet, but they do
+not send _sowars_ through the land of the Mahratta with the real
+message written on the back of the messenger.  In quiet I will rip
+apart the soles of this footwear.  Do you that with the saddles;
+therein is often hidden the true writing.  In the slaying of these two
+we have acquired a powerful enemy, the English, and the message, if
+there be one, might be traded for our lives.  Here are the keys to the
+box, for it is heavy."
+
+Into Hunsa's mind had flashed the thought that the gods had opened the
+way, for he had plotted to do this thing--the destruction of Ajeet.
+
+"Have all the bodies thrown into the pit, Sookdee," he advised; "make
+perfect the covering of the fire and ash, and while you prepare for
+flight I will go and bring Bootea's cart to carry Ajeet."
+
+Then Hunsa was swallowed up in the gloom of the night, melting like a
+shadow into the white haze of the road as he raced like a grey wolf
+toward the Gulab, who now had certainly been delivered into his hands.
+
+Soon his heart pumped and the choke of exertion slowed him to a fast
+walk.  The sandals, bulky with their turned-up toes, worried him.  He
+drew a knife from his sash and slit the tops off, muttering: "If it is
+here, the message of value, it will be between the two skins of the
+soles."
+
+Now they lay flat and snug in his hand as he quickened his pace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The Gulab heard the shot at the Bagree camp, and Hunsa found her
+trembling from apprehension.
+
+"What has happened, Jamadar?" she cried.  "Ajeet heard the beat of
+iron-shod hoofs upon the road, and seeing in the moonlight the two
+riders knew from the manner they sat the saddles that they were of the
+Englay service; when he called to them they heeded him not.  Then Ajeet
+followed the two.  Why was the shot, Hunsa?"
+
+"They have killed Ajeet," Hunsa declared; "but also they are dead, and
+I have the leader's leather sandals for a purpose.  The shot has roused
+the village, and even now our people are preparing for flight.  Get you
+into the cart that I may take you to safety."  He took the ruby from
+his turban, saying: "And here is the most beautiful ruby in Hind; the
+fat pig of a Dewan wants it, but I have taken it for you."
+
+But Bootea pushed his hand away: "I take no present from you, Hunsa."
+
+Hunsa put the jewel back in his turban and commanded the two men, who
+stood waiting, "Make fast the bullocks to the cart quickly lest we be
+captured, because other soldiers are coming behind."
+
+The two Bagrees turned to where the slim pink-and-grey coated trotting
+bullocks were tethered by their short horns to a tree and leading them
+to the cart made fast the bamboo yoke across their necks.
+
+"Get into the cart, Bootea," Hunsa commanded, for the girl had not
+moved.
+
+"I will not!" she declared.  "I'm going back to Ajeet; he is not
+dead--it is a trick."
+
+"He _is_ dead," Hunsa snarled, seizing her by arm.
+
+The Gulab screamed words of denunciation.  "Take your hands off me, son
+of a pig, accursed man of low caste!  Ajeet will kill you for this,
+dog!"
+
+At this the wife of Sookdee fled, racing back toward the camp.  One of
+the men darted forward to follow, but Hunsa stayed him, saying, "Let
+her go--it is better; I war not upon Sookdee."
+
+He had the Gulab now in the grasp of both his huge paws, and holding
+her tight, said rapidly: "Be still you she-devil, accursed fool!  You
+are going to a palace to be a queen.  The son of the Peshwa desires
+you.  True, I, also, have desire, but fear not for, by Bhowanee! it is
+a life of glory, of jewels and rich attire that I take you to; so get
+into the cart."
+
+But Bootea wrenched free an arm and struck Hunsa full upon his ugly
+face, screaming her rebellion.
+
+"To be struck by a woman!" Hunsa blared; "not a woman, but the spawn of
+a she-leopard! why should not I beat your beautiful face into ugliness
+with one of these sandals of a dead pig!"
+
+He lifted her bodily, calling to the man upon the ground, the other
+having mounted behind the bullocks.  "Put back the leather wall of the
+cart that I may hurl this outcast widow of a dead Hindu within."
+
+Bootea clawed at his face; she kicked and fought; her voice screaming a
+call to Ajeet.
+
+There was a heavy rolling thump of hoofs upon the roadway, unheard of
+Hunsa because of the vociferous struggle.  Then from the shimmer of
+moonlight thrust the white form of a big Turcoman horse that was thrown
+almost to his haunches, his breast striking the back of the decoit.
+
+The bullocks, nervous little brutes, startled by the huge white animal,
+swerved, and before the man who sat a-straddle of the one shaft
+gathered tight the cord to their nostrils, whisked the cart to the
+roadside where it toppled over the bank for a fall of fifteen feet into
+a ravine, carrying bullocks and driver with it.
+
+The moonlight fell full upon the face of the horseman, its light making
+still whiter the face of Captain Barlow.
+
+And Bootea recognised him.  It was the face that had been in her vision
+night and day since the _nautch_.
+
+"Save me, Sahib!" she cried; "these men are thieves; save me, Sahib!"
+
+The hunting crop in Barlow's hand crashed upon the thick head of Hunsa
+in ready answer to the appeal.  And as the sahib threw himself from the
+saddle the jamadar, with a snarl like a wounded tiger, dropped the girl
+and, whirling, grappled with the Englishman.
+
+Barlow was strong; few men in the force, certainly none in the
+officers' mess, could put him on his back; and he was lithe, supple as
+a leopard; and in combat cool, his mind working like the mind of a
+chess player: but he realised that the arms about him were the arms of
+a gorilla, the chest against which he was being crushed was the chest
+of a trained wrestler; a smaller man would have heard his bones
+cracking in that clutch.
+
+He raised a knee and drove it into the groin of the jamadar; then in
+the slight slackening of the holding arms as the Bagree shrank from the
+blow, he struck at the bearded chin; it was the clean, trained
+short-arm jab of a boxer.
+
+But even as the gorilla wavered staggeringly under the blow, a soft
+something slipped about Barlow's throat and tightened like the coils of
+a python.  And behind something was pressing him to his death.  The
+other Bagree springing to the assistance of Hunsa had looped his
+_roomal_ about the Sahib's throat with the art of a thug.
+
+Barlow's senses were going; his brain swam; in his fancy he had been
+shot from a cliff and was hurtling through space in which there was no
+air--his lungs had closed; in his brain a hammer was beating him into
+unconsciousness.
+
+Then suddenly the pressure on his throat ceased, it fell away; the air
+rushed to the parched lungs.  With a wrench his brain cleared, and he
+went down; but now with power in his arms, the arms that still clung
+about the dazed Hunsa, and he was on top.
+
+Scarce aware of the action, out of a fighting instinct, he dragged from
+its holster his heavy pistol, and beat with its butt the ugly head
+beneath, beat it till it was still.  Then he staggered to his feet and
+looked wonderingly at the form of the Bagree behind who lay sprawled on
+the road, a great red splash across the white jacket on his breast.
+
+In the Gulab's hand was still clutched the dagger she had drawn from
+her girdle and driven home to save the sahib who had sat like a god in
+her heart.  With the other hand she held out from contact with her
+limbs the muslin _sari_ that was crimsoned where the blood of the
+Bagree had fountained when she drew forth her knife.
+
+Barlow darted forward as Bootea reeled and caught her with an arm.
+Close, the face, fair as that of a memsahib in the pallor of fright and
+the paling moonlight, sweet, of finer mould, more spiritual than the
+Mona Lisa's, puritanically simple, the mass of black hair drawn
+straight back from the low broad brow--for the rich turban had fallen
+in her fight for freedom--woke memory in the sahib; and as the blood
+ebbed back through the girl's veins, the pale cheeks flushed with rose,
+her eyelids quivered and drew back their shutters from eyes that were
+like those of an antelope.
+
+"You--you, Gulab, the giver of the red rose, the singer of the love
+song!" Barlow gasped.
+
+"Yes, Captain Sahib, you who are like a god--" Bootea checked, her head
+drooped.
+
+But Barlow putting his fingers under her chin and gently lifting the
+face asked, "And what--what?"
+
+"You came like one in a dream.  Also, Sahib, I am but one who danced
+before you and you have saved me."
+
+"And, little girl, you saved my life."
+
+He felt a shudder run through the girl's form, and then she pushed him
+from her crying, "Sahib--Hunsa!  Quick!"
+
+For the jamadar, recovering his senses, had risen to his knees fumbling
+at his belt groggily for his knife.
+
+Barlow swung the pistol from its holster and rushed toward Hunsa, but
+the latter, at sight of the dreaded weapon, fled, pursued for a few
+paces by the Captain.
+
+The girl saw the sandal soles lying upon the ground where Hunsa had
+dropped them in the struggle, and slipped them beneath her breast-belt,
+a quick thought coming to her that if the Captain saw them he might
+recognise them as the footwear of the soldiers.  Also Hunsa had said
+they were for a purpose.
+
+Barlow followed the fleeing shadow for a dozen strides, then his pistol
+barked, and swinging on his heel he came back, saying, with a little
+laugh, "That was just to frighten the beggar so he wouldn't come back."
+
+But Bootea's eyes went wide now with a new fear; the sound of the shot
+would travel faster even than the fleeing Hunsa: and if the decoits
+came--for already they would be making ready for the road--this
+beautiful god, with eyes like stars and a voice of music, would be
+killed, would be no more than the Bagree lying on the road who was but
+carrion.  In her heart was a new thing.  The struggle with Hunsa, the
+fright, even the horribleness of the blood upon her knife, was washed
+away by a hot surging flood of exquisite happiness.  The Hindu name for
+love--"a pain in the heart"--was veritably hers in its intensity; the
+sahib's arm about her when she had closed her eyes had caused her to
+feel as if she were being lifted to heaven.
+
+She laid a hand on Barlow's arm and her eyes were lifted pleadingly to
+his: "You must go, Sahib--mount your horse and go, because--"
+
+"Because of what?"
+
+"There are many, and you will be killed.  Hunsa will bring others."
+
+"Others--who are they?"
+
+But the Gulab had turned from him and was listening, her eyes turned to
+the road up which floated from beyond upon the hushed silence that was
+about them,--that seemed deeper because of the dead man lying in the
+moonlight,--the beat of Hunsa's feet on the road.  Once there was the
+whining note of wheels that claimed a protest from a dry axle; once
+there was a clang as if steel had struck steel; and on the droning
+through the night-hush was a rasping hum as if voices clamoured in the
+distance.  This was the bee-hive stirring of the startled village.
+
+"What is it, Bootea?" Barlow asked.
+
+The eyes raised to his face were full of fright, a pleading fright.
+"Sahib," she answered, "do not ask--just go, because--"
+
+"Yes, girl, why?"
+
+"That this is dead (and her hand gestured toward the slain Bagree) and
+that others are dead, is; but you,--will you mount the horse and go
+back the way you came, Sahib?"
+
+Her small fingers clutched the sleeve of the coat he wore--it was of
+hunting cloth, red-and-green: "Others are dead yonder, and evil is in
+the hearts of those that live.  Go, Sahib--please go."
+
+Barlow's mind was racing fast, in more materialistic grooves than the
+Gulab's.  There was something about it he didn't understand; something
+the girl did not want to tell him; some horrible thing that she was
+afraid of--her face was full of suppressed dread.
+
+Suddenly, through no sequence of reasoning, in fact there was no data
+to go upon, nothing except that a girl--the Gulab was just that--stood
+there afraid--through him she had just escaped from a man who was
+little more than an ape--stood quivering in the moonlight alone, except
+for himself.  So, suddenly, he acted as if energised by logic, as if
+mental deduction made plain the way.
+
+"You are right," he said: "we must go."
+
+He laid a hand upon the bridle-rein of the grey, that had stood there
+with the submission of a cavalry horse, saying, "Come, Bootea."
+
+Foot in stirrup he swung to the saddle; and as the grey turned, he
+reached down both hands saying: "Come, I'll take you wherever you want
+to go."
+
+But the girl drew back and shook her beautifully-modelled head,--the
+delicate head with the black hair smoothed back to simplicity, and her
+voice was half sob: "It can't be, Sahib, I am but--"  She checked; to
+speak of the decoits even, might lead to talk that would cause the
+Sahib to go to their camp, and he would be killed; and she would be a
+witness to testify against her own people, the slayers of the sepoys.
+
+Barlow laughed, "Because you are a girl who dances you are not to be
+saved, eh?" he said.  "But listen, the Sahibs do not leave women at the
+mercy of villains; you must come," and his strong sun-browned hands
+were held out.
+
+Bootea, wonderingly, as if some god had called to her, put her hands in
+Barlow's, and with a twist of his strong arms she was swung across his
+knees.
+
+"Put your arms about my waist, Gulab," he said, as the grey, to the
+tickle of a spur, turned to the road.  "Don't lean away from me," he
+said, presently, "because we have a long way to go and that tires.
+That's better, girl," as her warm breast pressed against his body.
+
+The big grey, with a deep breath, and a sniffle of satisfaction,
+scenting that his head was turned homeward, paced along the ghost-strip
+of roadway in long free strides.  Even when a jackal, or it might have
+been a honey-badger, slipped across the road in front, a drifting
+shadow, the Turcoman only rattled the snaffle-bit in his teeth, cocked
+his ears, and then blew a breath of disdain from his big nostrils.
+
+In the easy swinging cradle of the horse's smooth stride the minds of
+both Barlow and the Gulab relaxed into restfulness; her arms about the
+strong body, Bootea felt as if she clung to a tower of strength--that
+she was part of a magnetic power; and the nightmare that had been, so
+short a time since, had floated into a dream of content, of glorious
+peace.
+
+Barlow was troubling over the problem of the gorilla-faced man, and
+thinking how close he had been to death--all but gone out except for
+that figure in his arms that was so like a lotus; and the death would
+have meant not just the forfeit of his life, but that his duty, the
+mission he was upon for his own people, the British government, had
+been jeopardised by his participation in some native affair of strife,
+something he had nothing to do with.  He had ridden along that road
+hoping to overtake the two riders that now lay dead in the pit with the
+other victims of the thugs--of which he knew nothing.  They were
+bearing to him a secret message from his government, and he had ridden
+to Manabad to there take it from them lest in approaching the city of
+the Peshwa, full of seditious spies and cutthroats, the paper might be
+stolen.  But at Manabad he had learned that the two had passed, had
+ridden on; and then, perhaps because of converging different roads, he
+had missed them.
+
+But most extraordinarily, just one of the curious, tangented ways of
+Fate, the written order lay against his chest sewn between the double
+sole of a sandal.  Once or twice the hard leather caused him to turn
+slightly the girl's body, and he thought it some case in which she
+carried jewels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+They had gone perhaps an eighth of a mile when the road they followed
+joined another, joined in an arrowhead.  The grey turned to the left, to
+the west, the homing instinct telling him that that way lay his stall in
+the city of the Peshwa.
+
+"This was the way of my journey, Bootea," Barlow said; "I rode from
+yonder," and he nodded back toward the highway into which the two roads
+wedged.  "It was here that I heard your call, the call of a woman in
+dread.  Also it might have been a business that interested me if it were
+a matter of waylaying travellers.  Did you see two riders of large
+horses, such as Arabs or of the breed I ride, men who rode as do
+_sowars_?"
+
+"No, Sahib, I did not see them."
+
+This was not a lie for it was Ajeet who had seen them, and because of the
+Sahib's interest she knew the two men must have been of his command; and
+if she spoke of them undoubtedly he would go back and be killed.
+
+"Were they servants of yours, Sahib--these men who rode?"
+
+Barlow gave off but a little sliver of truth: "No," he answered; "but at
+Manabad men spoke of them passing this way, journeying to Poona, and if
+they were strangers to this district, it might be that they had taken the
+wrong road at the fork.  But if you did not see them they will be ahead."
+
+"And meaning, Sahib, it would not be right if they saw you bearing on
+your horse one who is not a memsahib?"
+
+"As to that, Gulab, what might be thought by men of low rank is of no
+consequence."
+
+"But if the Sahib wishes to overtake them my burden upon the horse will
+be an evil, and he will be sorry that Bootea had not shame sufficient to
+refuse his help."
+
+She felt the strong arm press her body closer, and heard him laugh.  But
+still he did not answer, did not say why he was interested in the two
+horsemen.  If it were vital, and she believed it was, for him to know
+that they lay dead at the Bagree camp, it was wrong for her to not tell
+him this, he who was a preserver.  But to tell him would send him to his
+death.  She knew, as all the people of that land knew, that the sahibs
+went where their Raja told them was their mission, and laughed at death;
+and the face of this one spoke of strength, and the eyes of placid
+fearlessness; so she said nothing.
+
+The sandal soles that pinched her soft flesh she felt were a
+reproach--they had something to do with the thing that was between the
+Sahib and the dead soldiers.  There were tears in her eyes and she
+shivered.
+
+Barlow, feeling this, said: "You're cold, Gulab, the night-wind that
+comes up from the black muck of the cotton fields and across the river is
+raw.  Hang on for a minute," he added, as he slipped his arm from about
+her shoulders and fumbled at the back of his saddle.  A couple of buckles
+were unclasped, and he swung loose a warm military cloak and wrapped it
+about her, as he did so his cheek brushing hers.
+
+Then she was like a bird lying against his chest, closed in from
+everything but just this Sahib who was like a god.
+
+A faint perfume lingered in Barlow's nostrils from the contact; it was
+the perfume of attar, of the true oil of rose, such as only princes use
+because of its costliness, and he wondered a little.
+
+She saw his eyes looking down into hers, and asked, "What is it,
+Sahib--what disturbs you?  If it is a question, ask me."
+
+His white teeth gleamed in the moonlight.  "Just nothing that a man
+should bother over--that he should ask a woman about."
+
+But almost involuntarily he brushed his face across her black hair and
+said, "Just that, Gulab--that it's like burying one's nose in a rose."
+
+"The attar, Sahib?  I love it because it's gentle."
+
+"Ah, that's why you wore the rose that I came by at the _nautch_?"
+
+"Yes, Sahib.  Though I am Bootea, because of a passion for the rose I am
+called Gulab."
+
+"Lovely--the Rose! that's just what you are, Gulab.  But the attar is so
+costly!  Are you a princess in disguise?"
+
+"No, Sahib, but one brought me many bottles of it, the slim, long bottles
+like a finger; and a drop of it lasts for a moon."
+
+"Ah, I see," and Barlow smiled; "you have for lover a raja, the one who
+brought the attar."
+
+The figure in the cloak shivered again, but the girl said nothing.  And
+Barlow, rather to hear her voice, for it was sweet like flute music,
+chaffed: "What is he like, the one that you love?  A swaggering tall
+black-whiskered Rajput, no doubt, with a purple vest embroidered in gold,
+clanking with _tulwar_, and a voice like a Brahmini bull--full of demand."
+
+The slim arms about his waist tightened a little--that was all.
+
+"Confess, Gulab, it will pass the time; a love story is sweet, and Brahm,
+who creates all things, creates flowers beautiful and sweet to stir
+love," and he shook the small body reassuringly.
+
+"Sahib, when a girl dances before the great ones to please, it is
+permitted that she may play at being a princess to win the favour of a
+raja, and sing the love song to the music of the _sitar_ (guitar), but it
+is a matter of shame to speak it alone to the Presence."
+
+"Tell me, Gulab," and his strong fingers swept the smooth black hair.
+
+The girl unclasped her arms from about Barlow's waist and led his finger
+to a harsh iron bracelet upon her arm.
+
+At the touch of the cold metal, iron emblem of a child marriage, a
+shackle never to be removed, he knew that she was a widow, accounted by
+Brahminical caste an offence to the gods, an outcast, because if the
+husband still lived she would be in a _zenanna_ of gloomy walls, and not
+one who danced as she had at Nana Sahib's.
+
+"And the man to whom you were bound by your parents died?" he asked.
+
+"I am a widow, Sahib, as the iron bracelet testifies with cold
+bitterness; it is the badge of one who is outcast, of one who has not
+become _sati_, has not sat on the wood to find death in its devouring
+flame."
+
+Barlow knew all the false logic, the metaphysical Machiavellians, the
+Brahmins, advanced to thin out the undesirable females,--women considered
+at all times in that land of overpopulation of less value than men,--by
+the simple expedient of self-destruction.  He knew the Brahmins' thesis
+culled from their Word of God, the Vedas or the Puranas, calculated to
+make the widow a voluntary, willing suicide.  They would tell Bootea that
+owing to having been evil in former incarnations her sins had been
+visited upon her husband, had caused his death; that in a former life she
+had been a snake, or a rat.
+
+The dead husband's mother, had Bootea come of an age to live with him,
+though yet but a child of twelve years, would, on the slightest
+provocation, beat her--even brand her with a hot iron; he had known of it
+having been done.  She would be given but one meal a day--rice and
+chillies.  Even if she had not yet left her father's house he would look
+upon her as a shameful thing, an undesirable member of the family, one
+not to be rid of again in the way of marriage; for if a Hindu married her
+it would break his caste--he would be a veritable pariah.  No servant
+would serve him; no man would sell him anything; if he kept a shop no one
+would buy of him; no one would sit and speak with him--he would be
+ostracised.
+
+The only life possible for the girl would be that of a prostitute.  She
+might be married by the temple priests to the god Khandoka, as thousands
+of widows had been, and thus become a nun of the temple, a prostitute to
+the celibate priests.  Knowing all this, and that Bootea was what she
+was, her face and eyes holding all that sweetness and cleanness, that she
+lived in the guardianship of Ajeet Singh, very much a man, Barlow admired
+her the more in that she had escaped moral destruction.  Her face was the
+face of one of high caste; she was not like the ordinary _nautch_ girl of
+the fourth caste.  Everything about Bootea suggested breeding, quality.
+The iron bracelet, indicated why she had socially passed down the
+scale--there was no doubt about it.
+
+"I understand, Gulab," he said; "the Sahibs all understand, and know that
+widowhood is not a reproach."
+
+"But the Sahib questioned of love; and how can one such know of love?
+The heart starves and does not grow for it feeds upon love--what we of
+Hind call the sweet pain in the heart."
+
+"But have none been kind, Gulab--pleased by your flower face, has no one
+warmed your heart?"
+
+The slim arms that gripped Barlow in a new tightening trembled, the face
+that fled from the betraying moonlight was buried against his tunic, and
+the warm body quivered from sobs.
+
+Barlow turned her face up, and the moonlight showed vagrant pearls that
+lay against the olive cheeks, now tinted like the petals of a rose.  Then
+from a service point of view, and as a matter of caste, Barlow went
+_ghazi_.  He drooped his head and let his lips linger against the girl's
+eyes, and uttered a superb common-place: "Don't cry, little girl," he
+said; "I am seven kinds of a brute to bother you!"
+
+And Bootea thought it would have been better if he had driven a knife
+into her heart, and sobbed with increased bitterness.  Once her fingers
+wandered up searchingly and touched his throat.
+
+Barlow casting about for the wherefore of his madness, discovered the
+moonlight, and heard the soft night-air whispering through the harp
+chords of trees that threw a tracery of black lines across the white
+road; and from a grove of mango trees came the gentle scent of their
+blossoms; and he remembered that statistics had it that there was but one
+memsahib to so many square miles in that land of expatriation; and he
+knew that he was young and full of the joy of life; that a British
+soldier was not like a man of Hind who looked upon women as cattle.
+
+There did not obtrude into his mental retrospect as an accusation against
+this unwarrantable tenderness the vision of the Resident's
+daughter--almost his fiancée.  Indeed Elizabeth was the antithesis in
+physical appeal of the gentle Gulab; the drawing-room perhaps; repartee
+of Damascus steel fineness; tutored polish, class, cold integrity--these
+things associated admirably with the unsensuous Elizabeth.  Thoughts of
+her, remembrances, had no place in glamorous perfumed moonlight.
+
+So he set his teeth and admonished the grey Turcoman, called him the
+decrepit son of a donkey, being without speed; and to punish him stroked
+his neck gently: even this forced diversion bringing him closer to the
+torturing sweetness of the girl.
+
+But now he was aware of a throbbing on the night wind, and a faint shrill
+note that lay deep in the shadows beyond.  It was a curious rumbling
+noise, as though ghosts of the hills on the right were playing bowls with
+rounded rocks.  And the shrilling skirl grew louder as if men marched
+behind bagpipes.
+
+The Gulab heard it, too, and her body stiffened, her head thrust from the
+enveloping cloak, and her eyes showed like darkened sapphires.
+
+"Carts carrying cotton perhaps," he said.  But presently he knew that
+small cotton carts but rattled, the volume of rumbling was as if an army
+moved.
+
+From up the road floated the staccato note of a staff beating its
+surface, and the clanking tinkle of an iron ring against the wooden staff.
+
+"A mail-carrier," Barlow said.
+
+And then to the monotonous pat-pat-pat of trotting feet the mail-carrier
+emerged from the grey wall of night.
+
+"Here, you, what comes?" the Captain queried, checking the grey.
+
+The postie stopped in terror at the English voice.
+
+"Salaam, Bahadur Sahib; it is war."
+
+"Thou art a tree owl," and Barlow laughed.  "A war does not spring up
+like a drift of driven dust.  Is it some raja's elephants and carts with
+his harem going to a _durbar_?"
+
+"Sahib, it is, as I have said, war.  The big brass cannon that is called
+'The Humbler of Cities,' goes forth to speak its order, and with it are
+sepoys to feed it the food of destruction.  Beyond that I know not,
+Sahib, for I am a man of peace, being but a runner of the post."
+
+Then he salaamed and sifted into the night gloom like a thrown handful of
+white sand, echoing back the clamp-clamp-clamp of his staff's iron ring,
+which was a signal to all cobras to move from the path of him who ran,
+slip their chilled folds from the warm dust of the road.
+
+And on in front what had been sounds of mystery was now a turmoil of
+noises.  The hissing screech, the wails, were the expostulations of
+tortured axles; the rumbling boom was unexplainable; but the jungle of
+the hillside was possessed of screaming devils.  Black-faced,
+white-whiskered monkeys roused by the din, screamed cries of hate and
+alarm as they scurried in volplaning leaps from tree to tree.  And
+peacocks, awakened when they should have slept, called with their harsh
+voices from lofty perches.
+
+A party of villagers hurried by, shifting their cheap turbans to hide
+faces as they scurried along.
+
+The Gulab was trembling; perhaps the decoits, led by Hunsa, had come by a
+shorter way; for they were like beasts of the jungle in this art of
+silent, swift travel.
+
+"Sahib," she pleaded, "go from the road."
+
+"Why, Bootea?"
+
+"The one with the staff spoke of soldiers."
+
+He laughed and patted her shoulder.  "Don't fear, little lady," he said,
+"an army doesn't make war upon one, even if they are soldiers.  It will
+be but a wedding party who now take the wife to the village of her
+husband."
+
+"Not at night; and a Sahib who carries a woman upon his saddle will hear
+words of offence."
+
+Though Barlow laughed he was troubled.  What if the smouldering fire of
+sedition had flared up, and that even now men of Sindhia's were slipping
+on a night march toward some massing of rebels.  The resonant, heavy
+moaning of massive wheels was like the rumble of a gun carriage.  And,
+too, there was the drumming of many hoofs upon the road.  Barlow's ear
+told him it was the rhythmic beat of cavalry horses, not the erratic
+rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat of native ponies.
+
+With a pressure upon the rein he edged the grey from the white road to a
+fringe of bamboo and date palms, saying; "If you will wait here, Gulab,
+I'll see what this is all about."
+
+He slipped from the saddle and lifted her gently to the ground saying,
+"Don't move; of a certainty it is nothing but the passing of some raja.
+But, if by any chance I don't return, wait until all is still, until all
+have gone, and then some well-disposed driver of a bullock cart will take
+you on your way."  Putting his hand in his pocket, and drawing it forth,
+he added: "Here is the compeller of friendship--silver; for a bribe even
+an enemy will become a friend."
+
+But the Gulab with her slim fingers closed his hand over the rupees, and
+pressed the back of it against her lips saying, "If I die it is nothing.
+But stay here, Sahib, they may be--"
+
+She stopped, and he asked, "May be who, Gulab?"
+
+"Men who will harm thee."
+
+But Barlow lifting to the saddle passed to the road, and Bootea crumpled
+down in a little desolate heap of misery, her fingers thrust within her
+bodice, pleading with an amulet for protection for the Sahib.  She prayed
+to her own village god to breathe mercy into the hearts of those who
+marched in war, and if it were the Bagrees, that Bhowanee would vouchsafe
+them an omen that to harm the one on a white horse would bring her wrath
+upon their families and their villages.
+
+Captain Barlow reined in the grey on the roadside, for those that marched
+were close.  Now he could see, two abreast, horses that carried cavalry
+men.  Ten couples of the troop rode by with low-voiced exchanges of words
+amongst themselves.  A petty officer rode at their heels, and behind him,
+on a bay Arab, whose sweated skin glistened like red wine in the
+moonlight, came a _risiladar_, the commander of the troop.  A little down
+the road Barlow could see an undulating, swaying huge ribbon of
+white-and-pink bullocks, twenty-four yoke of the tall lean-flanked
+powerful _Amrit Mahal_, the breed that Hyder Ali long ago had brought on
+his conquering way to the land of the Mahrattas.  And beyond the
+ghost-like line of white creatures was some huge thing that they drew.
+
+The commander reined his Arab to a stand beside Barlow and saluted,
+saying, "Salaam, Major Sahib--you ride alone?"
+
+Barlow said: "My salaams, Risiladar, and I am but a captain.  I ride at
+night because the days are hot.  My two men have gone before me because
+my horse dropped a shoe which had to be replaced.  Did the Risiladar see
+my two servants that were mounted?"
+
+"I met none such," the commander answered.  "Perhaps in some village they
+have rested for a drink of liquor; they of the army are given to such
+practices when their Captain's eye is not upon them.  I go with
+this"--and he waved a gauntleted hand back toward the thing that loomed
+beyond the bullocks that had now come to a halt.  "It is the brass
+cannon, the like of which there is no other.  We go to the camp of the
+Amil, who commands the Sindhia troops, taking him the brass cannon that
+it may compel a Musselman zemindar to pay the tax that is long past due.
+Why the barbarian should not pay I know not for a tax of one-fourth is
+not much for a foreigner, a debased follower of Mahomet, to render unto
+the ruler of this land that is the garden of the world.  He has shut
+himself and men up in his mud fort, but when this brass mother of
+destruction spits into his stronghold a ball or two that is not opium he
+will come forth or we will enter by the gate the cannon has made."
+
+"Then there will be bloodshed, Risiladar," Barlow declared.
+
+"True, Captain Sahib; but that is, after a manner, the method of
+collecting just dues in this land where those who till the soil now,
+were, but a generation or two since, men of the sword,--they can't forget
+the traditions.  In the land of the British Raj six inches of a paper,
+with a big seal duly affixed, would do the business.  That I know, for I
+have travelled far, Sahib.  As to the bloodshed, worse will be the
+trampling of crops, for in the district of this worshipper of Mahomet the
+wheat grows like wild scrub in the jungle, taller than up to the belly of
+my horse.  That is the whyfore of the cannon, in a way of speaking,
+because from a hill we can send to this man a slaying message, and leave
+the wheat standing to fill the bellies of those who are in his hands as a
+tyrant.  Sirdar Baptiste was for sending a thousand sepoys to put the
+fear of destruction in the debtor; but the Dewan with his eye on revenue
+from crops, hit upon this plan of the loud-voiced one of brass."
+
+Then the commander ordered the advance, and saluting, said: "Salaam,
+Captain Sahib, and if I meet with your servants I will give them news
+that you desire their presence."
+
+When the huge cannon had rumbled by, and behind it had passed a company
+of sepoys on foot, Barlow turned his horse into the jungle for Gulab.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Bootea's eyes glistened like stars when, lowering a hand, Barlow said:
+"Put a foot upon mine, Gulab, and I'll swing you up."
+
+When they were on the road she said; "I saw them.  It is as the runner
+said, war--is it so, Sahib?"
+
+"The Captain says that he goes to collect revenue, but it may be that
+he spoke a lie, for it is said that a man of the land of the Five
+Rivers, which is the Punjaub, has five ways of telling a tale, and but
+one of them is the truth and comes last."
+
+The girl pondered over this for a little, and then asked; "Does the
+Sahib think perhaps it is war against his people?"
+
+That was just what was in Barlow's mind since he had seen the big gun
+going forth at night; that perhaps the plot that was just a whisper,
+fainter than the hum of a humming bird's wing, was moving with swift
+silent velocity.
+
+"Why do you ask that question?  Have you heard from lips--perhaps
+loosened by wine or desire--aught of this?"
+
+When she remained without answer, Barlow tapped his fingers lightly
+upon her shoulder, saying, "Tell me, girl."
+
+"I have heard nothing of war," she said.  "There was a something though
+that men whispered in the dark."
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"It was of the Chief of the Pindaris."
+
+She felt the quivering start that ran through Barlow's body; but he
+said quietly: "With the Pindaris there is always trouble.  Something of
+robbery--of a raid, was it?"
+
+"I will listen again to those that whisper in the dark," she answered,
+"and perhaps if it concerns you, for your protection, I will tell."
+
+"I hope those men didn't fall in with my two chaps," Barlow said,
+rather voicing his thoughts than in the way of speaking to the girl.
+
+"The two who rode--they were the Captain Sahib's servants?"
+
+Barlow started.  "Yes, they were: I suppose I can trust you."
+
+"And the Sahib is troubled?  Perhaps it was a message for the Sahib
+that they carried."
+
+"I don't know," he answered, evasively.  "I was thinking that perhaps
+they might be messengers, for our sepoys are not stationed here, and
+come but on such errands."
+
+"And if they were lulled, and the message stolen, it would cause
+trouble?"
+
+She felt him tremble as he looked down into her eyes.
+
+"I don't know.  But the messages of a Raj are not for the ears of men
+to whom they have not been sent."
+
+Barlow had an intuition that the girl's words were not prompted by idle
+curiosity.  He was possessed of a sudden gloomy impression that she
+knew something of the two men who rode.  And it was strange that they
+had not been seen upon either of the roads.  The officer spoke of them
+frankly, and not as a man hiding something.
+
+Suddenly he took a firm resolve, perhaps a dangerous one; not dangerous
+though if his men had really gone through.
+
+"Gulab," he said,--and with his hand he turned her face up by the chin
+till their eyes were close together,--"if the two bore a message for
+me, and it was stolen, I would be like that one you loved was lost."
+
+The beautiful face swung from his palm and he could hear her gasping.
+
+"You know something?" he said, and he caressed the smooth black tresses.
+
+"I did not see them, Sahib."
+
+They rode in silence for half a mile and then she said, "Perhaps,
+Sahib, Bootea can help you--if the message is lost."
+
+"And you will, girl?"
+
+"I will, Sahib; even if I die for doing it, I will."
+
+His arm tightened about her with a shrug of assuring thankfulness, and
+she knew that this man trusted her and was not sorry of her burden.
+Little child-dreams floated through her mind that the silver-faced moon
+would hang there above and light the world forever,--for the moon was
+the soul of the god Purusha whose sacrificed body had created the
+world,--and that she would ride forever in the arms of this fair-faced
+god, and that they were both of one caste, the caste that had as mark
+the sweet pain in the heart.
+
+And Barlow was sometimes dropping the troubled thought of the missing
+order and the turmoil that would be in the Council of the Governor
+General when it became known, to mutter inwardly: "By Jove! if the
+chaps get wind of this, that I carried the Gulab throughout a moonlit
+night, there'll be nothing for me but to send in my papers.  I'll be
+drawn;--my leg'll be pulled."  And he reflected bitterly that nothing
+on earth, no protestation, no swearing by the gods, would make it
+believed as being what it was.  He chuckled once, picturing the face of
+the immaculate Elizabeth while she thrust into him a bodkin of moral
+autopsy, should she come to know of it.
+
+Bootea thought he had sighed, and laying her slim fingers against his
+neck said, "The Sahib is troubled."
+
+"I don't care a damn!" he declared in English, his mind still on the
+personal trail.
+
+Seeing that she, not understanding, had taken the sharp tone as a
+rebuke, he said, "If I had been alone, Gulab, I'd have been troubled
+sorely, but perhaps the gods have sent you to help out."
+
+"Ah, yes, God pulled our paths together.  And if Bootea is but a
+sacrifice that will be a favour, she is happy."
+
+If the girl had been of a white race, in her abandon of love she would
+have laid her lips against his, but the women of Hind do not kiss.
+
+The big plate of burnished silver slid, as if pushed by celestial
+fingers, across the azure dome toward the loomed walls of the Ghats
+that it would cross to dip into the sea, the Indian Ocean, and mile
+upon mile was picked from the front and laid behind by the grey as he
+strode with untiring swing toward his bed that waited on the high
+plateau of Poona.
+
+The night-jars, even the bats, had stilled their wings and slept in the
+limbs of the neem or the pipal, and the air that had borne the soft
+perfume of blossoms, and the pungent breath of jasmine, had chilled and
+grown heavy from the pressure of advancing night.
+
+The two on the grey rode sleepily; the Gulab warm and happy, cuddled in
+the protecting cloak, and Barlow grim, oppressed by fatigue and the
+mental strain of feared disaster.  Now the muscles of the horse rippled
+in heavier toil, and his hoofs beat the earth in shorted stride; the
+way was rising from the plain as it approached the plateau that was
+like an immense shelf let into the wall of the world above the lowland;
+a shelf that held jewels, topaz and diamonds, that glinted their red
+and yellow lights, and upon which rested giant pearls, the moonlight
+silvering the domes and minarets of white palaces and mosques of Poona.
+The dark hill upon which rested the Temple of Parvati threw its black
+outline against the sky, and like a burnished helmet glowed the golden
+dome beneath which sat the alabaster goddess.  At their feet, strung
+out between forbidding banks of clay and sand, ran a molten stream of
+silver, the sleepy waters of the Muta.
+
+"By Jove!" and Barlow, suddenly cognisant that he had practically
+arrived at the end of his ride, that the windmill of Don Quixote stood
+yonder on the hill, realised that in a sense, so far as Bootea was
+concerned, he had just drifted.  Now he asked: "I'm afraid, little
+girl, your Sahib is somewhat of a fool, for I have not asked where you
+want me to take you."
+
+"Yonder, Sahib," and her eyes were turned toward the jewelled hill.
+
+As they rose to the hilltop that was a slab of rock and sand carrying a
+city, he asked: "Where shall I put you down that will be near your
+place of rest, your friends?"
+
+"Is there a memsahib in the home of the Sahib?" she asked.
+
+"No, Bootea, not so lucky--nobody but servants."
+
+"Then I will go to the bungalow of the Sahib."
+
+"Confusion!" he exclaimed in moral trepidation.
+
+Bootea's hand touched his arm, and she turned her face inward to hide
+the hot flush that lay upon it.  "No, Sahib, not because of Bootea; one
+does not sleep in the lap of a god."
+
+"All right, girl," he answered--"sorry."
+
+As the grey plodded tiredly down the avenue of trees, a smooth road
+bordered by a hedge of cactus and lanten, Barlow turned him to the
+right up a drive of broken stone, and dropping to the ground at the
+verandah of a white-waited bungalow, lifted the girl down, saying:
+"Within it can be arranged for a rest place for you."
+
+A _chowkidar_, lean, like a mummified mendicant, rose up from a
+squeaking, roped _charpoy_ and salaamed.
+
+"Take the horse to the stable, Jungwa, and tell the _syce_ to undress
+him.  Remember to keep that monkey tongue of yours between your teeth
+for in my room hangs a bitter whip.  It is a lie that I have not ridden
+home alone," Barlow commanded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+As Barlow led the Gulab within the bungalow she drew, as a veil, a
+light silk scarf across her face.
+
+Upon the floor of the front room a bearer, head buried in yards of pink
+cotton cloth, his _puggri_, lay fast asleep.
+
+As Barlow raised a foot to touch the sleeper in the ribs the girl drew
+him back, put the tips of her finger to her lips, and pointed toward
+the bedroom door.
+
+Barlow shook his head, the flickering flame of the wick in an iron
+oil-lamp that rested in a niche of the wall exaggerating to ferocity
+the frown that topped his eyes.
+
+But Bootea pleaded with a mute salaam, and raising her lips to his ear
+whispered, "Not because of what is not permitted--not because of
+Bootea--please."
+
+With an arm he swept back the beaded tendrils of a hanging
+door-curtain, the girl glided to the darkness of the room, and Barlow,
+lifting from its niche the iron lamp, followed.  Within, she pointed to
+the door that lay open and Barlow, half in rebellion, softly closed it.
+As he turned he saw that she had dropped from their holding cords the
+heavy brocaded silk curtains of the window.
+
+His limbs were numb from the long ride with the weight of the girl's
+body across his thighs; he was tired; he was mentally distressed over
+the messengers he had failed to locate, and this, the almost forced
+intrusion of Bootea into his bedroom, the closed door and the curtained
+windows, her doing, was just another turn of the kaleidoscope with its
+bits of broken glass of a nightmare.  He dropped wearily into a big
+cane-bottomed Hindu chair, saying; "Little wilted rose, cuddle up on
+that divan among the cushions and rest, while you tell me why we sit in
+_purdah_."
+
+The girl dragged a cushion from the divan, and placing it on the floor
+beside his chair, sat on it, curling her feet beneath her knees.
+
+Barlow groaned inwardly.  If his mind had not been so lethargic because
+of the things that weighted it, like the leaden soles upon a diver's
+boots, he would have roused himself to say, "Look here, a chap can't
+pull a girl who is as sweet as a flower and as trusting as a babe, out
+of trouble and then make bazaar love to her; he can't do it if he's any
+sort of a chap."  All this was casually in his mind, but he let his
+tired eyes droop, and his hand that hung over the teak-wood arm of the
+chair rested upon the girl's shoulder.
+
+"Bootea will soon go so that the Sahib may sleep, for he is tired," she
+said; "but first there is something to be said, and I have come close
+to the Sahib because men not alone whisper in the dark but they listen."
+
+The hand that rested on Bootea's shoulder lifted to her cheek, and
+strong fingers caressed its oval.
+
+"Would the Sahib sleep, and would his mind rest if he knew where the
+two who rode are?"
+
+Barlow sat bolt upright in the chair, roused, the lethargy gone, as if
+he had poured raw whisky down his throat.  And he was glad, the closed
+door and the drawn curtains were not now things of debasement.  Curious
+that he should care what this little Hindu maid was like, but he did.
+His hand now clasped the girl's wrist, it almost hurt in its tenseness.
+
+"Yes, Gulab,"--and he subdued his voice,--"tell me if you know."
+
+"They are dead upon the road beyond where you saved Bootea."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me this before?"
+
+"It was too late, Sahib; and if you had gone there they would have
+killed you."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"That, I cannot tell."
+
+"You must, Gulab."
+
+"No, Bootea will not."
+
+Barlow stared angrily into the big eyes that were lifted to his, that
+though they lingered in soft loving upon his face, told him that she
+would not tell, that she would die first; even as he would have given
+his life if he had been captured by tribesmen and asked to betray his
+fellow men as the price of liberty.
+
+He threw himself back wearily in the chair.  "Why tell me this now,--to
+mock me, to exult?" he said, reproach in his voice.
+
+"But it is the message, Sahib, that is more than the life of a _sepoy_,
+is it not?"
+
+Again he sat up: "Why do you say this--do you know where it is?"
+
+She drew from beneath her bodice the sandal soles, saying: "These are
+from the feet of the messenger who is dead.  The one the Sahib beat
+over the head with his pistol dropped them,--and he was carrying them
+for a purpose.  The Sahib knows, perhaps, the secret way of this land."
+
+In the girl's hand was clasped the knife from her girdle, and she
+tendered it, hilt first: "Bootea knows not if they are of value, the
+leather soles, but if the Sahib would open them, then if there are eyes
+that watch the curtains are drawn."
+
+Barlow revivified, stimulated by hope, seized the knife and ran its
+sharp point around the stitching of the soles.  Between the double
+leather of one lay a thin, strong parchment-like paper.
+
+He gave a cry of exultation as, unfolding it, he saw the seal of his
+Raj.  His cry was a gasp of relief.  Almost the shatterment of his
+career had lain in that worn discoloured sole, and disaster to his Raj
+if it had fallen into the hands of the conspirators.
+
+In an ecstasy of relief he sprang to his feet, and lifting Bootea,
+clasped her in his arms, smothering her face in kisses, whispering:
+"Gulab, you are my preserver; you are the sweetest rose that ever
+bloomed!"
+
+He felt the pound of her heart against his breast, and her eyes
+mirrored a happiness that caused him to realise that he was going too
+far--drifting into troubled waters that threatened destruction.  The
+girl's soul had risen to her eyes and looked out as though he were a
+god.
+
+As if Bootea sensed the same impending evil she pushed Barlow from her
+and sank back to the cushion, her face shedding its radiancy.
+
+Cursing himself for the impetuous outburst Barlow slumped into the
+chair.
+
+"Gulab," he said presently, "my government gives reward for loyalty and
+service."
+
+"Bootea has had full reward," the girl answered.
+
+He continued: "We had talk on the road about the Pindaris; what did
+they who whisper in the dark say?"
+
+"That the chief, Amir Khan, has gathered an army, and they fear that
+because of an English bribe he will attack the Mahrattas; so the Dewan
+has brought men from Karowlee to go into the camp of the Pindaris in
+disguise and slay the chief for a reward."
+
+This information coming from Bootea was astounding.  Neither Resident
+Hodson nor Captain Barlow had suspected that there had been a leak.
+
+"And was there talk of this message from the British to--?" Barlow
+checked.
+
+"To the Sahib?" Bootea asked.  "Not of the message; but it was
+whispered that one would go to the Pindari camp to talk with Amir Khan,
+and perhaps it was the Sahib they meant.  And perhaps they knew he
+waited for orders from the government."
+
+Then suddenly it flashed upon Barlow that because of this he had been
+marked.  The foul riding in the game of polo that so nearly put him out
+of commission--it had been deliberately foul, he knew that, but he had
+attributed it to a personal anger on the part of the Mahratta officer,
+bred of rivalry in the game and the fanatical hate of an individual
+Hindu for an Englishman.
+
+"Now that a message has come will the Sahib go to the Pindari camp?"
+Bootea persisted.
+
+"Why do you ask, Gulab?"
+
+"Not in the way of treachery, but because the Sahib is now like a god;
+and because I may again be of service, for those who will slay Amir
+Khan will also slay the Sahib."
+
+"Gulab,--"
+
+Barlow's voice was drowned by yells of terror in the outer room.
+
+"Thieves!  Thieves have broken in to rob, and they have stolen my lamp!
+_Chowkidar, chowkidar_! wake, son of a pig!"
+
+It was the bearer, who, suddenly wakened by some noise, had in the dark
+groped for his lamp and found it missing.
+
+"Heavens!" the Captain exclaimed.  "Now the cook house will be
+empty--the servants will come!"  He rubbed a hand perplexedly over his
+forehead.  "Quick, Gulab, you must hide!"
+
+He swung open a wooden door between his room and a bedroom next.
+Within he said: "There's a bed, and you must sleep here till daylight,
+then I will have the _chowkidar_ take you to where you wish to go.  You
+couldn't go in the dark anyway.  Bar the door; you will be quite safe;
+don't be frightened."  He touched her cheek with his fingers: "Salaam,
+little girl."  Then, going out, he opened the door leading to the room
+of clamour, exclaiming angrily, "You fool, why do you scream in your
+dreams?"
+
+"God be thanked! it is the Sahib."  The bearer flopped to his knees and
+put his hands in abasement upon his master's feet.
+
+Jungwa had rushed into the room, staff in hand, at the outcry.  Now he
+stood glowering indignantly upon the grovelling bearer.
+
+"It is the opium, Sahib," he declared; "this fool spends all his time
+in the bazaar smoking with people of ill repute.  If the Presence will
+but admonish him with the whip our slumbers will not again be
+disturbed."
+
+The bearer, running true to the tenets of native servants, put up the
+universal alibi--a flat denial.
+
+"Sahib, you who are my father and my mother, be not angry, for I have
+not slept.  I observed the Sahib pass, but as he spoke not, I thought
+he had matters of import upon his mind and wished not to be disturbed."
+
+"A liar--by Mother Gunga!"  The _chowkidar_ prodded him in the ribs
+with the end of his staff, and turning in disgust, passed out.
+
+"Come, you fool!" Barlow commanded, returning to his room, and, sitting
+down wearily upon the bed, held up a leg.
+
+The bearer knelt and in silence stripped the _putties_ from his
+master's limbs, unlaced the shoes, and pulled off the breeches.
+
+When Barlow had slipped on the pyjamas handed him, he said: "Tell the
+_chowkidar_ to come to me at his waking from the first call of the
+crows."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+An omen of dire import all thugs believe is to hear the cry of a kite
+between midnight and dawn; to hear it before midnight does not matter,
+for the sleeper in turning over smothers the impending disaster beneath
+his body.  But Captain Barlow had put up no such defence if evil hung
+over him, for when the _chowkidar_ stood outside the door calling
+softly, "Captain Sahib!  Captain Sahib!"  Barlow lay just as he had
+flopped on the bed, his tiredness having held him as one dead.
+
+Gently the soft voice of the _chowkidar_ pulled him back out of his
+Nirvana of non-existence, and he called sleepily, "What is it?"
+
+"It is Jungwa," the watchman answered, "and I have received the Sahib's
+order to come at this hour."
+
+Then Barlow remembered.  He swung his feet to the floor, saying, "Come!"
+
+When the watchman had walked out of his sandals to approach in his bare
+feet, the Captain said, "Is your tongue still to remain in your mouth,
+Jungwa, or has it been made sacrifice to the knife for the sin of
+telling in the cookhouse tales of your Sahib and last night?"
+
+"No, Sahib, I have not spoken.  I am a Meena of the Ossary _jat_.  In
+Jaipur we guard the treasury and the zenanna of the Raja, and it is our
+chief who puts the _tika_ upon the forehead of the Maharaja when he
+ascends to the throne.  Think you, then, Sahib, that an Ossary would
+betray a trust?"
+
+Barlow fixed the lean saffron-hued face with a searching look, and
+muttered, "Damned if I don't believe the old chap is straight!"  "I
+think it is true," he said.  "Shut the door."  Then he continued: "The
+one who came last night is in the next room and you must take her out
+through the bathroom door, for there is cover of the crotons and
+oleanders, and then to the road.  Acquire a _gharry_ and go with her to
+where she directs you."
+
+"Salaam, Sahib! your servant will obey.  And as to the _chota hazri_,
+Sahib?"
+
+"By Jove! right you are, Jungwa"; for Barlow had forgotten that--the
+little breakfast, as it was called.
+
+Then he ran his fingers through his hair.  To send the Gulab off
+without even a cup of tea was one thing; to admit the bearer to know of
+her presence was another.
+
+The wily old watchman sensed what was passing in his master's mind, and
+he hazarded, diplomatically, "If the One is of high caste she will not
+eat what is brought by the bearer who is of the Sudra caste, but from
+the hands of a Meena none but the Brahmin _pundits_ refuse food."
+
+Barlow laughed; indeed the grizzled one had perception--he was an
+accomplice in the plot of secrecy.
+
+"Good!  Eggs and toast and tea.  Demand plenty--say your Sahib is
+hungry because of a long ride and nothing to eat.  But hurry, I hear
+the 'seven sisters' (crows) calling to sleepers that the sun is here
+with its warmth."
+
+Then the bearer entered, but Barlow ordered him away, saying, "Sit
+without till I call."
+
+As he slipped into breeches and brown riding boots he cursed softly the
+entanglement that had thrust upon him this thing of ill flavour.  Of
+course the watchman, even if he did keep his mouth shut, which would be
+a miracle in that land of bazaar gossip, would have but one opinion of
+why Bootea had spent the night in the bungalow.  But if Barlow squared
+this by speaking of a secret mission, that would be a knowledge that
+could be exchanged for gold.  Perhaps not all servants were spies, but
+there were always spies among servants.
+
+"Damn the thing!" he muttered; but he was helpless.  The old man would
+give no sign of what, no doubt, was in his mind; he would hold that
+leathery face in placid acquiescence in prevalent moral vagary.
+
+Then he tapped lightly on the wooden door, calling softly,
+"Bootea--Bootea!"
+
+When it was opened he said: "Food is coming, Gulab.  A man of caste
+brings it, and it is but eggs from which no life has been taken, so you
+may eat.  Then the _chowkidar_ will go with you."
+
+Jungwa brought the breakfast and put it down, saying, "I will wait,
+Sahib, outside the bathroom door."
+
+"Here is money--ten rupees for whatever is needed.  Be courteous to the
+lady, for she is not a _nautchni_."
+
+"The Sahib would entertain none such," the _chowkidar_ answered with a
+grave salaam.
+
+"Damn the thing!" Barlow groaned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+An hour later Barlow, mounted on a stalky Cabuli polo-pony, rode to the
+Residency, happy over the papers in his pocket, but troubling over how
+he could explain their possession and keep the girl out of it.  To even
+mention the Gulab, unless he fabricated a story, would let escape the
+night-ride, and, no doubt, in the perversity of things, Resident Hodson
+would want to know where she was and where he had taken her, and insist
+on having her produced for an official inquisition.  The Resident, a
+machine, would sacrifice a native woman without a tremor to the
+official gods.
+
+Barlow could formulate no plausible method; he could not hide the death
+of the two native messengers, and would simply have to take the stand
+of, "Here is this message from His Excellency and as to how I came by
+it is of as little importance as an order from the War Office
+regulating the colour of thread that attaches buttons to a tunic."
+
+He turned the Cabuli up the wide drive that led to the Residency, the
+big white walled bungalow in which Hodson lived, and shook his riding
+crop toward Elizabeth who was reading upon the verandah.  He swung from
+the saddle, and held out his hand to the girl, saying cheerily, "Hello,
+Beth!  Didn't you ride this morning, or are you back early?"
+
+The novel seemed to require support of the girl's hand, or she had not
+observed that of the caller.  Her face, always emotionless, was
+repellent in its composure as she said; "Father is just inside in his
+office with a native, and I fancy it's one of the usual dark things of
+mystery, for he asked me to sit here by the window that he might have
+both air and privacy; I'm to warn off all who might stand here against
+the wall with an open ear."
+
+"I'll pull a chair up and chat to you till he's--"
+
+"No, Captain Barlow--" Barlow winced at this formality--"Father, I'm
+sure, wants you in this matter; in fact, I think a _chuprassi_ is on
+his way now to your bungalow with the Resident's salaams."
+
+Barlow laid his fingers on the girl's shoulder: "I'm ghastly tired,
+Beth.  I'll come back to you."
+
+"Yes, India is enervating," she commented in a flat tone.
+
+Barlow had a curious impression that the girl's grey eyes had turned
+yellow as she made this observation.
+
+"Ah, Captain, glad you've come," Hodson said, rising and extending a
+hand across a flat-topped desk.  "I'm--I'm--well--pull a chair.  This
+is one Ajeet Singh," and he drooped slightly his thin, lean, bald head
+toward the Bagree Chief, who stood stiff and erect, one arm in a sling.
+
+At this, Ajeet, knowing it for an informal introduction, put his hand
+to his forehead, and said, "Salaam, Sahib."
+
+"_Tulwar_ play, sir, and an appeal for protection to the British, eh?"
+and Barlow indicated the arm in the sling.
+
+Still speaking in English Hodson said: "As to that,--" he pursed his
+thin lips,--"something dreadful has happened; this man has been mixed
+up in a decoity and has come for protection; he wants to turn Approver."
+
+"The usual thing; when these cut-throats are likely to be caught they
+turn Judas; to save their own necks they offer a sacrifice of their
+comrades."
+
+"Yes," the Resident affirmed, "but I'm glad he came.  Perhaps we had
+better just sit tight and let him go on--he's only nicely started.
+I've practically promised him that if what he confesses is of service
+to His Excellency's government I will give him our conditional pardon,
+and use what influence I have with the Peshwa.  But I fancy that old
+Baji Rao is mixed up in it himself."
+
+He turned to the decoit: "Commence again, and tell the truth; and if I
+believe, you may be given protection from the British; but as to
+Sindhia I have no power to protect his criminals."
+
+The decoit cleared his throat and began: "I, Ajeet Singh, hold
+allegiance to the Raja of Karowlee, and am Chief of the Bagrees, who
+are decoits."
+
+The Resident held up his hand: "Have patience."  He rose, and took from
+a little cabinet a small alabaster figure of _Kali_ which he placed
+upon the table, saying in English to Barlow, "When these decoits
+confess to be made Approvers, half of the confession is lies, for to
+swear them on our Bible is as little use as playing a tin whistle.  If
+he's a Bagree this is his goddess."
+
+In Hindi he said: "Ajeet Singh, if you are a Bagree decoit you are in
+the protection of Bhowanee, and you make oath to her."
+
+"Yes, Sahib."
+
+"This is Bhowanee,--that is your name for Kali,--and with obeisance to
+her make oath that you will tell the truth."
+
+"Yes, Sahib, it is the proper way."
+
+"Proceed."
+
+The jamadar with the fingers of his two hands clasped to his forehead
+in obeisance, declared: "If I, Ajeet Singh, tell that which is not
+true, Mother _Kali_, may thy wrath fall upon me and my family."
+
+Then Hodson shifted the black goddess and let it remain upon a corner
+of his table, surmising that the sight of it would help.
+
+"Speak, now," the Resident commanded; and the Jamadar proceeded.
+
+"Dewan Sewlal sent to Raja Karowlee for men for a mission, and whether
+it was in the letter he sent that _thugs_ should come I know not, but
+in our party were thugs, and that led to why I am here."
+
+"What is the difference, Ajeet," Hodson asked sharply.  "You are a
+decoit who robs and kills, and thugs kill and rob; you are both
+disciples of this murderous creature, Kali."
+
+"We who are decoits, while we make offerings to Kali, are not thugs.
+They have a chief mission of murder, while we have but desire to gain
+for our families from the rich.  The thugs came in this wise, sahib.
+Bhowanee created them from the sweat of her arms, and gave to them her
+tooth for a pick-axe, which is their emblem, a rib for a knife, and the
+hem of her garment for a noose to strangle.  The hem of her sacred
+garment was yellow-and-white, and the _roomal_ that they strangle with
+is yellow-and-white.  They are thugs, Sahib, and we are decoits."
+
+"A fine distinction, sir," and Barlow laughed.
+
+"Proceed," Hodson commanded.
+
+"We were told by the Dewan to go to the camp of the Pindaris and bring
+back the head of Amir Khan."
+
+"Lovely!" Barlow muttered softly; but Hodson started,--a slight rouge
+crept over his pale face and he said, "By Gad! this grows interesting,
+my dear Captain."
+
+"Absolutely Oriental," Barlow added.
+
+Then when their voices had stilled Ajeet continued: "But Hunsa had
+ridden with the Pindari Chief and he knew that he was well guarded, and
+that it would be impossible to bring his head in a basket, so we
+refused to go on this mission.  The Dewan was angry and would not give
+us food or pay.  Through Hunsa the Dewan sent word that we must obtain
+our living in the way of our profession, which is decoity."
+
+"I wonder," Barlow queried.
+
+But Hodson, nodding his head said: "Quite possible; and also quite
+probable that the dear avaricious Dewan would claim a share of the loot
+if it were of value, jewels especially."  He addressed Ajeet, "I have
+nothing to do with this; I am not Sindhia."
+
+"True, Sahib Bahadur, but a decoity was made upon a merchant on the
+road and he and his men were killed, but also two English _sowars_ were
+slain."
+
+"By heavens!"  The cool, trained, bloodless machine, that was a British
+Resident at a court of intrigue, was startled out of his composure; his
+eyes flashed to those of Barlow.
+
+But the Captain, knowing all this beforehand, had an advantage, and he
+showed no sign of trepidation.
+
+Then the thin drawn face of the Resident was flattened out by control,
+and he commanded the decoit to talk on.
+
+"I tried to save the two sepoys, and one was a sergeant, but I was
+stricken down with a wound and it was in the way of treachery."
+
+Ajeet laid a hand upon his wounded shoulder, saying, "When the two
+_sepoys_ rode suddenly out of the night into our camp, where there in
+the moonlight lay the bodies of the merchant and his men, the Bagrees
+were afraid lest the two should make report.  They rushed upon the two
+riders, and it was then that I was wounded.  I would have been killed
+but for this protection," and Ajeet rubbed affectionately the beautiful
+strong shirt-of-mail that enwrapped his torso.
+
+"And observe, Sahib, the wound is from behind, which is a wound of
+treachery.  As I rushed to the two and cried to them to be gone, a ball
+from a short gun in the hands of some Bagree smote me upon the
+shoulder, and this,--" he again touched the shirt-of-mail,--"and my
+shoulder-blade turned it from my heart.  Even then Hunsa thought I was
+dead.  And he was in league with the Dewan to obtain for Nana Sahib a
+girl of my household, who is called the Gulab because she is as
+beautiful as the moon."
+
+At this statement Barlow knew why the man he had beaten with his pistol
+had tried to seize the Gulab.  It was startling.  The leg that had
+rested across a knee clamped noisily to the floor, and a smothered
+"Damn!" escaped from his lips.  What a devilish complicated thing it
+was.
+
+Ajeet resumed: "Hunsa rushed to where the Gulab was in hiding and
+helped the men who had been sent by Nana Sahib to steal her.  Then he
+came back to our camp saying that many men had beaten him, and that he
+had been forced to flee."
+
+At this vagary Barlow chuckled inwardly.
+
+"What of the two soldiers?" Hodson asked; "why were they here in this
+land and at the camp of the Bagrees?"
+
+"I know not, Sahib."
+
+"Were the bodies robbed by your men--they would be--did they find
+papers that would indicate the two were messengers?" and the Resident's
+bloodless fingers that clasped a pen were trembling with the
+suppression of the awful interest he strove to hide, for he knew, as
+well as Barlow, what their mission was.
+
+"Yes, Sahib, they were stripped and the bodies thrown in the pit with
+the others.  Eight rupees were taken, but as to papers I know nothing."
+
+"Where is the woman you call the Gulab?"
+
+"She will be in the hands of Nana Sahib," Ajeet answered; "and because
+of that I have come to confess so your Honour will save my life from
+him for he will make accusation that I was Chief of those who killed
+the soldiers of the British; and that the Sahib will cause to have
+returned to me the Gulab."
+
+The Resident took from a drawer a form, and his pen scratched irritably
+at blanks here and there.  He tossed it over to Barlow saying, "I'm
+going to give this decoit this provisional pardon; perhaps it will nail
+him.  What he has confessed is of value.  You translate this to him
+while I think; I can't make mistakes--I must not."
+
+Captain Barlow read to Ajeet the pardon, which was the form adopted by
+the British government to be issued to certain thugs and decoits who
+became spies, called Approvers, for the British.
+
+
+"You, Ajeet Singh, are promised exemption from the punishment of death
+and transportation beyond seas for all past offences, and such
+reasonable indulgence as your services may seem to merit, and may be
+compatible with your safe custody on condition:--1st, that you make
+full confession of all the decoities in which you have been engaged;
+2nd, that you mention truly the names of all your associates in these
+crimes, and assist to the utmost of your power in their arrest and
+conviction.  If you act contrary to these conditions--conceal any of
+the circumstances of the decoities in which you have been
+engaged--screen any of your friends--attempt to escape--or accuse any
+innocent person--you shall be considered to have forfeited thereby all
+claims to such exemption and indulgence."
+
+
+When the Captain had finished interpreting this the Resident passed it
+to the decoit, saying: "This will protect you from the British.  You
+are now bound to the British; and I want you to bring me any papers
+that may have been found upon the two soldiers.  Bring here this woman,
+the Gulab, if you can find her.  Go now."
+
+When Ajeet, with a deep salaam, had gone from the room Hodson threw
+himself back in his chair wearily and sighed.  Then he said: "A woman!
+the jamadar was lying--all that stuff about Nana Sahib.  There's been
+some deviltry; they've used this woman to trap the messengers; that's
+India.  It's the papers they were after; they must have known they were
+coming; and they've hidden the woman.  We've got to lay hands upon her,
+Captain--she's the key-note."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Barlow had waited until the decoit would have gone before showing the
+papers that were in his pocket because it was an advantage that the
+enemy should think them lost.  He was checked now as he put a hand in
+his pocket to produce them by the entrance of Elizabeth, and he fancied
+there was a sneer on her thin lips.
+
+"Father," she said, as she leaned against the desk, one hand on its
+teak-wood top, "I've been listening to the handsome leader of thieves;
+I couldn't help hearing him.  I fancy that Captain Barlow could tell
+you just where this woman, the Gulab, who is as beautiful as the moon,
+is.  I'm sure he could bring her here--if he _would_."
+
+The Captain's fingers unclasped from the papers in his pocket, and now
+were beating a tattoo on his knee.
+
+"Elizabeth!" the father gasped, "do you know what you are saying?"  His
+cold grey eyes were wide with astonishment.  "Did you hear all of Ajeet
+Singh's story?"
+
+"Yes, all of it."
+
+"It's your friend, Nana Sahib, whom you treat as if he were an
+Englishman and to be trusted, that knows where this woman is,
+Elizabeth."
+
+A cynical laugh issued from the girl's lips that were so like her
+father's in their unsympathetic contour: "Yes, one may trust men, but a
+woman's eyes are given her to prevent disaster from this trust which is
+so natural to the deceivable sex."
+
+"Elizabeth! you do not know what you are saying--what the inference
+would be."
+
+"Ask Captain Barlow if he doesn't know all about the Gulab's movements."
+
+The Resident pushed irritably some papers on his desk, and turning in
+his chair, asked, "Can you explain this, Captain--what it is all about?"
+
+There were ripples of low temperature chilling the base of Barlow's
+skull.  "I can't explain it--it's beyond me," he answered doggedly.
+
+The girl turned upon him with ferocity.  "Don't lie, Captain Barlow; a
+British officer does not lie to his superior."
+
+"Hush, Beth," the father pleaded.
+
+"Don't you know, Captain Barlow," the girl demanded, "that this woman,
+the Gulab, is one who uses her beauty to betray men, even Sahibs?"
+
+"No, I don't know that, Miss Hodson.  I saw her dance at Nana Sahib's
+and I've heard Ajeet's statement.  I don't know anything evil of the
+girl, and I don't believe it."
+
+"A man's sense of honour where a woman is concerned--lie to protect
+her.  I have no illusions about the Sahibs in India," she continued, in
+a tone that was devilish in its cynicism, "but I did think that a
+British officer would put his duty to his King above the shielding of a
+_nautch_ girl."
+
+"Elizabeth!"  Hodson rose and put a hand upon the girl's arm; "do you
+realise that you are doing a dreadful thing--that you are impeaching
+Captain Barlow's honour as a soldier?"
+
+Barlow's face was white, and Hodson was trembling, but the girl stood,
+a merciless cold triumph in her face: "I do realise that, father.  For
+the girl I care nothing, nor for Captain Barlow's intrigue with such,
+but I am the daughter of the man who represents the British Raj here."
+
+Barlow, knowing the full deviltry of this high protestation, knowing
+that Elizabeth, imperious, dominating, cold-blooded, was knifing a
+supposed rival--a rival not in love, for he fancied Elizabeth was
+incapable of love--felt a surge of indignation.
+
+"For God's sake, Elizabeth, what impossible thing has led you to
+believe that Captain Barlow has anything to do with this girl?" the
+father asked.
+
+"I'll tell you; the matter is too grave for me to remain silent.  This
+morning I rode early--earlier than usual, for I wanted to pick up the
+Captain before he had started.  As I turned my mount in to his compound
+I saw, coming from the back of the bungalow, this native woman, and she
+was being taken away by his _chowkidar_.  She had just come out some
+back door of the bungalow, for from the drive I could see the open
+space that lay between the bungalow and the servants' quarters."
+
+Hodson dropped a hand to the teak-wood desk; it looked inadequate,
+thin, bloodless; blue veins mapped its white back.  "You are mistaken,
+Elizabeth, I'm sure.  Some other girl--"
+
+"No, father, I was not mistaken.  There are not many native girls like
+the Gulab, I'll admit.  As she turned a clump of crotons she saw me
+sitting my horse and drew a gauze scarf across her face to hide it.  I
+waited, and asked the _chowkidar_ if it were his daughter, and the old
+fool said it was the wife of his son; and the girl that he claimed was
+his son's wife had the iron bracelet of a Hindu widow on her arm.  And
+the Gulab wears one--I saw it the night she danced."
+
+A ghastly hush fell upon the three.  Barlow was moaning inwardly, "Poor
+Bootea!"; Hodson, fingers pressed to both temples, was trying to think
+this was all the mistaken outburst of an angry woman.  The
+strong-faced, honest, fearless soldier sitting in the chair could not
+be a traitor--_could not be_.
+
+Suddenly something went awry in the inflamed chambers of Elizabeth's
+mind--as if an electric current had been abruptly shut off.  She
+hesitated; she had meant to say more; but there was a staggering
+vacuity.
+
+With an effort she grasped a wavering thing of tangibility, and said:
+"I'm going now, father--to give the keys to the butler for breakfast.
+You can question Captain Barlow."
+
+Elizabeth turned and left the room; her feet were like dependents,
+servants that she had to direct to carry her on her way.  She did not
+call to the butler, but went to her room, closed the door, flung
+herself on the bed, face downward, and sobbed; tears that scalded
+splashed her cheeks, and she beat passionately with clenched fist at
+the pillow, beating, as she knew, at her heart.  It was incredible,
+this thing, her feelings.
+
+"I don't care--I don't care--I never did!" she gasped.
+
+But she did, and only now knew it.
+
+"I was right--I'm glad--I'd say it again!"
+
+But she would not, and she knew it.  She knew that Barlow could not be
+a traitor; she knew it; it was just a battered new love asserting
+itself.
+
+And below in the room the two men for a little sat not speaking of the
+ghoulish thing.  Barlow had drawn the papers from his pocket; he passed
+them silently across the table.
+
+Hodson, almost mechanically, had stretched a hand for them, and when
+they were opened, and he saw the seal, and realised what they were,
+some curious guttural sound issued from his lips as if he had waked in
+affright from a nightmare.  He pulled a drawer of the desk open, took
+out a cheroot--and lighted it.  Then he commenced to speak, slowly,
+droppingly, as one speaks who has suddenly been detected in a crime.
+He put a flat hand on the papers, holding them to the desk.  And it was
+Elizabeth he spoke of at first, as if the thing under his palm, that
+meant danger to an empire, was subservient.
+
+"Barlow, my boy," he said, "I'm old, I'm tired."
+
+The Captain, looking into the drawn face, had a curious feeling that
+Hodson was at least a hundred.  There was a floaty wonderment in his
+mind why the fifty-five-years'-service retirement rule had not been
+enforced in the Colonel's case.  Then he heard the other's words.
+
+"I've had but two gods, Barlow, the British Raj and Elizabeth; that's
+since her mother died.  In a little, a few years more, I will retire
+with just enough to live on plus my pension--perhaps in France, where
+it's cheap.  And then I'll still have two gods, Elizabeth and the one
+God.  And, Captain, somehow I had hoped that you and Elizabeth would
+hit it off, but I'm afraid she's made a mistake."
+
+Barlow had been following this with half his receptivity, for, though
+he fought against it, the memory of Bootea--gentle, trusting, radiating
+love, warmth--cried out against the bitter unfemininity of the girl who
+had stabbed his honour and his cleanness.  The black figure of Kali
+still rested on the table, and somehow the evil lines in the face of
+the goddess suggested the vindictiveness that had played about the thin
+lips of his accuser.
+
+And the very plea the father was making was reacting.  It was this,
+that he, Barlow, was rich, that a chance death or two would make him
+Lord Barradean, was the attraction, not love.  A girl couldn't be in
+love with a man and strive to break him.
+
+Hodson had taken up the papers, and was again scanning them mistily.
+
+"They were on the murdered messenger--he was killed, wasn't he, Barlow?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And has any native seen these papers, Captain?"
+
+"No, I cut them from the soles of the sandals the messenger wore,
+myself, Sir."
+
+"That is all then, Captain; we have them back--I may say, thank God!"
+He stood up and holding out his hand added, "Thank you, Captain.  I
+don't want to know anything about the matter--I'm too much machine now
+to measure rainbows--fancy I should wear a strip of red-tape as a tie."
+
+"If you will listen, Sir--there is another that I want to put right.
+Your daughter did see the Gulab, but because she had brought me the
+sandals.  And you can take an officer's word for it that the Gulab is
+not what Elizabeth believes."
+
+"Captain, I have lived a long time in India, too long to be led away by
+quick impressions, as unfortunately Elizabeth was.  I've outlived my
+prejudices.  When the _mhowa_ tree blooms I can take glorious pleasure
+from its gorgeous fragrant flowers and not quarrel with its leafless
+limbs.  When the pipal and the neem glisten with star flowers and
+sweeten the foetid night-air, it matters nothing to me that the natives
+believe evil gods home in the branches.  I know that even a cobra tries
+to get out of my way if I'll let him, and I know that the natives have
+beauty in their natures--one gets to almost love them as children.  So,
+my dear Captain, when you tell me that the Gulab rendered you and me
+and the British Raj this tremendous service, and add, quite
+unnecessarily, that she's a good girl, I believe it all; we need never
+bring it up again.  Elizabeth has just made a mistake.  And, Barlow,
+men are always forgiving the mistakes of women where their feelings are
+concerned--they must--that is one of the proofs of their strength.  But
+these"--and he patted the papers lovingly--"well, they're rather like a
+reprieve brought at the eleventh hour to a man who is to be executed.
+We're put in a difficult position, though.  To pass over in silence the
+killing of two soldiers would end only in the House of Commons;
+somebody would rise in his place and want to know why it had been
+hushed up.  But to take action, to create a stir, would give rise to a
+suspicion of the existence of this."
+
+Hodson rose from his chair and paced the floor, one hand clasped to his
+forehead, his small grey eyes carrying a dream-look as though he were
+seeking an occult enlightenment; then he sat down wearily, and spoke as
+if interpreting something that had been whispered him.
+
+"Yes, Barlow, this decoit has been seized by the Nana Sahib lot.  His
+life was forfeit, and they've offered him his life back to come here
+and turn Approver--to become a spy, not _for_ us but as a spy _on_ us
+for them.  Ajeet would know that information of his coming to me would
+be carried to them by spies--the spies are always with me--and his life
+wouldn't be worth two annas.  I gave him that pardon because we have no
+power to seize him here, but it will make them think that we have
+fallen into the trap.  They might even believe--wily and suspicious as
+they are--that what he gleans here is the truth.
+
+"There's a curious efficacy, Barlow, in what I might call an
+affectation of simplicity.  You know those stupid heavy-headed
+crocodiles in that big pool of the Nerbudda below the marble gorge, and
+how they'll take nearly an hour wallowing and sidling up to a mud-bank
+before they crawl out to bask in the sun; but just show the tip of your
+helmet above the rock and they're gone.  That's perhaps what I mean.
+As we might say back in dear old London, this wily Rajput thinks he has
+pulled my leg."
+
+"I think, Colonel, that you are dead onto his wicket."
+
+"Well, then, the thing to do is to emulate the mugger.  But
+this"--Hodson lifted the paper and he grew crisp, incisive, his grey
+eyes blued like temper purpling polished steel--"we've got to act:
+they've got to be delivered, and soon."
+
+"I am ready, Sir."
+
+"It's a dangerous mission--most dangerous."
+
+"Pardon, Sir?"
+
+"Sorry, Captain.  I was just thinking aloud--musing; forgive me.
+Perhaps when one likes a young man he lets the paternal spirit come in
+where it doesn't belong.  I'm sorry.  There's a trusty Patan here who
+could go with you," Hodson continued, "and this side of his own border
+he is absolutely to be trusted; I have my doubts if any Patan can be
+relied upon by us across the border."
+
+"I will go alone," Barlow said quietly.  Then his strong white teeth
+showed in a smile.  "You know the Moslem saying, Colonel, that ten
+Dervishes can sleep on one blanket, but a kingdom can only hold one
+king.  I don't mean about the honour of it, but it will be easier for
+me.  I went alone through the Maris tribe when we wanted to know what
+the trouble was that threatened up above the Bolan, and I had no
+difficulty.  You know, Sir, the playful name the chaps have given me
+for years?"
+
+"Yes--the 'Patan'--I've heard it."
+
+"I make a good Musselman--scarce need any make-up, I'm so dark; I can
+rattle off the _namaz_ (daily prayer), and sing the _moonakib_, the
+hymn of the followers of the Prophet."
+
+"Yes," Hodson said, his words coming slowly out of a deep think, "there
+will be Patans in the Pindari camp; in fact Pindari is an all-embracing
+name, having little of nationality about it.  Rajputs, Bundoolas,
+Patans, men of Oudh, Sindies--men who have the lust of battle and loot,
+all flock to the Pindari Chief.  Yes, it's a good idea, Captain, the
+disguise; not only for an unnoticed entrance to the camp, but to escape
+a waylaying by Nana Sahib's cut-throats."
+
+"Yes, Colonel, from what I have learned--from the Gulab it was,
+Sir--the Dewan has an inkling that I am going on a mission; and if I
+rode as myself the King might lose an officer, and officers cost pounds
+in the making."
+
+The Resident toyed with the papers on his desk, his brow wrinkled from
+a debate going on behind it; he rose, and grasping the black Kali
+carried it back to the cabinet, saying: "That devilish thing, so
+suggestive of what we are always up against here, makes me shiver."
+
+Then he sat down, adding, "Captain, there is another important matter
+connected with this.  The Rana of Udaipur is being stripped of every
+rupee by Holkar and Sindhia; they take turn about at him.  Holkar is up
+there now, where we have chased him--threatened to sack Udaipur unless
+he were paid seventy lakhs, seven million rupees--the accursed thief!
+We have managed to get an envoy to the Rana with a view to having him,
+and the other smaller rulers of Mewar, join forces with us to crush
+forever the Mahratta power--drive them out of Mewar for all time.  The
+Rajputs are a brave lot--men of high thought, and it is too bad to have
+these accursed cut-throats bleeding to death such a race.  If the Rana
+would sign this paper also as an assurance of friendship, to be shown
+the Pindari Chief, it would help greatly."
+
+"I understand, Colonel.  You wish me to get that from the Rana?"
+
+"Yes, Captain; and I may say that if you can get through with all this
+there will be no question about your Majority; you might even go higher
+up than Major."
+
+"By Jove! as to that, my dear Colonel, this trip is just good sport--I
+love it: less danger than playing polo with these rotters.  I'll swing
+over to Udaipur first--it's just west of the Pindari camp,--been there
+once before on a little pow-wow--then I'll switch back to Amir Khan."
+
+"I wish you luck, Captain; but be careful.  If we can feel sure that
+this horde of Pindaris are not hovering on our army's flank, like the
+Russians hovered on Napoleon's in the Moscow affair, it will be a great
+thing--you will have accomplished a wonderful thing."
+
+"Right you are, Sir," Barlow exclaimed blithely.  The stupendous task,
+for it was that, tonicked him; he was like a sportsman that had
+received news of a tiger within killing distance.  He rose, and
+stretched out his hand for the paper, saying: "I've got a job of
+cobbling to do--I'll put this between the soles of my sandal, as it was
+carried before--it's the safest place, really.  To-morrow I'll become
+an apostate, an Afghan; and I'll be busy, for I've got to do it all
+myself.  I can trust no one with a dark skin."
+
+"Not even the Gulab, I fear, Captain; one never knows when a woman will
+be swayed by some mental transition."  He was thinking of Elizabeth.
+
+"You're right, Colonel," Barlow answered.  "I fancy I could trust the
+Gulab--but I won't."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+Captain Barlow had been through a busy day.  The very fact that all he
+did in preparation for his journey to the Pindari camp had been done
+with his own hands, held under water, out of sight, had increased the
+strain upon him.
+
+In India in the usual routine of matters, a staff of ten servants form
+a composite second self to a Sahib: to hand him his boots, and lace
+them; to lay out his clothes, and hold them while slipped into; to
+bring a cheroot or a peg of whiskey; a _syce_ to bring the horse and
+rub a towel over the saddle--to hold the stirrup, even, for the lifted
+foot, and trotting behind, guard the horse when the Sahib makes a call;
+a man to go here and there with a note or to post a letter; a servant
+to whisk away a plate and replenish the crystal glass with pearl-beaded
+wine without sign from the drinker, and appear like a bidden ghost,
+clad in speckless white, silent and impassive of face, behind his
+master's chair at the table when he dines out; everything in fact
+beyond the mental whirl of the brain to be arranged by one or other of
+the ten.
+
+But this day Barlow had been like a man throwing detectives off his
+trail.  Not one of his servants must suspect that he contemplated a
+trip--no, not just that, for the Captain had intimated casually to the
+butler that he would go soon to Satara.
+
+Thus it had to be arranged secretly that he would ride from his
+bungalow as Captain Barlow and leave the city as Ayub Alli, an Afghan.
+
+Perhaps Barlow was over tired, that curious knotted condition of the
+nerves through overstrain that rasps a man's mental fibre beyond the
+narcotic of sleep, and yet holds him in a hectic state of half
+unconsciousness.  He counted camels--long strings of soured,
+complaining beasts, short-legged, stout, shaggy desert-ships, such as
+merchants of Kabul used to carry their dried fruits,--figs and dates
+and pomegranates, and the wondrous flavoured Sirdar melon,--wending
+across the Sind Desert of floating white sand to Rajasthan.
+
+Once a male, tickled to frenzy by the caress of a female's velvet lips
+upon his rump, with a hoarse bubbling scream, wheeled suddenly,
+snapping the thin lead-cord that reached from the tail of the camel in
+front to the button in his nostril, and charged the lady in an
+exuberance of affection with a full broadside--thrust from his chest
+that bowled her over, where she lay among the fragments of two huge
+broken burnt-clay _gumlas_, that, filled with water, had been lashed to
+her sides.
+
+Barlow sat up at this startling tumult that was the outcome of his
+slipping a little into slumber.  He threw his head back on the pillow
+with a smothered, "Damn!"
+
+His bed had creaked, and an answering echo as if something had slipped
+or slid, perhaps the sole of a bare foot on the fibrous floor matting,
+at the window, fell upon his senses.  Turning his face toward the sound
+he waited, eyes trying to pierce the gloom, and ear attuned.  He almost
+cried out in alarm as something floated through the dark from the
+window and fell with a soft thud upon his face.  He brushed at the
+something--perhaps a bat, or a lizard, or a snake--with his hand and
+received a sharp prick, a little dart of pain in a thumb.  He sprang
+from the bed, lighted the wick that floated in the iron lamp, and
+discovered that the thing of dread was a rose, its petals red against
+the white sheet.
+
+He knew who must have thrown the rose, and almost wished that it had
+been a chance missil, even a snake, but he put the lamp down, passed
+into the bathroom, and unbarring the wooden door, called softly, "Who
+is there?"
+
+From the cover of an oleander a slight girlish form rose up and came to
+the door saying, "It is Bootea, Sahib; do not be angry,--there is
+something to be said."
+
+By the arm he led her within and bidding her wait, passed to the
+bedroom and drew the heavy curtains of the windows.  Then he went
+through the drawing-room and out to the verandah, where the watchman
+lay asleep on his roped charpoy.  Barlow woke him: "There's a thief
+prowling about the bungalow.  Do not sleep till I give you permission.
+See that no one enters," he commanded.
+
+He went back to his room, closed and barred the door, and told Bootea
+to come.
+
+When the girl entered he said: "You should not have come here; there
+are eyes, and ears, and evil tongues."
+
+"That is true, Sahib, but also death is evil--sometimes."
+
+"I have brought this to the Sahib," Bootea said as she drew a paper
+from her breast and passed it to the Captain.  It was the pardon the
+Resident had given that morning to Ajeet Singh.
+
+Barlow, though startled, schooled his voice to an even tone as he
+asked: "Where did you get this--where is Ajeet?"
+
+"As to the paper, Sahib, what matters how Bootea came by it; as to
+Ajeet, he is in the grasp of the Dewan who learned that he had been to
+the Resident in the way of treachery."
+
+"Ajeet thought Nana Sahib had stolen you, Bootea."
+
+"Yes, Sahib, for he did not find me when he went to the camp, and I did
+not go there.  But now he would betray the Sahibs, that is why I have
+brought back the paper of protection."
+
+"Will they kill Ajeet?" Barlow asked.
+
+"I will tell the Sahib what is," the girl answered, drawing her _sari_
+over her curled-in feet, and leaning one arm on Barlow's chair.  "The
+decoity that was committed last night was, as Ajeet feared, because of
+treachery on the part of the Dewan.  I will tell it all, though it
+might be thought a treachery to the decoits.  As to being false to
+one's own clan Ajeet is, because he is a Bagree--but I am not."
+
+Barlow pondered over this statement.  The girl had mystified him--that
+is as to her breeding.  Sometimes she spoke in the first person and
+again in the third person, like so many natives, as if her language had
+been picked up colloquially.  But then the use of the third person when
+she used Bootea instead of a nominative pronoun might be due to a
+cultured deference toward a Sahib.
+
+"I thought you were not of these people--you are of high caste,
+Bootea," he said presently.
+
+He heard the girl gasp, and looking quickly into her eyes saw that they
+were staring as if in fright.
+
+For a space of a few seconds she did not answer; then she said, and
+Barlow felt her voice was being held under control by force of will: "I
+am Bootea, one in the care of Ajeet Singh.  That is the present, Sahib,
+and the past--"  She touched the iron bracelet on her arm, and looked
+into Barlow's eyes as if she asked him to bury the past.
+
+"Sorry, girl--forgive me," he said.
+
+"Ajeet has told why the men were brought--for what purpose?"
+
+"Yes, Gulab; to kill Amir Khan."
+
+"And when they refused to go on this mission, the Dewan, to get them in
+his power, connived with Hunsa to make the decoity so that their lives
+would be forfeit, then if the Dewan punished them for not going the
+Raja of Karowlee could not make trouble.  Hunsa told the Dewan that if
+I were sent to dance before Amir Khan, some of the men going as
+musicians and actors, the Chief would fall in love with me, and that I
+could betray him to those who would kill him; that he would come to my
+tent at night unobserved--because he has a wife with him--and that
+Hunsa would creep into the tent and kill him as he slept; then we would
+escape."
+
+Barlow sprang to his feet and paced the floor; then he plumped into the
+chair again, saying: "What an unholy scheme, even for India.  Gad! how
+I wish I'd killed the brute when I had the chance."
+
+"I did not know that Hunsa had proposed this--neither did Ajeet; for
+they wanted to get him in their power through the decoity so that if he
+refused permission he might be killed.  And now Ajeet is trapped
+through the decoity and Bootea is going to the Pindari camp."
+
+"You're not going to betray Amir Khan, have him murdered!" Barlow
+cried, aghast at the villainy, at the thought that one so sweet could
+be forced to complicity in such a ghastly crime.
+
+"No, Sahib, to _save_ his life, for if I do not go now Ajeet will be
+killed, and all the others put in prison because of the decoity.  Worse
+will happen Bootea,--she will be placed in the seraglio of Nana Sahib."
+
+"Damn it! they can't do that!" Barlow exclaimed angrily.  "I'll stop
+that."
+
+"No, the Sahib can't; and he has a mission, he is not of the service of
+protecting Bootea."
+
+"You can't save Amir Khan's life unless you betray the Bagrees to him?"
+
+"Yes, Sahib, I can.  Perhaps the Chief will like Bootea, and will
+listen to what she says.  Men such as brave warriors always treat
+Bootea not as a _nautchni_ so I will ask him not to come to the tent at
+night because of ill repute.  Hunsa will not be able to slay him unless
+it is a trap on my part to get him from the watching eyes of his men.
+If Hunsa becomes suspicious, and there is real danger, I will threaten
+that I will expose him to the Chief.  If we come back because we have
+failed in our mission, having tried to succeed, it will not be like
+refusing to go; and perhaps there will be mercy shown."
+
+"Mercy!" Barlow sneered; "Nana Sahib knows nothing of mercy, he's a
+tiger."
+
+"But if I refuse to go another _nautchni_ will be sent, perhaps more
+beautiful than I am, and she would betray the Chief, and perhaps all
+would be killed."
+
+"By Jove! you're some woman, you're magnificent--you're like a Rajputni
+princess."
+
+A slim hand was placed on Barlow's wrist and the girl said, "Sahib, I
+am just Bootea,--please, please!"
+
+"And that's your reason for taking this awful chance, to save Ajeet and
+the others--is it?"
+
+"There is another reason, Sahib."  The girl dropped her eyes and
+turning a gold bangle on her wrist gazed upon a ruby that had the
+contour of a serpent's head.  Presently she asked, "Will the Sahib go
+to Khureyra and have a knife thrust between his ribs?"
+
+Barlow was startled by this query.  "Why should I go to Khureyra,
+Gulab?"
+
+"To see Amir Khan."
+
+"What makes you say that?"
+
+"Because it is known.  But the Chief is not now there--he has taken his
+horsemen to Saugor."
+
+Again this was startling.  Also the information was of great value.  If
+the Pindari horde had left the territory of Sindhia and crossed the
+border into Saugor they were closer to the British.
+
+Barlow patted the girl's hand, saying, "My salaams to you, little girl."
+
+He felt her slim cool fingers press his hand, but he shrank from the
+claiming touch, muttering, "The damned barrier!"
+
+Suddenly Barlow remembered Bootea had spoken of another reason for
+going to the Pindari camp.  He puzzled over this a little, hesitating
+to question her; she had not told him what it was, but had asked if he
+were going there; the reason evidently had something to do with him.
+It couldn't be treachery--she had done so much for him; it must be the
+something that looked out of her eyes when they rested on his face, the
+unworded greatest thing on earth in the way of fealty and devotion.
+Possibly this was the grand motive, the reason she had given being
+secondary.
+
+"You said, Gulab, that you had another reason for this awful trip; what
+is it?" he asked.
+
+The girl's eyes dropped to the ruby bracelet again; "To acquire merit
+in the eyes of Mahadeo, Sahib."
+
+"To do good acts so that you may be reincarnated as a heaven-born, a
+Brahmini, perhaps even come back as a memsahib."
+
+At this her big eyes rose to Barlow's face, and he could swear that
+there were tears misting them; and sensing that if she had fallen in
+love with him, what he had said about her becoming a memsahib had hurt.
+Perhaps she, as he did, realised that that was the barred door to
+happiness--that she wasn't of the white race.
+
+"Yes, Sahib," she said presently, "a Swami told me that in a former
+life I had been evil."
+
+"The Swami is an awful liar!" Barlow ejaculated.
+
+"The holy ones speak the truth, Sahib.  The Swami said that because of
+having been beautiful I had caused deaths through jealousy."
+
+"Oh, the crazy fool!" Barlow declared in English; "and it's all rot!
+This is the reason you spoke of, Gulab--good deeds; is it the only
+other reason?"
+
+The girl turned her face away, and Barlow saw her shoulders quiver.
+
+He rose from the chair, and lifting the girl to her feet held her in
+his arms, saying: "Look me in the eyes, Gulab, and tell me if you are
+going through this devilish thing because of me."
+
+"Bootea is going to the camp of Amir Khan because Hunsa and the others
+have been told to kill the Sahib; and she will see that this is not
+accomplished."
+
+Barlow clasped the girl to his breast and smothered her face in kisses;
+"You are the sweetest little woman that ever lived," he said; "and I am
+a sinner, for this can only bring you misery."
+
+"Sahib--it can't be, but it is not misery.  The sweet pain has been put
+in the heart of Bootea by the Sahib's eyes, and she is happy.  But do
+not go as a Sahib."
+
+Barlow cursed softly to himself, muttering, "India!  Even dreams are
+not unheard!"  Then, "What made you say that?" he queried.
+
+"It is known because that is the way of the Sahib.  He knows that where
+he sleeps or eats, or plays games with the little balls, that there are
+always servants, and it is known that Captain Barrle is called the
+Patan by his friends."
+
+"St. George and the Cross!" he ejaculated.  "If I were thus would they
+know me?" he asked.  "There would be danger, but the Sahib knowing of
+this, could take more care in the way of deceit.  But Bootea will
+know--the eyes will not be hidden."
+
+Then he thought of Hunsa, and asked, "But aren't you afraid to go with
+that beast, Hunsa?"
+
+The girl laughed.  "The decoits have orders from the Dewan to kill him
+if I complain of him; but if they do not he is promised the torture
+when he comes back if I make complaint.  If the Sahib will but wait a
+few days before the journey so that Bootea has made friends with Amir
+Kami before he comes, it will be better.  We will start in two days."
+
+"I'll see, Gulab," he answered evasively.  "You are going now?"
+
+"Yes, Sahib--it has been said."
+
+"I'll send the doorman with you."
+
+"No, Bootea will be better alone," she touched the knife in her sash;
+"it must not be known that Bootea came to the Sahib."
+
+Barlow took her arm leading her through the bathroom to the back door;
+he opened it, and listened intently for a few seconds.  Then he took
+her oval face in his palms and kissed her, passionately, saying,
+"Good-bye, little girl; God be with you.  You are sweet."
+
+"The Sahib is like a god to Bootea," she whispered.
+
+As the girl slipped away between the bushes, like something floating
+out of a dream, Barlow stood at the open door, a resurge of abasement
+flooding his soul.  In the combat between his mentality and his heart
+the heart was making him a weakling, a dishonourable weakling, so it
+seemed.  He pulled the door shut, and went back to his bed and finally
+fell asleep, a thing of tortured unrest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+Barlow was up early next morning, wakened by that universal alarm clock
+of India, the grey-necked, small-bodied city crow whose tribe is called
+the Seven Sisters--noisy, impudent, clamorous, sharp-eyed thieves that
+throng the compounds like sparrows, that hop in through the open window
+and steal a slice of toast from beside the cup of tea at the bedside.
+
+He mounted the waiting Cabuli pony and rode to the Residency.  He had
+much to talk over with Hodson in the light of all that had transpired
+in the last two days, and, also, he had a hope that Elizabeth would be
+possessed of an after-the-storm calm, would greet him, and somehow give
+him a moral sustaining against his lapse in heart loyalty.  Mentally he
+didn't label his feeling toward Elizabeth love.  Toward her it had been
+largely a matter of drifting, undoubted giving in to suasion, more of
+association than what was said.  She had class; she was intellectual;
+there was no doubt about her wit--it was like a well-cut diamond,
+sparkling, brilliant--no warmth.  When Barlow reflected, jogging along
+on the Cabuli, that he probably did not love Elizabeth, picturing the
+passion as typified by Romeo and Juliet as instance, he suddenly asked
+himself: "By Jove! and does anybody except the pater love Elizabeth?"
+He was doubtful if anybody did.  All the servants held her in esteem,
+for she was just, and not niggardly; but hers was certainly not a
+disposition to cause spontaneous affection.  Perhaps the word admirable
+epitomised Elizabeth all round.  But he felt that he needed a sort of
+Christian Science sustaining, as it were, in this sensuous
+drifting--something to make his slipping appear more obnoxious.
+
+As he rode up to the verandah of the Residency he saw Elizabeth cutting
+flowers, probably to decorate the breakfast table.  That was like
+Elizabeth; instead of leaving it to the _mahli_ (gardener), with the
+butler to festoon the table, she was doing it herself.  It was an
+occupation akin to water-colour painting or lace work, just the sort of
+thing to find Elizabeth at--typical.
+
+Barlow was possessed of a hopeful fancy that perhaps she had not ridden
+expecting that he would call on the Resident; but as always with the
+Resident's daughter he could deduct nothing from her manner.  She
+nodded pleasantly, looking up, a gloved hand full of roses; and, as he
+slipped from the saddle, relinquishing the horse to the _syce_, she
+fell in beside him as far as the verandah, where they stood talking
+desultory stuff; the morning sun on the pink and white oleanders, the
+curious snake-like mottling of the croton leaves, and the song of a
+_dhyal_ that, high in a tamarind, was bubbling liquid notes of joy.
+
+"The Indian robin red-breast makes one homesick," Elizabeth said.
+
+"Home--", but the girl put a quick hand on his arm checking him; the
+action was absolutely like Elizabeth, imperious.  A small, long-tailed,
+brown-breasted bird had darted across the compound to a mango tree from
+where he warbled a love song as sweet and rich toned as the evensong of
+a nightingale.
+
+The _dhyal_, as if feeling defeat in the sweeter carol of his rival,
+hushed.
+
+"The _shama_," Elizabeth said; "when I hear him I close my eyes and
+picture the downs and oaked hills of England, and fancy I'm listening
+to the nightingale or the lark."
+
+Barlow turned involuntarily to look into the girl's face; it was an
+inquisitive look, a wondering look; gentle sentiment coming from
+Elizabeth was rather a reversal of form.
+
+Also there was immediately a reversal of bird form, a shatterment of
+sentiment, a rasping maddening note from somewhere in the dome of a
+pipal tree.  A Koel bird, as if in derision of the feathered songsters,
+sent forth his shrill plaintive, "Koe-e-el, Koe-e-el, Ko-e-e-el!"
+
+"Ah-a-a!" Barlow exclaimed in disgust--"that's India; the fever-bird,
+the koel, harbinger of the hot-spell, of burning sun and stifling dust,
+and throbbing head."
+
+He cursed the koel, for the gentle mood had slipped from Elizabeth.  He
+had hoped that she would have spoken of yesterday, give him a shamed
+solace for the hurt she had given him.  Of course Hodson would have
+told her all about the Gulab.  But while that, the service, was
+sufficient for the Resident, Elizabeth would consider the fact that
+Barlow knew Bootea well enough to have this service rendered; it would
+touch her caste--also her exacting nature.
+
+Something like this was floating through his mind as he groped mentally
+for an explanation of Elizabeth's attitude, the effect of which was
+neutral; nothing to draw him toward her in a way of moral sustaining,
+but also, nothing to antagonise him.
+
+She must know that he was leaving on a dangerous mission; but she did
+not bring it up.  Perhaps with her usual diffident reserve she felt
+that it was his province to speak of that.
+
+At any rate she called to a hovering bearer telling him to give his
+master Captain Barlow's salaams.  Then with the flowers she passed into
+the bungalow.  She had quite a proppy, military stride, bred of much
+riding.
+
+Barlow gazed after Elizabeth ruefully, wishing she had thrown him a
+life belt.  However, it did not matter; it was up to him to act in a
+sane manner, men of the Service were taught to rely on themselves.  And
+in Barlow was the something of breeding that held him to the true
+thing, to the pole; the breeding might be compared to the elusive thing
+in the magnetic needle.  It did not matter, he would probably marry
+Elizabeth--it seemed the proper thing to do.  Devilish few of the chaps
+he knew babbled much about love and being batty over a girl--that is,
+the girls they married.
+
+Then the bearer brought Hodson's salaams to the Captain.
+
+And Hodson was a Civil Servant in excelsis.  He took to bed with him
+his Form D and Form C--even the "D. O.", the Demi Official business,
+and worried over it when he should have slept or read himself to sleep.
+Duty to him was a more exacting god than the black Kali to the
+Brahmins; it had dried up his blood--atrophied his nerves of enjoyment.
+And now he was depressed though he strove to greet Barlow cheerily.
+
+"It's a devilish shindy, this killing of our two chaps," he burst forth
+with; "I've pondered over it, I've worried over it; the only solace in
+the thing is, that the arm of the law is long."
+
+"I think you've got it, sir," Barlow encouraged.  "When we've smashed
+Sindhia--and we will--we'll demand these murderers, hang a few of them,
+and send the rest to the Andamans."
+
+"Yes, it has simply got to wait; to stir up things now would only let
+the Peshwa know what you are going to do--we'd show him our hand.  And
+I don't mind telling you, Captain, that he is an absolute traitor; and
+I believe that it's that damn Nana Sahib who's influencing him."
+
+"There's no doubt about it, sir."
+
+"No, there is not!" the Resident declared gloomily.  "The two dead
+_sowars_ must be considered as sacrifice, just as though they had
+fallen in battle; it's for the good of the Raj.  If I get hauled over
+the coals for this I don't give a damn.  I've pondered over it, almost
+prayed over it, and it's the only way.  There's talk of a big loot of
+jewellery by these decoits, and the killing of the merchant and his
+men, but I've got nothing to do with that.  The one wonderful thing is,
+that we saved the papers.  That little native woman that brought them
+to you must be rewarded later.  By the way, Barlow, I took the liberty
+of explaining all that to Elizabeth, and I think she's pretty badly cut
+up over the way she acted.  But you understand, don't you, Captain?  I
+believe that if it had been my case I'd have, well, I'd have known that
+it was because the girl cared.  Elizabeth is undemonstrative--too much
+so, in fact; but I fancy--well, never mind: it's so long ago that I
+took notice of these things that I find I'm trying to speak in an
+unknown tongue."
+
+The little man rose and bustled about, pulling out drawers from the
+cabinet and shoving them back again, venting little asthmatic coughs of
+sheer nervousness.  Then coming up to Barlow he held out his hand
+saying: "My dear boy, God be with you; but don't take chances--will
+you?"
+
+At that instant Elizabeth appeared at the doorway: "Captain Barlow will
+have breakfast with us, won't he, father--it's all ready, and Boodha
+says he has a chop-and-kidney curry that is a dream?"
+
+"Jupiter!" Hodson exclaimed; "fancy I'm getting India head; was sending
+Barlow off without a word about breakfast.  Of course he'll
+stay--thanks, Elizabeth."
+
+The tired drawn parchment face of the Resident became revivified, it
+was the face of a happy boy; the grey eyes blued to youth.  Inwardly he
+murmured: "Elizabeth is wonderful!  I knew it; good girl!"
+
+It was a curious breakfast--mentally.  Elizabeth was the Elizabeth of
+the verandah.  Perhaps it was the passionate beating of the pillow the
+day before, when she had realised for the first time what Barlow meant
+to her, that now cast her into defence; encased her in an armour of
+protection; caused her to assume a casualness.  She would give worlds
+to not have said what she had said the day before, but the Captain must
+know that she had been roused by a knowledge of his intimacy with the
+Gulab.  Just what had occurred did not matter--not in the least; it was
+his place to explain it.  That was Elizabeth's way--it was her manner
+of thought; a subservience of impulse to propriety, to class.  In the
+light of her feeling when she had lain, wet-eyed, beating the pillow,
+she knew that if he had put his arms about her and said just even
+stupid words--"I'm sorry, Beth, you know I love you"--she would have
+capitulated, perhaps even in the capitulation have said a Bethism: "It
+doesn't matter--we'll never mention it again."
+
+But Barlow, very much of a boy, couldn't feel this elusive thing, and
+rode away after breakfast from the bungalow muttering: "By gad!
+Elizabeth should have said something over roasting me.  Fancy she
+doesn't care a hang.  Anyway--I'll give her credit for that--she
+doesn't hunt with the hounds and run with the hare.  If it's the
+prospect of sharing a title with me, a rotter would have eaten the
+leek.  Yes, Elizabeth is class."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+Dewan Sewlal was in a shiver of apprehension over the killing of the
+two sepoys; there would be trouble over this if the Resident came to
+know of it.
+
+But Hunsa had assured him that the soldiers and their saddles had been
+buried in the pit with the others, and that nobody but the decoits knew
+of their advent.
+
+Then when he learned that Ajeet Singh had been to the Resident he was
+in a panic.  But as that British official made no move, said nothing
+about the decoity, he fancied that perhaps Ajeet had not mentioned
+this, in fact he had no proof that he had made a confession at all.
+But Ajeet's complicity in the decoity where the merchant and his men
+had been killed, gave the Dewan just what he had planned for--the power
+of death over the Chief.  As to his own complicity he had taken care to
+speak of the decoity to no one but Hunsa.  The yogi had been inspired,
+of course, but the yogi would not appear as a witness against him, and
+Hunsa would not, because it would cost him his head.
+
+So now, at a hint from Nana Sahib, the Dewan seized upon Ajeet, voicing
+a righteous indignation at his crime of decoity, and gave him the
+alternative of being strangled with a bow-string or forcing the Gulab
+to go to the camp of Amir Khan to betray him.  Not only would Ajeet be
+killed, but Bootea would be thrust into the _seraglio_, and the other
+Bagrees put in prison--some might be killed.  Ajeet was forced to yield
+to these threats.  The very complicity of the Dewan made him the more
+hurried in this thing.  Also he wanted to get the Bagrees away to the
+Pindari camp before the Resident made a move.
+
+The mission to Amir Khan would be placed in the hands of Hunsa and
+Sookdee, Ajeet being retained as a pawn; also his wound had
+incapacitated him.  He was nominally at liberty, though he knew well
+that if he sought to escape the Mahrattas would kill him.
+
+The jewels that had been stolen from the merchant were largely retained
+by the Bagrees, though the Dewan found, one night, very mysteriously, a
+magnificent string of pearls on his pillow.  He did not ask questions,
+and seemingly no one of his household knew anything about the pearls.
+
+When the yogi asked Hunsa about the ruby, the Akbar Lamp, Hunsa, who
+had determined to keep it himself, as, perhaps, a ransom for his life
+in that troublous time, declared that in the turmoil of the coming of
+the soldiers he had not found it.  Indeed this seemed reasonable, for
+he, having fled down the road to the Gulab, had not been there when
+they had opened the box and looted it.
+
+So the Dewan sent for Ajeet, Hunsa and Sookdee, and declared that if
+the Bagree contingent of murder did not start at once for the Pindari
+camp he would have them taken up for the decoity.
+
+It was Ajeet who answered the Dewan: "Dewan Sahib, we be men who
+undertake all things in the favour of Bhowanee, and we make prayer to
+that goddess.  If the Dewan will give fifty rupees for our _pooja_,
+to-morrow we will make sacrifice to her, for without the feast and the
+sacrifice the signs that she would vouchsafe would be false.  Then we
+will take the signs and the men will go at once."
+
+"You shall have the money," the Dewan declared: "but do not delay."
+
+That evening the Bagrees made their way to a mango grove for the feast,
+carrying cocoanuts, raw sugar, flour, butter, and a fragrant gum,
+goojul.  A large hole was dug in the ground and filled with dry
+cow-dung chips which were set on fire.  Sweet cakes were baked on the
+fire and then broken into small pieces, a portion of the fire raked to
+one side, and their priest sprinkled upon it the fragrant gum, calling
+in a loud voice: "Maha Kali, assist and guide us in our expedition.
+Keep calamity from us who worship Thee, and have made this feast in Thy
+honour.  Give us the sign, that we may know if it is agreeable to Thee
+that we destroy the enemy of Maharaja Sindhia."
+
+When the Bagrees had eaten much cooked rice and meat-balls, which were
+served on plantain leaves, they drank robustly of _mhowa_ spirit, first
+spilling some of this liquor upon the ground in the name of the goddess.
+
+The strong rank native liquor roused an enthusiasm for their
+approaching interview of the sacred one.  Once Ajeet laid his hand upon
+the pitcher that Hunsa was holding to his coarse lips, and pressing it
+downward, admonished:
+
+"Hunsa, whilst Bhowanee does not prohibit, it is an offence to approach
+her except in devout silence."
+
+The surly one flared up at this; his ungovernable rage drew his hand to
+a knife in his belt, and his eyes blazed with the ferocity of a wounded
+tiger.
+
+"Ajeet," he snarled, "you are now Chief, but you are not Raja to
+command slaves."
+
+With a swift twist of his wrist Ajeet snatched the pitcher from the
+hand of Hunsa, saying: "Jamadar, it is the liquor that is in you,
+therefore you have had enough."
+
+But Hunsa sprang to his feet and his knife gleamed like the spitting of
+fire in the slanting rays of the setting sun, as he drove viciously at
+the heart of his Chief.  There was a crash as the blade struck and
+pierced the matka which Ajeet still held by its long neck.
+
+There was a scream of terror from the throats of the women; a cry of
+horror from the Guru at this sacrilege--the spilling of liquor upon the
+earth in anger at the feast of Bhowanee.
+
+Ajeet's strong fingers, slim bronzed lengths of steel, had gripped the
+wrist of his assailant as Bootea, darting forward, laid a hand upon the
+arm of Hunsa, crying, "Shame! shame!  You are like sweepers of low
+caste--eaters of carrion, they who respect not Bhowanee.  Shame! you
+are a dog--a tapper of liquor!"
+
+At the touch of the Gulab on his arm, and the scorn in her eyes, Hunsa
+shivered and drew back, his head hanging in abasement, but his face
+devilish in its malignity.
+
+Ajeet, taking a brass dish, poured water upon the hand that had gripped
+the wrist of Hunsa, saying, "Thus I will cleanse the defilement."  Then
+he sat down upon his heels, adding: "Guru, holy one, repeat a prayer to
+appease Bhowanee, then we will go into the jungle and take the
+auspices."
+
+The Guru strode over to Hunsa, and holding out his thin skinny palm
+commanded, "Jamadar, from you a rupee; and to-morrow I will put upon
+the shrine of Kali cocoanuts and sweet-meats and marigolds as peace
+offerings."
+
+Hunsa took from his loin cloth a silver coin and dropped it surlily in
+the outstretched hand, sneering: "To Bhowanee you will give four annas,
+and you will feast to the value of twelve annas, for that is the way of
+your craft.  The vultures always finish the bait when the tiger has
+been slain."
+
+Soon the feathery lace work of bamboos beneath which they sat were
+whispering to the night-wind that had roused at the dropping of the
+huge ball of fire in the west, and the soft radiance of a gentle moon
+was gilding with silver the gaunt black arms of a babool.  Then the
+priest said: "Come, jamadars, we now will go deeper into the silent
+places and listen for the voice of Bhowanee."
+
+He untangled from the posture of sitting his parchment-covered matter
+of bones, and carrying in one hand a brocaded bag of black velvet and
+in the other a staff, with bowed head and mutterings started deeper
+into the jungle of cactus and slim whispering bamboo, followed by
+Ajeet, Sookdee and Hunsa.  Presently he stopped, saying, "Sit you in a
+line, brave chiefs, facing the great temple of Siva, which is in the
+mountains of the East, so that the voice of Bhowanee coming out of the
+silent places and from the mouth of the jackal or the jackass, shall be
+known to be from the right or the left, for thus will be the
+interpretation."
+
+The priest took his place in front of the jamadars, sitting with his
+back to them, and placed upon the ground, first a white cloth of
+cotton, and then the velvet bag, upon which rested a silver pickaxe.
+
+When Ajeet saw the pickaxe he said angrily: "That is the emblem of
+thugs; we be decoits, not stranglers, Guru."
+
+"They are equal in honour with Bhowanee," the Guru replied: "they slay
+for profit, even as you do, and among you are those who are thugs, for
+I minister to both."
+
+Then the Guru buried his shrivelled skull in his thin hands and drooped
+forward in silent listening.  Ajeet objected no more, and in the new
+silence they could hear the shrill rasping of cicadae in the foliage of
+a gigantic elephant-creeper, that, like a huge python, crawled its way
+from branch to branch, sprawling across a dozen stately trees.  From
+somewhere beyond was a steady "tonk! tonk! tonk!"--like the beat of
+wood against a hollow pipe--of the little green-plumaged coppersmith
+bird.  A honey-badger came timorously creeping, his feet shuffling the
+fallen leaves, peered at the strange figures of the men, and, at the
+move of an arm, fled scurrying through the stillness with the noise of
+some great creature.
+
+Suddenly the jungle was stilled, even from the voice of the rasping
+cicadae; the leaves had ceased to whisper, for the wind had hushed.
+The devotees could hear the beating of their hearts in the strain of
+waiting for a manifestation from the dread goddess.  The white-robed
+figure of the Guru was like a shrivelled statue of alabaster where the
+faint moon picked it out in blotches as the light filtered through
+leaves above.
+
+Sookdee gasped in terror as just above them a tiny tree owl called,
+"Whoo-whoo, whoo-whoo!" as if he jeered.  But Ajeet knew that that, in
+their belief, was a sign of encouragement, meaning not overmuch, but
+not an evil omen.  From far off floated up on the dead night air the
+belling note of a startled cheetal, and almost at once the harsh,
+grating, angry roar of a leopard, as though he had struck for the
+throat of the stag and missed.  These were but jungle voices, not in
+the curriculum of their pantheistic belief, so the Guru and the Bagrees
+sat in silence, and no one spoke.
+
+Then, the night carried the faint trembling moan of a jackal, as the
+Guru knew, a _female_ jackal, coming from a distance on the left.
+
+"Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo!  Aye-aye! yi-yi-yi-yi!" the jackal wailed, the note
+rising to a fiendish crescendo; and then suddenly it hushed and there
+was only a ghastly silence in the jungle depths.
+
+The white-clothed, ghost-like priest sprang to his feet, and with his
+lean left arm stretched high in suppliance, said: "Bhowanee, thou hast
+vouchsafed to thy devotees the _pilsao_.  We will strew thy shrine with
+flowers and sweetmeats."
+
+He turned to the jamadars who had risen, saying, "Bhowanee is pleased;
+the suspicies are favourable; had the call of the jackal been from the
+right it would have been the _tibao_ and we should have had to wait
+until the sweet goddess gave us another sign.  Now we may go back, and
+perhaps she will confirm this omen as we go."
+
+Hunsa, always possessed of a mean disposition, and still sulky over the
+encounter with Ajeet, was in an evil mood as they trudged through the
+jungle to their camp.  When Ajeet spoke of the priest's success in his
+appeal, he snarled: "The hangman always advises the one who is to have
+his neck stretched that he is better off dead."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" Ajeet queried.
+
+"Just that you are not going on this mission, Ajeet;" then he laughed
+disagreeably.
+
+"If you are afraid to go Sookdee will be well without you," Ajeet
+retorted.
+
+Before more could be said in this way, and as they approached the camp,
+the lowing of a cow was heard.
+
+"Dost hear that, Guru?" Hunsa queried.  "In a decoity is not the lowing
+of a cow in a village held to be an evil omen?"
+
+"Not so, Hunsa," the Priest declared.  "It is an evil omen if the
+decoity is to be made on the village in which the cow raises her voice,
+but we are going to our own camp in peace, and it is a voice of
+approval."
+
+"As to that," Ajeet commented, "if Hunsa is right, it is written in our
+code of omens that hearing a cow call thus simply means that one of the
+party making the decoity will be killed; perhaps as he was the one to
+notice it, the evil will fall upon him."
+
+"You'd like that," Hunsa growled.
+
+"Not being given to lies, it would not displease me, for, as the
+hangman said, you would be better dead."
+
+But they were now at their camp, and the jamadars, standing together
+for a little, settled it that the omens being favourable, and the wrath
+of the Dewan feared, they would take the way to the Pindari camp next
+day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Dewan Sewlal had warned Hunsa and Sookdee against their natural
+proclivities for making a decoity while travelling to the Pindari camp,
+as the mission was more important than loot--an enterprise that might
+cause them to be killed or arrested.  Indeed the Gulab had made this a
+condition of her going with them.  She was practically put in command.
+Both Nana Sahib and the Dewan were pleased over what they deemed her
+sensible acquiescence in the scheme.  As has been said, the Dewan,
+recognising the debased ferocity of Hunsa, had promised him the torture
+when he returned if Bootea had any cause of complaint.
+
+The decoit, believing that Bootea was designed for Nana Sahib's harem,
+knew that as one favoured in the Prince's eyes, he would surely be put
+to death if he offended her.
+
+So, travelling with the almost incessant swift progress which was an
+art with all decoits, in a few days they arrived at Rajgar, the town to
+which Amir Khan had shifted.  He had taken possession of a palace
+belonging to the Rajput Raja as his head-quarters, and his army of
+horsemen were encamped in tents on the vast sandy plain that extended
+from both sides of the river Nahal: the local name of this river was
+"The Stream of Blood," so named because a fierce force of Arab
+mercenaries in the employ of Sindhia, many years before, had butchered
+the entire tribe of Nahals--man, woman, and child,--higher up in the
+hills.
+
+As had been planned, some of the decoits had come as recruits to the
+Pindari standard.  This created no suspicion, because free-lance
+soldiers, adventurous spirits, from all over India flocked to a force
+that was known to be massed for the purpose of loot.  It was an easy
+service; little discipline; a regular Moslem fighting horde, holding
+little in reverence but the daily prayer and the trim of a spear, or
+the edge of a sword.  Amir Khan was the law, the army regulation, the
+one thing to obey.  As to the matter of prayers, for those who were not
+followers of the Prophet, who carried no little prayer carpet to kneel
+upon, face to Mecca, there was, it being a Rajput town, always the
+shrine of Shiva and his elephant-headed son, Ganesh, to receive
+obeisance from the Hindus.  And those who had come as players,
+wrestlers, were welcomed joyously, for, there being no immediate matter
+of a raid and throat-cutting, and little of disciplinary duties, time
+hung heavy on the hands of these grown-up children.
+
+Hunsa was remembered by several of the Pindaris as having ridden with
+them before; and he also had suffered an apostacy of faith for he now
+swore by the Beard of the Prophet, and turned out at the call of the
+_muezzin_, and testified to the fact that there was but one god--Allah.
+And he had known his Amir Khan well when he had told the Dewan that the
+fierce Pindari was gentle enough when it came to a matter of feminine
+beauty, for Bootea made an impression.
+
+Of course it would have taken a more obdurate male than Amir Khan to
+not appreciate the exquisite charm of the Gulab; no art could have
+equalled the inherent patrician simplicity and sweetness of her every
+thought and action.  Perhaps her determination to ingratiate herself
+into the good graces of the Chief was intensified, brought to a finer
+perfection, by the motive that had really instigated her to accept this
+terrible mission, her love for the Englishman, Barlow.
+
+Of course this was not an unusual thing; few women have lived who are
+not capable of such a sacrifice for some one; the "grand passion," when
+it comes, and rarely out of reasoning, smothers everything in the heart
+of almost every woman--once.  It had come to Bootea; foolishly,
+impossible of an attainment, everything against its ultimate
+accomplished happiness, but nothing of that mattered.  She was there,
+waiting--waiting for the service that Fate had whispered into her being.
+
+And she danced divinely--that is the proper word for it.  Her dancing
+was a revelation to Amir Khan who had seen _nautchnis_ go through their
+sensuous, suggestive, voluptuous twistings of supple forms, disfigured
+by excessive decoration--bangles, anklets, nose rings, high-coloured
+swirling robes, and with voices worn to a rasping timbre that shrilled
+rather than sang the _ghazal_ (love song) as they gyrated.  But here
+was something different.  Bootea's art was the art that was taught
+princesses in the palaces of the Rajput Ranas, not the bidding of a
+courtesan for the desire of a man.  Her dress was a floating cloud of
+gauzy muslin: and her sole evident adornment the ruby-headed gold
+snake-bracelet, the iron band of widowhood being concealed higher on
+her arm.  Some intuition had taught the girl that this mode would give
+rise in the warrior's heart to a feeling of respectful liking: it had
+always been that way with real men where she was concerned.
+
+When Amir Kahn passed an order that Bootea was to be treated as a
+queen, his officers smiled in their heavy black beards and whispered
+that his two wives would yet be hand-maidens to a third, the favourite.
+
+Hunsa saw all this, for he was the one that often carried a message to
+the Gulab that her presence was desired in the palace.  But there were
+always others there; the players and the musicians--the ones who played
+the sitar (guitar) and the violin; and the officers.
+
+Hunsa was getting impatient.  Every time he looked at the handsome
+black-bearded head of the warrior he was like a covetous thief gazing
+upon a diamond necklace that is almost within his grasp.  He had come
+there to kill him and delay was dangerous.  He had been warned by the
+Dewan that they suspected Barlow meant to visit the Chief on behalf of
+the British.  He might turn up any day.  When he spoke to Bootea about
+her part in the mission, the enticing of Amir Khan to her tent so that
+he might be killed, she simply answered:
+
+"Hunsa, you will wait until I give you a command to kill the Chief.  If
+you do not, it is very likely that you will be the sacrifice, for he is
+not one to be driven."  She vowed that if he broke this injunction she
+would denounce him to Amir Khan; she would have done so at first but
+for the idea that treachery to her people could not be justified but by
+dire necessity.
+
+Every day the Gulab, as she walked through the crowded street, scanned
+the faces of men afoot and on horseback, looking for one clothed as a
+Patan, but in his eyes the something she would know, the something that
+would say he was the deified one.  And she had told Amir Khan that
+there was a Patan coming with a message for him, and that when such an
+one asked for audience that he should say nothing, but see that he was
+admitted.
+
+Then one day--it was about two weeks of waiting--Captain Barlow came.
+He was rather surprised at the readiness with which he was admitted for
+an audience with the Chief.  It was in the audience hall that he was
+received, and the Chief was surrounded, as he sat on the Raja's dais,
+by officers.
+
+Barlow had come as Ayub Alli, an Afghan, and as it was a private
+interview he desired, he made the visit a formal one, the paying of
+respects, with the usual presenting of the hilt of his sword for the
+Chief to touch with the tips of his fingers in the way of accepting his
+respects.
+
+The Chief, knowing this was the one Bootea had spoken of, wrote on a
+slip of yellow paper something in Persian and tendered it to Barlow,
+saying, "That will be your passport when you would speak with me if
+there is in your heart something to be said."
+
+Going, Barlow saw that he had written but the one word [Transcriber's
+note: three Afghan or Persian characters], translated, "the Afghan."
+
+Hunsa, too, had watched for the coming of Barlow.  The same whisper
+that had come to Bootea's ears that he would ride as a Patan had been
+told him by the Dewan.  Knowing that when Barlow arrived he would
+endeavour to see the Chief in his quarters, Hunsa daily hovered near
+the palace and chatted with the guard at the gates; the heavy double
+teak-wood gates, on one side of which was painted, on a white
+stone-wall, a war-elephant and the other side a Rajput horseman, his
+spear held at the charge.  This was the allegorical representation, so
+general all over Mewar, of Rana Pertab charging a Mogul prince mounted
+on an elephant.
+
+Thus Hunsa had seen the tall Patan and heard him make the request for
+an audience with Amir Khan.  It was the walk, the slight military
+precision, that caused the decoit to mutter, "No hill Afghan that."
+
+And when Barlow had come forth the Bagree trailed him up through the
+chowk; and just as the man he followed came to the end of the narrow
+crowded way, Hunsa saw Bootea, coming from the opposite direction,
+suddenly stop, and her eyes go wide as they were fixed on the face of
+the tall Patan.
+
+"It is the accursed Sahib," Hunsa snarled between his grinding teeth.
+He brooded over the advent of the messenger and racked his animal brain
+for some scheme to accomplish his mission of murder, and counteract the
+other's influence.  And presently a bit of rare deviltry crept into his
+mind, joint partner with the murder thought.  If he could but kill the
+Chief and have the blame of it cast upon the Sahib, who, no doubt,
+would have his interviews with Amir Khan alone.
+
+During the time Hunsa had been there, several times in the palace,
+somewhat of a privileged character, known to be connected with the
+Gulab, he had familiarised himself with the plan of the marble
+building: the stairways that ran down to the central court; the many
+passages; the marble fret-work screen niches and mysterious chambers.
+
+Either Hunsa or Sookdee was now always trailing Barlow--his every move
+was known.  And then, as if some evil genii had taken a spirit hand in
+the guidance of events, Hunsa's chance came.  Barlow, who had tried
+three times to see Amir Khan, one day received a message at the gate
+that he was to come back that evening, when the Chief, having said his
+prayers, would give him a private audience.
+
+Hunsa had seen Barlow making his way from the _serai_ where he camped
+with his horse toward the palace, and hurrying with the swift celerity
+of a jungle creature, he reached the gate first.  His head wrapped in
+the folds of a turban so that his ugly face was all but hidden, he was
+talking to the guard when Barlow gave the latter his yellow slip of
+passport; and as the guard left his post and entered the dim entrance
+to call up the stairway for one to usher in the Afghan, Hunsa slipped
+nonchalantly through the gate and stood in the shadow of a jutting
+wall, his black body and drab loin-cloth merging into the gloom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+"Is the one alone?" Amir Khan asked when a servant had presented
+Barlow's yellow slip of paper.
+
+"But for the orderly that is with him."
+
+"Tell him to enter, and go where your ears will remain safe upon your
+head."
+
+The bearer withdrew and Captain Barlow entered, preceded by the
+orderly, who, with a deep salaam announced:
+
+"Sultan Amir Khan, it is Ayub Alli who would have audience."  Then he
+stepped to one side, and stood erect against the wall.
+
+"Salaam, Chief," Barlow said with a sweep of a hand to his forehead,
+and Amir Khan from his seat in a black ebony chair inlaid with
+pearl-shell and garnets, returned the salutation, asking: "And what
+favour would Ayub Alli ask?"
+
+"A petition such as your servant would make is but for the ears of Amir
+Khan."
+
+The black eyes of the Pindari, deep set under the shaggy eyebrows, hung
+upon the speaker's face with the fierce watchful stab of a falcon's.
+
+Barlow saw the distrust, the suspicion.  He unslung from his waist his
+heavy pistol, took the _tulwar_ from the wide brass-studded belt about
+his waist, and tendered them to the orderly saying: "It is a message of
+peace but also it is alone for the ears of Amir Khan."
+
+The Pindari spoke to the orderly, "Go thou and wait below."
+
+When he had disappeared the Pindari rose from the ebon-wood chair,
+stretched his tall giant form, and laughed.  "Thou art a seemly man,
+Ayub Alli, but thinkst thou that Amir Khan would have fear that thou
+sendst thy playthings by the orderly?"
+
+"No, Chief, it was but proper.  And you will know that the message is
+such that none other may hear it."
+
+"Sit on yonder divan, Afghan, and tell this large thing that is in thy
+mind."
+
+As Barlow took a seat upon the divan covered by a red-and-green
+Bokharan rug, lifting his eyes suddenly, he was conscious of a mocking
+smile on the Pindari's lips; and the fierce black eyes were watching
+his every move as he slipped a well-strapped sandal from a foot.
+Rising, he stepped to the table at one end of which the Pindari sat,
+and placing the sandal upon it, said: "If the Chief will slit the
+double sole with his knife he will find within that which I have
+brought."
+
+"The matter of which you speak, Afghan, is service, and Amir Khan is
+not one to perform a service of the hands for any one."
+
+"But if I asked for the Chief's knife, not having one--"
+
+"_Inshalla_! but thou art right; if thou hadst asked for the knife thou
+mightst have received it, and not in the sandal," he laughed.  The
+laugh welled up from his throat through the heavy black beard like the
+bubble of a bison bull.
+
+The Pindari reached for the sandal, and as he slit at the leather
+thread, he commented: "Thou hast the subtlety of a true Patan; within,
+I take it, is something of value, and if it were in a pocket of thy
+jacket, or a fold at thy waist, those who might seek it with one slit
+of their discoverer, which is a piece of broken glass carrying an edge
+such as no blade would have, would take it up.  But a man's sandals
+well strapped on are removed but after he is dead."
+
+"Bismillah!"  The Pindari had the paper spread flat upon the black
+table and saw the seal of the British Raj.  He seemed to ponder over
+the document as if the writing were not within his interpretation.
+Then he said: "We men of the sword have not given much thought to the
+pen, employing scribblers for that purpose, but to-morrow a _mullah_
+will make this all plain."
+
+Barlow interrupted the Chief.  "Shall I read the written word?"
+
+"What would it avail?  Hereon is the seal of the _Englay_ Raj, but as
+you read the thumb of the Raj would not be upon your lip in the way of
+a seal.  The _mullah_ will interpret this to me.  Is it of an
+alliance?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"It is, Chief."
+
+The Pindari laughed: "Holker would give me a camel-load of gold rupees
+for this and thy head: Sindhia might add a province for the same."
+
+"True, Chief.  And has Amir Khan heard a whisper of reward and a dress
+of honour from Sindhia's Dewan for his head?"
+
+"Afghan, there is always a reward for the head of Amir Khan; but a gift
+is of little value to a man who has lost his life in the trying.
+Without are guards ready to run a sword through even a shadow, and here
+I could kill three."
+
+He raised his black eyes and scanned the form of Ayub Alli.  There was
+a quizzical smile on his lips as he said:
+
+"Go back and sit thee upon the divan."
+
+When Barlow had taken his place, the Chief laughed aloud, saying, "Well
+done, Captain Sahib; thou art perfect as a Patan; even to the manner of
+sitting down one would have thought that, except for a saddle, thou
+hadst always sat upon thy heels."
+
+Barlow smiled good humouredly, saying, "It is even so; I am Captain
+Barlow.  And this,"--he tapped the loose baggy trousers of the Afghan
+hillman, and the sheepskin coat with the wool inside--"was not in the
+way of deceit but for protection on the road."
+
+"It is well thought of," the Pindari declared, "for a Sahib travelling
+alone through Rajasthan would be robbed by a Mahratta or killed by a
+Rajput.  But as to the deceiving of Amir Khan, dost thou suppose that
+he gives to a Patan the paper of admittance, or of passing, such as he
+gave to thee.  Even at the audience I was pleased with thy manner of
+disguise."
+
+Barlow was startled.  "Did you know then that I was a Sahib--how did
+you know?"
+
+"Because thou wert placed in my hand in the way of protection."
+
+Then Barlow surmised that of all outside his own caste there could be
+but one, and he knew that she was in the camp, for he had seen her.
+"It was a woman."
+
+"A rare woman; even I, Chief of the Pindaris--and we are not bred to
+softness--say that she is a pearl."
+
+"They call her the Gulab," Barlow ventured.
+
+"She is well named the Gulab; the perfume of her is in my nostrils
+though it mixes ill with the camel smell.  Without offence to Allah I
+can retain her for it is in the Koran that a man may have four wives
+and I have but two."
+
+"But the Gulab is of a different faith," Barlow objected and a chill
+hung over his heart.
+
+The Pindari laughed.  "The Sahibs have agents for the changing of
+faith, those who wear the black coat of honour; and a _mullah_ will
+soon make a good Musselmani of the beautiful little infidel.  Of
+course, Sahib, there is the other way of having a man's desire which is
+the way of all Pindaris; they consider women as fair loot when the
+sword is the passport through a land.  But as to the Gulab, the flower
+is most too fair for a crushing.  In such a matter as I have spoken of
+the fragrance is gone, and a man, when he crushes the weak, has
+conflict with himself."
+
+"It's a topping old barbarian, this leader of cut-throats," Barlow
+admitted to himself; but in his mind was a horror of the fate meant for
+the girl.  And somehow it was a sacrifice for him, he knew, an
+enlargement of the love that had shown in the soft brown eyes.  As he
+listened schemes of stealing the Gulab away, of saving her were
+hurtling through his brain.
+
+"And mark thee, Sahib, Amir Khan has found favour with the little
+flower, for when I thought of an audience with her in her own tent--for
+to be a leader of men, in possession of two wives, and holding strong
+by the faith of Mahomet, it is as well to be circumspect--the Gulab
+warned me that a knife might be presented as I slept.  A jealous lover,
+perhaps, I think--it would not have been Ayub Alli by any chance?"
+
+What Barlow was thinking, was, "A most subtle animal, this."  And he
+now understood why the Pindari, as if he had forgotten the message, was
+talking of the Gulab; as an Oriental he was coming to the point in
+circles.
+
+"It was not, Chief," Barlow answered.  "A British officer on matters of
+state, would break his _izzat_ (honour) if he trifled with women."
+
+"Put thy hand upon thy beard, Afghan--though thou hast not one--and
+swear by it that it was not thee the woman meant when she spoke of a
+knife, for I like thee."
+
+Barlow put his hand to his chin.  "I swear that there was nothing of
+evil intent against Amir Khan in my heart," he said; "and that is the
+same as our oath, for it is but one God that we both worship."
+
+The Chief again let float from his big throat his low, deep, musical
+laugh.
+
+"An oath is an oath, nothing more.  To trust to it and go to sleep in
+its guardianship, one may never wake up.  Even the gods cannot bind a
+heart that is black with words.  It was one of my own name who swore on
+the shrine of Eklinga at Udaipur friendship for a Prince of Marwar, and
+changed turbans with him, which is more binding than eating opium
+together, then slew him like a dog.  Of my faith, an oath, 'by the
+Beard of the Prophet,' is more binding, I think.  Too many gods, such
+as the men of Hind have, produce a wavering.  But thou hast sworn to
+the truth as I am a witness.  The delay of an audience was that thou
+mightst be well watched before much had been said, for a child at play
+hides nothing, and if thou hadst gone but once to the tent of the
+Gulab, Amir Khan would have known.
+
+"But as to this,"--his hand tapped the document--"it has been said that
+the British Raj doles out the lives of its servants as one doles grain
+in a time of famine.  If an envoy, such as a Raja sends in a way of
+pride, came with this, and were made a matter of sacrifice, perhaps
+twenty lives would have paid of the trying, but as it is, but one is
+the account."
+
+Barlow shot a quick searching look into the Pindari's eyes; was it a
+covert threat?  But he answered: "It is even so, it was spoken of as a
+matter for two, but--"
+
+The Chief laughed: "I know, Sahib; thou art pleasing to me.  Of the
+Sahibs I have little knowledge, but I have heard it said they were a
+race of white Rajputs, save that they did not kill a brother or a
+father for the love of killing.  What service want they of Amir Khan?"
+
+"There are rumours that the Mahrattas, forgetting the lessons they have
+received--both Holkar and Sindhia having been thoroughly beaten by the
+British--are secretly preparing war."
+
+"A _johur_, a last death-rush, is it not?"
+
+"They will be smashed forever, and their lands taken."
+
+"But the King of Oudh has been promised a return to glory to join in
+this revolt.  The fighting Rajputs--what of them?  Backed by the
+English they should hold these black accursed Mahrattas in check."
+
+Barlow rose and, the wary eyes of the Chief on every move, stepped over
+to the table and pointed to a signature upon the document.
+
+"That," he said, "is the signature of the Rana of Mewar, meaning that
+he also passes the salt of friendship to Amir Khan."
+
+He turned the document over, and there written upon it was the figure
+"74 1/2."
+
+"Bismillah!" the Chief cried for he had not noticed this before; "it is
+the _tilac_, the Rana's sealing of the document; it is the mystic
+number that means that the contents are sacred, that the curse of the
+Sack of Fort Chitor be upon him who violates the seal, it is the oath
+of all Rajputs--_tilac_, that which is forbidden.  And the Sahibs have
+heard a rumour that Amir Khan has a hundred thousand horsemen to cut in
+with.  Even Sindhia is afraid of me and desires my head.  The Sahibs
+have heard and desire my friendship."
+
+"That is true, Chief."
+
+"This is the right way," and the Pindari brought his palm down upon the
+Government message.  "I have heard men say that the English were like
+children in the matter of knowing nothing but the speaking of truth; I
+have heard some laugh at this, accounting it easy to circumvent an
+enemy when one has knowledge of all his intentions, but truth is
+strength.  We have faith in children because they have not yet learned
+the art of a lie.  In two days, Captain Sahib, thou wilt be called to
+an audience."  He rose from his chair, and, with a hand to his forehead
+said: "Salaam, Sahib.  May the protection of Allah be upon you!"
+
+"Salaam, Chief," Barlow answered, and he held out a hand with a boyish
+frankness that caused the Pindari to grasp it, and the two stood, two
+men looking into each other's eyes.
+
+"Go thou now, Sahib; thou art a man.  Go alone and with quiet, for I
+would view this message and put it in yonder strong box before others
+enter."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+When Captain Barlow had gone Amir Khan took up the message and read it.
+Once he chuckled, for it was in his Oriental mind that the deceiving of
+Barlow as to his knowledge of writing was rather a joke.  Once as he
+read the heavy silk _purdah_ of the door swayed a little at one side as
+if a draught of wind had shifted it and an evil face appeared in the
+opening.
+
+Presently he rose from his chair, took the lamp in one hand and the
+paper in the other, and crossed to the iron box in a far corner of the
+room.  He set the flickering light upon the floor, and dropping to his
+knees, drew from his waistband a silver chain, at the end of which were
+his seal and keys.  His broad shoulders blanked the tiny cone of light,
+and behind through a marble fretwork, a delicate tracery of lotus
+flowers that screened the window, trickled cold shafts of moonlight
+that fell upon something evil that wriggled across the white and black
+slabs of marble from beneath the door curtain.  The moonlight glistened
+the bronze skin of the silent, crawling thing that was a huge snake, or
+a giant centipede; it was even like a square-snouted, shovel-headed
+_mugger_ that had crept up out of the slimy river that circled
+sluggishly the eastern wall of the palace.
+
+Once as Amir Khan fitted a key in the lock he checked and knelt, as
+silent, as passive as a bronze Buddha, listening; and the creeping
+thing was but a blur, a shadow without movement, silent.  Then he
+raised the lid of the box and paused, holding it with his right hand,
+the flickering light upon his bronze face showing a smile as his eyes
+dwelt lovingly upon the gold and jewels within.
+
+And again the thing crept, or glided, not even a slipping purr,
+noiseless, just a drifting shadow; only where a ribbon of moonlight
+from between a lotus and a leaf picked it out was the brown thing of
+evil marked against the marble.  Then the divan blurred it from sight.
+From behind the divan to the ebony chair, and the wide black-topped
+table the shadow drifted; and when Amir Khan had clanged the iron lid
+closed, and risen, lamp in hand, there was nothing to catch his eye.
+
+He placed the lamp that was fashioned like a lotus upon the table, and
+dropping into his chair, yawned sleepily.  Then he raised his voice to
+call his bearer:
+
+"Abd--"
+
+The name died on his lips, for the brown thing behind the chair had
+slipped upward with the silent undulation of a panther, and a deadly
+_roomal_ (towel) had flashed over the Chief's head and was now a
+strangling knot about his tawny throat; the hard knuckles of Hunsa were
+kneading his spine at the back of the skull with a half twist of the
+cloth.  He was pinioned to the back of the chair; he was in a vise, the
+jaws of which closed his throat.  Just a stifled gurgle escaped from
+his lips as his hand clutched at a dagger hilt.  The muscles of the
+naked brown body behind stood out in knobs of strength, and the face of
+the strangler, pan-reddened teeth showing in the flickering light as if
+they had bitten into blood, was the face of a ghoul.
+
+The powerful Pindari struggled in smothering desperation; and Hunsa,
+twisting the gorilla hands, sought in vain to break the neck--it was
+too strong.
+
+Then the chair careened sidewise, and the Pindari shot downward, his
+forehead striking a marble slab, stunning him.  Hunsa, with the
+death-grip still on the roomal, planted a knee between the victim's
+shoulder-blades, and jerked the head upward--still the spine did not
+snap; and slowly tightening the pressure of the cloth he smothered the
+man beneath his knee till he felt the muscles go slack and the body lie
+limp--dead!
+
+Then Hunsa crossed the _roomal_ in his left hand, and stretching out
+his right grasped the Chief's dagger where it lay upon the floor, and
+drove it, from behind, through his heart.  He placed the knife upon the
+floor where drops of blood, trickling from its curved point, lay upon
+the white marble like spilled rubies.  He unfastened the silver chain
+that carried the keys and crossed the floor with the slouching crouch
+of a hyena.  Rapidly he opened the iron box, took the paper Amir Khan
+had placed there, and hesitated for a second, his ghoulish eyes
+gloating over the jewels and gold; but he did not touch them, his
+animal cunning holding him to the simple plan that was now working so
+smoothly.  He locked the box and slipped the key-chain about the dead
+man's waist; then seizing the right hand of his victim he smeared the
+thumb in blood and imprinted it upon the paper just beside the seal of
+the British Raj, muttering: "This will do for Nana Sahib as well as
+your head, Pindari, and is much easier hidden."
+
+He placed the paper in a roll of his turban, blew out the flickering
+light, and with noiseless bare feet glided cautiously to the door.  The
+_purdah_ swung back and there was left just the silent room, all dark,
+save for little trickles of silver that dropped spots and grotesque
+lines upon the body of the dead Chief.  It fell full upon the knife
+flooding its blade into a finger-like mirror, and glinted the blood
+drops as if in reality they had turned to rubies.  Without the _purdah_
+Hunsa did not crouch and run, he walked swiftly, though noiselessly, as
+one upon a message.  Ten paces of the dim-lighted hall he turned to the
+right to a balcony.
+
+Here at the top of a narrow winding stone stairway Hunsa listened; no
+sound came from below, and he glided down.  Beneath was a balcony
+corresponding with the one above, and just beyond was a domed cell that
+he had investigated.  It was a cell that at one time had witnessed the
+quick descent of headless bodies to the river below.  A teakwood beam
+with a round hole in the centre spanned the cell just above an opening
+that had all the appearance of a well.  Hunsa had investigated this
+exit for this very purpose, for he had been somewhat of a privileged
+character about the palace.
+
+He now unslung from about his waist, hidden by his baggy trousers, a
+strong, fine line of camel hair.  Making one end fast to the teakwood
+sill he went down hand over hand, his strong hard palms gripping the
+soft line.  At the end of it he still had a drop of ten or twelve feet,
+but bracing his shoulders to one wall and his feet to the other he let
+go.  Hunsa was shaken by his drop of a dozen feet, but the soft sand of
+the river bed had broken the shock of his fall.  He picked himself up,
+and crouching in the hiding shadow of the bank hurried along for fifty
+yards; then he clambered up cautiously to the waste of white sand that
+was studded with the tents of the Pindari horsemen.  On his right,
+floating up the hill in terraces, its marble white in the moonlight,
+was the palace where Amir Khan lay dead.  It still held a sombre
+quietude; the murder had not been discovered.
+
+He had mapped this route out carefully in the day and knew just how to
+avoid the patrolling guards, and he was back in the narrow _chouk_ of
+the town that was a struggling stream of swaggering Pindaris, and
+darker skinned Marwari bunnias and shopkeepers.  Hunsa pushed his way
+through this motley crowd and continued on to the gate of the palace.
+
+To the guard who halted him he said: "If the other who went up to see
+the Chief has gone, I would go now, _meer_ sahib.  As I have said, it
+is a message from the Gulab Begum."
+
+"I looked for you when I returned from above," the guard answered, "but
+you had gone.  The Afghan has gone but a little since--stay you here."
+
+He called within, "Yacoub!"
+
+It was the orderly who had conducted Barlow to Amir Khan who answered,
+and to him the guard said: "Go to the Chief's apartment and say that
+one waits here with word from the favourite."
+
+Hunsa sat down nonchalantly upon a marble step, and drew the guard into
+a talk of raids, explaining that he had ridden once upon a time with
+Chitu, on his foray into the territory of the Nizam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Hunsa had come back to the palace in haste so that the murder of Amir
+Khan might be discovered soon after Captain Barlow had left, and that
+the crime might be fastened upon the Sahib.  As he waited, chatting to
+the guard, there was suddenly a frenzied deep-throated call of alarm
+from the upper level of rooms that was answered by other voices here
+and there crying out; there was the hurrying scuffling of feet on the
+marble stairs, and Yacoub appeared, his eyes wide in fright, crying:
+
+"The Chief has been stabbed! he's dead! he's murdered!  Guard the
+door--let no one out--let no one in!"
+
+"Beat the _nakara_," the guard commanded; "raise the alarm!"
+
+He seized his long-barrelled matchlock, blew on the fuse, and pointing
+up toward the moonlit sky, fired.  Just within, in a little court,
+Yacoub, with heavy drum-stick, was pounding from the huge drum a
+thunderous vibrant roar, and somebody at his command had seized a horn,
+and from its copper throat a strident shriek of alarm split the air.
+
+The narrow street was now one surging mass of excited Pindaris.  With
+their riding whips they slashed viciously at any one other than their
+own soldier caste that ventured near, driving them out, crying: "This
+is alone for the Pindaris!"
+
+A powerful, whiskered jamadar pushed his way through the mob, throwing
+men to the right and left with sweeps of his strong arm, and, reaching
+the guard, was told that Amir Khan lay up in his room, murdered.  Then
+an _hazari_ (commander of five thousand) came running and pushed
+through the throng that the full force of the tragedy held almost
+silent.
+
+The guard saluted, saying: "Commander Kassim, the Chief has been slain."
+
+"How--who?"
+
+"I know not, Commander."
+
+"Who has passed the guard here?"
+
+"But one, the Afghan, who was expected by the Chief.  He went forth but
+lately."
+
+"A Patan!" Kassim roared.  "Trust a woman and a snake but not a Patan."
+He turned to the whiskered jamadar: "Quick, go you with men and bring
+the Afghan."  To another he said, "Command to enter from there"--his
+hand swept the mob in front--"a dozen trusty _sowars_ and flood the
+palace with them.  Up, up; every room, every nook, every place of
+hiding; under everything, and above everything, and through everything,
+search.  Not even let there be exemption of the seraglio--murder lurks
+close to women at all times.  Seize every servant that is within and
+bind him; let none escape."
+
+He swept a hand out toward the Pindaris in the street that were like a
+pack of wolves: "Up the hill--surround the palace!  and guard every
+window and rat-run!"
+
+The guard saluted, venturing: "Commander, none could have entered from
+outside to do the foul deed."
+
+"Liar! lazy sleeper!"--he smashed with his foot the _hookah_ that sat
+on the marble floor, its long stem coiled like a snake--"While you
+busied over such, and opium, one has slipped by."
+
+He reached out a powerful hand and seized the shoulder of a Pindari and
+jerked him to the step, commanding: "Stay here with this monkey of the
+tall trees, and see that none pass.  I go to the Chief.  When the
+Afghan comes have him brought up."
+
+Hunsa had stood among the Pindaris, shoved hither and thither as they
+surged back and forth.  Once the flat of a _tulwar_ had smote him
+across the back, but when he turned his face to the striker who
+recognised him as a man of privilege, one of the amusers, he was
+allowed to remain.
+
+The startling cry, "The Chief has been murdered! the Sultan is dead!"
+swept out over the desert sand that lay white in the moonlight, and the
+night air droned with the hum of fifty thousand voices that was like
+the song of a world full of bees.  And the night palpitated with the
+beat of horses' feet upon the hard sand and against the stony ford of
+the parched river as the Pindari horsemen swept to Rajgar as if they
+rode in the sack of a city.
+
+Hoarse bull-throated cries calling the curse of Allah upon the murderer
+were like a deep-voiced hymn of hate--it was continuous.
+
+The _bunnias_, and the oilmen, and the keepers of cookshops hid their
+wares and crept into dark places to hide.  The flickering oil lamps
+were blotted out; but some of the Pindaris had fastened torches to
+their long spears, and the fluttering lights waved and circled like
+shooting stars.
+
+Rajgar was a Shoel; it was as if from the teak forests and the jungles
+of wild mango had rushed its full holding of tigers, and leopards, and
+elephants, and screaming monkeys.
+
+Soon a wedge of cavalry, a dozen wild-eyed horsemen, pushed their way
+through the struggling mob, at their head the jamadar bellowing: "Make
+way--make the road clean of your bodies."
+
+"They bring the Afghan!" somebody cried and pointed to where Barlow sat
+strapped to the saddle of his Beluchi mare.
+
+"It is the one who killed the Chief!" another yelped; and the cries
+rippled along from mouth to mouth; _tulwars_ flashed in the light of
+the lurid torches as they swept upward at the end of long arms
+threateningly; but the jamadar roared: "Back, back! you're like jackals
+snapping and snarling.  Back! if the one is killed how shall we know
+the truth?"
+
+One, an old man, yelled triumphantly: "Allah be praised! a wisdom--a
+wisdom!  The torture; the horse-bucket and the hot ashes!  The jamadar
+will have the truth out of the Afghan.  Allah be praised! it is a
+wisdom!"
+
+At the gate straps were loosed and Barlow was jerked to the marble
+steps as if he had been a blanket stripped from the horse's back.
+
+"It is _the_ one, Jamadar," the guard declared, thrusting his face into
+Barlow's; "it is the Afghan.  Beyond doubt there will be blood upon his
+clothes--look to it, Jamadar."
+
+"We found the Afghan in the _serai_, and he was attending to his horse
+as if about to fly; beyond doubt he is the murderer of our Chief," one
+who had ridden with the jamadar said.
+
+"Bring the murderer face to face with his foul deed," the jamadar
+commanded; and clasped by both arms, pinioned, Barlow was pushed
+through the gate and into the dim-lighted hall.  In the scuffle of the
+passing Hunsa sought to slip through, impelled by a devilish
+fascination to hear all that would be said in the death-chamber.  If
+the case against the Sahib were short and decisive--perhaps they might
+slice him into ribbons with their swords--Hunsa would then have nothing
+to fear, and need not attempt flight.
+
+But the guard swept him back with the butt of his long smooth-bore,
+crying: "Dog, where go you?"  Then he saw that it was Hunsa, the
+messenger of his Chiefs favourite--as he took the Gulab to be--and he
+said: "You cannot enter, Hunsa.  It is a matter for the jamadars alone."
+
+At that instant the Gulab slipped through the struggling groups in the
+street, the Pindaris gallantly making way for her.  She had heard of
+the murder of the Chief, and had seen the dragging in of the Afghan.
+
+"Let me go up, guard," she pleaded.
+
+"It is a matter for men," he objected.  "The jamadar would be angry,
+and my sword and gun would be taken away and I should be put to scrub
+the legs of horses if I let you pass."
+
+"The jamadar will not be angry," she pleaded, "for there is something
+to be said which only I have knowledge of.  It was spoken to me by the
+Chief, he had fear of this Afghan, and, please, in the name of Allah,
+let Hunsa by, for being alone I have need of him."
+
+The soft dark eyes pleaded stronger than the girl's words, and the
+guard yielded, half reluctantly.  To the young Pindari he said, "Go you
+with these two, and if the jamadar is for cutting off their heads, say
+that those in the street pulled me from the door-way, and these slipped
+through; I have no fancy for the compliment of a sword on my neck."
+
+In the dim hallway two men stood guarding the door to the Chief's
+chamber, and when the man who had taken the Gulab up explained her
+mission, one of them said, "Wait you here.  I will ask of Kassim his
+pleasure."  Presently he returned; "The Commander will see the woman
+but if it is a matter of trifling let the penalty fall upon the guard
+below.  The mingling of women in an affair of men is an abomination in
+the sight of Allah."
+
+When Bootea entered the chamber she gave a gasping cry of horror.  The
+Chief lay upon the floor, face downward, just as he had dropped when
+slain, for Kassim had said; "Amir Khan is dead, may Allah take him to
+his bosom, and such things as we may learn of his death may help us to
+avenge our Chief.  Touch not the body."
+
+Her entrance was not more than half observed, for Kassim at that moment
+was questioning the Afghan, who stood, a man on either side of him, and
+two behind.
+
+He was just answering a question from the Commander and was saying: "I
+left your Chief with the Peace of Allah upon both our heads, for he
+gripped my hand in fellowship, and said that we were two men.  Why
+should I slay one such who was veritably a soldier, who was a follower
+of Mahomet?"
+
+The man who had brought Barlow up to Amir Khan when he came for the
+audience, said: "Commander, I left this one, the Afghan, here with the
+Chief and took with me his sword and the short gun; he had no weapons."
+
+"Inshalla! it was but a pretence," the Commander declared; "a pretence
+to gain the confidence of the Chief, for he was slain with his own
+knife.  It was a Patan trick."
+
+The Commander turned to the Afghan: "Why hadst thou audience with the
+Chief alone and at night here--what was the mission?"
+
+Barlow hesitated, a slight hope that might save his own life would be
+to declare himself as a Sahib, and his mission; but he felt sure that
+the Chief had been murdered because of this very thing, that somebody,
+an agent of Nana Sahib, had waited hidden, had killed the Chief and
+taken the paper.  To speak of it would be to start a rumour that would
+run across India that the British had negotiated with the Pindaris, and
+if the paper weren't found there--which it wouldn't be--he wouldn't be
+believed.  Better to accept the roll of the dice as they lay, that he
+had lost, and die as an Afghan rather than as an Englishman, a spy who
+had killed their Chief.
+
+"Speak, Patan," Kassim commanded; "thou dwellest overlong upon some
+lie."
+
+"There was a mission," Barlow answered; "it was from my own people, the
+people of Sind."
+
+"Of Sindhia?"
+
+"No; from the land of Sind, Afghanistan.  We ride not with the
+Mahrattas; they are infidels, while we be followers of the true
+Prophet."
+
+"Thou art a fair speaker, Afghan.  And was there a sealed message?"
+
+"There was, Commander Sahib."
+
+"Where is it now?"
+
+"I know not.  It was left with Amir Khan."
+
+There was a hush of three seconds.  Then Kassim, whose eye had searched
+the room, saw the iron box.  "This has a bearing upon matters," he
+declared; "this affair of a written message.  Open the box and see if
+it is within," he commanded a Pindari.
+
+"How now, woman," for the Gulab had stepped forward; "what dost thou
+here--ah! there was talk of a message from the Chief.  It might be, it
+might be, because,"--his leonine face, full whiskered, the face of a
+wild rider, a warrior, softened as he looked at the slight
+figure,--"our noble Chief had spoken soft words of thee, and passed the
+order that thou wert Begum, that whatsoever thou desired was to be."
+
+"Commander," Bootea said, and her voice was like her eyes, trembling,
+vibrant, "let me look upon the face of Amir Khan; then there are things
+to be said that will avenge his death in the sight of Allah."
+
+Kassim hesitated.  Then he said; "It matters not--we have the killer."
+And reverently, with his own hands, he turned the Chief on his back,
+saying, softly, "In the name of Allah, thou restest better thus."
+
+The Gulab, kneeling, pushed back the black beard with her hand, and
+they thought that she was making oath upon the beard of the slain man.
+Then she rose to her feet, and said: "There is one without, Hunsa,
+bring him here, and see that there is no weapon upon him."
+
+Kassim passed an order and Hunsa was brought, his evil eyes turning
+from face to face with the restless query of a caged leopard.
+
+"There is no paper, Commander Sahib," the jamadar said, returning from
+his search of the iron-box.
+
+"There was none such," Kassim growled; "it was but a Patan lie; the
+message is yonder," and he pointed to the smear of blood upon the
+marble floor.
+
+Then he turned to Bootea: "Now, woman, speak what is in thy mind, for
+this is an affair of action."
+
+"Commander Sahib," Bootea began, "yonder man,"--and she pointed a slim
+hand toward Barlow--"is not an Afghan, he is a Sahib."
+
+This startling announcement filled the room with cries of astonishment
+and anger; _tulwars_ flashed.  Barlow shivered; not because of the
+impending danger, for he had accepted the roll of the dice, but at the
+thought that Bootea was betraying him, that all she had said and done
+before was nothing--a lie, that she was an accomplice in this murder of
+the Chief, and was now giving the Pindaris the final convincing proof,
+the reason.
+
+To deny the revelation was useless; they would torture him, and he was
+to die anyway; better to die claiming to be a _messenger_ from the
+British rather than as one sent to murder the Chief.
+
+Kassim bellowed an order subduing the tumult; then he asked: "What art
+thou, a Patan, or as the woman says, an Englay?"
+
+"I am a Sahib," Barlow answered; "a Captain in the British service, and
+came to your Chief with a written message of friendship."
+
+Kassim pointed to the blood on the floor: "Thou wert a good messenger,
+infidel; thou hast slain a follower of the Prophet."
+
+But Bootea raised a slim hand, and, her voice trembling with intensity,
+cried: "Commander, Amir Khan was not slain with the dagger, he was
+killed by the _towel_.  Look you at his throat and you will see the
+mark."
+
+"Bismillah!" came in a cry of astonishment from the Commander's throat,
+and the marble walls of the _Surya-Mahal_ (room of audience) echoed
+gasps and curses.  Kassim himself had knelt by the dead Chief, and now
+rising, said: "By Allah! it is true.  That dog--" his finger was
+thrusting like a dagger at Barlow.
+
+But Bootea's clear voice hushed the rising clamour: "No, Commander, the
+sahibs know not the thug trick of the _roomal_, and few thugs could
+have overcome the Chief."
+
+"Who then killed him--speak quick, and with the truth," Kassim
+commanded.
+
+He was interrupted by one of Hunsa's guards, crying: "Here, where go
+you--you had not leave!"  And Hunsa, who had turned to slip away, was
+jerked back to where he had stood.
+
+"It is that one," Bootea declared, sweeping a hand toward Hunsa.
+"About his waist is even now the yellow-and-white _roomal_ that is the
+weapon of Bhowanee.  With that he killed Amir Khan.  Take it from him,
+and see if there be not black hairs from the beard of the Chief in its
+soft mesh."
+
+"By the grace of Allah it is a truth!" the Commander ejaculated when
+the cloth passed to him had been examined.  "It is a revelation such as
+came to Mahomet, and out of the mouth of a woman.  Great is Allah!"
+
+"Will the Commander have Hunsa searched for the paper the Sahib has
+spoken of?" Bootea asked.
+
+"In his turban--" Kassim commanded--"in his turban, the nest of a
+thief's loot or the hiding-place of the knife of a murderer.  Look ye
+in his turban!"
+
+As the turban was stripped from the head of Hunsa the Pindari gave it a
+whirling twist that sent its many yards of blue muslin streaming out
+like a ribbon and the parchment message fell to the floor.
+
+"Ah-ha!" and a man, stooping, thrust it into the hands of the Commander.
+
+The Pindari who held the turban, threw it almost at the feet of Bootea,
+saying, "Methinks the slayer will need this no more."
+
+Bootea picked up the blue cloth and rolled it into a ball, saying, "If
+it is permitted I will take this to those who entrusted Hunsa with this
+foul mission to show them that he is dead."
+
+"A clever woman thou art--it is a wise thought; take it by all means,
+for indeed that dog's head will need little when they have finished
+with him," the soldier agreed.
+
+Kassim had taken the written paper closer to the light.  At sight of
+the thumb blood-stain upon the document, he gave a bellow of rage.
+"Look you all!" he cried holding it spread out in the light of the
+lamp; "here is our Chief's message to us given after he was dead; he
+sealed it with his thumb in his own blood, after he was dead.  A
+miracle, calling for vengeance.  Hunsa, dog, thou shalt die for
+hours--thou shalt die by inches, for it was thee."
+
+Kassim held the paper at arm's length toward Barlow, asking: "Is this
+the message thou brought?"
+
+"It is, Commander."
+
+Kassim whirled on Hunsa, "Where didst thou get it, dog of an infidel?"
+
+"Without the gate of the palace, my Lord.  I found it lying there where
+the Sahib had dropped it in his flight."
+
+"Allah! thou art a liar of brazenness."  He spoke to a Jamadar: "Have
+brought the leather nosebag of a horse and hot ashes so that we may
+come by the truth."
+
+Then Kassim held the parchment close to the lamp and scanned it.  He
+rubbed a hand across his wrinkled brow and pondered.  "Beside the seal
+here is the name, Rana Bhim," and he turned his fierce eyes on Barlow.
+
+"Yes, Commander; the Rana has put his seal upon it that he will join
+his Rajputs with the British and the Pindaris to drive from Mewar
+Sindhia--the one whose Dewan sent Hunsa to slay your Chief."
+
+"Thou sayest so, but how know I that Hunsa is not in thy hand, and that
+thou didst not prepare the way for the killing?  Here beside the name
+of the Rana is drawn a lance; that suggests an order to kill, a secret
+order."  He turned to a sepoy, "Bring the Rajput, Zalim."
+
+While they waited Bootea said: "It was Nana Sahib who sent Hunsa and
+the decoits to slay Amir Khan, because he feared an alliance between
+the Chief and the British."
+
+"And thou wert one of them?"
+
+"I came to warn Amir Khan, and--"
+
+"And what, woman--the decoits were your own people?"
+
+"Yonder Sahib had saved my life--saved me from the harem of Nana Sahib,
+and I came to save his life and your Chief's."
+
+Now there was an eruption into the chamber; men carrying a great pot of
+hot ashes, and one swinging from his hand the nosebag of a horse; and
+with them the Rajput.
+
+"Here," Kassim said, addressing the Hindu, "what means this spear upon
+this document?  Is it a hint to drive it home?"
+
+The Rajput put his fingers reverently upon the Rana's signature.
+"That, Commander, is the seal, the sign.  I am a Chondawat, and belong
+to the highest of the thirty-six tribes of Mewar, and that sign of the
+lance was put upon state documents by Chonda; it has been since that
+time--it is but a seal.  Even as that,"--and Zalim proudly swung a long
+arm toward the wall where a huge yellow sun embossed on gypsum
+rested--"even that is an emblem of the Children of the Sun, the
+Sesodias of Mewar, the Rana."
+
+"It is well," Kassim declared; "as to this that is in the message,
+to-morrow, with the aid of a mullah, we will consider it.  And now as
+to Hunsa, we would have from him the truth."
+
+He turned to the Gulab; "Go thou in peace, woman, for our dead Chief
+had high regard for thee; and Captain Sahib, even thou may go to thy
+abode, not thinking to leave there, however, without coming to pay
+salaams.  Thou wouldst not get far."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+When the two had gone Kassim clapped his hands together: "Now then for
+the ordeal, the search for truth," he declared.
+
+Hot wood-ashes were poured into the horse-bag, and, protesting,
+cursing, struggling, the powerful Bagree was dragged to the centre of
+the room.
+
+"Who sent thee to murder Amir Khan?" Kassim asked.
+
+"Before Bhowanee, Prince, I did not kill him!"
+
+At a wave of Kassim's hand upward the bag of ashes was clapped over the
+decoit's head, and he was pounded on the back to make him breathe in
+the deadly dust.  Then the bag was taken off, and gasping, reeling, he
+was commanded to speak the truth.  Once Kassim said: "Dog, this is but
+gentle means; torches will be bound to thy fingers and lighted.  The
+last thing that will remain to thee will be thy tongue, for we have
+need of that to utter the truth."
+
+Three times the nosebag was applied to Hunsa, like the black cap over
+the head of a condemned murderer, and the last time, rolling on the
+floor in agony, his lungs on fire, his throat choked, his eyes searing
+like hot coals, he gasped that he would confess if his life were spared.
+
+"Dog!" Kassim snarled, "thy life is forfeit, but the torture will
+cease; it is reward enough--speak!"
+
+But the Bagree had the obstinate courage of a bulldog; the nerves of
+his giant physical structure were scarce more vibrant than those of a
+bull; as to the torture it was but a question of a slower death.  But
+his life was something to bargain for.  Half dead from the choking of
+his lungs, with an animal cunning he thought of this; it was the one
+dominant idea in his numbed brain.  As he lay, his mighty chest pumping
+its short staccato gasps, Commander Kassim said: "Bring the dog of an
+infidel water that he may tell the truth."
+
+When water had been poured down the Bagree's throat, he rolled his
+bloodshot eyes beseechingly toward the Commander, and in a voice scarce
+beyond a hoarse whisper, said: "If you do not kill me, Prince, I will
+tell what I know."
+
+"Tell it, dog, then die in peace," Kassim snarled.
+
+But Hunsa shook his gorilla head, and answered, "Bhowanee help me, I
+will not tell.  If I die I die with my spirit cast at thy shrine."
+
+Kassim stamped his foot in rage; and a jamadar roared: "Tie the torches
+to the infidel's fingers; we will have the truth."
+
+Half-a-dozen Pindaris darted forward, and poised in waiting for the
+command to bind to the fingers of the Bagree oil-soaked torches; but
+Kassim moved them back, and stood, his brow wrinkled in pondering, his
+black eyes sullenly fixed on the face of the Bagree.  Then he said:
+"What this dog knows is of more value to our whole people, considering
+the message that has been brought, than his worthless life that is but
+the life of a swine."
+
+He took a turn pacing the marble floor, and with his eyes called a
+jamadar to one side.  "These thugs, when they cast themselves in the
+protection of Kali, die like fanatics, and this one is but an animal.
+Torture will not bring the truth.  Mark you, Jamadar, I will make the
+compact with him.  Do not lead an objection, but trust me."
+
+"But the dead Chief, Commander--?"
+
+"Yes, because of him; he loved his people.  And the knowledge that yon
+dog has he would not have sacrificed."
+
+"But is Amir Khan to be unavenged?" the jamadar queried.
+
+"Allah will punish yonder infidel for the killing of one of the true
+faith.  Go and summon the officers from below and we will decide upon
+this."
+
+Soon a dozen officers were in the room, and the sowars were sent away.
+Then Kassim explained the situation saying: "A confession brought forth
+by torture is often but a lie, the concoction of a mind crazed with
+pain.  If this dog, who has more courage than feeling, sees the chance
+of his life he will tell us the truth."
+
+But they expostulated; saying that if they let him go free it would be
+a blot upon their name.
+
+"The necessity is great," Kassim declared, "and this I am convinced is
+the only way.  We may leave his punishment to Allah, for Allah is
+great.  He will not let live one so vile."
+
+Finally the others agreed with Kassim who said that he would take the
+full onus upon himself for not slaying the murderer, that if there were
+blame let it be upon his head.  Then he spoke to Hunsa: "This has been
+decided upon, dog, that if thou confess, reveal to us information that
+is of value to our people, the torture shall cease, and no man's head
+in the whole Pindari camp shall be raised against thee either to wound
+or take thy life."
+
+"But the gaol, Hazari Sahib?"
+
+"No, dog, if thou but tell the truth in full, that we may profit,
+to-morrow thou may go free, and if any man in the camp wounds thee his
+life will pay for it.  Till noon thou may have for the going; even food
+for thy start on the way back to the land of thy accursed tribe.  By
+the Beard of the Prophet no man of all the Pindari force shall wound
+thee.  Now speak quick, for I have given a pledge."
+
+There were murmurs amongst the jamadars at Kassim's terms, for their
+hearts were full of hate for the creature who had slain their loved
+chief.  But Kassim was a man famous for his intelligence.  In all the
+councils Amir Khan had been swayed by the Hazari's judgment.  It was an
+accursed price to pay, they felt, but the Chief was dead; to kill his
+slayer perhaps was not as great a thing as to have Hunsa's confession
+written and attested to.  All that vast horde of fierce riding Pindaris
+and Bundoolas had been gathered by Amir Khan with the object of being a
+power in the war that was brewing--the war in which the Mahrattas were
+striving for ascendency, and the British massing to crush the Mahratta
+horde.  It had been Amir Khan's policy to strike with the winning
+force; perhaps his big body of hard-riding _sowars_ being the very
+power that would throw the odds to one or other of the contenders.
+Their reward would be loot, unlimited loot, so dear to the heart of the
+Pindari, and an assignment of territory.  To know, beyond doubt, who
+had instigated the murder of the Chief was precious knowledge.  It
+might be, as the Gulab had said, Sindhia's Dewan, but there was the
+English officer there at that time; and the message of friendship may
+have been a message of deceit and the true object the slaying of Amir
+Khan who was looked upon as a great leader.
+
+Hunsa had lain watching furtively the effect of the Commander's words
+upon the others; now he said, "I will tell the truth, Hazari, for thou
+hast given a promise in the name of Allah that I am free of death at
+the hands of thy people."
+
+"Wait, dog of an infidel!" Kassim commanded: "quick, call the _Mullah_
+to write the confession, for this is a sin to be washed out in much
+blood, and the proof must be at hand so the guilty will have no plea
+for mercy.  Also it is a matter of secrecy; we here being officers will
+have it on our honour, and the _Mullah_, because of his priesthood,
+will not speak of it: also he will bear witness of its sanctity."
+
+Soon a Pindari announced, "Commander Sahib, here is the holy one," and
+at a word from Kassim the priest unrolled his sheets of yellow paper,
+and sitting cross-legged upon a cushion with a salaam to the dead
+Chief, dipped his quill in a little ink-horn and held it poised.
+
+Then Hunsa, his eyes all the time furtively watching the scowling faces
+about him; fear and distrust in his heart over the gift of his life,
+but impelled by his knowledge that it was his only chance, narrated the
+story of Nana Sahib and the Dewan's scheme to rid the Mahrattas of the
+leader they feared, Amir Khan; told that they knew that the British
+were sending overtures for an alliance, but that fearing to kill the
+messenger--unless it could be done so secretly it would never be
+discovered--they had determined to remove the Chief.  When he spoke of
+the other Bagrees, Kassim realised that in the excitement of fixing the
+murder upon one there they had forgotten his troop associates, and a
+hurried order was passed for their capture.
+
+Of course it was too late; the others, at the first alarm, had slipped
+away.
+
+When the confession was finished Kassim commanded the _Mullah_ to rub
+his cube of India ink over the thumb of the decoit and the mark was
+imprinted on the paper.  Then he was taken to one of the cave cells cut
+out of the solid rock beneath the palace, and imprisoned for the night.
+
+"Come, Jamadars," Kassim said--and his voice that had been so coarse
+and rough now broke, and sobs floated the words scarce articulate--"and
+reverently let us lay Amir Khan upon his bed.  Then, though there be no
+call of the _muezzin_, we will kneel here; even without our prayer
+carpets, and pray to Allah for the repose of the soul of a true
+Musselman and a great warrior.  May his rest be one of peace!"
+
+He passed his hand lovingly over the face of the Chief and down his
+beard, and his strong fearless eyes were wet.
+
+Then Amir Khan was lifted by the Jamadars and carried to a bed in the
+room that adjoined the _surya mahal_.
+
+When they had risen from their silent prayer, Kassim said: "Go ye to
+your tents.  I will remain here with the guard who watch."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+Captain Barlow and Bootea had gone from the scene of the murder through
+the long dim-lighted hall, its walls broken here and there by niches of
+mystery, some of them closed by marble fretwork screens that might have
+been doors, and down the marble stairway, in silence.  Barlow had
+slipped a hand under her arm in the way of both a physical and mental
+sustaining; his fingers tapped her arm in affectionate approbation.
+Once he muttered to himself in English, "Splendid girl!" and not
+comprehending, the Gulab turned her star-eyes upward to his face.
+
+At the gate the soldier who had accompanied them spoke to the guard,
+and the latter, standing on a step bellowed: "Ho, ye Pindaris, here
+goes forth the Afghan in innocence of the foul crime!  Above they have
+the slayer, who was Hunsa the thug; and, Praise be to Allah! they will
+apply the torture.  Let him pass in peace, all ye.  And take care that
+no one molest the beautiful Gulab.  The peace of Allah upon the soul of
+the great Amir Khan!"
+
+A rippling thunder of deep voices vibrated the thronged street, crying,
+"Allah Akbar! the peace of God be upon the soul of the dead Chief!"
+
+A lane was opened up to them by the grim, wild-eyed, bandit-looking
+horsemen, _tulwar_ over shoulder and knives in belt, who called: "Back
+ye! the favoured of the Commander passes.  Back, make way! 'tis an
+order."
+
+The faces of the soldiers that had been wreathed in revenge and
+blood-lust when Barlow had been brought, were now friendly, and there
+were cries of "Salaam, brother! salaam, Flower of the Desert!" for it
+had been spread that the Gulab had discovered the murderer, had
+denounced him.
+
+"Brave little Gulab!" Barlow said in a low voice, bending his head to
+look into her eyes, for he felt the arm trembling against his hand.
+
+She did not answer, and he knew that she was sobbing.
+
+When they were past the turbulent crowd he said, "Bootea, your people
+will all have fled or been captured."
+
+"Yes, Sahib," she gasped.
+
+"Perhaps even your maid servant will have been taken."
+
+"No, Sahib, they would not take her; her home is here."
+
+By her side he travelled to where the now deserted tents of the decoits
+stood silent and dark, like little pagodas of sullen crime.  A light
+flickered in one tent, and silhouetted against its canvas side they
+could see the form of a woman crouched with her head in her hands.
+
+"The maid is there," Barlow said: "but it is not enough.  I will bring
+my blankets and sleep here at the door of your tent."
+
+"No, Sahib, it is not needed," the girl protested.
+
+"Yes, Bootea, I will come."  Then with a little laugh he added; "The
+gods have ordained that we take turns at protecting each other.  It is
+now my turn; I will come soon."
+
+She turned her small oval face up to look at this wonderful man, to
+discover if he were really there, that it was not some kindly god who
+would vanish.  He clasped the face, with its soul of adoration, in his
+two palms and kissed her.  Then fearing that she would fall, for she
+had closed her eyes and reeled, he took her by the arm, opened the flap
+of the tent, and steadied her into the arms of her handmaid.
+
+It was a fitful night's sleep for Barlow; the beat of horses' hoofs on
+the streets or the white sands beyond was like the patter of rain on a
+roof.  There were hoarse bull-throated cries of men who rode hither and
+thither; tremulous voices floated on the night air wild dirges, like
+the weird Afghan love song.  Sometimes a long smooth-bore barked its
+sharp call.  At sunrise the Captain was roused from this tiring sleep
+by the strident weird sing-song of the Mullah sending forth from a
+minaret of the palace his call to the faithful to prayer, prayer for
+the dead Chief.  And when the voice had ceased its muezzin:
+
+  "Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar;
+  Confess that there is no God but God;
+  Confess that Mohammad is the prophet of God;
+  Come to Prayer, Come to Prayer,
+  For Prayer is better than Sleep."
+
+the big drums sent forth a thundering reverberation.  He could hear the
+voices of the two women within, and called, "Bootea, Bootea!"
+
+The Galub came shyly from the tent saying, "Salaam, Sahib."  Then she
+stood with her eyes drooped waiting for him to speak.
+
+"It is this, Bootea," Barlow said, "do not go away until I am ready to
+depart, then I will take you where you wish to go."
+
+"If it is permitted, Sahib, I will wait," she answered as simply as a
+child.
+
+Barlow put a finger under her chin, and lifting her face smiled like a
+great boy, saying: "Gulab, you are wonderfully sweet."
+
+Then Barlow went to the _serai_, looked after his horse, had his
+breakfast, and passed back into the town.  He saw a continuous stream
+of men moving toward the small river that swept southward, to the east
+of the town, and asking of one the cause was told that the _ahiria_
+(murderer)--for now Hunsa was known as the murderer--was being sent on
+his way.  The speaker was a Rajput.  "It is strange, Afghan," he said,
+"that one who has slain the Chief of these wild barbarians, who are
+without gods, should be allowed to depart in peace.  We Rajputs worship
+a god that visits the sin upon the head of the sinner, but the order
+has been passed that no man shall harm the slayer of Amir Khan.
+Perhaps it is whispered in the Bazaar that Commander Kassim coveted the
+Chiefship."
+
+Barlow being in the guise of a Musselman said solemnly: "Allah will
+punish the murderer, mark you well, man of Rajasthan."
+
+"As to that, Afghan, one stroke of a _tulwar_ would put the matter
+beyond doubt; as it is, let us push forward, because I see from yonder
+steady array of spears that the Pindaris ride toward the river, and I
+think the prisoner is with them.  It was one Hunsa, a thug, and though
+the thugs worship Bhowanee, they are worse than the _mhangs_ who are of
+no caste at all."
+
+As Barlow came to where the town reached to the river bank he saw that
+the concourse of people was heading south along the river.  This was
+rather strange, for a bridge of stone arches traversed by the aid of
+two islands the Nahal to the other side.  A quarter of a mile lower
+down he came to where the river, that above wandered in three channels
+over a rocky bed, now glided sluggishly in one channel.  It was like a
+ribboned lake, smooth in its slow slip over a muddy bed, and circling
+in a long sweep to the bank.  On the level plain was a concourse of
+thousands, horsemen, who sat their lean-flanked Marwari or Cabul horses
+as though they waited to swing into a parade, the march past.  The
+_sowars_ Barlow had seen in the town were in front of him, riding four
+abreast, and at a command from their leader, opened up and formed a
+scimitar-shaped band, their horses' noses toward the river.  As he came
+close Barlow saw Kassim in a group of officers, and Hunsa, a soldier on
+either side of him, was standing free and unshackled in front of the
+Commander.  Save for the clanking of a bit, or the clang of a
+spear-haft against a stirrup, or the scuffle of a quick-turning horse's
+hoofs, a silence rested upon that vast throng.  Wild barbaric faces
+held a look of expectancy, of wonderment, for no one knew why the order
+had been passed that they were to assemble at that point.
+
+Kassim caught sight of Barlow as he drew near, and raising his hand in
+a salute, said: "Come close, Sahib, the slayer of Amir Khan, in
+accordance with my promise, is to go from our midst a free man.  His
+punishment has been left to Allah, the one God."
+
+Without more ado he stretched forth his right arm impressively toward
+the murky stream, that, where it rippled at some disturbance carried on
+its bosom ribbons of gold where the sun fell, saying:
+
+"Yonder lies the way, infidel, strangler, slayer of a follower of the
+Prophet!  Depart, for, failing that, it lacks but an hour till the sun
+reaches overhead, and thy time will have elapsed--thou will die by the
+torture.  You are free, even as I attested by the Beard of the Prophet.
+And more, what is not in the covenant,"--Kassim drew from beneath his
+rich brocaded vest the dagger of Amir Khan, its blade still carrying
+the dried blood of the Chief--"this is thine to keep thy vile life if
+you can.  Seest thou if the weapon is still wedded to thy hand.  It is
+that thou goest hand-in-hand with thy crime."
+
+He handed the knife to a soldier with a word of command, and the man
+thrust it in the belt of Hunsa.  Even as Kassim ceased speaking two
+round bulbs floated upon the smooth waters of the sullen river, and
+above them was a green slime; then a square shovel just topped the
+water, and Barlow could hear, issuing from the thing of horror, a
+breath like a sigh.  He shuddered.  It was a square-nosed _mugger_
+(crocodile) waiting.  And beyond, the water here and there swirled, as
+if a powerful tail swept it.
+
+And Hunsa knew; his evil swarthy face turned as green as the slime upon
+the crocodile's forehead; his powerful naked shoulders seemed to
+shrivel and shrink as though blood had ceased to flow through his
+veins.  He put his two hands, clasped palm to palm, to his forehead in
+supplication, and begged that the ordeal might pass, that he might go
+by the bridge, or across the desert, or any way except by that pool of
+horrors.
+
+Kassim again swept his hand toward the river and his voice was horrible
+in its deadliness: "These children of the poor that are sacred to some
+of thy gods, infidel, have been fed; five goats have allotted them as
+sacrifice and they wait for thee.  They serve Allah and not thy gods
+to-day.  Go, murderer, for we wait; go unless thou art not only a
+murderer but a coward, for it is the only way.  It was promised that no
+Pindari should wound or kill thee, dog, but they will help thee on thy
+way."
+
+Hunsa at this drew himself up, his gorilla face seemed to fill out with
+resolve; he swept the vast throng of horsemen with his eyes, and
+realised that it was indeed true--there was nothing left but the pool
+and the faint, faint chance that, powerful swimmer that he was, and
+with the knife, he might cross.  Once his evil eyes rested on Kassim
+and involuntarily a hand twitched toward the dagger hilt; but at that
+instant he was pinioned, both arms, by a Pindari on either side.  Then,
+standing rigid, he said:
+
+"I am Hunsa, a Bagree, a servant of Bhowanee; I am not afraid.  May she
+bring the black plague upon all the Pindaris, who are dogs that worship
+a false god."
+
+He strode toward the waters, the soldiers, still a hand on either arm,
+marching beside him.  On the clay bank he put his hands to his
+forehead, calling in a loud voice: "_Kali Mia_, receive me!"  Then he
+plunged head first into the pool.
+
+A cry of "Allah!  Allah!" went up from ten thousand throats as the
+Bagree shot from view, smothered in the foam of the ruffled stream.
+And beyond the waters were churned by huge ghoulish forms that the
+blood of goats had gathered there.  Five yards from the bank the ugly
+head of Hunsa appeared; a brown arm flashed once, in the fingers
+clutched a knife that seemed red with fresh blood.  The water was
+lashed to foam; the tail of a giant _mugger_ shot out and struck flat
+upon the surface of the river like the crack of a pistol.  Again the
+head, and then the shoulders, of the swimmer were seen; and as if
+something dragged the torso below, two legs shot out from the water,
+gyrated spasmodically, and disappeared.
+
+Barlow waited, his soul full of horror, but there was nothing more;
+just a little lower down in the basin of the sluggish pool two bulbous
+protrusions above the water where some crocodile, either gorged or
+disappointed, floated lazily.
+
+A ghastly silence reigned--no one spoke; ten thousand eyes stared out
+across the pool.
+
+Then the voice of Kassim was heard, solemn and deep, saying: "The
+covenant has been kept and Allah has avenged the death of Amir Khan!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+Commander Kassim touched Barlow on the arm: "Captain Sahib, come with
+me.  The death of that foul murderer does not take the weight off our
+hearts."
+
+"He deserved it," Barlow declared.
+
+Though filled with a sense of shuddering horror, he was compelled
+involuntarily to admit that it had been a most just punishment; less
+brutal, even more impressive--almost taking on the aspect of a
+religious execution--than if the Bagree had been tortured to death;
+hacked to pieces by the _tulwars_ of the outraged Pindaris.  He had
+been executed with no evidence of passion in those who witnessed his
+death.  And as to the subtlety of the Commander in obtaining the
+confession, that, too, according to the ethics of Hindustan, was
+meritorious, not a thing to be condemned.  Hunsa's animal cunning had
+been over-matched by the clear intellect of this wise soldier.
+
+"We will walk back to the Chamber of Audience," Kassim said, "for now
+there are things to relate."
+
+He spoke to a soldier to have his horse led behind, and as they walked
+he explained: "With us, Sahib, as at the death of a Rana of Mewar,
+there is no interregnum; the dead wait upon the living, for it is
+dangerous that no one leads, even for an hour, men whose guard is their
+sword.  So, as Amir Khan waits yonder where his body lies to be taken
+on his way to the arms of Allah in Paradise, they who have the welfare
+of our people at heart have selected one to lead, and one and all, the
+jamadars and the hazaris, have decreed that I shall, unworthily, sit
+upon the _ghuddi_ (throne) that was Amir Khan's, though with us it is
+but the back of a horse.  And we have taken under advisement the
+message thou brought.  It has come in good time for the Mahrattas are
+like wolves that have turned upon each other.  Sindhia, Rao Holkar,
+both beaten by your armies, now fight amongst themselves, and suck like
+vampires the life-blood of the Rajputs.  And Holkar has become insane.
+But lately, retreating through Mewar, he went to the shrine of Krishna
+and prostrating himself before his heathen image reviled the god as the
+cause of his disaster.  When the priests, aghast at the profanity,
+expostulated, he levied a fine of three hundred thousand rupees upon
+them, and when, fearing an outrage to the image these infidels call a
+god, they sent the idol to Udaipur, he way-laid the men who had taken
+it and slew them to a man."
+
+"Your knowledge of affairs is great, Chief," Barlow commented, for most
+of this was new to him.
+
+"Yes, Captain Sahib, we Pindaris ride north, and east, and south, and
+west; we are almost as free as the eagles of the air, claiming that our
+home is where our cooking-pots are.  We do not trust to ramparts such
+as Fort Chitor where we may be cooped up and slain--such as the Rajputs
+have been three times in the three famed sacks of Chitor--but also,
+Sahib, this is all wrong."
+
+The Chief halted and swept an arm in an encompassing embrace of the
+tent-studded plain.
+
+"We are not a nation to muster an army because now the cannon that
+belch forth a shower of death mow horsemen down like ripened grain.  It
+was the dead Chief's ambition, but it is wrong."
+
+Barlow was struck with the wise logic of this tall wide-browed warrior,
+it _was_ wrong.  Massed together Pindaris and _Bundoolas_ assailed by
+the trained hordes of Mahrattas, with their French and Portuguese
+gunners and officers, would be slaughtered like sheep.  And against the
+war-trained Line Regiments of the British foot soldiers they would meet
+the same fate.  "You are right, Chief Kassim," Barlow declared; "even
+if you cut in with the winning side, especially Sindhia, he would turn
+on you and devour you and your people."
+
+"Yes, Sahib.  The trade of a Pindari, if I may call it so, has been
+that of loot in this land that has always been a land of strife for
+possession.  I rode with Chitu as a jamadar when we swept through the
+Nizam's territory and put cities under a tribute of many _lakhs_, but
+that was a force of five thousand only, and we swooped through the land
+like a great flock of hawks.  But even at that Chitu, a wonderful
+chief, was killed by wild animals in the jungle when he was fleeing
+from disaster, almost alone."
+
+They were now close to the palace, and as they entered, just within the
+great hall Kassim said: "There will be nothing to say on thy part,
+Captain Sahib; the officers will come even now to the audience and it
+is all agreed upon.  Thou wilt be given an assurance to take back to
+the British, for by chance the others have great confidence in me, even
+more in a matter of diplomacy than they had in the dead leader, may
+Allah rest his soul!"
+
+And to the audience chamber--where had sat oft two long rows of minor
+chiefs, at their head on a raised dais the Rajput Raja, a Seesodia, one
+of the "Children of the Sun," as the flaming yellow gypsum sun above
+the dais attested--now came in twos and threes the wild-eyed whiskered
+riders of the desert.  They were lean, raw-boned, steel-muscled, tall,
+solemn-faced men, their eyes set deep in skin wrinkled from the scorch
+of sun on the white sands of the desert.  And their eyes beneath the
+black brows were like falcon's, predatory like those of birds of prey.
+And the air of freedom, of self-reliance, of independence was in every
+look, in the firm swinging stride, and erect set of the shoulders.
+They were men to swear by or to fear; verily men.  And somehow one
+sharp look of appraisement, and one and all would have sworn by Allah
+that the Sahib in the garb of an Afghan was a man.
+
+As each one entered he strode to the centre of the room, drew himself
+erect facing the heavy curtain beyond which lay the dead Chief, and
+raising a hand to brow, said in a deep voice: "Salaam, Amir Khan, and
+may the Peace of Allah be upon thy spirit."
+
+"Now, brothers," Kassim said, when the curtain entrance had ceased to
+be thrust to one side, "we will say what is to be said.  One will stand
+guard just without for this is a matter for the officers alone."
+
+He took from his waist the silver chain and unlocked the iron box,
+brought forth the paper that Barlow had carried, and holding it aloft,
+said: "This is the message of brotherhood from the English Raj.  Are ye
+all agreed that it is acceptable to our people?"
+
+"In the name of Allah we are," came as a sonorous chorus from one and
+all.
+
+"And are ye agreed that it shall be said to the Captain Sahib, who is
+envoy from the Englay, that we ride in peace to his people, or ride not
+at all in war?"
+
+"Allah! it is agreed," came the response.
+
+He turned to Barlow.  "Captain Sahib, thou hast heard.  The word of a
+Pindari, taken in the name of Allah, is inviolate.  That is our answer
+to the message from the Englay Chief.  There is no writing to be given,
+for a Pindari deals in yea and nay.  Is it to be considered.  Captain
+Sahib; is it a message to send that is worthy of men to men?"
+
+"It is, Commander Kassim," Barlow answered.
+
+"Then wait thou for the seal."
+
+He raised his _tulwar_ aloft,--and as he did so the steel of every
+jamadar and hazari flashed upward,--saying, "We Pindaris and Bundoolas
+who rode for Amir Khan, and now ride for Kassim, swear in the name of
+Allah, and on the Beard of Mahomet, who is his Prophet, friendship to
+the Englay Raj."
+
+"By Allah and the Beard of Mahomet, who is his Prophet, we make oath!"
+the deep voices boomed solemnly.
+
+"It is all," Kassim said quietly.  "I would make speech for a little
+with the Captain."
+
+As each officer passed toward the door he held out a hand and gripped
+the hand of the Englishman.
+
+When they had gone Kassim said: "Go thou back, Sahib, to the one who is
+to receive our answer, and let our promise be sent to the one who
+commands the Englay army and is even now at Tonk, in Mewar, for the
+purpose of putting the Mahrattas to the sword.  Tell the Sahib to
+strike and drive the accursed dogs from Mewar, and have no fear that
+the Pindaris will fall upon his flank.  Even also our tulwars and our
+spears are ready for service so be it there is a reward in lands and
+gold."
+
+The Pindari Chief paced the marble floor twice, then with his eyes
+watching the effect of his words in the face of Barlow he said:
+"Captain Sahib, it is of an affair of feeling I would speak now.  It
+relates to the woman who has done us all a service, which but shows
+what a perception Amir Khan had; a glance and he knew a man for what he
+was.  Therein was his power over the Pindaris.  And it seems, which is
+rarer, that he knew what was in the heart of a woman, for the Gulab is
+one to rouse in a man desire.  And I, myself, years of hard riding and
+combat having taken me out of my colt-days, wondered why the Chief,
+being busy otherwise, and a man of short temper, should entail labour
+in the way of claiming her regard.  I may say, Sahib, that a Pindari
+seizes upon what he wants and backs the claiming with his sword.  But
+now it is all explained--the wise gentleness that really was in the
+heart of one so fierce as the Chief--Allah rest his soul!  What say
+thou, Captain Sahib?"
+
+"Bootea is wonderful," Barlow answered fervidly; "she is like a Rajput
+princess."
+
+Kassim coughed, stroked his black beard, adjusted the hilt of his
+_tulwar_, then coughed again.
+
+"Inshalla! but thou hast said something."  He turned to face Barlow
+more squarely: "Captain Sahib, the one who suffered the wrath of Allah
+to-day last night sent a salaam that I would listen to a matter of
+value.  Not wishing to have the hated presence of the murderer in the
+room near where was Amir Khan I went below to where in a rock cell was
+this Hunsa.  This is the matter he spoke of, no doubt hoping that it
+would make me more merciful, therefore, of a surety I think it is a
+lie.  It is well known, Sahib, that the Rana of Udaipur had a beautiful
+daughter, and Raja Jaipur and Raja Marwar both laid claim to her hand;
+even Sindhia wanted the princess, but being a Mahratta--who are nothing
+in the way of breeding such as are the Children of the Sun--dust was
+thrown upon his beard.  But the Rajputs fly to the sword over
+everything and a terrible war ensued in which Udaipur was about ruined.
+Then one hyena, garbed as the Minister of State, persuaded the cowardly
+Rana to sacrifice Princess Kumari to save Udaipur.
+
+"All this is known, Sahib, and that she, with the courage of a
+Rajputni, drained the cup that contained the poison brewed from poppy
+leaves, and died with a smile on her lips, saying, 'Do not cry, mother;
+to give my life for my country is nothing.'  That is the known story,
+Sahib.  But what Hunsa related was that Kumari did not die, but lives,
+and has the name of Bootea the Gulab."
+
+The Chief turned his eyes quizzically upon the Englishman, who muttered
+a half-smothered cry of surprise.
+
+"It can't be--how could the princess be with men such?"
+
+"Better there than sacrifice.  Hunsa learned of this thing through
+listening beneath the wall of a tent at night while one Ajeet Singh
+spoke of it to the Gulab.  It was that the Rana got a yogi, a man
+skilled in magical things, either drugs or charms, and that Kumari was
+given a potion that caused her to lie dead for days; and when she was
+brought back to life of course she had to be removed from where Jaipur
+or Marwar might see her or hear of this thing, because they would fly
+to the sword again."
+
+Kassim ceased speaking and his eyes carried a look of interrogation as
+if he were anxious for a sustaining of his half-faith in the story.
+
+"It's all entirely possible," Barlow declared emphatically; "it's a
+common practice in India, this deceit as to death where a death is
+necessary.  It could all be easily arranged, the Rana yielding to
+pressure to save Mewar, and dreading the sin of being guilty of the
+death of his daughter.  Even the Gulab is like a Princess of the
+Sesodias--like a Rajputni of the highest caste."
+
+"Indeed she is, Captain Sahib, the quality of breeding never lies."
+
+"What discredits Hunsa's story," Barlow said thoughtfully, "is that the
+Gulab was in the protection of Ajeet Singh who was but a _thakur_ at
+best--really a protector of decoits."
+
+"To save Kumari's life she had been given to the yogi, and he would act
+not out of affection for the girl's standing as a princess, but to
+prevent discovery, bloodshed, and, her life.  It is also known that
+these ascetics--infidels, children of the Devil--by charm, or drugs, or
+otherwise, can cause something like death for days--a trance, and the
+one who goes thus knows not who he was when he comes back," Kassim
+argued.
+
+"Well," Barlow said, "it is a matter unsolvable, and of no importance,
+for the Gulab, Kumari or otherwise, is a princess, such as men fight
+and die for."
+
+There was a little silence, Barlow carrying on in his mind this, the
+main interest, so far as he was concerned, Bootea; as a woman appealing
+to the senses or to the subtlest mentality she was the sweetest woman
+he had ever known.
+
+There was a flicker of grim humour in Kassim's dark eyes: "Captain
+Sahib," he said, "that evil-faced Bagree has a curious deep cunning, I
+believe.  I'll swear now by the hilt of my _tulwar_ that he made up the
+whole story for the purpose of having audience with me, and in his
+heart was a favour desired, for, as I was leaving, he asked that I
+would have his turban given back to him to wear on his going; he
+pleaded for it.  Of course, Sahib, a turban is an affair of caste, and
+I suppose he was feeling a disgrace in going forth without it.  It
+appears that Gulab had taken it as an evidence that he had been killed,
+but when I sent a man for it she told him that the cloth was possessed
+of vermin and she had burned it."
+
+"But still, Chief, though Hunsa has an animal cunning, yet he could not
+make up such a story--he has heard it somewhere."
+
+Barlow felt his heart warm toward the grizzled old warrior as he,
+dropping the nebulous matter of Kumari, said: "And to think, Captain
+Sahib, that but for the Gulab we would have slain you as the murderer
+of Amir Khan.  As a Patan, even if I had wished it, I could not have
+fended the _tulwars_ from your body.  And you were a brave man, such as
+a Pindari loves; rather than announce thyself as an Englay--the paper
+gone and thy mission failed--thou wouldst have stood up to death like a
+soldier."
+
+He put his hand caressingly on Barlow's knee, adding: "By the Beard of
+the Prophet thou art a man!  But all this, Sahib, is to this end; we
+hold the Gulab in reverence, as did Amir Khan, and if it is permitted,
+I would have her put in thy hands for her going.  Those that were here
+in the camp with her fled at the first alarm, and my riders discovered
+to-day, too late, that they hid in an old mud-walled fort about three
+miles from here whilst my Pindaris scoured the country for them; then
+when my riders returned they escaped.  So the Gulab is alone.  I will
+send a guard of fifty horsemen and they will ride with thee till thou
+turnest their horses' heads homeward, and for the Gulab there will be a
+_tonga_, such as a Nawab might use, drawn by well-fed, and well-shod
+horses.  That, too, she may keep to the end of her journey and
+afterwards, returning but the driver."
+
+"My salaams to you, Chief, for your goodness.  To-morrow if it please
+you I will go with your promises to the British."
+
+"It is a command, Sahib--to-morrow.  And may the Peace of Allah be upon
+thee and thy house always!"
+
+He held out a hand and his large dark eyes hovered lovingly over the
+face of the Englishman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+Captain Barlow walked along to the tent of Bootea to tell her of the
+arrangement that had been made for their leaving the camp so that she
+might be ready.  He could see in the girl's eyes the reflection of a
+dual mental struggle, an ineffable sweetness varied by a changing cloud
+of something that was apprehension or doubt.
+
+"The Sahib is a protector to Bootea," she said.  "Sometimes I wondered
+if such men lived; yet I suppose a woman always has in her mind a vague
+conception that such an one might be.  But always that, that is like a
+dream, is broken--one wakes."
+
+Prosaically taking the matter in hand Barlow said, "You would wish to
+go back to your people at Chunda--is it not so?"
+
+The girl's eyes flashed to his face, and her brows wrinkled as if from
+pain.  "Those who have fled will be on their way to Chunda, and they
+will tell of the slaying of Amir Khan.  The Dewan will be pleased, and
+they will be given honour and rich reward; they will be allowed to
+return to Karowlee."
+
+"Yes," Barlow interposed; "that Hunsa goes not back will simply be
+taken as an affair of war, that he was captured and killed; there will
+be nobody to relate that you revealed the plot.  When you arrive there
+you, also, will be showered with favours, and Ajeet Singh will owe his
+life to you; they will set him at liberty."
+
+"And as to Nana Sahib?" Bootea asked, and there was pathetic dread in
+her eyes.
+
+"What is it--you fear him?"
+
+"Yes, Sahib, he will claim Bootea; a Mahratta never keeps faith.  There
+will be a fresh covenant, because he is like a beast of the jungle."
+
+Barlow paced back and forth the small confine of the tent, muttering.
+"It's hell!"  He pictured the Gulab in the harem of Nana Sahib--in a
+gaudy prison chained to a serpent.  To interfere on her behalf would be
+to sacrifice what came first, his duty as an officer of state, to what
+would be called, undoubtedly, an infatuation.  Elizabeth would take it
+that way; even his superiors would call it at least inexpedient, bad
+form.  For a British officer to be interested or mixed up with a native
+woman, no matter how noble the impulse, would be a shatterment of both
+official and personal caste.
+
+"I won't allow that," he declared vehemently, shifting into words his
+mental traverse.
+
+Bootea had followed with her eyes his struggle; then she said: "The
+Sahib has heard of the women of the Rajputs who, with smiles on their
+lips faced death, who, when the time of the last danger came were not
+afraid?"
+
+"Yes, Gulab.  But for you it is not that way.  You have said that I am
+your protector--I will be."
+
+There was a smile on the girl's lips as she raised her eyes to
+Barlow's.  "It is not permitted, Sahib; the gods have the matter in
+their lap.  For a little--yes, perhaps.  It is the time of the
+pilgrimage to the shrine of Omkar at Mandhatta, and Bootea will make
+the pilgrimage; at the shrine is the priest that told Bootea of her
+reincarnations, as I related to the Sahib."
+
+A curious superstitious chill struck with full force upon the heart of
+Barlow.  Kassim's story of Kumari revivified itself with startling
+remembrance.  Was this the priest that, to save Kumari's sacrifice, had
+wafted her by occult or drug method from one embodied form into
+another, from Kumari to Bootea?  It was so confusing, so overpowering
+in its clutch that he did not speak of it.
+
+The girl was adding: "It is on the Sahib's way to Poona; there will be
+many from Karowlee at Mandhatta and I can return with them."
+
+This seemed reasonable to Barlow; she would there be in the company of
+people not at war.  And then, erratically, rebelliously, he felt a
+heart hunger; but he cursed this feeling as being vicious--it was.  He
+smothered it, shoving it back into a niche of his mind, thinking he had
+locked it up--had turned a key in the door of the closet to hide the
+skeleton.
+
+He temporised, saying; "Well, we'll see, Gulab; perhaps at Mandhatta I
+could wait while you made an offering and a prayer to Omkar, and then
+you could journey on to Chunda."  To himself he muttered in English:
+"By God!  I'll not stand for that slimy brute, Nana Sahib's, possession
+of the girl--she's too good.  I know enough now to denounce him."
+
+In council with himself, standing Captain Barlow firmly on his feet to
+face the realities, he realised the impossibility of being anything
+more to Bootea than just a Sahib who had by fate been thrown into her
+path temporarily.  And then, feeling the sway, the compelling force of
+a fascinating femininity he almost trembled for himself.  Weaker
+sahibs--gad! he knew several, one a Deputy Commissioner.  A beautiful
+little Kashmiri girl had nursed him through cholera when even his own
+servants had fled.  The Kashmiri, who had the dainty flower-like
+sweetness of a Japanese maid, and practically the same code, had lived
+in his protection before this.  After the nursing incident he had
+married her, with benefit of clergy, and the result had been hell, a
+living suicide, ostracism.  A good officer, he still remained Deputy
+Commissioner, the highest official of the district, but the social
+excellence was wiped out--he was a pariah, an outcast.  And the girl,
+who now could not remain just a native, could not attain to the dignity
+of a Deputy-Commissioner Memsahib.
+
+Barlow knew several such.  Of course of drifters he knew also, the
+white inland beach-combers--men who had come out to India to fill
+subordinate positions in the telegraph, or the railroad, or mills; and,
+as they sloughed off European caste, and possessed of the eternal
+longing for woman companionship, had married natives.  Barlow shuddered
+at mentally rehearsed visions of the degradation.  Thus everything
+logical was on that side of the ledger--all against the Gulab.  On the
+other side was the fierce compelling fascination that the girl held for
+him.
+
+Yes, at Mandhatta they would both sacrifice to the gods.  Curiously
+Elizabeth stood in the computation a cipher; probably he would marry
+her, but the escapement from disaster, from wreck, would not be because
+of any moral sustaining from her, any invisible thread of love binding
+him to the daughter of the Resident.  He knew that until he parted from
+Bootea at Mandhatta his soul would be torn by a strife that was
+foolish, contemptible, that should never have originated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+And next day when Barlow, sitting his horse, still riding as the
+Afghan, went forth, his going was somewhat like the departure of a
+Nawab.  Chief Kassim and a dozen officers had clanked down the marble
+steps from the palace with him and stood lined up at the gates raising
+their deep voices in full-throated salaams and blessings of Allah upon
+his head.
+
+The horsemen of the guard, spears to boot-leg, fierce-looking riders of
+the plain, were lined up four abreast.  The _nakara_ in the open court
+of the palace was thundering a farewell like a salute of light
+artillery.
+
+The _tonga_ with Bootea had gone on before with a guard of two
+out-riders.
+
+All that day they travelled to the south, on their left, against the
+eastern sky, the lofty peaks of the Vindhya mountains holding the gold
+of the sun till they looked like a continuous chain of gilded temples
+and tapering pagodas.  For hours the road lay over hard basaltic rocks
+and white limestone; then again it was a sea of white sand they
+traversed with its blinding eye-stinging glare.
+
+At night, when they camped, Barlow had a fresh insight into the fine
+courtesy, the rough nobility that breeds into the bone of men who live
+by the sword and ride where they will.  The Pindaris built their
+camp-fires to one side, and two of them came to where the Sahib bad
+spread his blankets near the _tonga_ and built a circle of smudge-fires
+from chips of camel-dung to keep away the flies.  Then they went back
+to their fellows, and when Barlow had pulled the blanket over himself
+to sleep the clamour of voices where the horsemen sat was hushed.
+
+And Bootea had been treated like a princess.  At each village that they
+passed some would ride in and rejoin the cavalcade with fowl, and eggs,
+and fruit, and sugar cane, and fresh vegetables; and a mention of
+payment would only draw a frown, an exclamation of, "_Shookur_! these
+are but gifts from Allah.  There has been more than payment that we
+have not cut off the _kotwal's_ head, not even demanded a peep at the
+money chest.  We are looked upon as men who confer favours."
+
+It was the second day one of the horses in the _tonga_ showing
+lameness, or perhaps even weariness, for the yoke of the _tonga_ across
+their backs did not ride with the ease of a man, the jamadar went into
+a village and came forth with his men leading two well-fed horses.
+Again when Barlow spoke of pay for them the jamadar answered, "We will
+leave these two with the unbelievers, and a message, in the name of
+Allah, that when we return if the horses we leave are not treated like
+those of the Sultan there will be throats slit.  _Bismillah_! but it is
+a fair way of treating these unbelievers; they should be grateful."
+
+The road ran through the large towns of Bhopal and Sehore, and at each
+place Jamadar Jemla explained to all and sundry of the officials that
+the Patan, meaning Barlow, was a trusted officer with Sindhia and they
+were escorting a favourite for Sindhia's harem.  It was a plausible
+story, and avoided interference, for while the Pindaris might be turned
+back if there was a force handy, to interfere with a lady of the King's
+harem might bring a horde of cut-throat Mahrattas down on them with a
+snipping off of official heads.
+
+On the fourth day, and now they were on a good trunk road that ran to
+Indore, and branching to the left, that crossed the Nerbudda River at
+Mandhatta, they were constantly passing pilgrims on their way to the
+Temple of Omkar.  In the affrighted eyes of the Hindus Barlow could
+read their dread of the Pindaris; they would cringe at the roadside and
+salaam, as fearful were they as if a wolf-pack swept down the highway.
+
+The jamadar would laugh in his deep throat, and twist his black
+moustache with forefinger and thumb, and call the curse of Mahomet upon
+these worshippers of stone images and foul gods.  He loved to ride
+stirrup to stirrup with the Englishman, and Barlow found delight in the
+man's broad conception of life; the petty things seemed to have no
+resting place in his mind, unless perhaps as a matter for ridicule.
+The sweep of a country with free rein and a sharp sword, and always the
+hazard of loot or death was an engrossing subject.  Even the enemy who
+fought and bled and died, were like themselves--by Allah! men; but the
+merchants, the shop-keepers, and the money-lenders, who cringed and
+paid tribute when the Pindaris drove at them in a raid, were pigs,
+cowardly dogs who robbed the poor and gave only to the accursed
+Brahmins and their foul gods.  He would dwell lovingly upon the feats
+of courage of the Rajputs, lamenting that such fine men should be
+excluded from heaven, dying as they did such glorious deaths, sword in
+hand, because of their mistaken infidelity; they were souls lost
+because of being led away from a true god, the one god, Allah, through
+false priests.
+
+"Mark thou, Sahib," Jemla said once, "I do not hold that it is a merit
+in the sight of Allah to slay such except there is need, but when it is
+a _jihad_, a question of the supremacy of a true god, Allah, or the
+Sahib's God--which no doubt is one and the same--as against the evil
+gods of destruction and depravity such as Shiva and Kali, then it is a
+merit to slay the children of evil.  Mahomet did much to put this
+matter right," he declared; "he made good Musselmen of thousands who
+would otherwise have been cast into _jehannum_ (hell), at times holding
+the sword over their heads as argument.  Therein Mahomet was a true
+prophet, a saver of souls rather than a destroyer of such."
+
+By noon they were drawing toward Mandhatta, and when they came to where
+the road from Indore to Mandhatta joined the one they were travelling,
+there was an increase in the stream of pilgrims and Barlow could see a
+look of uneasiness in the jamadar's eyes.
+
+There was a grove of wild mango trees on the left, running from the
+road down to a stream that gurgled on its way from the hills to the
+Nerbudda river, and Jemla said, "We might camp here, Sahib, for there
+is both good water and fire-wood."
+
+They could see, as they rested and ate, a party of Hindus down by the
+stream where there was a shrine to Krishna that nestled under a huge
+banyan that was like the roof of a cave from which dropped to earth to
+take roots hundreds of slender shoots, like stalactites, and whose
+roots, creeping from the earth like giant worms, crawled on to lave in
+the stream.  When they had finished eating, Jemla said, "That is a
+temple of the Preserver;" then he laughed a full-throated sneer:
+"_Allah hafiz_! (God protect us), give me a fine-edged _tulwar_,--and
+mine own is not so dull--methinks yon grinning affair of stone would
+not preserve a dozen of these infidels had there been cause for anger."
+
+"What do the pilgrims there, for they go, it would seem, to Omkar?"
+Barlow queried.
+
+"There has been a death--perhaps it was even a year ago, and at a
+shrine of Krishna, especially this one that is on a water that is like
+a trickle of holy tears to the sacred Narbudda, _straddhas_ (prayers
+for the dead) are said.  Come, Sahib, we will look upon this mummy, the
+only savour of grace about the infidel thing being that it perhaps
+brings to their hearts a restfulness, having the faith that they have
+helped the soul of the dead."
+
+Barlow rose from where he sat and they went down to where a party of a
+dozen were engaged in the service of an appeal to the god for rest for
+the soul of a dead relative.  The devotees did not resent the
+appearance of the two who were garbed as Moslems.  The shrine was one
+of those, of which there are many in India, that, curiously enough, is
+sacred to both Hindus and followers of the Prophet.  On a flat rock,
+laved by the stream, was an imprint of a foot, a legendary foot-print
+of Krishna, perhaps left there as he crossed the stream to gambol with
+the milkmaids in the meadow beyond.  And it was venerated by the
+Musselman because a disciple of Mohammed had attained to great sanctity
+by austerities up in the mountain behind, and had been buried there.
+
+But Barlow was watching with deep interest the ceremonial form of the
+_straddha_.  He saw the women place balls of rice, milk, and leaves of
+the _tulsi_ plant in earthenware platters, then sprinkle over this
+flowers and kusa-grass; they added threads, plucked from their
+garments, to typify the presenting of the white death-sheet to the dead
+one; a priest all the time mumbling a prayer, at the end of the simple
+ceremony receiving a fee of five rupees.
+
+As the two men turned back toward their camp Jemla chuckled: "Captain
+Sahib, thou seest now the weapon of the Brahmin; his loot of silver
+pieces was acquired with little effort and no strife; as to the
+rice-balls the first jackal that catches their wind will have a filled
+stomach.  It is something to be thought of in the way of regard for a
+long abiding in heaven that such foolish ones will not attain to it.
+The setting up of false gods, carved images, I was once told by a
+priest of thy faith, is sufficient to exclude such.  It makes one's
+_tulwar_ clatter in its scabbard to see such profanation in an approach
+to God."
+
+Then Jemla spoke of the matter that had engendered the troubled look
+Barlow had observed: "The Captain Sahib has intimated that the
+One"--and he tipped his head toward the girl--"would proceed to the
+temple of Omkar to make offerings at the shrine?"
+
+"Yes, she goes there."
+
+"There will be a hundred thousand of these infidels at Mandhatta, and
+when they see fifty Pindaris, _tulwar_ and spear and match-lock, there
+will be unrest; perhaps there will be altercation--they will fear that
+we ride in pillage."
+
+"I was thinking of that," Barlow replied; "and it would be as well that
+you turned your faces homeward."
+
+"We have received an order from our Chief that our lives are at the
+disposal of the Captain Sahib, and we will drive into the heart of a
+Mahratta force if needs be, but if it is the Sahib's command we will
+ride back from here," Jemla said.
+
+"Yes; there is no need of a guard for the Gulab now--just that the
+_tonga_ carries her as far as she wishes it," Barlow concurred.
+
+"Indeed we are not needed; those infidels come to worship their heathen
+gods, not to combat men, and Mandhatta is but a matter of twelve _kos_
+now," Jemla affirmed.
+
+When Captain Barlow, and Bootea in the _tonga_, drew out from the
+encampment to proceed on their way the Pindaris rode on in front, and
+then, at a command from Jemla, wheeled their horses into a continuous
+line facing the road, stirrup to stirrup, the horsemen sitting erect
+with their _tulwars_ at the salute.  As Barlow passed a cry of,
+"Salaam, aleikum! the protection of Allah be upon you," rippled down
+the line.  Then the horsemen wheeled with their faces to the north.
+Jemla swept a hand to his forehead and from his deep throat welled a
+farewell, "Salaam, bhai!  (brother)."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+The Jamadar's tribute from man to man, one encased in a dark skin and
+one in a white, was akin to the tribulation that would not be driven
+from Barlow's mind over the Gulab, that in their case made the matter
+of a skin colourisation the bar sinister.  He rode in a brooding
+silence.  And now the way was one of ascent toward the pass through the
+Vindhya mountains; a red gravelly undulating formation had given place
+to basaltic rocks.  They passed from groups of _mhowa_ trees and left
+behind a wide shallow stream, its bed dotted with pools fringed by
+great _kowa_ trees, and its banks lined by a thick green cover of
+_jamun_ and _karonda_.  Thorny _babul_ thrust their spiked branches out
+over the roadway, white with tufts of cotton torn by its thorns from
+bales, loose pressed, on their way to market in buffalo carts; "Babul
+the thief," the natives called this acacia.  Higher up a torch-wood
+tree gleamed as if sprayed with gold, its limbs, lean and bare of
+foliage, holding at their extremities in wisp-like fingers bright,
+yellow, solitary blooms.  From a _tendu_ tree a pair of droll little
+brown monkeys chattered and grimaced at the clattering cart.
+
+A spotted owlet, disturbed by the driver's encouraging, "Pop-pop!
+Dih-dih-dih!  Ho-ho-ho! children of jungle swine; brothers to buffalo!"
+addressed to the horses lagging in the climb, fluttered away with his
+silly little cackle.
+
+These incidents of travel were almost unnoticed of Barlow.  All up the
+climb the retrospect was with him, claiming his thoughts.  Just
+that--all that was in evidence, a pigment in the skin, _caste_; and yet
+reacting away back to God's mandate against the union of the white and
+black.  And verily a sin to be visited even unto the third and fourth
+generation, for the bar sinister would be upon his children; they would
+be half-castes with all of the opprobrium the name carried.  Even the
+son of a king, the offspring of such a union would be spoken of in mess
+and drawing-room as a half-caste: the indelible sign would be upon him,
+the blue tint to the white moons in his finger nails.  Barlow
+shuddered.  Why contemplate the matter at all--it was impossible.  Nana
+Sahib had named the barrier when he had spoken of _varna_, meaning
+colour, as _caste_, a shirt-of-mail that protected from disaster.
+
+Sometimes as he dropped back past the _tonga_, the face of Bootea would
+appear beneath the lifted curtain, and though on the lips would be a
+sweet ravishing smile, the eyes were pathetic, full of heart hunger.
+Sometimes he vowed that he would put off the parting--dream on; carry
+her on to her people at Chunda.  Then he would realise that this was
+cowardice, a desire flooding his sense of nobility into a chasm of
+possible disaster; not fair to the girl; the animal mastery of male
+over female, the domination of sex.  Beyond doubt, wrapped in his arms,
+not even the omnipotence of the gods would take her away from him.  If
+there were less innate nobility in his avatar, if he were like men that
+were called red-blooded men, yet lacking the finer sensibility, this
+might be; not a villainous rush, just drifting.  That was it, the
+superlative excellence of the Gulab; the very quality that attracted,
+was the shield, the immaculate robe that clothed her and preserved her
+like a vestal virgin from such violation.  Barlow could not word all
+these things; subconsciously they swayed him--like the magnetic needle,
+always toward the pole of right.
+
+When they had topped the pass and descended into the valley of the
+Narbudda, clothed in arboreal beauty, passed from a forest of evergreen
+_sal_ to giant teak trees with huge umbrella-like leaves that formed a
+canopy over the straight column-like boles of eighty feet, and on
+amidst topes of wild mango and wild date, down, down, to the lower
+levels where the _dhak_ jungles gave way to feathery bamboo and
+plantain and waving grass, the sun, like a great ball of molten gold,
+was splashing its yellow sheen upon the waters of a stream that hurried
+south to Mother Narbudda.
+
+There was a small village of Gonds, or Korkus, like a toy thing, the
+houses woven from split bamboo, nestling against the billowing hills.
+
+"Here we will rest and eat," Barlow said to the Gulab.
+
+"As the Sahib wishes," she answered, and smiled at him like a child.
+
+The huge medallion of gold had slid down in the west from the dome
+through which were shot great streamers of red and mauve, and a peacock
+perched high in a sal tree far up on the mountainside sent forth his
+strident cry of "Miaou! miaou! miaou!" his evening salute to the god of
+warmth.
+
+As the harsh call, like an evening _muezzin_, died out, the sweet song
+of a shama, in tones as pure as those of a nightingale, broke the
+solemn hush of eventide.
+
+Barlow turned his face to where the songster was perched in the top
+branches of a wild-fig, and Bootea, said in a low voice: "Sahib, it is
+said that the shama is a soul come back to earth to sing of love that
+men may not grow harsh."
+
+Soon a silver moon peeped over the walls of the Vindhya hills, and from
+the forests above the night wind, waking at the fleeing of the sun,
+whispered down through feathered _sal_ trees carrying the scent of
+balsam and from a group of _salei_ trees a sweet unguent, the perfume
+of the gum which is burnt at the shrines of Hindu gods.
+
+When they had eaten, Barlow said: "I wonder, Gulab, if this is like
+_kailas_, the heaven those who have passed through many transitions and
+become holy, attain to."
+
+"It is just heaven, my Lord," she replied fervently.
+
+"And to-morrow I will be plodding on through the sands and dust, and
+I'll be all alone.  But you, little girl, you will be making your peace
+with Omkar and dreaming of the greater heaven."
+
+"Yes, it will be that way; the Sahib will not have the tribulation of
+protecting Bootea, and she will be in the protection of Omkar."
+
+There was so much of pathetic resignation in the timbre of the girl's
+voice, for it was half sigh, that Barlow shivered, as if the chilling
+mist of the valley had crept up to the foothills.  Why had he not
+treated her as an alien, kept all interest in abeyance?  His self
+recrimination was becoming a disease, an affliction.
+
+He rose, muttering, "Damn!  I'm like the young wasters that swarm up to
+London from Oxford and get splashed with the girls from the
+theatres--that's what I'm like."
+
+As he strode over to where his horse was tethered, munching his ration
+of grain, Bootea followed him with her eyes, wondering why he had
+broken into English; perhaps he was chanting an evening prayer.
+
+When Barlow came back he fell to wishing that they were at Mandhatta so
+that he would start on the rest of his journey in the morning; he
+dreaded the long evening with the girl.  He could have sat there with
+Elizabeth, although their marriage hovered on the horizon, and talked
+of trivial things: of sport, of shooting; or damned the Executive
+sitting beneath _punkahs_ in offices with windows all closed, far away
+in Calcutta.  Or could have traversed, mentally, leagues of sea and
+rehabilitated past scenes in London.  It would be like talking to a
+brother officer.  But with the Gulab, and the hush and perfume of the
+forest-clad hills, and the gentle glamour of moonlight, his senses
+would smother placid intellectuality; he would be like a toper with a
+bottle at his elbow mocking weak resolve.
+
+Then the girl said something: a shy halting request that set his blood
+galloping: "Sahib, it is not far to Mandhatta--four _kos_, or perhaps
+it is five; would it be unpermitted to suggest that we go there, for
+the moon is beautiful and the road is good."
+
+"All right, girl!" and remembering that he had spoken in English, he
+added, "It will be expedient, for you will there find shelter."
+
+"Yes, Sahib, Guru Swami will be there, and I am known of him; and there
+are places where one may rest."
+
+"I'll tell the driver to hitch up," Barlow declared, rising.
+
+But she laid a detaining hand upon his arm: "Sahib, the sweetest thing
+in all Bootea's life was the time she rode on the horse with him.
+Then, too, the moon, that is the soul of Purusha, smiled upon her.
+Would it be permitted to Bootea just one more happiness, for
+to-morrow--to-morrow--"
+
+The girl turned away, and seemed busy adjusting her gold-embroidered
+jacket.
+
+"So you shall, Gulab," Barlow declared.  And he, too, thought of the
+sweetness of that ride where she lay like a confiding child in his
+arms; and also for him, too, was to-morrow--to-morrow; and for him,
+too, just one more foolish, useless happiness--just a sensuous burying
+of his face in flowers that on the morrow would have shrivelled.
+
+"I'll send the _tonga_ on ahead," he declared, "and we'll just have
+that jolly old farewell ride together, girl--I'd love it."
+
+Now she turned back to him and her face was placid, soft, content, as
+though Mona Lisa had stepped out from the painted canvas, and, now
+embodied, was there listening to the sigh of the night-wind through the
+feathered _sal_ forest.
+
+With ejaculations of "Bap, bap, bap!  _Shabaz_!" and queer gurgling
+clucking of the throat, and a sonorous rumble from the wide, low
+wheels, the driver drove the tonga on into the moonlight.  Barlow had
+saddled his horse and thrown his blanket loosely behind the saddle.
+The air was chilling, but his sheepskin coat would turn its cold
+breath; the blanket was for Bootea.
+
+As he had done once before, his feet in stirrups, he reached down a
+hand and swung the girl up in front of him.  Then he enveloped her in
+the blanket as she nestled against his chest, arms about his waist.
+Her warm body was like a draught of wine and he muttered, "My God!  I
+shouldn't have done this!"  But he knew that he would have had that
+ride if devils had jeered at him from the jungle that lined the road.
+
+As the horse swung along in leisured walking stride, the girl seemed to
+have gone to sleep; her cheek lay against Barlow's shoulder, and he
+could feel the pulsating throb of her heart.  Once a sigh came from her
+lips, but it was like a breath of deep content.  Barlow felt that he
+must talk to the girl; his senses were rampant; he was sitting like the
+lotus-eaters drinking in a deadly intoxication.
+
+But it was Bootea who broke the silence as though she, too, felt
+herself slipping.  She took from beneath her vestment a little bag of
+silk and taking from it a ruby she put it in Barlow's hand, saying:
+"Here is the 'Lamp of Akbar;' it protects and gives power."
+
+"Where did you get this magnificent ruby, girl--it is of great value?"
+Barlow queried in amazement.
+
+"Do you remember, Sahib, when Bootea asked for the turban of Hunsa, the
+time it was stripped from his head, and the paper of message found
+hidden in it?"
+
+"Yes, you said you would take it back to the Bagrees to show them that
+Hunsa was dead."
+
+He could hear the Gulab chuckle.  "That was but the deceit of a woman,
+Sahib; the simple things that a woman says to deceive a clever man.  I
+knew that Hunsa had the ruby sewn in a corner of the turban, and when I
+had taken the stone I burned the turban in the fire, for it was like
+Hunsa--very dirty."
+
+"Where did Hunsa get it?"
+
+"When the Bagrees killed the jewel merchant, that time the Sahib saved
+Bootea, he stole it from the other decoits, hiding it in his turban,
+because the Dewan wanted it."
+
+"But I don't want the stone--I can't take it," Barlow expostulated.
+
+"It is for a service, Sahib.  Nana Sahib will assuredly cause Ajeet to
+be put to death if Bootea does not return to his desire, but the Sahib
+can buy his life with the ruby of great price."
+
+"But if it were stolen would not Nana Sahib demand it, and then kill
+Ajeet?"
+
+"No; it was not his ruby; and to obtain it he will set Ajeet free."
+
+"I'll do that, Gulab," Barlow agreed, and the girl's hand pushed up
+from the folds of the blanket to caress his cheek, and her face nestled
+against his shoulder.
+
+The fingers thrilled him, and, though he had made solemn vow that he
+would ride like an anchorite, he bent his head and kissed her with a
+claiming warmth that caused her to cry out as if in misery.
+
+Presently a whimsical fancy swayed the girl, and she said, "Ayub Alli!"
+
+Barlow laughed, and answered: "Bismillah!"
+
+"So, Afghan, riding thus, it is not disrespect, just that we be of
+different faith, Hindu and Musselman."
+
+"If it were thus, we'd not part at Mandhatta.  And as to the faith,
+thou wouldst become a follower of the Prophet."
+
+"Yes, Bootea would.  If she could go forever thus she would sacrifice
+entrance to _kailas_.  But this is heaven; and perhaps Omkar, when I
+make the sacrifice--I mean offering--will listen to Bootea's prayers,
+and--and--"
+
+"And what, Gulab?" Barlow asked, for the girl turned her face against
+his breast, and her voice had smothered.
+
+Their thoughts were distracted by a din in front that shattered the
+solemn hush of the night.  There was a thunderous beat of tom-toms, the
+shrill rasping screech of conch-shells, and in intervals of subversion
+of instrumental clamour they could hear women's voices, high-pitched,
+singing the _scahailia_ (song of joy).  Loud cries of "Jae, Jae,
+Omkar!" rose in a chorus from a hundred swelling throats.
+
+At a turning around a huge banyan tree they saw the flickering flames
+of torches, and Barlow knew that plodding in front was a large body of
+pilgrims.
+
+He quickened his horse's pace, drawing Bootea closer to hide her from
+curious eyes, and as he passed the Hindus he knew from their scowling
+faces and cries of, "It is a Kaffir--a barbarian!" that they took him
+for a Mussulman, perhaps one of Sindhia's Arabs.
+
+At the head of the procession, carried on a platform gaily decorated
+with gaudy cloths, borne on the shoulders of four men, was a figure of
+Ganesha.  The obese, four-armed, jovial son of Shiva, bobbing in the
+rhythmic stride of his carriers, seemed to nod his elephant head at the
+horseman approvingly, wishing him luck as was the wont of Ganesha.  The
+procession drove in upon Barlow's mind the thought that they were
+nearing Mandhatta; he realised it with a pang of reluctance.  It seemed
+but a matter of just minutes since he had lifted Bootea to the saddle.
+
+It had hurried the Gulab's mind, too, for at another turn where the
+road slid into the valley, bringing to their nostrils the soft perfume
+of _kush-kush_ grass and the savour of _jamun_ that grew luxuriantly on
+the banks of the Narbudda, the Gulab asked: "The Sahib will marry the
+young Memsahib who is at the city of the Peshwa?"
+
+Barlow was startled.  It was like a voice crying out in the night that
+shattered a blissful dream.
+
+"Why do you ask that, Gulab?"
+
+"Because it was said.  And the Missie Baba's heart will be full of the
+Sahib, for he is like a god."
+
+"Is the Gulab jealous of the Missie Baba?" Barlow asked mundanely,
+almost out of confusion.
+
+"No, Sahib, because--because one is not jealous of a princess; because
+that is to question the ways of the gods.  If I had been an Englay and
+he loved me, and the Missie Baba claimed him, Bootea would kill her."
+
+This was said with the simple conviction of a child uttering a weird
+threat, but Barlow shivered.
+
+"And now, Gulab," he persisted, "if you thought I loved you would you
+kill the Missie Baba?"
+
+"No, Sahib, because it is Bootea's fault.  It can't be.  It is
+permitted to Bootea to love the Sahib, but at the shrine Omkar will
+take that sin and all the other sins away when she makes sacrifice--"
+
+"What sacrifice, Gulab?"
+
+"Such as we make to the gods, Sahib."
+
+Then something curious happened.  The girl broke, she clung to Barlow
+convulsively; sobs choked her.
+
+He clasped her tight and laid his cheek against hers soothingly, and
+said, "Gulab, what is it?  Don't go to the Shrine of Omkar.  Come with
+me to your people at Chunda, and if you do not want to remain with them
+I will have it arranged, through the Resident, that the British will
+reward you with protection.  You have done the British Raj a great
+service."
+
+"No, Sahib."  The girl drew herself erect, so that her eyes gazed into
+Barlow's, They were luminous with an intensity of resolve.  "Let Bootea
+speak what is in her heart, and be not offended; it is necessary.
+There is, at the end of the journey the place that is called _jahannam_
+(hell) for Bootea.  The Nana Sahib waits like a tiger crouched by a
+pool at night for the coming of a stag to drink."
+
+"The Resident will protect you against the Mahratta," Barlow declared.
+
+"Bootea could do that," and in her small hand there gleamed in the
+moonlight the sheen of her dagger blade.  She thrust it back into her
+belt.
+
+"What then do you fear, Gulab?" he queried.
+
+"The Sahib."
+
+"_Me_, Gulab?"
+
+"Yes, Khudawand.  To see you and not be permitted to hear your voice,
+nor feel your hand upon my face, would be worse than sacrifice.  Bootea
+would rather die, slip off into death with the goodness, the sweetness
+of to-night upon her soul.  There, where the Sahib would be, Bootea's
+heart would be full of evil, the evil of craving for him.  No, this is
+the end, and Bootea will make offering of thanks--marigolds and a
+cocoanut to Omkar, and sprinkle attar upon his shrine in thankfulness
+for the joy of the Sahib's presence.  It is said!" and the girl nestled
+down against Barlow's breast again as though she had gone to sleep in
+content.
+
+But he groaned inwardly: there was something of dread in his heart, her
+resignation was so deep--suggesting an utter giving up, a helplessness.
+She had named sacrifice; the word rang ominously in his mind, beating
+at his fears.  And yet, what she had said was philosophy--wise; a
+something that had been worded, perhaps differently, for a million
+years; the brave acceptance of Fate's decree--something that always
+triumphed over the weak longings of humans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+Now they could see the wide silver ribbon of Mother Narbudda lying
+serene and placid in the moonlight, in the centre of the river's wide
+flow the gloomy rock embrasures of Mandhatta Island.  Where it towered
+upward in cliffs and coned hills the summit showed the flickering
+lights of many temples, and like the sing of a storm through giant
+trees there floated on the night wind the sound of many voices, and the
+beating of drums, and the imperious call of horns and conch-shells.
+
+They came upon the _tonga_ waiting by the roadside, and Barlow,
+thrusting back the covering from the girl's face said: "Now, Gulab, I
+will lift you down.  We must find a place in the village beyond for you
+to rest to-night; I, too, will remain there and in the morning we will
+make our salaams."
+
+Then he drew her face to his and kissed her.
+
+He slipped from the saddle and lifted the girl down, carrying her in
+his arms to the _tonga_.
+
+As they neared the village that was situated on the flat land that
+swept back from the Narbudda in a wide plain, and nestled against the
+river bank, they were swept into a crowd such as would be encountered
+on a trip to the Derby.  The road was thronged with people, and the
+village itself, from which a bridge reached to the Island of Mandhatta,
+was a town in holiday attire, for to the Hindus the _mela_ of Omkar was
+a union of festivity and devotion.
+
+Both sides of the main street were lined with booths for the sale of
+everything; calicoes from Calicut, where these prints first got their
+name; hammered Benares ware; gold-threaded cotton puggris from Mewar;
+tulwars and khandas from Bhundi.  In some of the little shops, bamboo
+structures that thrust an underlip out into the street, there was Mhowa
+liquor, and _julabis_, and _kabobs_ of goat meat.  Open spaces held
+tiny circuses--abnormal animals and performing goats, and a moon-bear
+on a ring and strap.
+
+The street was full of gossiping men and women and children dodging
+here and there; it was an outing where the _ryot_ (farmer) had escaped
+from his crotched stick of wood that was a plough, and the village
+tradesmen had left his shop, and the servant his service, to feel the
+joyousness of a holiday.  Mendicants were in abundance prowling in
+their ugliness like spirits in a nightmare; some naked, absolute,
+others with but a loin-cloth, their lean shrivelled bodies smeared with
+ashes--sometimes the ashes of the dead--and cow-dung, carrying on their
+arms and foreheads the red and white horizontal bars of Shiva--who was
+Omkar at Mandhatta.  In their hands were either iron-tongs, with loose
+clattering ring, or a yak's tail, or the three-ribbed horn of a
+black-buck.
+
+Some of the _yogis_, perhaps Goswamies that had come from the country
+where Eklinga was the tutelary deity, had their hair braided and woven
+around their foreheads, holding in its fold lotus seeds; beneath the
+tiara of hair a crescent of white on their foreheads.  A flowing yellow
+robe half hid their ash-smeared limbs.  A tall Sannyasi--the most
+ascetic of sects--his lean yellow-robed form supported by a long staff
+at the end of which swung a yellow bag, strode solemnly along with eyes
+fixed on a book, the Bhagavad Gita, muttering, "Aum, to the light of
+earth, the divine light that illumines our souls.  Aum!"
+
+To Barlow it was like a grotesque pantomime with no directing head.
+Nautch girls tripped along laughing and chatting, bracelets jingling,
+and tiny bells at their ankles tinkling musically.  It depressed him;
+it was such a terrible juxtaposition of frivolity and the gloomed
+shadow of idol worship that lay just the bridge's span of the sullen
+Narbudda: the gloomy, broken scraps of the long since deserted forts
+that cut with jagged lines the moonlit sky; and beyond them again the
+many temples with their scowling Brahmin priests, and the shrine
+wherein the god of destruction, Omkar, sat athirst for sacrifice.  He
+shivered as though the white mist that veiled the river crept into his
+marrow.
+
+The Gulab seemed at home amongst these gathered ones.  Two or three
+times she had bade the driver stop his creeping pace, and looking out
+from beneath the curtain had questioned a man or woman.  At last, as
+they were stopped by a wall of people watching the antics of some
+strolling players upon a platform, Bootea spoke to a stout woman who
+was pressed against the opening into the cart by the mob.
+
+"_Lucker khan Bhaina, Bowree_," the Gulab said in a low voice, and the
+woman's eyes took on a startled look for it was a decoit password, and
+the Bowrees were a clan of decoits akin to the Bagrees.  From the woman
+Bootea learned where she could find a good resting place with the
+family of a shop-keeper.  There was no doubt about it, the Bowree woman
+assured her, for the _tonga_ would impress him, and he was one who
+profited from the loot of decoits.
+
+The Gulab was given a place to sleep in the shopkeeper's house that
+extended back from his little shop.  The driver was ordered to return
+in the morning to the Pindari camp.  Barlow was for keeping the
+_tonga_, hoping that perhaps Bootea would change her mind and go on to
+Chunda, but the girl was firm in her determination to end it all at
+Mandhatta.
+
+Before Barlow left her to seek some camping place in hut or serai, and
+food for himself and horse, the girl said: "If the Sahib will delay his
+going to-morrow for a little, Bootea will proceed early to the shrine
+to see the Swami--then she will return here, for she would want to see
+his face once more before the ending."
+
+"I'll wait, Gulab," he acquiesced; "I'll be here at the tenth hour."
+He felt even then an unaccountable chill of their parting, for, many
+being about, he could not take her in his arms to kiss her; but their
+eyes spoke, and the girl's were luminous, and sweet with a look of
+hunger, of pathetic longing, of sublime trust.
+
+As Barlow turned away leading his horse, he muttered over and over,
+"Gad! it's incomprehensible that a Sahib should feel this over a--yes,
+a native woman; it's damnable!"
+
+He reviled himself, declaring that it was harder on the Gulab than on
+him--and he was actually suffering.  It would be better if he swung to
+the saddle and fled from the misery that prolongation but intensified.
+And the girl's brave resignation in giving him up was wonderful, was so
+like her.
+
+Then the sight of Mahratta _sowars_, who, it being Sindhia's territory,
+were a guard to watch the pilgrim throng, flashed him back to a sense
+of duty, his own mission.  But it had not suffered because of Bootea;
+it had benefitted through her; but for her the written message from the
+British would have been lost--stolen by Hunsa, and would have landed in
+Nana Sahib's hands; and he would have been slain as the Patan, killer
+of Amir Khan.
+
+But the Gulab was right; from that time forward should she listen to
+him and go on to Poona, God alone knew where it would lead to--misery.
+It would be utter ruin morally, officially, in a caste way; even in
+time passionate enthusiasm, engendered by her lovableness, dulled,
+would bring utter debasement, degradation of spirit, of man fibre.  It
+was the wisdom of God that entailed upon the union of the white and
+dark-skinned the bar sinister.
+
+Until he slept, wrapped in his blankets on the sand beside his tethered
+horse, Barlow was tortured by this mental inquisition.  Even in his
+troubled sleep there was a nightmare that waked him, panting and
+exhausted, and the remembrance was vivid--Bootea lay beneath the mighty
+paws of a tiger and he was beating hopelessly at the snarling brute
+with a clubbed rifle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+In the morning Captain Barlow underwent a sartorial metamorphosis; he
+attained to the sanctity of a Hindu pilgrim by the purchase of a
+tight-ankled pair of white trousers to replace the voluminous baggy
+ones of a Patan, and a blue shot-with-gold-thread Rajput turban.  He
+shoved the Patan turban with its conical fez in his saddle-bags, and
+wound the many yards of blue material in a rakish criss-cross about his
+shapely head, running a fold or two beneath his chin.  The Patan
+sheepskin coat was left with his horse.
+
+When Bootea came at ten to where Barlow--who was now Jaswant
+Singh--paced up and down with the swagger of a Rajput in front of the
+_bunnia's_ shop, she stood for a little, her eyes searching the crowd
+for her Sahib.  When he laughed, and called softly, "Gulab," her eyes
+almost wept for joy, for not seeing him at once, a dread that he had
+gone had chilled her.
+
+"You see how easy it is, in a good cause, to change one's caste," he
+said.
+
+"With you, Sahib, yes, because you can also change your skin."
+
+There it was again, the indestructible barrier, the pigmented badge.
+It drove the laugh from Barlow's lips.
+
+"Why has the Afghan Musselman become a Hindu?" Bootea asked.
+
+"I have no wish to anger these people who are on a holy pilgrimage by
+going into their temples as a Moslem."
+
+"You are going to the shrine of Omkar?" the Gulab asked aghast.
+
+"Are you--again?" Barlow parried.
+
+"Yes, Sahib, soon."
+
+"I am going with you," Barlow declared.
+
+Bootea expostulated with almost fierce eagerness; with a fervour that
+increased the uneasiness in Barlow's mind.  He had a premonition of
+evil; dread hung on his soul--perhaps born of the dream of a tiger
+devouring the girl.
+
+"The Sahib still has the Akbar Lamp--the ruby?" the girl queried,
+presently.
+
+"I have it safe," he answered, tapping his breast.
+
+"If the Sahib is not going to the shrine Bootea would desire that we
+could go out beyond the village to a _mango tope_ where there are none
+to observe, for she would like to make the final salaams in his
+arms--then nothing would matter."
+
+"Perhaps we had better go anyway," Barlow said eagerly--"though I am
+going over to the shrine with you; for now, being a Hindu, I can pass
+as your brother--and there there would not be opportunity."
+
+The girl turned this over in her mind, then said: "No, we will not go
+to the grove, for Bootea can say farewell to the Sahib in the cloister
+where Swami Sarasvati has a cell for vigils."
+
+Then asking Barlow to wait she went into the house and soon returned
+clothed in spotless white muslin.  He noticed that she had taken off
+all her ornaments, her jewellery.  The bangle of gold that was a
+twisting snake with a ruby head, she pressed upon Barlow, saying: "When
+the Sahib is married to the Englay will he give her this from me as a
+safeguard against evil; and that it may cause her to worship the Sahib
+as a god, even as Bootea does."
+
+The simplicity, the genuine nobleness of this tribute of renunciation,
+hazed Barlow's eyes with a mist--almost tears; she was a strange
+combine of dramatic power and gentle sweetness.
+
+"Now, come, Sahib," she said, "if you insist.  It will not bring misery
+to Bootea but to you."
+
+Barlow strode along beside the girl steeped in ominous misgivings.
+Perhaps his presence at the temple would avert whatever it was, that,
+like evil genii seemed to poison the air.
+
+There was a moving throng of pilgrims that poured along in a joyous
+turbulent stream toward the bridge.  No shadow of the dread god, Omkar,
+gloomed their spirits; they chatted and laughed.  Of those who would
+make devotions the men were stripped to the waist, their limbs draped
+in spotless white.  And the women, on their way to have their sins
+forgiven, were taking final license--the _purdah_ of the veil was
+almost forgotten, for this was permitted in the presence of the god.
+Even their beautifully formed bodies and limbs, the skin fresh
+anointed, gleaming like copper in the sunlight, showed entrancingly,
+voluptuously, with a new-born liberty.
+
+Once, half way of the bridge, a man's voice rang out commandingly,
+calling backward, admonishing some one to hurry, crying, "It is the
+_kurban_!"
+
+Barlow started; the _kurban_ meant a human sacrifice.  He looked at
+Bootea--he could have sworn her head had drooped, and that she
+shivered.  The girl must have sensed his thoughts, for she turned her
+eyes up to his, but they held nothing of fear.
+
+Beyond the bridge they passed across a lower level, jungle clad with
+delicate bamboos and dhak, and sweet-scented shrubs, and clusters of
+gorgeous oleanders.  The way was thronged with white-clothed figures
+that seemed like wraiths, ghosts drifting back to the cavern of the
+Destroyer.
+
+Then they commenced the ascent following the bed of a stream that had
+cut a chasm through black trap-rock, leaving jagged cliffs.  And the
+persistent jungle, ever encroaching on space, had out-posts of champac
+and wild mango, their giant roots, like the arms of an octopus, holding
+anchorage in clefts of the rock.  And from the limbs above floated down
+the scolding voices of _lungoor_, the black-faced grey-whiskered
+monkeys, who rebuked the intrusion of the earth-dwellers below.  Where
+the path lay over rocks it was worn smooth and slippery by naked feet,
+the feet of pilgrims for a thousand years.  On the right the mouth of a
+deep cave had been walled up by masonry.  Within, so the legend ran,
+the High Priest of Mandhatta, centuries before, had imprisoned the
+goddess Kali to stop a pestilence, making vow to offer to Bhairava, her
+son, a yearly human sacrifice.  Higher up, approaching the plateau
+where were the ruins of a thousand gorgeous shrines, both sides of the
+pathway were lined by mendicants who sat cross-legged, in front of them
+a little mat for the receipt of alms--cowries, pice, silver; the
+mendicants muttering incessantly "_Jae, Jae, Omkar_!"  (Victory to
+Omkar).
+
+In front of the temple within which sat the god, was a conical black
+stone daubed with red, the Linga, the generative function of Siva, and
+before it, the symbol of reproduction, women made offering of
+cocoanuts, and sweets, and garlands of flowers,--generally
+marigolds,--and prayed for the bestowal of a son; even their postures,
+carried away as they were by desire, showing a complete abandon to the
+sex idea.  A Brahmin priest sat cross-legged upon a stone platform
+repeating in a sing-song cadence prayers, and from somewhere beyond a
+deep-toned bell boomed out an admonishing call.
+
+Holy water from the sacred Narbudda was poured into the two jugs each
+pilgrim carried and sealed by the Brahmins, who received, without
+thanks, stoically, as a matter of right, a tribute of silver.
+
+Towering eighty feet above the temple spire was a cliff, and from a
+ledge near its top a white flag fluttered idly in the lazy wind.  It
+was the death-leap, the ledge from which the one of the human sacrifice
+to Omkar leapt, to crash in death beside the Linga.
+
+Almost without words Barlow and the girl had toiled up the ascent,
+scarcely noticed of the throng; and now Bootea said: "Sahib, remain
+here, I go to speak to the High Priest."
+
+Barlow saw her speak into the open portal of one of the cloister
+chambers that surrounded the temple, then disappear within.  After a
+time she came forth, and approaching him said, "The Priest would speak
+with thee, Sahib; for because of many things I have told him who thou
+art, though mentioning not the nature of the mission, for that is not
+permitted."
+
+Barlow's foreboding of evil was now a certainty as he strode forward.
+
+The priest rose at the Captain's entrance.  He was a fine specimen of
+the true Brahmin, the intellectual cult, that through successive
+generations of mental sway and homage from the millions of untutored
+ones had become conscious of its power.  Tall, spare of form, with wide
+high forehead and full expressive eyes, almost olive skin, Barlow felt
+that the Swami was quite unlike the begging yogis and mendicants; a man
+who was by the close alliance of his intellect to the essence of
+created things a Sannyasi.  Larger in his conceptions than the yogis
+who misconstrued the Vedas and the Law of Manu as imposing an
+association of filth--smeared ashes, and uncombed, uncleansed hair--as
+a symbol of piety and abnegation of spirit, a visible assertion that
+the body had passed from regard--that it, with its sensualities and
+ungodly cravings, had become subservient to the spirit, the soul.
+
+Swami Sarasvati was austere; Barlow felt that he dwelt on a plane where
+the trivialities of life were but pestilential insects, to be endured
+stoically in a physical way, with the mind freed from their irritation
+grasping grander things; life was a wheel that revolved with the
+certainty of celestial bodies.
+
+It was so curious, and yet so unfailing, that Bootea, with her
+hyper-intuition should have found, selected this spiritual tutor from
+the horde of gurus, byragies, and yogis that were connecting links
+between the tremendous pantheon of grotesque gods and the common
+people.  Here she had come to an intellectual, though no doubt an
+ascetic; one possessed of fierce fervour in his ministry.  There would
+be no swaying of that will force developed to the keen flexible
+unflawed temper of a Damascus blade.
+
+Now the priest was saying in the _asl_ (pure) Hindustani of the
+high-bred Brahmin: "The Sahib confers honour upon Sri Swami Sarasvati
+by this visit, for the woman has related that he is of high caste
+amongst the Englay and has been trusted by the Raj with a mission.
+That he comes in the garb of my people is consideration for it avoids
+outrage to their feelings.  I am glad to know that the Englay are so
+considerate."
+
+"I came, Swami, because of regard for Bootea for she is like a
+princess."
+
+The priest shot a quick, searching look into the eyes of the speaker,
+then he asked, "And what service would the Sahib ask?"
+
+The question caught Captain Barlow unaware; he had not formulated
+anything--it had all been nebulous, this dread.  He hesitated, fearing
+to voice that which perhaps did not exist in the minds of either the
+priest or Bootea.
+
+The girl perceived the hesitancy and spoke rapidly in a low voice to
+the priest.
+
+"Captain Sahib," the Swami began, "I see that thy heart is inclined to
+the woman, and it is to be admired, for she is, as thou thinkest, like
+a flower of the forest.  But also, Captain Sahib, thy heart is the
+heart of a soldier, of a brave man, the light of valour is in thine
+eyes, in thy face, and I would ask thee to be brave, and instead of
+being cast in sorrow because of what I am going to tell thee, thou must
+realise that it is for the good of the woman whose face is in thy
+heart.  To-day she insures to her soul a place in kattas, the heaven of
+Siva, the abiding place of Brahm, the Creator of all that is."
+
+Barlow felt himself reel at this sudden confirmation of his fears--the
+blow.  The cry "_Kurban_" that he had heard on the bridge was a
+reality--a human sacrifice.
+
+"God!" he cried in a voice of anguish, "it can't be.  Young and
+beautiful and good, to die--it's wrong.  I forbid such a cruel, wanton
+sacrifice of a sweet life."
+
+The Swami, taking a step toward the door, swept his long thin arm with
+a gesture that embraced the thousands beyond.
+
+"Captain Sahib," he said solemnly, "if thou wert to raise thy voice in
+anger against this holy, soul-redeeming observance thou wouldst be torn
+to pieces; not even I could stop them if insult were offered to Omkar.
+And, besides, the Englay Raj would call thee accursed for breeding hate
+in the hearts of the Hindus through the sacrilege of an insult to the
+High Priest of the Temple of Omkar.  This is the territory of the
+Mahrattas, and the English have no authority here."
+
+Barlow knew that he was helpless.  Even if there were jurisdiction of
+the British, one against thousands of religious fanatics would avail
+nothing.
+
+The priest saw the torture in the man's face, and continued: "The woman
+has told me much.  Her heart is so with thee that it is already dead.
+Thou canst not take her to thy people, for the living hell is even
+worse than the hell beyond.  If thou lovest the woman glory in her
+release from pain of spirit, from the degradation of being
+outcast--that she judges wisely, and there is not upon her soul the sin
+of taking her own life, for if she went with thee, proud and high-born
+as she is, it would come to that, Sahib--thou knowest it.  There are
+things that cannot be said by me concerning the woman; vows having been
+taken in the sanctity of a temple."
+
+A figment of the rumour Barlow had heard that Bootea was Princess
+Kumari floated through his mind, but that did not matter; Bootea as
+Bootea was the sweetest woman he had ever known.  It must be that she
+had filled his heart with love.
+
+Again Bootea spoke in a low voice to the priest, and he said: "Sahib, I
+go forth for a little, for there are matters to arrange.  I see yonder
+the sixteen Brahmins who, according to our rites, assemble when one is
+to pass at the Shrine of Omkar to _kailas_."
+
+His large luminous eyes rested with tolerant placidity upon the face of
+this man whom he must consider, according to his tenets, as a creature
+antagonistic to the true gods, and said, in his soft, modulated voice:
+"Thou art young, Sahib, and full of the life force which is essential
+to the things of the earth--thou art like the blossom of the _mhowa_
+tree that comes forth upon bare limbs before the maturity of its
+foliage, it is then, as thou art, joyous in the freshness of awaking
+life.  But life means eternity, the huge cycle that has been since
+Indra's birth.  Life here is but a step, a transition from condition to
+condition, and the woman, by one act of sacrifice, attains to the
+blissful peace that many livings of reincarnated body would not
+achieve.  It is written in the law of Brahm that if one sacrifices his
+life, this phase of it, to Omkar, who is Siva, even though he had slain
+a Brahmin he shall be forgiven, and sit in heaven with the _Gandharvas_
+(angels).  But it is also written that whosoever turns back in terror,
+each step that he takes shall be equivalent to the guilt of killing a
+Brahmin."
+
+The priest's voice had risen in sonorous cadence until it was
+compelling.
+
+Bootea trembled like a wind-wavered leaf.
+
+To Barlow it was horrible, the mad infatuation of a man prostrate
+before false gods, idols, a rabid materialism.  That one, to fall
+crushed and bleeding from the dizzy height of the ledge of sacrifice
+upon a red-daubed stone representation of the repulsive emblem, could
+thus wipe out the deadly sin of murder, was, even spiritually,
+impossible.
+
+The priest, his soul submerged by the sophistry of his faith, passed
+from the gloomed cloister to the open sunlight.
+
+And Barlow, conscious of his helplessness unless Bootea would now yield
+to his entreaties and forswear the horrible sacrifice, turned to the
+girl, his face drawn and haggard, and his voice, when he spoke,
+vibrating tremulously from the pressure of his despair.  He held out
+his arms, and Bootea threw herself against his breast and sobbed.
+
+"Come back to Chunda with me, Gulab,"  Barlow pleaded.
+
+"No, Sahib," she panted, "it cannot be."
+
+"But I love you, Bootea," he whispered.
+
+"And Bootea loves the Sahib," and her eyes, as she lifted her face,
+were wonderful.  "There," she continued, "the Sahib could not make the
+_nika_ (marriage) with Bootea, both our souls would be lost.  But it is
+not forbidden,--even if it were and was a sin, all sins will be
+forgiven Bootea before the sun sets,--and if the Sahib permits it
+Bootea will wed herself now to the one she loves.  Hold me in your
+arms--tight, lest I die before it is time."
+
+And as Barlow pressed the girl to him, fiercely, crushing her almost,
+she raised her lips to his, and they both drank the long deep draught
+of love.
+
+Then the Gulab drew from his arms and her face was radiant, a soft
+exultation illumined her eyes.
+
+"That is all, Sahib," she said.  "Bootea passes now, goes out to
+_kailas_ in a happy dream.  Go, Sahib, and do not remain below for this
+is so beautiful.  You must ride forth in content."
+
+She took him by the arm and gently led him to the door.
+
+And from without he could hear a chorus of a thousand voices, its
+burden being, "The _Kurban_!"
+
+Barlow turned, one foot in the sunshine and one in the cloister's
+gloom, and kissed Bootea; and she could feel his hot tears upon her
+cheek.
+
+Once more he pleaded, "Renounce this dreadful sacrifice."
+
+But the girl smiled up into his face, saying, "I die happily, husband.
+Perhaps Indra will permit Bootea to come back in spirit to the Sahib."
+
+The High Priest strode to the entrance of the cloister, his eyes
+holding the abstraction of one moving in another world; he seemed
+oblivious of the Englishman's presence as he said:
+
+"Come forth, ye who seek _kailas_ through Omkar."
+
+As Barlow staggered, almost blind, over the stony path from the
+cloister, he saw the group of sixteen Brahmins, their foreheads and
+arms carrying the white bars of Siva.
+
+Then Bootea was led by the priest down to the cold merciless stone
+Linga, where she, at a word from the priest, knelt in obeisance, a
+barbaric outburst of music from horn and drum clamouring a salute.
+
+When Bootea arose to her feet the priest tendered her some _mhowa_
+spirit in a cocoanut shell, but the girl, disdaining its stimulation,
+poured it in a libation upon the Linga.
+
+From the amphitheatre of the enclosing hills thirty thousand voices
+rose in one thundering chorus of "Jae, jae, Omkar!" and, "To Omkar the
+_Kurban_!"
+
+Many pressed forward, mad fanaticism in their eyes, and held out at
+arm's length toward the girl bracelets and ornaments to be touched by
+her fingers as a beneficence.
+
+But Swami Sarasvati waved them back, and turning to Bootea tendered
+her, with bowed head, the _pan supari_ (betel nut in a leaf) as an
+admonition that the ceremony had ceased, and there was nothing left but
+the sacrifice.
+
+As the girl with firm step turned to the path that led up through shrub
+and jungle growth to the ledge where fluttered the white flag, a tumult
+of approbation went up from the multitude at her brave devotion.  Then
+a solemn hush enwrapped the bowl of the hills, and the eyes of the
+thousands were fixed upon the jutting shelf of rock.
+
+A dirge-like cadence, a mighty gasp of, "Ah, Kuda!" sounded as a slim
+figure, white robed, like a wraith, appeared on the ledge, and from her
+hand whirled down to the rocks below a cocoanut, cast in sacrifice;
+next a hand-mirror, its glass shimmering flickers of gold from the
+sunlight.
+
+For five seconds the white-clothed figure disappeared in the shrouding
+bushes; men held their breath, and women gasped and clutched at their
+throats as if they choked.
+
+Then they saw her again, arms high held as though she reached for God.
+And as the white-draped, slender form came hurtling through the air
+women swooned and men closed their eyes and shuddered.
+
+An Englishman, clothed as a Hindu, lay prone on his face on the
+hillside sobbing, the dry leaves drinking in his tears, cursing himself
+for a sin that was not his.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Caste, by W. A. Fraser
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CASTE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 16752-8.txt or 16752-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/5/16752/
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/16752-8.zip b/16752-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..023a392
--- /dev/null
+++ b/16752-8.zip
diff --git a/16752.txt b/16752.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..56999c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/16752.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8136 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Caste, by W. A. Fraser
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Caste
+
+Author: W. A. Fraser
+
+Release Date: September 26, 2005 [EBook #16752]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CASTE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+CASTE
+
+BY
+
+W. A. FRASER
+
+
+
+
+AUTHOR OF "RED MEEKINS," "BULLDOG CARNEY," "THE THREE SAPPHIRES," "THE
+LONE FURROW," "THOROUGHBREDS," ETC.
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1922,
+
+BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+
+
+CASTE. II
+
+
+PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+
+
+
+CASTE
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+The three Mahrattas, Sindhia, Holkar, and Bhonsla, were plotting the
+overthrow of the British, and the Peshwa was looking out of brooding
+eyes upon Hodson, the Resident at Poona.
+
+Up on the hill, in the temple of Parvati, the priests repeated prayers
+to the black goddess calling for the destruction of the hated whites.
+
+Each one of the twenty-four priests as he came with a handful of
+marigolds laid them one by one at the feet of the four-armed hideous
+idol, repeating: "_Om, Parvati_!  _Om, Parvati_!" the comprehensive,
+all-embracing "_Om_" that meant adoration and a clamour for favour.
+Even to Nandi, the brass bull that carried Shiva, he appealed, "_Om
+Shiva_!"
+
+But down on the rock-plateau, where gleamed in the hot sun marble
+palaces, a more malign influence was at work.  Dandhu Panth, the
+adopted son of the Peshwa, had come back from Oxford, and the English
+believed he had been changed into an Englishman, Nana Sahib.
+
+Outwardly he was a sporting, well-dressed gentleman, such as Oxford
+turns out; but in his heart was lust of power, and hatred of the white
+race that he felt would make his inheritance, the Peshwaship, but a
+vassalage.  His dreams of ruling India would fade, and he would sit a
+pensioner of the British.  The Mahrattas had been stigmatised by a
+captious Mogul ruler, "mountain rats."  As Hindus there was a sharp
+cleavage of character; the Brahmins, fanatical, high up in the caste
+scale, and all the rest of the breed inferior, vicious, blood-thirsty,
+a horde of pirates.  Even the man who first made them a power, Sivaji,
+had been of questionable lineage, a plebeian; and so the body corporate
+was of inflammable material--little restraint of breeding.
+
+And for all Nana Sahib's veneer of English class, mental development,
+beneath the English shirt he wore the _junwa_, the three-strand sacred
+thread, insignia of the twice-born,--the Brahmin.
+
+From Governor General to the British officers who played polo with the
+Peshwa's son, they all accepted him as one of themselves; considered it
+good diplomacy that he had been sent to Oxford and made over.
+
+There was just one man who had misgivings, the Resident at Poona.  He
+was a small, tired, worn-out official--an executive, a perpetual wheel
+in the works, always close to the red-tape-tied papers, always.
+Strange that one not a dreamer, no sixth-sense, should have attained to
+an intuition--which it was, his distrust of the cheery, sporty Nana
+Sahib.  That Hodson's superiors intimated that India was getting to his
+liver when he wrote, very cautiously, of this obsession, made no
+difference; and clinging to his distrust, he achieved something.
+
+After all it was rather strange that the matter had not been taken out
+of his hands, but it wasn't.  A sort of departmental formula running;
+"Commissioner So-and-So has the matter in hand--refer to him."  And so,
+when a new danger appeared on the distressed horizon, Amir Khan and a
+hundred thousand massed horsemen, Captain Barlow was sent to consult
+with the Resident.  That was the way; a secretive, trusty, brave man,
+for in India the written page is never inviolate.
+
+Captain Barlow was sent--ostensibly as an assistant to the Resident, in
+reality to acquire full knowledge of the situation, and then go to the
+camp of Amir Khan with the delicate mission of persuading him not to
+join his riding spear-men to the Mahratta force, but to form an
+alliance with the British.
+
+The Resident had asked for Barlow.  He had explained that any show of
+interest, two men, or five, or twenty, an envoy, even men of pronounced
+position, would defeat their object; in fact, believing Nana Sahib to
+be what he was, he conceived the very simple idea of playing the
+Oriental's Orientalism against him.
+
+Barlow would be the last man in India to whom one as suspicious as the
+Peshwa's son would attribute a subtlety deep enough for a serious
+mission.  He was a great handsome boy; in his physical excellence he
+was beautiful; courage was manifest in the strong content of his deep
+brown eyes.  Incidentally that was one of the reasons the Resident had
+asked for him, though he would have denied it, even to his daughter,
+Elizabeth, though it was for her sake--that part of it.
+
+The affair with Elizabeth had been going on for two or three years;
+never quite settled--always hovering.
+
+Indeed the Resident's daughter was not constituted to raise a cyclone
+of passion, a tempest of feeling that brings an impetuous declaration
+of love from any man.  She was altogether proper; well-bred; admirable;
+perhaps somewhat of the type so opposite to Barlow's impressionable
+nature that ultimately, all in good time, they would realise that the
+scheme of creation had marked them for each other.  And Colonel Hodson
+almost prayed for this.  It was desirable in every way.  Barlow was of
+a splendid family; some day he might become Lord Barradean.
+
+Anyway Captain Barlow was there playing polo with Nana Sahib--one of
+the Prince's favourites; and waiting for a certain paper that would be
+sent to the Resident that would contain offers of an alliance with the
+Pindari Chief.
+
+And this same hovering menace of the Pindari force was causing Nana
+Sahib unrest.  Perhaps there had been a leak, as cautiously as the
+Resident had made every move.  If the Pindari army were to join the
+British, ready at a moment's notice to fall on the flank of the
+Mahrattas, harass them with guerilla warfare, it would be serious; they
+were as elusive as a huge pack of wolves; unencumbered by camp
+followers, artillery, foraging as they went, swooping like birds of
+prey, they were a terrible enemy.  Even as the tiger slinks in dread
+from a pack of the red wild-dogs, so a regular force might well dread
+these flying horsemen.
+
+And it was Amir Khan that Nana Sahib, and the renegade French
+commander, Jean Baptiste, dreaded and distrusted.  Overtures had been
+made to him without result.  He was a wonderful leader.  He had made
+the name of the Pindari feared throughout India.  He was the magnet
+that held this huge body of fighting devils together.
+
+Thus with the gigantic chess-board set; the possession of India
+trembling in the balance; intellects of the highest development
+pondering; Fate held the trump card, curiously, a girl; and not one of
+the players had ever heard her name, the Gulab Begum.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The white sand plain surrounding Chunda was dotted with the tents of
+the Mahratta force Sirdar Baptiste commanded.  And the Sirdar, his soul
+athirst for a go at the English, whom he hated with the same rabid
+ferocity that possessed the soul of Nana Sahib, was busy.  From
+Pondicherry he had inveigled French gunners; and from Goa, Portuguese.
+Also these renegade whites were skilled in drill.  If Holkar and
+Bhonsla did their part it would be Armageddon when the hell that was
+brewing burst.
+
+But Baptiste feared the Pindari.  As he swung here and there on his
+Arab the horse's hoofs seemed to pound from the resonant sands the
+words "Amir Khan--Amir Khan!  Pin-dar-is, Pin-dar-is!"
+
+It was as he discussed this very thing with his Minister, Dewan Sewlal,
+that Nana Sahib swirled up the gravelled drive to the bungalow on his
+golden-chestnut Arab, in his mind an inspiration gleaned from something
+that had been.
+
+His greeting of the two was light, sporty; his thin well-chiselled face
+carried the bright indifferent vivacity of a fox terrier.
+
+"Good day, Sirdar," he cried gaily; and, "How listen the gods to your
+prayers, my dear Dewani?"
+
+Baptiste, out of the fulness of his heart soon broached the troublous
+thing: "Prince," he begged, "obtain from the worthy Peshwa a command
+and I'll march against this wolf, Amir Khan, and remove from our path
+the threatened danger."
+
+Nana Sahib laughed; his white, even teeth were dazzling as the
+black-moustached lip lifted.
+
+"Sirdar, when I send two Rampore hounds from my kennel to make the kill
+of a tiger you may tackle Amir Khan.  Even if we could crumple up this
+blighter it's not cricket--we need those Pindari chaps--but not as dead
+men.  Besides, I detest bloodshed."
+
+The Dewan rolled his bulbous eyes despairingly: "If Sindhia would send
+ten camel loads of gold to this accursed Musselman, we could sleep in
+peace," he declared.
+
+"If it were a woman Sindhia would," Nana Sahib sneered.
+
+Baptiste laughed.
+
+"It is a wisdom, Prince, for that is where the revenue goes: women are
+a curse in the affairs of men," the Dewan commented.
+
+"With four wives your opinion carries weight, Dewani," and Nana Sahib
+tapped the fat knee of the Minister with his riding whip.
+
+Baptiste turned to the Prince.  "There will be trouble over these
+Pindaris; your friends, the English--eh, Nana Sahib--"
+
+As though the handsome aquiline face of the Peshwa's son had been
+struck with a glove it changed to the face of a devil; the lips
+thinned, and shrinking, left the strong white teeth bare in a wolf's
+snarl.  Under the black eyebrows the eyes gleamed like fire-lit amber;
+the thin-chiselled nostrils spread and through them the palpitating
+breath rasped a whistling note of suppressed passion.
+
+"Sirdar," he said, "never call me Nana Sahib again.  The English call
+me that, but I wait--must wait; I smile and suffer.  I am Dandhu Panth,
+a Brahmin.  The English so loved me that they tried to make an
+Englishman of me, but, by Brahm! they taught me hate, which is their
+lot till the sea swallows the last of the accursed breed and
+Mahrattaland is free!"
+
+Nana Sahib was panting with the intensity of his passion.  He paced the
+floor flicking at his brown boots with his whip, and presently whirled
+to say with a sneering smile on his thin lips:
+
+"The English can teach a man just one thing--to die for his ideals."
+
+"Yes, Prince, of a certainty the Englishman knows how to die for his
+country," Baptiste agreed in a soldier's tribute to courage.
+
+"And for another nation's country," Nana Sahib rasped.  "He is a born
+pirate, a bred pirate--we in India know that; and that, General, is why
+I am a Brahmin, because they alone will free Mahrattaland--faith,
+ideals.  Forms! the gods to me are not more than show-pieces.  That
+Kali spreads the cholera is one with the idea that the little
+red-daubed stone Linga gets the woman a male child, false; these things
+are in ourselves, and in Brahm.  The priests sacrifice to Shiva, but I
+will sacrifice to Mahrattaland, which to me is the supreme God."
+
+Jean Baptiste looked out of his wise grey eyes into the handsome face
+and felt a thrill, an awakening, the terrible sincerity of the speaker.
+At times the ferocity in the eyes when he had spoken of sacrifice
+caused the free-lance soldier to shiver.  A blur of red floated before
+his eyes--something of a fateful forecasting that some day the awful
+storm that was brewing would break, and the fanatical Brahmin in front
+of him would call for English blood to glut his hate.  It was the more
+appalling that Nana Sahib was so young.  Closing his eyes Baptiste
+heard the voice of an English Oxonian that perhaps should be chortling
+of polo and cricket and racing; and yet the more danger--the
+youthfulness of the agent of destruction; like a Napoleon--a corporal
+as a boy.  "_C'est la guerre_!" the French officer murmured.
+
+Then, as a storm passing is often followed by smiling sunshine, so the
+mood of Nana Sahib changed.  He had the volatile temperament of a
+Latin, and now he turned to the Minister, his face having undergone a
+complete metamorphosis: "Dewani," he said, "do you remember when a
+certain raja sent his Prime Minister and twenty thousand men to punish
+Pertab for not paying his taxes, and Pertab gave one Bhart, a Bagree,
+ten thousand rupees and a village to bring him the Minister's
+head--which he did, tied to the inside of his brass-studded shield?"
+
+"Yes, Prince; that is a way of this land."
+
+Nana Sahib drew forth a gold cigarette case, lighted a cigarette from a
+fireball that stood in a brass cup, and gazed quizzically at the Dewan.
+There was a little hush.  This story had set Jean Baptiste's nerves
+tingling; there was something behind it.
+
+The Dewan half guessed what was in the air, but he blinked his big eyes
+solemnly, and reaching for a small lacquer box took from it a Ran leaf,
+with a finger smeared some ground lime on it, and wrapping the leaf
+around a piece of betel-nut popped it into his capacious mouth.
+
+"These Bagrees are in the protection of Rajas, Karowlee, are they not?"
+Nana Sahib asked.
+
+"Yes, Prince; even some of Bhart's relatives are there--one Ajeet
+Singh; he's a celebrated leader of these decoits."
+
+"And Sindhia took from Karowlee some territory, didn't he?"
+
+"Yes; Karowlee refused to pay the taxes."
+
+"I should think the Raja would like to have it back."
+
+"No doubt, Prince."
+
+Nana Sahib, holding the cigarette to his lips between two fingers gazed
+mockingly at the large-paunched Brahmin.  Then he said; "I see the
+illuminating light of understanding in your eyes, Dewani--a subtle
+comprehension.  Small wonder that you are Minister to the delightful
+Sindhia.  If you are making any promises to Karowlee, I should make
+them in the name of Sindhia--through Sirdar Baptiste, of course.  And,
+Dewani, this restless cuss, Amir Khan, might make a treaty with the
+English any time.  The dear fish-eyed Resident has been particularly
+active--my spies can hardly keep up with him.  I shouldn't lose any
+time--Ajeet Singh sounds promising."
+
+Nana Sahib drew a slim flat gold watch from his pocket.  "I now must
+leave you two interesting gentlemen," he said, "for I am to play a few
+chuckers of polo with--particularly, Captain Barlow.  He is jackal to
+the bloodless Resident.  I really thought a couple of days ago that he
+would have to be sent home on sick leave.  One of my officers rode him
+off the ball in a fierce drive for goal, and by some devilish mistake
+the post hadn't been sawed half-through, so when Barlow crashed into it
+it stood up.  As he lay perfectly still after his cropper it looked as
+though Resident Hodson had lost his jackal.  But Barlow is one of those
+whip-cord Englishmen that die of old age; he was in the saddle again in
+two days.  Well, _au revoir_ and salaam."
+
+When the clattering scurry of Nana Sahib's Arab had died out Baptiste
+turned to the Dewan, saying:
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I will write the letter to Raja Karowlee, but you must sign it,
+Sirdar; also furnish a fast riding camel and a trusty officer," the
+Dewan answered simply.
+
+"But Nana Sahib was nebulous--we may be made the goat of sacrifice."
+
+"It is a wisdom, Sirdar; but, also, it is from the Prince an order; and
+my office is always one of blame when there are excuses to make--it is
+always that way.  When a head is required the Dewan's is always
+offered."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+In answer to the Dewan's request Raja Karowlee sent a force of two
+hundred Bagrees to Jean Baptiste's camp.  Evidently the old Raja had
+run the official comb through his territories, for the decoit force was
+composed of a hundred men from Karowlee, under Ajeet Singh, and a
+hundred from Alwar, led by Sookdee.
+
+The two leaders were commanded to obey Sirdar Baptiste implicitly; and
+Baptiste passed an order that they were to receive a thousand rupees a
+day for their maintenance.
+
+In addition there was a fourth officer, Hunsa, who was a jamadar, a
+lieutenant, to Ajeet Singh.  And if then and there the ugly head had
+been cut from his body, the things that happened would not have
+happened.
+
+From the advent of the Bagrees, even on their way from Karowlee, Hunsa
+had been plotting evil.  He was a man who would have shrivelled up,
+become atrophied, in an atmosphere of decency--he would have died.
+
+Hunsa caused Sookdee to believe that he should have been the leader and
+not Ajeet Singh.
+
+A document was written out by Dewan Sewlal promising that in the event
+of the decoits carrying out the mission they had come upon the estate
+would be restored to Raja Karowlee, and that he would be compelled to
+assign to the three decoit leaders villages within that territory in
+rent free tenure.  The Dewan, with wide precaution, took care that the
+document was so worded that General Baptiste was the official promiser,
+putting in a clause that he, Sewlal, the Minister, would see that the
+General carried out these promises on behalf of Sindhia.
+
+Baptiste set his lips in a sardonic smile when he read and signed the
+paper.  However, he cared very little; no concern of his whether
+Karowlee attained to his lands or not--it would be a matter of the King
+disposes.  Even that the Dewan stood in Baptiste's shadow in the affair
+was another something that only caused the Frenchman to remark
+sardonically:
+
+"Dewani, the English sahibs have a delectable game of cards named poker
+in which there is an observance called passing the buck; when a player
+wishes to avoid the responsibility of a bet he passes the buck to the
+next man.  Dewani, you have the subtlety of a good poker player and
+have passed the buck to me."
+
+The Brahmin looked hurt.  "Sirdar," he said, "you are the commander of
+matters of war, which this is.  You stand here in the city of tents as
+Sindhia; I am but the man of accounts; it is well as it is.  And now
+that we have signed the promise the decoits will also sign, then I will
+make them take the oath according to their patron goddess, Bhowanee.
+They are just without--I will have them in."
+
+When the three jamadars had been summoned to the Dewan's presence, he
+said: "Here is the paper of promise as to the reward from Sindhia for
+the service you are to render.  You will also sign here, making your
+seal or thumb print; then it will be required that you take the oath of
+service according to your own method and your gods."
+
+Ajeet consulted a little apart with Sookdee and then coming forward
+said: "We Bagrees are an ancient people descended from the Rajputs, and
+we keep our word to our friends; therefore we will take the oath after
+the manner of Bhowanee, beneath the pipal tree.  If Your Honour will
+give us but an hour we will take the oath."
+
+A mile down the red road from the bungalow, looking like a huge beehive
+with its heavy enveloping roof of thatch, that was Jean Baptiste's
+head-quarters, was a particularly sacred pipal of huge growth.  It was
+an extraordinary octopus-like tree, and most sacred, for perched in the
+embrace of its giant arms was a shrine that had been lifted from its
+base in the centuries of the tree's growth.
+
+And now, an hour later, the pipal was surrounded by thousands of
+Mahratta sepoys, for word had gone forth,--the mysterious rumour of
+India that is like a weird static whispering to the four corners of the
+land a message,--had flashed through the tented city that the men from
+Karowlee were to take the oath of allegiance to Sindhia.
+
+The fat Dewan had come down in a _palki_ swung from the shoulders of
+stout bearers, while Jean Baptiste had ridden a silver-grey Arab.
+
+And then just as a bleating, mottled white-and-black goat was led by a
+thong to the pipal, Nana Sahib came swirling down the road in a brake
+drawn by a spanking pair of bay Arabs with black points.  Beside him
+sat the Resident's daughter, Elizabeth Hodson, and in the seat behind
+was Captain Barlow.
+
+At the pipal Nana Sahib reined in the bays sharply, saying, "Hello,
+General, wanted to see you for a minute--called at the bungalow, and
+your servant said you had gone down this way.  What's up?" he
+questioned after greetings had passed between Baptiste, Barlow and
+Elizabeth Hodson.
+
+"Just some new recruits, scouts, taking the oath of service," and
+Baptiste closed an eye in a caution-giving wink.
+
+A slight sneer curled the thin lips of Nana Sahib; he understood
+perfectly what Baptiste meant by the wink--that the Englishman being
+there, it would be as well to say little about the Bagrees.  But the
+Prince had no very high opinion of Captain Barlow's perceptions, of his
+finer acuteness of mind; the thing would have to be very plainly
+exposed for the Captain to discover it.  He was a good soldier, Captain
+Barlow--that happy mixture of brain and brawn and courage that had
+coloured so much of the world's map red, British; he was the terrier
+class--all pluck, with perhaps the pluck in excelsis--the brain-power
+not preponderant.
+
+"Who is the handsome native--he looks like a Rajput?" Elizabeth asked,
+indicating the man who was evidently the leader among the others.
+
+"That is Ajeet Singh, chief of these men," Baptiste answered.
+
+"He is a handsome animal," Nana Sahib declared.
+
+"He is like an Arab Apollo," Elizabeth commented; and her tone
+suggested that it was a whip-cut at the Prince's half-sneer.
+
+The girl's description of Ajeet was trite.  The Chief's face was almost
+perfect; the golden-bronze tint of the skin set forth in the enveloping
+background of a turban of blue shot with gold-thread draped down to
+cover a silky black beard that, parted at the chin, swept upward to
+loop over the ears.  The nose was straight and thin; there was a
+predatory cast to it, perhaps suggested by the bold, black, almost
+fierce eyes.  He was clothed with the full, rich, swaggering adornment
+of a Rajput; the splendid deep torso enclosed in a shirt-of-mail, its
+steel mesh so fine that it rippled like silver cloth; a red velvet
+vestment, negligently open, showed in the folds of a silk sash a
+jewel-hilted knife; a _tulwar_ hung from his left shoulder.  As he
+moved here and there, there was a sinuous grace, panther-like, as if he
+strode on soft pads.  At rest his tall figure had the set-up of a
+soldier.
+
+As the three in the brake studied the handsome Ajeet, a girl stepped
+forward and stood contemplating them.
+
+"By Jove!" the exclamation had been Captain Barlow's; and Elizabeth,
+with the devilish premonition of an acute woman knew that it was a
+masculine's involuntary tribute to feminine attractivity.
+
+She had turned to look at the Captain.
+
+Nana Sahib, little less vibrant than a woman in his sensitive
+organisation, showed his even, white teeth: "Don't blame you, old
+chap," he said; "she's all that.  I fancy that's the girl they call
+Gulab Begum.  Am I right, Sirdar?"
+
+"Yes, Prince," Jean Baptiste answered.  "The girl is a relative of the
+handsome Ajeet."
+
+"She's simply stunning!" Captain Barlow said, as it were, meditatively.
+
+But Nana Sahib, knowing perfectly well what this observation would do
+to the austere, exact, dominating daughter of a precise man, the
+Resident, muttered to himself: "Colossal ass! an impressionable cuss
+should have a _purdah_ hung over his soul--or be gagged."
+
+"One of their _nautch_ girls, I suppose;" Elizabeth thus eased some of
+the irritation over Barlow's admiration in a well-bred sneer.
+
+"Yes," Baptiste declared; "it is said she dances wonderfully."
+
+"You name her the Gulab Begum, General,--that is a Moslem title and,
+from the turbans and caste-marks on the men, they seem to be Hindus; I
+suppose Gulab Begum is her stage name, is it?"
+
+Elizabeth was exhibiting unusual interest in a native--that is for
+Elizabeth, and Nana Sahib chuckled softly as he answered: "Names mean
+little in India; I know high-caste Brahmins who have given their
+children low-caste names to make them less an object of temptation to
+the gods of destruction.  Also, the Gulab may have been stolen from the
+harem of some Nawab by this bandit."
+
+The Gulab suggested more a Rajput princess than a dancing girl.  No
+ring pierced the thin nostrils of her Grecian nose; neither from her
+ears hung circles of gold or brass, or silver; and the slim ankles that
+peeped from a rich skirt were guiltless of anklets.  On the wrist of
+one arm was a curious gold bangle that must have held a large ruby, for
+at times the sun flicked from the moving wrist splashes of red wine.
+Indeed the whole atmosphere of the girl was simplicity and beauty.
+
+"No wonder they call her the Rose Queen," Barlow was communing with
+himself.  For the oval face with its olive skin, as fair as a Kashmiri
+girl's, was certainly beautiful.  The black hair was smoothed back from
+a wide low forehead, after the habit of the Mahratti women; the prim
+simplicity of this seeming to add to the girlish effect.  A small
+white-and-gold turban, even with its jauntiness, seemed just the very
+thing to check the austere simplicity.  The girl's eyes, like Ajeet's,
+were the eyes of some one unafraid, of one born to a caste that felt
+equality.  When they turned to those who sat in the brake they were
+calmly meditative; they were the eyes of a child, modest; but with the
+unabashed confidence of youth.
+
+Elizabeth, perhaps unreasonably, for the three of them sat so close
+together in the brake, fancied that the Gulab's gaze constantly picked
+out the handsome Captain Barlow.
+
+An imp touched Nana Sahib, and he said: "I'd swear there was Rajput
+blood in that girl.  If I knew of some princess having been stolen I'd
+say she stood yonder.  The eyes are simply ripping; baby eyes, that,
+when roused, assist in driving a knife under a man's fifth rib.  I've
+seen a sambhur doe with just such eyes cut into ribbons a Rampore hound
+with her sharp hoofs."
+
+"Well, Prince," Elizabeth said, "I suppose you know the women of this
+land better than either Captain Barlow or myself, and you're probably
+right, for I see in a belt at her waist the jewelled hilt of a dagger."
+
+Nana Sahib laughed: "My dear Miss Hodson, I never play with edged
+tools, and Captain--"
+
+But Nana Sahib's raillery was cut short by a small turmoil as the
+bleating goat of sacrifice was dragged forward to a stone daubed with
+vermillion upon which rested a small black alabaster image of Kali;
+while a _guru_, with sharpened knife, hung near like a falcon over a
+quivering bird.  Three times the goat's head was thrust downward in
+obeisance to the black goddess; there was a flash of steel in the
+sunlight, and hot blood gushed forth, to dye with its crimson flood the
+base of the idol.
+
+A Bagree darted forward and with a stroke of his _tulwar_ clipped the
+neck from a pitcher and held it beneath the gurgling flood till it was
+filled.
+
+From where Elizabeth sat she looked across the shoulder of Nana Sahib
+as they watched the sacrifice; she saw him quiver and lean forward, his
+shoulders tip as though he would spring from the brake.  His face had
+drawn into hard lines, his lips were set tight in intensity across the
+teeth so that they showed between in a thin line of white.  The blood
+seemed to have fascinated him; he was oblivious of her presence.  She
+heard him murmur, "Parvati, Parvati!  There is blood, blood--wait,
+thou, Parvati."
+
+The bay Arabs--perhaps their sensitive nostrils drank in the smell of
+fresh blood--sprang into their collars as if they would bolt in fright.
+The two syces, squatting on their heels at the horses' heads, had
+sprung to their feet, and now were caressing the necks of the Arabs as
+they held them each with a hand by the bit.
+
+There was a curious look in the Prince's eyes as he turned them on
+Elizabeth; a mingling of questioning and defiance was in them.
+
+Now the holder of the pitcher stood up and the _guru_ drew upon it four
+red lines and dropped through its shattered mouth a woman's bracelet of
+gold lacquer beads.  Then the pitcher was placed upon the Kali shrine;
+raw sugar was inclosed in a cloth and tied to a branch of the pipal.
+
+The voice of the Bagree Chief, somewhat coarse in its fulness, its
+independence, now was heard saying: "Sirdar Sahib, and Dewan Sahib, we
+men of the nine castes of the Bagrees now make the sacred oath.  Come
+close that ye may observe."
+
+Jean Baptiste edged his horse to the side of the road, and the Dewan,
+heaving from the _palki_, stood upright.
+
+Ajeet dipped a tapering finger in the pitcher of blood, touched the
+swaying bag of sugar, and laying the hand against his forehead said, in
+a loud voice:
+
+"If I, Ajeet Singh, break faith with Maharaja Sindhia, may Bhowanee
+punish me!"
+
+Sookdee and Hunsa each in turn took the same solemn oath of allegiance.
+
+As Hunsa turned from the ordeal and passed the Gulab Begum to where the
+Bagrees stood in line, Nana Sahib said, "Do you know, General, what
+that baboon-faced jamadar made oath to?"
+
+"The last one, my Prince?"
+
+"Yes, he of the splendid ugliness.  He testified, 'If I fail to thrust
+a knife between the shoulder-blades of Ajeet Singh may Bhowanee cast me
+as a sacrifice.'"
+
+"He is jamadar to the other, Prince--but why?"
+
+"He looked upon the Rose Lady as he passed, and as the blooded finger
+lay upon his forehead he looked upon Ajeet, and in his pig eyes was
+unholiness."
+
+The cold grey eyes of the Frenchman rested for a second upon the
+burning black eyes of the speaker, and again he shivered.  He knew that
+the careless words meant that Hunsa was an instrument, if needs be.
+But the Prince's teeth were gleaming in a smile.  And he was saying:
+"If the play is over, Sirdar, turn your mount over to the _syce_ and
+pop up here beside Captain Barlow--I'll tool you home.  The Captain
+might like a peg."
+
+The bay Arabs swirled the brake along the smooth roadway that lay like
+a wide band of coral between giant green walls of gold-mohr and
+tamarind; and sometimes a pipal, its white bole and branches gleaming
+like the bones of a skeleton through leaves of the deepest emerald, and
+its roots daubed with the red paint of devotion to the tree god.  Here
+and there a neem, its delicate branches dusted with tiny white star
+blossoms, cast a sensuous elusive perfume to the vagrant breeze.  Once
+a gigantic jamon stretched its gnarled arms across the roadway as if a
+devilfish held poised his tentacles to snatch from the brake its
+occupants.
+
+When they had swung in to the Sirdar's bungalow and clambered down from
+the brake, Elizabeth said: "If you don't mind, General Baptiste, I'll
+just drift around amongst these beautiful roses while you men have your
+pegs.  No, I don't care for tea," she said, in answer to his
+suggestion.  There was a mirthless smile on her lips as she added: "I'm
+like Captain Barlow, I like the rose."
+
+The three men sat on the verandah while a servant brought
+brandy-and-soda, and Nana Sahib, with a restless perversity akin to the
+torturing proclivity of a Hindu was quizzing the Frenchman about his
+recruits.
+
+"You'll find them no good," he assured Baptiste--"rebellious cusses,
+worthless thieves.  My Moslem friend, the King of Oudh, tried them out.
+He got up a regiment of them--Budhuks, Bagrees--all sorts; it was named
+the Wolf Regiment--that was the only clever thing about it, the name.
+They stripped the uniforms from the backs of the officers sent to drill
+them and kicked them out of camp; said the officers put on swank;
+wouldn't clean their own horses and weapons, same as the other men."
+
+Then he switched the torture--made it more acute; wanted to know what
+Sirdar Baptiste had got them for.
+
+The Frenchman fumed inwardly.  Nana Sahib was at the bottom of the
+whole murderous scheme, and here, like holding a match over a keg of
+powder, he must talk about it in front of the Englishman.
+
+When the brandy was brought Nana Sahib put hand over the top of his
+glass.
+
+"Not drinking, Prince?" Barlow asked.
+
+"No," Nana Sahib answered, "a Brahmin must diet; holiness is fostered
+by a shrivelled skin."
+
+"But pardon me, Prince," Barlow said hesitatingly, "didn't going across
+the black-water to England break your caste anyway--so why cut out the
+peg?"
+
+"Yes, Captain Sahib,"--the Prince's voice rasped with a peculiar harsh
+gravity as though it were drawn over the jagged edge of intense
+feeling,--"my caste _was_ broken, and to get it back I drank the dregs;
+a cup of liquid from the cow, and not milk either!"
+
+Baptiste coughed uneasily for he saw in the eyes of Nana Sahib
+smouldering passion.
+
+And Barlow's face was suffused with a sudden flush of embarrassment.
+
+Perhaps it had been the sight of the blood sacrifice that had started
+Nana Sahib on a line of bitter thought; had stirred the smothering hate
+that was in his soul until frothing bubbles of it mounted to his lips.
+
+"I was born in the shadow of Parvati," Nana Sahib said, "and when I
+came back from England I found that still I was a Brahmin; that the
+songs of the Bhagavad Gita and the philosophy of the Puranas was more
+to me than what I had been taught at Oxford.  So I took back the caste,
+and under my shirt is the _junwa_ (sacred thread)."
+
+A quick smile lighted his face, and he laid a hand on Barlow's arm,
+saying in a new voice, a voice that was as if some one spoke through
+his lips in ventriloquism: "And all this, Captain, is a good thing for
+my friends the English.  The Brahmins, as you know, sway the Mahrattas,
+and if I am of them they will listen to me.  The English boast--and
+they have reason to--that they have made a friend of Nana Sahib.  Here,
+Baptiste, pour me a glass of plain soda, and we'll drink a toast to
+Nana Sahib and the English."
+
+"By Jove! splendid!" and Captain Barlow held out a hand.
+
+But Baptiste, saying that he would find Miss Hodson, went out into the
+sunshine cursing.
+
+"Now we will go back," Nana Sahib was saying as the French General
+brought Elizabeth from among the oleanders and crotons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+The day after the Bagrees had taken the oath of allegiance to Sindhia
+the jamadars were summoned to the Dewan's office to receive their
+instructions for the carrying out of the mission.
+
+In writing the Raja of Karowlee for the decoits, Dewan Sewlal had not
+stated that the mission was for the purpose of bringing home in a bag
+the head of the Pindar Chief.  As the wily Hindu had said to Sirdar
+Baptiste: "We will get them here before speaking of this dangerous
+errand.  Once here, and Karowlee's hopes raised over getting territory,
+if they then go back without accomplishing the task, that rapacious old
+man will cast them into prison."
+
+So when the Bagree leaders, closeted with Baptiste and the Dewan in a
+room of the latter's bungalow, learned what was expected of them they,
+to put it mildly, received a shock.  They had thought that it was to be
+a decoity of treasure, perhaps of British treasure, and in their
+proficient hands such an affair did not run into much danger generally.
+
+The jamadars drew to one side and discussed the matter; then Ajeet
+said: "Dewan Sahib, what is asked of us should have been in the written
+message to our Raja.  We be decoits, that is true, it is our
+profession, but the mission that is spoken of is not thus.  Hunsa has
+ridden with Amir Khan upon a foray into Hyderabad, and he knows that
+the Chief is always well guarded, and that to try for his head in the
+midst of his troops would be like the folly of children."
+
+The Dewan's fat neck swelled with indignation; his big ox-like eyes
+bulged from their holding in anger:
+
+"Phut-t-t!" he spat in derision.  "Bagrees!" he sneered; "descendants
+of Rajputs--bah!  Have you brought women with you that will lead this
+force?  And danger!" he snarled--he turned on Sookdee: "You are
+Sookdee, son of Bhart, so it was signed."
+
+"Yes, Dewan, it is true."
+
+"_You_ are the son of your mother, not Bhart," the Dewan raved; "he was
+a brave man, but _you_ speak of danger--bah!"
+
+The Dewan's teeth, stained red at the edges from the chewing of _pan_,
+showed in a sneering grin like a hyena's as he added: "Bah!  Ye are but
+thieves who steal from those who are helpless."
+
+Ajeet spoke: "Dewan Sahib, we be men as brave as Bhart--we are of the
+same caste, but there is a difference between such an one as he took
+the head of and a Pindari Chief.  The Pindaris are the wild dogs of
+Hind, they are wolves, and is it easy to trap a wolf?"
+
+But the Dewan had worked himself into a frenzy at their questioning of
+the possibilities; he waved his fat hands in a gesture of dismissal
+crying: "Go, go!"
+
+As the jamadars stood hesitatingly, Sewlal swung to the Frenchman:
+"Sirdar Sahib, make the order that I cease payment of the thousand
+rupees a day to these rebels, cowards.  Go!" and he looked at Ajeet;
+"talk it over amongst yourselves, and send to me one of your wives that
+will lead a company--lend your women your tulwars."
+
+Ajeet's black eyes flashed anger, and his brows were drawn into a knot
+just above his thin, hawk-like nose; suppressed passion at the Dewan's
+deadly insult was in the even, snarling tone of his voice:
+
+"Dewan Sahib, harsh words are profitless--" his eyes, glittering, were
+fixed on the bulbous orbs of the man of the quill--"and the talk of
+women in the affairs of men is not in keeping with caste.  If you pass
+the order that we are not to have rations now that we are far from
+home, what are we to do?  Think you that Raja Karowlee--"
+
+"Do! do! if you serve not Sindhia what care I what you do.  Go back to
+your honourable trade of thieving.  And as to Raja Karowlee, a man who
+keeps a colony of cowards--what care I for him.  Go, go!"
+
+The jamadars with glowering eyes turned from the Dewan, even the harsh
+salaam they uttered in going sounded like a curse.
+
+And when they had gone, Baptiste was startled by a gurgling laugh
+bubbling up from the Dewan's fat throat.
+
+"Sirdar," he chuckled, "I've given that posing Rajput a poem to commit
+to memory.  Ha-ha!  They have two strong reasons now for going--their
+shame and lean stomachs."
+
+"They won't go," Baptiste declared.  "When a man is afraid of anything
+he can find a thousand reasons for not making the endeavour.  If
+Sindhia will give me the troops I will make an end of Amir Khan."
+
+"And make enemies of the Pindaris: that we do not want; we want them to
+fight with us, not against us.  The great struggle is about to take
+place; Holkar and Bhonsla and Sindhia, perhaps even the King of Oudh,
+leagued together, the accursed English will be driven from India.  But
+even now they are trying to win over Amir Khan and his hundred thousand
+horsemen by promises of territory and gold.  With the Chief out of the
+way they would disband; he is a great leader, and they flock to his
+flag.  You saw the Englishman, Captain Barlow?"
+
+"Yes, Dewani.  Good soldier, I should say."
+
+"Well, Sirdar, we think that he waits here to undertake some mission to
+Amir Khan.  You see, no office can be conducted without clerks, and
+sometimes clerks talk."
+
+The Frenchman twisted nervously at his slim grey moustache.  "I
+comprehend, Dewani," he said presently; "it is expedient that Amir Khan
+be eliminated."
+
+"It would be a merciful thing," Sewlal added--"it would save bloodshed."
+
+"Well, Dewani, I must depart now.  It will be interesting to see what
+your Bagrees do, especially when they become hungry."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+For two days the Bagrees sat nursing their wrath at the reproaches of
+Dewan Sewlal.
+
+And the Dewan, in spite of his bold denunciation of the decoits, was
+uneasy.  If they went back to Karowlee with a story of ill treatment,
+of broken promises, that hot-headed old Rajput would turn against
+Sindhia.  And the present policy of the Mahratta Confederacy was to
+secure allies in the revolt against the British which was being
+secretly planned.  The Dewan was also afraid of Nana Sahib.  He saw in
+that young man a coming force.  The Peshwa was actually the ruler of
+Mahrattaland; he had a commanding influence because he was the head of
+the Brahmins--the Brahmins were the real power--and his adopted son,
+his inborn subtle nature developed by his residence in England, now had
+great influence over him.  The Dewan knew that; and if he failed to
+carry out this mission of removing the dangerous one from Nana Sahib's
+path it might cost him his place as Minister.
+
+In his perplexity the Dewan asked Baptiste to formulate some excuse for
+getting Nana Sahib up to Chunda--some matter affecting the troops, so
+that he might casually get a sustaining suggestion from the wily Prince.
+
+It so happened that when Nana Sahib swung up the gravelled drive to the
+Sirdar's bungalow on a golden chestnut Arab, Sewlal was there.  But
+when, presently, Baptiste's _durwan_ came in to say that Jamadar Hunsa
+of the new troops was sending his salaams to the Dewan, the latter
+gasped.  He would have told the Bagree to wait, but Nana Sahib,
+catching the name Hunsa, commanded:
+
+"By all means, my dear Baptiste, have that living embodiment of murder
+in.  His face is a delight.  You know"--and he smiled at the
+General--"that that frightfulness of expression is the very reason why
+the genial Kali has such a hold upon our people.  You've seen her,
+Baptiste; four arms, one holding a platter to catch the blood that
+drips from a head she suspends above it by another arm; the third hand
+clasps a sword, and the fourth has the palm spread out as much as to
+say, 'That is what will happen to you.'"
+
+The Frenchman shivered.  He was snapping a finger and thumb in mental
+torture.
+
+But Nana Sahib chuckled: "Her tongue protrudes thirsting for more
+blood--"
+
+But the Sirdar protested: "Prince--pardon, but--"
+
+"My dear Baptiste, when the Hunsa comes in observe if these things are
+not all stamped by Brahm on his frontispiece; he fascinates me."
+
+The Dewan, devout Brahmin, had been running his fingers along a string
+of lacquered beads that hung about his neck, muttering a prayer against
+this that was like sacrilege.
+
+When the jamadar was shown into the room his face took on a look of
+uneasiness.  It but added to the ferocity of the square scowling
+massive head.  His huge shoulders, stooped forward as he salaamed,
+suggested the half-crouch of a tiger--even the eyes, the mouth, induced
+thoughts of that jungle killer.
+
+Nana Sahib, a sneer on his lips, turned to the Minister: "Play him,
+Dewani, as you love us.  There is some rare deviltry afloat."
+
+"Why have you come, Jamadar?" the Dewan asked.
+
+Hunsa's pig eyes shifted from Sewlal's face to roam over the other two,
+and then returned a question in them.
+
+"Tell him," Nana Sahib suggested, "that he has nothing to fear from us."
+
+The jamadar was troubled by the English exchange, but the Dewan
+explained: "The Prince says you are to speak what is on your mind."
+
+"It is this, Sahib Bahadur," Hunsa began, "there is a way that the head
+of Amir Khan might be obtained as a gift for Maharaja Sindhia.  Then
+Raja Karowlee would be pleased for he would receive his commission and
+we would be given a reward."
+
+"What is the way?" Sewlal queried.
+
+"The Chief of the Pindaris, after the habit of Moslems, is one whose
+heart softens toward a woman who is beautiful and is pleasing to his
+eye."
+
+"Ancient history," Nana Sahib commented in English, "and not confined
+to Musselmen."
+
+"Speak on," the Dewan commanded curtly.
+
+"When I rode with Amir Khan," Hunsa resumed, "in loot there fell to the
+Chief's share a dancing girl, and Amir Khan, perhaps out of respect to
+his two wives, would visit her at night quietly in the tent that was
+given her as a place of residing."
+
+"Amir Khan seems to be less a Pindari and more a human than I thought
+him," Nana Sahib commented drily.
+
+"The world is a very small place, Prince," Baptiste added.
+
+"But why has Hunsa brought this tale to men of affairs?" Sewlal queried.
+
+Hunsa cast a furtive look over his shoulder toward the verandah, and
+his coarse voice dropped a full octave.  "The Presence has observed
+Bootea, the one called Gulab Begum, who is with Ajeet Singh?"
+
+"Ah-ha!"  It was Nana Sahib's exclamation.
+
+"Yes," the Dewan answered drily.
+
+"If a party of Bagrees were to go to the Pindari camp disguised as
+players and wrestlers, and the Gulab as a _nautchni_, Amir Khan might
+be enticed to her tent for she causes men to become drunk when she
+dances.  Once she danced for Raja Karowlee, and, though he is old and
+fat and has more of wives than other possessions he became covetous of
+the girl.  It is because of these things, that Ajeet keeps her within
+the length of his eye.  Thus the Gulab would hold Amir Khan in her
+hand, and some night as he slept in her tent I would crawl neath the
+canvas and accomplish that which is desired."
+
+"By Jove!" Nana Sahib exclaimed, "this jungle man has got the right
+idea.  But if Ajeet goes on that trip he'll never come back--Hunsa will
+see to that."
+
+Then the son of the Peshwa took a quick turn to the door and gazed out
+as if he had his Arab in mind--something wrong; but a sweet bit of
+deviltry had suddenly occurred to him.  He had noticed the young
+Englishman's interest in Bootea; had known that the girl's eyes had
+shown admiration for the handsome sahib.  A woman--by Jove! yes.  If he
+could bring the two of them together; have the Gulab get Barlow
+sensually interested she might act as a spy, get Barlow to talk.  No
+instrument like a woman for that purpose.  Nana Sahib turned back to
+where the Dewan had been questioning Hunsa.
+
+"That description of the Gulab as a _nautch_ girl tickles my fancy,
+Dewani," he said.  "Between ourselves I think the Resident's jackal,
+the impressionable young Captain, was rather taken with her.  I'm
+giving a _nautch_ this week, and the presence of Miss Gulab is
+desired--commanded."
+
+"But Ajeet--"
+
+Nana Sahib smiled sardonically.  "You and Hunsa are planning to send
+her on a more difficult mission, so I have no doubt that this can be
+accomplished.  The Ajeet should esteem it an honour."
+
+The Dewan, also speaking in English, said, "I doubt if Ajeet would
+consent to the girl's going to the Pindari camp."
+
+Nana Sahib swung on his heel to face Baptiste.  "Sirdar, when you give
+an order to a soldier and he refuses to obey, what do you do?"
+
+"Pouf, _mon_ Prince," and Jean Baptiste snapped a thumb and finger
+expressively.
+
+"See, Dewani?" Nana Sahib queried; "I like Hunsa's idea; and you've
+heard what the Commandant says."
+
+The Dewan turned to the Bagree, "Will Ajeet consent to the Gulab acting
+thus?"
+
+Hunsa's answer was illuminating: "The Chief will agree to it if he
+can't help himself."
+
+There was a lull, each one turning this momentous thing over in his
+mind.
+
+It was the jamadar who broke the silence; somewhat at a tangent he
+said: "As to a decoity, Your Honour said that we being of that
+profession should undertake one."
+
+The Dewan roared; the burden of his expostulation was the word liar.
+
+But Nana Sahib laughed tolerantly.  "Don't mind me, Dewani; fancy all
+the petty rajas and officials stand in with these decoits for a share
+of the loot--I don't blame you, old chap."
+
+Hunsa, taking the accusation of being a liar as a pure matter of
+course, ignored it, and now was drooling along, wedded to the one big
+idea that was in his mind:
+
+"If a decoity were made perhaps it might even happen that one was
+killed--"
+
+"Lovely! the 'One' will be, and his name is Ajeet," Nana Sahib cried
+gleefully.
+
+But Hunsa plodded steadily on.  "In that case Ajeet as Chief would be
+in the hands of the Dewan; then it could be mentioned to him that the
+Gulab was desired for this mission."
+
+"That might be," the Dewan said quietly.  "I will demand that Ajeet
+takes the Gulab to help secure Amir Khan and if he refuses I will give
+them no rations so that he will go on the decoity."
+
+"No, Dewan Sahib," Hunsa objected; "say nothing of the Gulab, because
+Ajeet will refuse, and then he will not go on a decoity, fearing a
+trap.  If you will refuse the rations now, I will say that you have
+promised that we will not be taken up if we make a decoity; then Ajeet
+will agree, because it is our profession."
+
+"I must go," Nana Sahib declared; "this Hunsa seems to have brains as
+well as ferocity."  He continued in English: "If you do go through with
+this, Dewan, tell Hunsa if anything happens when they make the
+decoity--and if I'm any reader of what is in a man's heart, I think
+something will happen the Ajeet--tell Hunsa to bring the Gulab to me.
+I like his idea, and we can't afford to let the girl get away.  Don't
+forget to arrange for the Gulab at my _nautch_."
+
+When Nana Sahib had gone Baptiste diplomatically withdrew, saying in
+English to the Minister: "Dewan Sahib, possibly this simple child of
+the jungle would feel embarrassment in opening his heart fully before a
+sahib, so you will excuse me."
+
+This elimination of individuals gave the Dewan a fine opportunity;
+promises made without witnesses were sure to be of a richer texture;
+also surely the word of a Dewan was of higher value than the word of a
+decoit if, at a future time, their evidences clashed.
+
+Then Hunsa was entrusted with a private matter that filled his ugly
+soul with delight.  He assured Sewlal Sookdee, if he were promised, as
+he had been, full protection, would join in the enmeshing of Ajeet
+Singh.
+
+Sewlal pledged his word to the jamadar that no matter if an outcry were
+raised over a decoity they would be protected--the matter would be
+hushed up.
+
+Hunsa knew that this was no new thing; he had been engaged in many a
+decoity where men of authority had a share of the loot, and had
+effectually side-tracked investigation.  In fact decoits always lived
+in the protection of some petty raja; they were an adjunct to the
+state, a source of revenue.
+
+The Dewan had intimated that Hunsa and his men were to wait until a
+messenger brought them word where and when to make the decoity.  Also
+if he betrayed them, failed to keep his compact with them, it would
+cause him the loss of his ugly head.
+
+The jamadar quite believed this; it would be an easy matter, surrounded
+as they were by Mahratta troops.
+
+So then for the next few days Hunsa and Sookdee cautiously developed a
+spirit of desire for action amongst the decoits, and a feeling of
+resentment against Ajeet who was opposed to engaging in a punishable
+crime so far from their refuge.
+
+The Dewan sent for Ajeet and explained to him, as if it were a very
+great honour, that Nana Sahib, having heard of Bootea's wonderful
+grace, had asked her to appear at a _nautch_ he was giving to the
+Sahibs and Hindu princes at his palace.  No doubt Bootea would receive
+a handsome present for this, also it would incline the heart of the
+Prince to the Bagrees.
+
+Ajeet was suspicious, but to refuse permission he knew would anger the
+Dewan; and he was in the Minister's hands.  His position was none too
+secure; there was treachery in his own camp.  He asked for a day to
+consult Bootea over the matter; in reality he wanted to consider it
+more fully before giving an answer.
+
+Of course Hunsa knew about it, and he told Sookdee; and when the matter
+came up in camp they professed indignation at Ajeet's stupidity in not
+appreciating the honour; dancers were only too glad to appear before
+such people as the Prince and the Resident at a palace dance, they
+explained.
+
+Of course the matter of Bootea's mission to the Pindari Chief had not
+been conveyed to Ajeet as yet; and Hunsa felt that this affair of the
+_nautch_ was a propitious thing--an inserting of the thin edge of the
+wedge.
+
+Somewhat grudgingly Ajeet consented, for Bootea, strangely enough, was
+quite eager over it.  As Nana Sahib had fancied the girl had taken an
+unexplainable liking for Captain Barlow.  Of course that, the call, is
+rarely explainable on reasonable grounds--it is a matter of a higher
+dispensation; just two pairs of eyes settle the whole business; one
+look and the thing is done.
+
+The Sahib would see her in a new light--in an appealing light.  In her
+thoughts there was nothing of a serious intent; just that to look upon
+him, perhaps to see in his eyes a friendly pleasure, would be
+intoxication.
+
+So Ajeet took her to the palace to dance, but, of course, he had to
+cool his heels without the _durbar_ chamber--smoke the hooka and chat
+with other natives while the one of desire was within.
+
+The girl had an exquisite sense of the beauty of simplicity--both in
+dress and manner, and in her art; it was as if a lotus flower had been
+animated--given life.  Her dancing was a floaty rhythm, an undulating
+drifting to the soft call of the _sitar_; and her voice, when she sang
+the _ghazal_, the love-song, was soft, holding the compelling power of
+subdued passion--it thrilled Barlow with an emotion that, when she had
+finished, caused him to take himself to task.  It was as if he had
+said, "By Jove! fancy I've had a bit too much of that champagne--better
+look out."
+
+Nana Sahib and the Captain were sitting side by side, and the Gulab,
+when she had finished the song, had swept her sinuous lithe form back
+in a graceful curtsy in front of the two, and, as if by accident, a red
+rose had floated to the feet of Captain Barlow.  Surely her soft, dark,
+languorous eyes had said: "For thee."
+
+With a cynical smile Nana Sahib picked up the rose and presented it to
+Barlow saying: "My dear Captain, you receive the golden apple--beauty
+will out."
+
+Barlow's fingers trembled with suppressed emotion as he took the flower
+and carefully slipped it into a buttonhole.
+
+Elizabeth, who sat next him, saw this by-play, and her voice was cold
+as she commented: "Homage is a delightful thing, but it spoils
+children."
+
+Nana Sahib leaned across Barlow: "My dear Miss Hodson, these dancers
+always play to the gods--it is their trade.  But there is safety in
+caste--in _varna_, which is the old Brahmin name for caste, meaning
+colour.  When the Aryans came down into Hind they were olive-skinned
+and the aborigines here were quite black, so, to draw the line, they
+created caste and called it _varna_, meaning that they of the light
+skin were of a higher order than the aborigines--which they were.  A
+white skin is like a shirt-of-mail, it protects morally, socially, in
+India."
+
+"Ultimately, no doubt, Prince.  And, of course, a dance-girl is one of
+the fourth caste, practically an outcast--an 'untouchable,'" Elizabeth
+commented.
+
+Barlow knew this as a devilish arraignment of himself, for he had felt
+a strong attraction.  He said nothing; but he was aware of a feeling of
+repulsion toward Elizabeth; her harshness, on so slight a provocation,
+suggested vindictiveness--a narrow exaction.
+
+Nana Sahib was filled with delight--his evil soul revelled in this
+discord.  Then and there, if he could have managed it, he would have
+suggested to the Captain that he would arrange for the Gulab to meet
+him--might even have her sent to his bungalow.  But he had the waiting
+subtlety of a tiger that crouches by a pool for hours waiting for a
+kill; so, somewhat reluctantly, he let the opportunity pass.  While he
+considered Barlow to be an Englishman possessed of rather slow
+perception, he knew that the Captain had a quixotic sense of honour,
+and possibly such a proposal might destroy his influence.
+
+And Bootea went back to the camp with Ajeet, suffused to silence by the
+strange thing that had happened, the strange infatuation--for it was
+that--that had so suddenly filled her heart for the handsome sahib
+whose soft, brave eyes had looked through hers into her very soul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Nana Sahib had assumed a gracious manner toward Ajeet Singh when Bootea
+had been brought to the _nautch_.  He had bestowed a handsome gift upon
+the Chief, ten gold _mohrs_; and for Bootea there had been the gift of
+a ruby, also ten gold _mohrs_.
+
+This munificence,--for Hunsa and Sookdee declared it to be a rare
+extravagance,--was not so much as reward for Bootea's _nautch_ as a
+desire on the part of the astute Prince to prepare for the greater
+service required.
+
+The Dewan also was very gracious to Ajeet over his compliance; but, at
+the same time, declared that an order had been passed by Baptiste that
+if the Bagrees would not obey the command to go after Amir Khan he
+would not pay them a thousand rupees a day out of the treasury.  He put
+all this very affably; raised his two fat hands toward heaven declaring
+that he was helpless in the matter--Baptiste was the commander, and he
+was but a dewan.  With a curious furtive look in his ox-eyes he advised
+Ajeet to consult with Hunsa over a method of obtaining money for the
+decoits.  He would not commit himself as to making a decoity, for when
+they had seized upon the Chief for the crime Ajeet could not then say
+that the Dewan had instigated it; there would be only Hunsa's word for
+this, and, of course, he would deny that the Minister was the father of
+the scheme.
+
+And in the camp Hunsa and Sookdee were clamouring at Ajeet to undertake
+a decoity for they were all in need, and to be idle was not their way
+of life.
+
+Hunsa went the length of telling Ajeet that the Dewan would even send
+them word where a decoity of much loot could be made and in a safe way,
+too, for the Dewan would take care that neither sepoys nor police would
+be in the way.
+
+And then one day there came to the Bagree camp a mysterious message.  A
+yogi, his hair matted with filth till it stood twisted and writhed on
+his head like the serpent tresses of Medusa, his lean skeleton
+ash-daubed body clothed in yellow, on his forehead the crescent of
+Eklinga, in his hand a pair of clanking iron tongs, crawled wearily to
+the tents where were the decoits, and bleared out of blood-shot blobs
+of faded brown at Ajeet Singh.
+
+He had a message for the Chief from the god Bhyroo who galloped at
+night on a black horse, and the message had to do with the decoits, for
+if they were successful they could make offering to the priests at the
+temple of Bhowanee, for in her service decoity was an honourable
+occupation and of great antiquity.
+
+Hunsa and Sookdee had come to sit on their heels, and as they listened
+they knew that the wily old Dewan had sent the _yogi_ so that it could
+not be said that he, the Minister, had told them this thing.
+
+A rich jewel merchant of Delhi was then at Poona on his way to the
+Nizam's court.  He had a wealth of jewels--pearls the size of a bird's
+egg, emeralds the size of a betel nut, and diamonds that were like
+stars.  This was true for the merchant had paid the duty as he passed
+the border into Mahrattaland.
+
+Ajeet gave the yogi two rupees for food, though, viewing the animated
+skeleton, it seemed a touch of irony.
+
+Then the jamadars considered the message so deeply wrapped in
+mysticism.  Hunsa unhesitatingly declared that the yogi was a messenger
+from the Dewan, and if they did not take advantage of it they would
+perhaps have to fare forth on lean stomachs and in disgrace--perhaps
+would be beaten by the Mahratta sepoys--undoubtedly they would.
+
+Sookdee backed up the jamadar.
+
+"Very well," declared Ajeet, "we will go on this mission.  But remember
+this, Hunsa, that if there is treachery, if we are cast into the hands
+of the Dewan, I swear by Bhowanee that I will have your life."
+
+"Treachery!"  It was the snarl of an enraged animal, and Hunsa sprang
+to his feet.  He whirled, and facing Sookdee, said: "Let Bhowanee
+decide who is traitor--let Ajeet and me take the ordeal."
+
+"That is but fair," Sookdee declared.  "The ordeal of the heated cannon
+ball will surely burn the hand of the traitor if there is one," and he
+looked at Ajeet; and though suspicious that this was still another
+trap, Ajeet without cowardice could not decline.
+
+"I will take the ordeal," he declared.
+
+"We will take the ordeal to-night," Hunsa said; "and we should prepare
+with haste the method of the decoity, for the merchant may pass, and we
+must take the road in a proper disguise.  There is the village to be
+decided upon where he will rest in his journey, and many things."
+
+Even Ajeet was forced to acquiesce in this.
+
+Boastfully Hunsa declared: "The ordeal will prove that I am thinking
+only of our success.  This method of livelihood has been our profession
+for generations, and yet when we are in the protection of the powerful
+Dewan Ajeet says I am a traitor to our salt."
+
+For an hour they discussed the best manner of sallying forth in a way
+that would leave them unsuspected of robbing.  One of their favourite
+methods was adopted; to go in a party of twenty or thirty as mendicants
+and bearers of the bones of relatives to the waters of the sacred
+Ganges.  No doubt the yogi would accompany them as their priest,
+especially if well paid for the service.
+
+The plot was elaborated on, or rather adapted from past expeditions.
+Ajeet would be represented as a petty raja, with his retinue of
+servants and his guard.  The Gulab Begum would be convincing as a
+princess, the wife of the raja.  The wife of Sookdee could be a
+lady-in-waiting.
+
+As a respectable strong party of holy men, and a prince, they would
+gain the confidence of the merchant, even of the _patil_ of the village
+where he would rest for a night.
+
+They would send spies into Poona to obtain knowledge of the jewel
+merchant's movements.  The spies, two men who were happy in the art of
+ingratiating themselves into the good graces of prospective victims,
+would attach themselves to the merchant's party, and at night slip away
+and join the robber band so that they might judge where he would camp
+next night; at some village that would be a day's march.
+
+When questioned, the _yogi_ told them where they would find the
+merchant; he was stopping with a friend in Poona.  So the two set off,
+and the Bagrees prepared for their journey.
+
+For the ordeal a cannon ball was needed and a blacksmith to heat it.
+And as Hunsa had been the father of the scheme, Sookdee declared that
+he must procure these from the Mahratta camp.
+
+Hunsa agreed to this.
+
+The Bagrees were encamped to one side of the Mahratta troops in a small
+jungle of _dhak_ and slim-growing bamboos that afforded them privacy.
+
+In negotiating for the loan of a blacksmith Hunsa had impressed upon a
+sergeant his sincerity by the gift of two rupees; and two rupees more
+to the blacksmith made it certain that the heating of the cannon ball
+would not make the test unfair to Hunsa.
+
+A peacock perched high in the feathery top of a giant _sal_ tree was
+crying "miaow, miaow!" to the dipping sun when, in the centre of the
+Bagree camp the blacksmith, sitting on his haunches in front of a
+charcoal fire in which nested the iron cannon ball, fanned the flames
+with his pair of goat-skin hand-bellows.
+
+Lots were cast as to which of the two would take the ordeal first, and
+it fell to Ajeet.  First seven paces were marked off, and Ajeet was
+told that he must not run, but take the seven steps as in a walk,
+carrying the hot iron on a pipal leaf on his palm.
+
+"This food of the cannon is now hot," the blacksmith declared, dropping
+his bellows and grasping a pair of iron tongs.
+
+As Sookdee placed a broad pipal leaf upon the jamadar's palm, Ajeet
+repeated in a firm voice: "I take the ordeal.  If I am guilty, Maha
+Kali, may the sign of thy judgment appear upon my flesh!"
+
+"We are ready," Sookdee declared, and the waiting blacksmith swung the
+instrument of justice from its heat in the glowing charcoal to the
+outstretched hand of the jamadar.
+
+Hunsa's hungry eyes glowed in pleased viciousness, for the blacksmith
+had indeed heated the metal; the green pipal leaf squirmed beneath its
+heat like a worm, as Ajeet Singh, with the military stride of a
+soldier, took the seven paces.
+
+Then dropping the thing of torture he extended his slim small hand to
+Sookdee for inspection.
+
+Hunsa's villainy had worked out.  A white rime, like a hoar frost,
+fretting the deep red of the scorched skin, that was as delicate as
+that on a woman's palm.
+
+Sookdee muttered a pitying cry, and Hunsa declared boastfully: "When
+men have evil in their hearts it is known to Bhowanee; behold her sign!"
+
+But Ajeet laughed, saying: "Let Hunsa have the iron; he, too, will know
+of its heat."
+
+"Put it again in the fire," declared Sookdee, "for it is an ordeal in
+which only the guilty is punished; but the ball must be of the same
+heat."
+
+And once more the shot was returned to the charcoal.
+
+Gulab Begum pushed her way rapidly to where the jamadars stood; but
+Sookdee objected, saying: "When men appeal to Bhowanee it is not proper
+that women should be of the ceremony; it will indeed anger our mother
+goddess."
+
+"Thou art a fool, Sookdee," Bootea declared.  "The hand of your chief
+is in pain though he shows it not in his face.  Shall a brave man
+suffer because you are without feeling!"
+
+She turned to the Chief.  "Here I have cocoanut oil and a bandage of
+soft muslin.  Hold to me your hand, Ajeet."
+
+"It is not needed, Gulab, star-flower," the Chief declared proudly.
+
+The Gulab had poured from a ram's horn cool soothing cocoanut oil upon
+the burns, and then she wrapped about the hand a bandage of shimmering
+muslin, bound in a wide strip of silk-like plantain leaf, saying: "This
+will keep the oil cool to your wound, Chief; it will not let it dry out
+to increase the heat."
+
+There was another band of muslin passed around the leaf, and as the
+Gulab turned away, she said: "Think you, Sookdee, that Bhowanee will be
+offended because of mercy.  Some day, Jamadar, fire will be put upon
+your face, when the head has been lopped from your body, to hide the
+features of a decoit that it may not bear witness against the tribe."
+
+"You have delayed the ordeal," Sookdee answered surlily, "and because
+of that Bhowanee will have anger."
+
+The blacksmith, though pumping with both hands at his pair of bellows,
+had felt the impress of the two silver coins in his loin cloth, and,
+true to the bribe from Hunsa, had adroitly doctored his fire by dusting
+sand here and there so that the shot had lost, instead of gained heat.
+Now he cried out: "This kabob of the cannon is cooked, and my arms are
+tired whilst you have talked."
+
+Rising he seized his tongs asking, "Who now will have it placed upon
+his palm?"
+
+"Put it here," Sookdee said, as he laid a pipal leaf of twice the
+thickness he had given Ajeet upon the palm of Hunsa.
+
+Then Hunsa, having repeated the appeal to Bhowanee, strode toward the
+goal, and reaching it, cast the iron shot to the ground, holding up his
+hand in triumph.  His was the hand of a gorilla, thick skinned, rough
+and hard like that of a workman, and now it showed no sign of a burning.
+
+"What say you, Ajeet Singh?" Sookdee asked.
+
+"As to the ordeal," the Chief answered, "according to our faith
+Bhowanee has spoken.  But know you this, though the scar is in my palm,
+in my heart is no treachery.  As to Hunsa, the ordeal has cleared him
+in your minds, and perhaps it is true.  We will go forth to the decoity
+and what is to be will be.  We are but servants of Bhowanee, and if we
+make vow to sacrifice a buffalo at her temple perhaps she will keep us
+in her protection."
+
+Ajeet knew that he had been tricked somehow, but to dispute the ordeal,
+the judgment of the black goddess, would be like an apostacy--it would
+turn every Bagree against him--it would be a shatterment of their
+tenets.  So he said nothing but accepted mutely the decree.
+
+But Bootea's sharp eyes had been busy.  She had watched the blacksmith,
+to whom Ajeet had paid little attention.  In the faces of Hunsa and
+Sookdee she had caught flitting expressions of treachery.  She knew
+that Ajeet had been guiltless of treason to the others, for she had
+been close to him.  Besides she had, when roused, an imperious temper.
+The Bagree women were allowed greater freedom than other women of
+Hindustan, even greater freedom than the Mahratta females who, though
+they appeared in public unveiled, in the homes were treated as
+children, almost as slaves.  The Bagree women at times even led gangs
+of decoits.  Her anger had been roused by Sookdee earlier, and now
+rising from where she sat, she strode imperiously forward till she
+faced the jamadars:
+
+"Your Chief is too proud to deny this trick that you, Sookdee and
+Hunsa, and that accursed labourer of another caste, the blacksmith,
+that shoer of Mahratta horses whom Hunsa has bribed, have put upon him
+in the name of Bhowanee."
+
+Sookdee stared in affrighted silence, and Hunsa's bellow of rage was
+stilled by Ajeet, who whirling upon him, the jade-handled knife in his
+grip, commanded: "Still your clamour!  The Gulab has but seen the
+truth.  I, also, know that, but a soldier may not speak as may one of
+his women-kind."
+
+There was a sudden hush.  A tremor of apprehension had vibrated from
+Bagree to Bagree; the jamadars felt it.  A spark, one lunge with a
+knife, and they would be at each other's throats; the men of Alwar
+against the men of Karowlee; even caste against caste, for the Bagrees
+from Alwar were of the Solunkee caste, while the Karowlee men were of
+Kolee caste.
+
+And there the slim girl form of Bootea stood outlined, a delicate bit
+of statuary, like something of marble that had come from the hand of
+Praxiteles, the white muslin sari in its gentle clinging folds showing
+against the now darkening wall of bamboo jungle.  There was something
+about the Gulab, magnetic, omnipotent, that subdued men, that enslaved
+them; an indescribable subtlety of gentle strength, like the
+bronze-blue temper in steel.  And her eyes--no one can describe the
+compelling eyes of the world, the awful eyes that in their fierce
+magnetism act on a man like _bhang_ on a Ghazi or, like the eyes of
+Christ, smother him in love and goodness.  The _karait_ of India has a
+dull red eye without pupil, of which it is the belief that if a man
+gaze into it for a time he will go mad.  To say that Bootea's eyes were
+beautiful was to say nothing, and to describe their compelling force
+was impossible.
+
+So as they rested on the sullen eyes of Sookdee he quivered; and the
+others stood in silence as Ajeet took Bootea by the arm saying, "Come,
+my lotus flower," led her to the tent.
+
+There the jamadar put his sinewy arms about the slender girl, and bent
+his handsome face to implant a kiss on her red lips, but she thrust his
+arms from her and drew back saying, "No, Ajeet!"
+
+"Why, lotus--why, Gulab?  Often from thy lips I have heard that there
+is no love in thy heart for any man even for me, but is it not a lie,
+the curious lie of a woman who resents a master?"
+
+Ajeet in a mingling of awe and anger had dropped into the formal "thou"
+pronoun instead of the familiar "you."
+
+"No, Ajeet, it is the truth; I do not tell lies."
+
+"But out there thou denounced those sons of depraved parents in defence
+of Ajeet; thou bound up his hand as a mother dresses the wounds of a
+child in her love--even mocked Bhowanee and the ordeal; then sayest
+thou there is no love in thy heart for Ajeet."
+
+"There is not; just the tie such as is between us, that is all.  I
+never learned love--I was but a pawn, a prize.  Seest that, Ajeet?" and
+Bootea laid a finger upon the iron bracelet on her arm--the badge of a
+widow.
+
+Ajeet Singh sneered: "A metal lie, a--"
+
+"Stop!" The girl's voice was almost a scream of expostulation.  "To
+speak of that means death, thou fool.  And thou hast sworn--"
+
+Ajeet's face had blanched.  Then a surge of anger re-flushed it.
+
+"Gulab," he said presently, "take care that the love thou say'st is
+dead--but which is not, for it never dies in the heart of a woman, it
+is but a smouldering fire--take care that it springs not into flame at
+the words of some other man, the touch of his hands, or the light of
+his eyes, because then, by Bhowanee, I will kill thee."
+
+The Gulab stamped a foot upon the earth floor of the tent: "Coward! now
+I hate thee!  Only the weak, the cowards, threaten women.  When thou
+art brave and strong I do not hate if I do not love.  'Tis thou, Ajeet,
+who art to take care."
+
+Outside Guru Lal was casting holy oil upon the troubled waters of a
+disputed ordeal.  The wily old priest knew well how omens and ordeals
+could be manipulated.  Besides, unity among the Bagree leaders, leading
+to much loot, would bring him tribute for the gods.
+
+"It may be," he was saying to Sookdee, "that the blacksmith, who is not
+of our tribe, nor of our nine castes, but is of the Sumar caste, has
+sought to put shame upon our gods by a trick.  At best he was a surly
+rascal of little thought.  It may be that the iron shot was made too
+hot for the hand of the Chief.  An ordeal is a fair test when its
+observance is equal between men; it is then that the goddess judges and
+gives the verdict--her way is always just.  Have not we many times read
+wrongly her omens, and have misjudged the signs, and have suffered.
+And Ajeet acted like one who is not guilty."
+
+"And think you, Guru, that Ajeet will give you a present of rupees for
+this talk that is like the braying of an ass?" Hunsa growled.
+
+But Sookdee objected, saying: "Guru Lal is a holy man of age, and his
+blood runs without heat, therefore if he speaks, the words are not a
+matter for passion, but to be considered.  We will go upon a decoity,
+which is our duty, and leave the ordeal and all else in the hands of
+Bhowanee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Perhaps it was the customs official that told Dewan Sewlal about the
+_Akbar Ka Diwa_, the Lamp of Akbar, the ruby that was so called because
+of its gorgeous blood-red fire, as being in the iron box of the
+merchant.
+
+This ruby had been an eye in one of the two gorgeous jewelled peacocks
+that surmounted the "Peacock Throne" at Delhi in the time of Akbar to
+the time when the Persian conqueror, Nadir Shah, sacked Delhi and took
+the Peacock Throne and the Kohinoor, and everything else of value back
+to Persia.  But he didn't get the ruby for the Vizier of the King of
+Delhi stole it.  Then Alam, the eunuch, stole it from the Vizier.  Its
+possession was desirable, not only because of its great value as a
+jewel, but because it held in its satanic glitter an unearthly power,
+either of preservation to its holder or malignant evil against his
+enemies.
+
+At any rate Sewlal sent for Hunsa the night of the ordeal and explained
+to him, somewhat casually, that a jewel merchant passing through
+Mahrattaland had in his collection a ruby of no great value, but a
+stone that he would like to become possessed of because a ruby was his
+lucky gem.  The Dewan intimated that Hunsa would get a nice private
+reward for this particular gem, if by chance he could, quite secretly,
+procure it for him.
+
+Next day was a busy one in the Bagree camp.
+
+Having followed the profession of decoits and thugs for generations it
+was with them a fine art; unlimited pains were taken over every detail.
+As it had been decided that they would go as a party of mendicants and
+bearers of family bones to Mother Ganges, there were many things to
+provide to carry out the masquerade--stage properties, as it were; red
+bags for the bones of females, and white bags for those of the males.
+
+In two days one of the spies came with word that Ragganath, the
+merchant, had started on his journey, riding in a covered cart drawn by
+two of the slim, silk-skinned trotting bullocks, and was accompanied by
+six men, servants and guards; on the second night he would encamp at
+Sarorra.  So a start was made the next morning.
+
+Sookdee, Ajeet Singh, and Hunsa, accompanied by twenty men, and Gulab
+Begum took the road, the Gulab travelling in an enclosed cart as
+befitted the favourite of a raja, and with her rode the wife of Sookdee
+as her maid.
+
+Ajeet rode a Marwari stallion, a black, roach-crested brute, with bad
+hocks and an evil eye.  The Ajeet sat his horse a convincing figure, a
+Rajput Raja.
+
+Beneath a rich purple coat gleamed, like silver tracery, his steel
+shirt-of-mail; through his sash of red silk was thrust a
+straight-bladed sword, and from the top of his turban of
+blue-and-gold-thread, peeped a red cap with dangling tassel of gold.
+
+In the afternoon of the second day the Bagrees came to the village of
+Sarorra.
+
+"We will camp here," the leader commanded, "close to the mango _tope_
+through which we have just passed, then we will summon the headman, and
+if he is as such accursed officials are, the holy one, the yogi, will
+cast upon him and his people a curse; also I will threaten him with the
+loss of his ears."
+
+"The one who is to be destroyed has not yet come," Hunsa declared, "for
+here is what these dogs of villagers call a place of rest though it is
+but an open field."
+
+Ajeet turned upon the jamadar: "The one who is to be destroyed, say
+you, Hunsa?  Who spoke in council that the merchant was to be killed?
+We are men of decoity, we rob these fat pirates who rob the poor, but
+we take life only when it is necessary to save our own."
+
+"And when a robbed one who has power, such as rich merchants have, make
+complaint and give names, the powers take from us our profit and cast
+us into jail," Hunsa retorted.
+
+"And forget not, Ajeet, that we are here among the Mahrattas far from
+our own forests that we can escape into if there is outcry," Sookdee
+interjected.  "If the voices are hushed and the bodies buried beneath
+where we cook our food, there will be only silence till we are safe
+back in Karowlee.  The Dewan will not protect us if there is an
+outcry--he will deny that he has promised protection."
+
+The Bagrees were already busy preparing the camp, the camp of a
+supposed party of men on a sacred mission.
+
+It was like the locating of a circus.  The tents they had brought stood
+gaudily in the hot sun, some white and some of cotton cloth dyed in
+brilliant colours, red, and blue, and yellow.  In front of Ajeet's tent
+a bamboo pole was planted, from the top of which floated a red flag
+carrying a figure of the monkey god, Hanuman, embroidered in green and
+yellow.
+
+The red and white bags carrying bones, which were supposed to be the
+bones of defunct relatives, were suspended from tripods of bamboo to
+preserve them from the pollution of the soil.
+
+And presently three big drums, Nakaras, were arranged in front of the
+yogi's tent, and were being beaten by strong-armed drummers, while a
+conch shell blared forth a discordant note that was supposed to be
+pleasing to the gods.
+
+Some of the Bagrees issued from their tents having suddenly become
+canonised, metamorphosed from highwaymen to devout yogis, their bodies,
+looking curiously lean and ascetic, now clothed largely in ashes and
+paint.
+
+"Go you, Hunsa," Ajeet commanded, "into this depraved village and
+summon the _patil_ to come forth and pay to the sainted yogi the usual
+gift of one rupee four annas, and make his salaams.  Also he is to
+provide fowl and fruits for us who are on this sacred mission.  He may
+be a son of swine, such as the lord of a village is, so speak, Jamadar,
+of the swords the Raja's guards carry.  Say nothing as to the expected
+one, but let your eyes do all the questioning."
+
+Hunsa departed on his mission, and even then the villagers could be
+seen assembled between the Bagrees and the mud huts, watching curiously
+the encampment.
+
+"Sookdee," Ajeet said, "if we can rouse the anger of the _patil_--"
+
+The Jamadar laughed.  "If you insist upon the payment of silver you
+will accomplish that, Ajeet."
+
+Ajeet touched his slim fingers to Sookdee's arm: "Do not forget,
+Jamadar--call me Raja.  But as to the village; if we anger them they
+will not entertain the merchant; they will not let him rest in the
+village.  And also if they are of an evil temper we will warn the
+merchant that they are thieves who will cut his throat and rob him.  We
+will give him the protection of our numbers."
+
+"If the merchant is fat--and when they attain wealth they always become
+fat--he will be happy with us, Raja, thinking perhaps that he will
+escape a gift of money the _patil_ would exact."
+
+"Yes," Ajeet Singh answered, "we will ask him for nothing when he
+departs."
+
+After a time Hunsa was seen approaching, and with him the
+grey-whiskered _patil_.
+
+The latter was a commoner.  He suggested a black-faced, grey-whiskered
+monkey of the jungles.  Indeed the pair were an anthropoid couple,
+Hunsa the gorilla, and the headman an ape.  Behind them straggled a
+dozen villagers, men armed with long ironwood sticks of combat.
+
+The headman salaamed the yogi and Ajeet, saying, "This is but a poor
+place for holy men and the Raja to rest, for the water is bad and
+famine is upon us."
+
+"A liar, and the son of a wild ass," declared Ajeet promptly.  "Give to
+this saint the gift of silver, lest he put the anger of Kali upon you,
+and call upon her of the fiery furnace in the sacred hills to destroy
+your houses.  Also send fowl and grain, and think yourself favoured of
+Kali that you make offering to such a holy one, and to a Raja who is in
+favour with Sindhia."
+
+But the villager had no intention of parting with worldly goods if he
+could get out of it.  He expostulated, enlarged upon his poverty,
+rubbed dust upon his forehead, and called upon the gods to destroy him
+if he had a breakfast in the whole village for himself and people,
+declaring solemnly; "By my Junwa!"--though he wore no sacred
+thread,--"there is no food for man or horse in the village."  Then he
+waxed angry, asking indignantly, who were these stragglers upon the
+road that they should come to him, an official of the Peshwa, to demand
+tribute; he would have them destroyed.  Beyond, not two _kos_ away,
+were a thousand soldiers,--which was a gorgeous lie,--who if he but
+sent a messenger would come and behead the lot, would cast the sacred
+bones in the gaudy bags upon the dunghill of the village bullocks.
+
+"To-morrow, monkey-man, the gift will be doubled," Ajeet answered
+calmly, "for that is the law, and you know it."
+
+But the _patil_, thinking there would be little fight in a party of
+pilgrims and mendicants, called to his stickmen to bring help and they
+would beat these insolent ones and drive them on their way.
+
+"Take the yogi, Hunsa," Ajeet said, "and the men that have the
+fire-powder and throw it upon the thatched roof of a hut in the way of
+a visitation from the gods, because this ape will not leave us in peace
+for our mission until he is subdued."
+
+In obedience as Hunsa and the yogi moved toward the village, the
+_patil_ cried.  "Where go you?"
+
+"We go with a message from the gods to you who offer insult to a holy
+one."
+
+The villagers armed with sticks, retreated slowly before the yogi,
+dreading to offer harm to the sainted one.  Muttering his curses, his
+iron tongs clanking at every step, the yogi strode to the first
+mud-wall huts, and there raising his voice cried aloud: "Maha Kalil
+consume the houses of these men of an evil heart who would deny the
+offering to Thee."
+
+Then at a wave of his skeleton arm the two men threw upon the thatched
+roof of a hut a grey preparation of gunpowder which was but a
+pyrotechnical trick, and immediately the thatch burst into flames.
+
+"There, accursed ones--unbelievers!  Kali has spoken!" the yogi
+declared solemnly, and turning on his heels went back to the camp.
+
+The headman and his men, with howls of dismay, rushed back to stop the
+conflagration.  And just then the jewel merchant arrived in his cart.
+The curtains of the canopy were thrown back and the fat Hindu sat
+blinking his owl eyes in consternation.  At sight of Ajeet he
+descended, salaamed, and asked:
+
+"Has there been a decoity in the village--is it war and bloodshed?"
+
+Ajeet assumed the haughty condescending manner of a Rajput prince, and
+explained, with a fair scope of imagination that the _patil_ was a man
+of ungovernable temper who gave protection to thieves and outlaws, that
+the village itself was a nest for them.  That two of his servants,
+having gone into the village to purchase food, had been set upon,
+beaten and robbed; that the conflagration had been caused by the fire
+from a gun that one of the debased villagers had poked through a hole
+in the roof to shoot his servants.
+
+"As my name is Ragganath, it is a visitation upon these scoundrels,"
+the merchant declared.
+
+"It is indeed, Sethjee."
+
+Ajeet had diplomatically used the "Sethjee," which was a friendly
+rendering of the name "Seth," meaning "a merchant," and the wily Hindu,
+not to be outdone in courtesy, promoted Ajeet.
+
+"Such an outrage, Maharaja, on the part of these low-caste people in
+the presence of the sainted one, and the pilgrims upon such a sacred
+mission to Mother Gunga, has brought upon them the wrath of the gods.
+May the village be destroyed; and the _patil_ when he dies come back to
+earth a snake, to crawl upon his belly."
+
+"The headman even refused to give the holy one the gift of
+silver--tendering instead threats," Ajeet added.
+
+The merchant spat his contempt: "Wretches!" he declared; "debased
+associates of skinners of dead animals, and scrapers of skulls; Bah!"
+and he spat again.  "And to think but for the Presence having arrived
+here first I most assuredly would have gone into the village, and
+perhaps have been slain for my--"
+
+He stopped and rolled his eyes apprehensively.  He had been on the
+point of mentioning his jewels, but, though he was amongst saints and
+kings, he suddenly remembered the danger.
+
+"We would not have camped here," Ajeet declared, "had we not been a
+strong party, because this village has an evil reputation.  You have
+been favoured by the gods in finding honest men in the way of
+protection, and, no doubt, it is because you are one who makes
+offerings to the deity."
+
+"And if the Maharaja will suffer the presence of a poor merchant, who
+is but a shopkeeper, I will rest here in his protection."
+
+Ajeet Singh graciously consented to this, and the merchant commanded
+his men to erect his small tent beneath the limbs of the deep green
+mango trees.
+
+The decoits watched closely the transport of the merchant's effects
+from the cart to the tent.  When a strong iron box, that was an evident
+weight for its two carriers, was borne first their eyes glistened.
+Therein was the wealth of jewels the flying horsemen of the night had
+whispered to the yogi about.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+When the merchant's tent had been erected, and he had gone to its
+shelter, the jamadars, sitting well beyond the reach of his ears, held
+a council of war.  Ajeet was opposed to the killing of Ragganath and
+his men, but Hunsa pointed out that it was the only way: they were
+either decoits or they were men of toil, men of peace.  Dead men were
+not given to carrying tales, and if no stir were made about the decoity
+until they were safely back in Karowlee they could enjoy the fruits Of
+their spoils, which would be, undoubtedly, great.  By the use of the
+strangling cloth there would be no outcry, no din of battle; they of
+the village would think that the camp was one of sleep.  Then when the
+bodies had been buried in a pit, the earth tramped down flat and solid,
+and cooking fires built over it to obliterate all traces of a grave,
+they would strike camp and go back the way they had come.
+
+Ajeet was forced to admit that it was the one thorough way, but he
+persisted that they were decoits and not thugs.
+
+At this Sookdee laughed: "Jamadar," he said, "what matters to a dead
+man the manner of his killing?  Indeed it is a merciful way.  Such as
+Bhowanee herself decreed--in a second it is over.  But with the spear,
+or the sword--ah! I have seen men writhe in agony and die ten times
+before it was an end."
+
+"But a caste is a caste," Ajeet objected, "and the manner of the caste.
+We are decoits, and we only slay when there is no other way."
+
+Hunsa tipped his gorilla body forward from where it rested on his heels
+as he sat, and his lowering eyes were sullen with impatience:
+
+"Chief Ajeet," he snarled, "think you that we can rob the _seth_ of his
+treasure without an outcry--and if there is an outcry, that he will not
+go back to those of his caste in Poona, and when trouble is made, think
+you that the Dewan will thank us for the bungling of this?  And as to
+the matter of a thug or a decoit, half our men have been taught the art
+of the strangler.  With these,"--and extending his massive arms he
+closed his coarse hands in a gnarled grip,--"with these I would, with
+one sharp in-turn on the _roomal_, crack the neck of the merchant and
+he would be dead in the taking of a breath.  And, Ajeet, if this that
+is the manner of men causes you fear--"
+
+"Hunsa," and Ajeet's voice was constrained in its deadliness, "that
+ass's voice of yours will yet bring you to grief."
+
+But Sookdee interposed:
+
+"Let us not quarrel," he said.  "Ajeet no doubt has in his mind Bootea
+as I have Meena.  And it would be well if the two were sent on the road
+in the cart, and when our work is completed we will follow.  Indeed
+they may know nothing but that there is some jewel, such as women love,
+to be given them."
+
+"Look you," cried Hunsa thrusting his coarse hand out toward the road,
+"even Bhowanee is in favour.  See you not the jackal?"
+
+Turning their eyes in the direction Hunsa indicated, a jackal was seen
+slinking across the road from right to left.
+
+"Indeed it is an omen," Sookdee corroborated; "if on our journeys to
+commit a decoity that is always a good omen."
+
+"And there is the voice!" Hunsa exclaimed, as the tremulous lowing of a
+cow issued from the village.
+
+He waved a beckoning hand to Guru Lal, for they had brought with them
+their tribal priest as an interpreter of omens chiefly.  "Is not the
+voice of the cow heard at sunset a good omen, Guru?" he demanded.
+
+"Indeed it is," the priest affirmed.  "If the voice of a cow is heard
+issuing at twilight from a village at which decoits are to profit, it
+is surely a promise from Bhowanee that a large store of silver will be
+obtained."
+
+"Take thee to thy prayers, Guru," Ajeet commanded, "for we have matters
+to settle."  He turned to Sookdee.  "Your omens will avail little if
+there is prosecution over the disappearance of the merchant.  I am
+supposed to be in command, the leader, but I am the led.  But I will
+not withdraw, and it is not the place of the chief to handle the
+_roomal_.  We will eat our food, and after the evening prayers will sit
+about the fire and amuse this merchant with stories such as honest men
+and holy ones converse in, that he may be at peace in his mind.  As
+Sookdee says, the women will be sent to the grove of trees we came
+through on the road."
+
+"We will gather about the fire of the merchant," Sookdee declared, "for
+it is in the mango grove and hidden from sight of the villagers.  Also
+a guard will be placed between here and the village, and one upon the
+roadway."
+
+"And while we hold the merchant in amusement," Hunsa added, "men will
+dig the pits here, two of them, each within a tent so that they will
+not be seen at work."
+
+"Yes, Ajeet," Sookdee said with a suspicion of a sneer, "we will give
+the merchant the consideration of a decent burial, and not leave him to
+be eaten by jackals and hyenas as were the two soldiers you finished
+with your sword when we robbed the camel transport that carried the
+British gold in Oudh."
+
+"If it is to be, cease to chatter like jays," Ajeet answered crossly.
+
+In keeping with their assumed characters, the evening meal was ushered
+in with a peace-shattering clamour from the drums and a raucous blare
+from conch-shell horns.  Then the devout murderers offered up prayers
+of fervency to the great god, beseeching their more immediate branch of
+the deity, Bhowanee, to protect them.
+
+And at the same time, just within the mud walls of Sarorra, its people
+were placing flowers and cocoanuts and sweetmeats upon the shrine of
+the god of their village.
+
+Just without the village gate the elephant-nosed Ganesh sat looking in
+whimsical good nature across his huge paunch toward the place of crime,
+the deep shadow that lay beneath the green-leafed mango trees.
+
+In the hearts of the Bagrees there was unholy joy, an eager
+anticipation, a gladsome feeling toward Bhowanee who had certainly
+guided this rapacious merchant with his iron box full of jewels to
+their camp.
+
+Indeed they would sacrifice a buffalo at her temple of Kajuria, for
+that was the habit of their clan when the booty was great.  The taking
+of life was but an incident.  In Hindustan humans came up like flies,
+returning over and over to again encumber the crowded earth.  In the
+vicissitudes of life before long the merchant would pass for a
+reincorporation of his soul, and probably, because of his sins as an
+oppressor of the poor, come back as a turtle or a jackass; certainly
+not as a revered cow--he was too unholy.  In the gradation of humans he
+was but a merchant of the caste of the third dimension in the great
+quartette of castes.  It would not be like killing a Brahmin, a sin in
+the sight of the great god.
+
+This philosophy was as subtle as the perfume of a rose, unspoken, even
+at the moment a floaty thought.  Like their small hands and their erect
+air of free-men, the Rajput atmosphere, it had grown into their created
+being, like the hunting instinct of a Rampore hound.
+
+The merchant, smoking his _hookah_, having eaten, observed with keen
+satisfaction the evening devotions of the supposed mendicants.  As it
+grew dark their guru was offering up a prayer to the Holy Cow, for she
+was to be worshipped at night.  The merchant's appreciation was largely
+a worldly one, a business sense of insurance--safety for his jewels and
+nothing to pay for security--men so devout would have the gods in their
+mind and not robbery.  When the jamadars, and some of the Bagrees who
+were good story tellers, and one a singer, did him the honour of coming
+to sit at his camp-fire he was pleased.
+
+"Sit you here at my right," he said to Hunsa, for he conceived him to
+be captain of the Raja's guard.
+
+Sookdee and the others, without apparent motive, contrived it so that a
+Bagree or two sat between each of the merchant's men, engaging them in
+pleasant speech, tendering tobacco.  And, as if in modesty, some of the
+Bagrees sat behind the retainers.
+
+"This is indeed a courtesy," the merchant assured Hunsa; "a poor trader
+feels honoured by a visit from so brave a soldier as the captain of the
+Raja's guard."
+
+He noticed, too, with inward satisfaction, that the jamadars had left
+their weapons behind, which they had done in a way of not arousing
+their victim's fears.
+
+"Would not it be deemed a courtesy," the merchant asked, "if one like
+myself, who is a poor trader, should go to pay his respects to the Raja
+ere he retires, for of course it would be beneath his dignity to come
+to his servant?"
+
+"No, indeed," declared Hunsa quickly, thinking of the graves that were
+even then being dug; "he is a man of a haughty temper, and when he is
+in the society of the beautiful dancing girl who is with him, he cares
+not to be disturbed.  Even now he is about to escort her in the cart
+down the road to where there is a shrine that women of that caste make
+offering to."
+
+It had been arranged that Ajeet would escort Bootea, with two Bagrees
+as attendants, to the grove of trees half a mile down the road.  He had
+insisted on this in the way of a negative support to the murder.  As
+there would be no fighting this did not reflect on his courage as a
+leader.  And as to complicity, Hunsa knew that as the leader of the
+party, Ajeet would be held the chief culprit.  It was always the leader
+of a gang of decoits who was beheaded when captured, the others perhaps
+escaping with years of jail.  And Hunsa himself, even Sookdee, would be
+safe, for they were in league with the Dewan.
+
+There was an hour of social talk; many times Hunsa fingered the
+_roomal_ that was about his waist; the yellow-and-white strangling
+cloth with which Bhowanee had commanded her disciples, the thugs, to
+kill their victims.  In one corner of it was tied a silver rupee for
+luck.  The natural ferocity of his mind threw him into an eager
+anticipation: he took pride in his proficiency as a strangler; his
+coarse heavy hands, like those of a Punjabi wrestler, were suited to
+the task.  Grasping the cloth at the base of a victim's skull, tight to
+the throat, a side-twist inward and the trick was done, the spine
+snapped like a pipe-stem.  And he had been somewhat out of practice--he
+had regretted that; he was fearful of losing the art, the knack.
+
+About the fat paunch of the merchant was a silver-studded belt.  Hunsa
+eyed this speculatively.  Beyond doubt in its neighbourhood would be
+the key to the iron box; and when its owner lay on his back, his
+bulbous eyes glaring upward to where the moon trickled through the
+thick foliage of the mango tree beneath which they sat, he would seize
+the keys and be first to dabble his grimy fingers in the glittering
+gems.
+
+Beyond, the village had hushed--the strident call of voices had ceased.
+Somewhere a woman was pounding grain in a wooden mortar--a dull
+monotonous "thud, thud, swish, thud" carrying on the dead air.
+Night-jars were circling above the trees, their plaintive call,
+"chy-eece, chy-e-ece!" filtering downward like the weird cry of
+spirits.  Once the deep sonorous bugling note of a _saurus_, like the
+bass pipe of an organ, smote the stillness as the giant crane winged
+his way up the river that lay beyond, a mighty ribbon of silver in the
+moonlight.  A jackal from the far side of the village, in the fields,
+raised a tremulous moan.
+
+Sookdee looked into the eyes of Hunsa and he understood.  It was the
+_tibao_, the happiest augury of success, for it came over the right
+shoulder of the victim.
+
+Hunsa, feeling that the moment to strike had come, rose carelessly,
+saying: "Give me tobacco."
+
+That was a universal signal amongst thugs, the command to strike.
+
+Even as he uttered the words Hunsa had slipped behind the merchant and
+his towel was about the victim's neck.  Each man who had been assigned
+as a strangler, had pounced upon his individual victim; while Sookdee
+stood erect, a knife in his hand, ready to plunge it into the heart of
+any one who was likely to overcome his assailant.
+
+Hunsa had thrown the helpless merchant upon his face, and with one knee
+between his shoulder-blades had broken the neck; no sound beyond a
+gurgling breath of strangulation had passed the Hindu's lips.  There
+had been no clamour, no outcry; nothing but a few smothered words,
+gasps, the scuffle of feet upon the earth; it was like a horrible
+nightmare, a fantastic orgy of murderous fiends.  The flame of the
+campfire flickered sneers, drawn torture, red and green shadows in the
+staring faces of the men who lay upon the ground, and the figures of
+the stranglers glowed red in its light, like devils who danced in hell.
+
+Hunsa had turned the merchant upon his back and his evil gorilla face
+was thrust into the face of his victim.  No breath passed the thick
+protruding lips upon which was a froth of death.
+
+As the Jamadar tore the keys from the waist-band, snapping a silver
+chain that was about the body, he said: "Sookdee, be quick.  Have the
+bodies carried to the pits.  Do not forget to drive a spear through
+each belly lest they swell up and burst open the earth."
+
+"You have the keys to the chest, Hunsa?" Sookdee said, with suspicion
+in his voice.
+
+"Yes, Jamadar; I will open it.  We will empty it, and place the iron
+box on top of the bodies in a pit, for it is too heavy to carry, and if
+we are stopped it might be observed."
+
+"Take the dead," Sookdee commanded the Bagrees; "lay them out; take
+down the tents that are over the pits, and by that time I will be there
+to count these dead things in the way of surety that not one has
+escaped with the tale.
+
+"Come," he said to Hunsa, "together we will go to the iron box and open
+it; then there can be no suspicion that the men of Alwar have been
+defrauded."
+
+Hunsa turned malignant eyes upon Sookdee, but, keys in hand, strode
+toward the tent.
+
+Sookdee, thrusting in the fire a torch made from the feathery bark of
+the _kujoor_ tree, followed.
+
+Hunsa kneeling before the iron box was fitting the keys into the double
+locks.  Then he drew the lids backward, and the two gasped at a glitter
+of precious stones that lay beneath a black velvet cloth Hunsa stripped
+from the gems.
+
+Sookdee cried out in wonderment; and Hunsa, slobbering gutturals of
+avarice, patted the gems with his gorilla paws.  He lifted a large
+square emerald entwined in a tracery of gold, delicate as the
+criss-cross of a spider's web, and held it to his thick lips.
+
+"A bribe for a princess!" he gloated.  "Take you this, Sookdee, and
+hide it as you would your life, for a gift to the son of the Peshwa,
+who, methinks, is behind the Dewan in this, we will be men of honour.
+And this"--a gleaming diamond in a circlet of gold--"for Sirdar
+Baptiste," and he rolled it in his loin cloth.  "And this,"--a string
+of pearls, that as he laid it on the black velvet was like the tears of
+angels,--"This for the fat pig of a Dewan to set his four wives at each
+other's throats.  Let not the others know of these, Sookdee, of these
+that we have taken for the account."
+
+Suddenly there was a clamour of voices, cries, the clang of swords, the
+sharp crash of a shot, and the two jamadars, startled, eyes staring,
+stood with ears cocked toward the tumult.
+
+"Soldiers!" Sookdee gasped.  His hand brushed Hunsa's bare arm as he
+thrust it into the chest and brought it forth clasping jewels, which he
+tied in a knot of his waistcloth.  "Take you something, Hunsa, and lock
+the box till we see," he said darting from the tent.
+
+Hunsa filled a pocket of his brocaded Jacket, but he was looking for
+the Akbar Lamp, the ruby.  He lifted out a tray and ran his grimy hands
+through the maze of gold and silver wrought ornaments below.  His
+fingers touched, at the very bottom, a bag of leather.  He tore it
+open, and a blaze of blood-red light glinted at him evilly where a ruby
+caught the flame of the torch that Sookdee had thrown to the earth
+floor as he fled.
+
+With a snarl of gloating he rolled the ruby in a fold of his turban,
+locked the box, and darted after Sookdee.
+
+He all but fell over the seven dead bodies of the merchant and his men
+as he raced to where a group was standing beyond.  And there three more
+bodies lay upon the ground, and beside them, held, were two horses.
+
+"It is Ajeet Singh," Sookdee said pointing to where the Chief lay with
+his head in the lap of a decoit.  "These two native soldiers of the
+English came riding in with swiftness, for behind them raced Ajeet who
+must have seen them pass."
+
+"And here," another added, "as the riders checked at sight of the dead,
+Ajeet pulled one from his horse and killed him, but the other, with a
+pistol, shot Ajeet and he is dead."
+
+"The Chief is not dead," said the one who held his head in his lap; "he
+is but shot in the shoulder, and I have stopped the blood with my hand."
+
+"And we have killed the other soldier," another said, "for, having seen
+the bodies, we could not let him live."
+
+From Sookdee's hand dangled a coat of one of the dead.
+
+"This that is a leather purse," he said, "contains letters; the red
+thing on them I have looked upon before--it is the seal of the Englay.
+It was here in the coat of that one who is a sergeant--the other being
+a soldier."
+
+He put the leather case within the bosom of his shirt, adding: "This
+may even be of value to the Dewan.  Beyond that, there was little of
+loot upon these dogs of the Englay--eight rupees.  The coats and the
+turbans we will burn."
+
+Hunsa stooped down and slipped the sandals from the feet of the one
+Sookdee had pointed out as the officer.
+
+"The footwear is of little value, but we will take the brass cooking
+pots of the merchant," Sookdee said, eyeing this performance; there was
+suspicion in his eyes lighted from the flare of their camp fires.
+
+"Sookdee," Hunsa said, "you have the Englay leather packet, but they do
+not send _sowars_ through the land of the Mahratta with the real
+message written on the back of the messenger.  In quiet I will rip
+apart the soles of this footwear.  Do you that with the saddles;
+therein is often hidden the true writing.  In the slaying of these two
+we have acquired a powerful enemy, the English, and the message, if
+there be one, might be traded for our lives.  Here are the keys to the
+box, for it is heavy."
+
+Into Hunsa's mind had flashed the thought that the gods had opened the
+way, for he had plotted to do this thing--the destruction of Ajeet.
+
+"Have all the bodies thrown into the pit, Sookdee," he advised; "make
+perfect the covering of the fire and ash, and while you prepare for
+flight I will go and bring Bootea's cart to carry Ajeet."
+
+Then Hunsa was swallowed up in the gloom of the night, melting like a
+shadow into the white haze of the road as he raced like a grey wolf
+toward the Gulab, who now had certainly been delivered into his hands.
+
+Soon his heart pumped and the choke of exertion slowed him to a fast
+walk.  The sandals, bulky with their turned-up toes, worried him.  He
+drew a knife from his sash and slit the tops off, muttering: "If it is
+here, the message of value, it will be between the two skins of the
+soles."
+
+Now they lay flat and snug in his hand as he quickened his pace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The Gulab heard the shot at the Bagree camp, and Hunsa found her
+trembling from apprehension.
+
+"What has happened, Jamadar?" she cried.  "Ajeet heard the beat of
+iron-shod hoofs upon the road, and seeing in the moonlight the two
+riders knew from the manner they sat the saddles that they were of the
+Englay service; when he called to them they heeded him not.  Then Ajeet
+followed the two.  Why was the shot, Hunsa?"
+
+"They have killed Ajeet," Hunsa declared; "but also they are dead, and
+I have the leader's leather sandals for a purpose.  The shot has roused
+the village, and even now our people are preparing for flight.  Get you
+into the cart that I may take you to safety."  He took the ruby from
+his turban, saying: "And here is the most beautiful ruby in Hind; the
+fat pig of a Dewan wants it, but I have taken it for you."
+
+But Bootea pushed his hand away: "I take no present from you, Hunsa."
+
+Hunsa put the jewel back in his turban and commanded the two men, who
+stood waiting, "Make fast the bullocks to the cart quickly lest we be
+captured, because other soldiers are coming behind."
+
+The two Bagrees turned to where the slim pink-and-grey coated trotting
+bullocks were tethered by their short horns to a tree and leading them
+to the cart made fast the bamboo yoke across their necks.
+
+"Get into the cart, Bootea," Hunsa commanded, for the girl had not
+moved.
+
+"I will not!" she declared.  "I'm going back to Ajeet; he is not
+dead--it is a trick."
+
+"He _is_ dead," Hunsa snarled, seizing her by arm.
+
+The Gulab screamed words of denunciation.  "Take your hands off me, son
+of a pig, accursed man of low caste!  Ajeet will kill you for this,
+dog!"
+
+At this the wife of Sookdee fled, racing back toward the camp.  One of
+the men darted forward to follow, but Hunsa stayed him, saying, "Let
+her go--it is better; I war not upon Sookdee."
+
+He had the Gulab now in the grasp of both his huge paws, and holding
+her tight, said rapidly: "Be still you she-devil, accursed fool!  You
+are going to a palace to be a queen.  The son of the Peshwa desires
+you.  True, I, also, have desire, but fear not for, by Bhowanee! it is
+a life of glory, of jewels and rich attire that I take you to; so get
+into the cart."
+
+But Bootea wrenched free an arm and struck Hunsa full upon his ugly
+face, screaming her rebellion.
+
+"To be struck by a woman!" Hunsa blared; "not a woman, but the spawn of
+a she-leopard! why should not I beat your beautiful face into ugliness
+with one of these sandals of a dead pig!"
+
+He lifted her bodily, calling to the man upon the ground, the other
+having mounted behind the bullocks.  "Put back the leather wall of the
+cart that I may hurl this outcast widow of a dead Hindu within."
+
+Bootea clawed at his face; she kicked and fought; her voice screaming a
+call to Ajeet.
+
+There was a heavy rolling thump of hoofs upon the roadway, unheard of
+Hunsa because of the vociferous struggle.  Then from the shimmer of
+moonlight thrust the white form of a big Turcoman horse that was thrown
+almost to his haunches, his breast striking the back of the decoit.
+
+The bullocks, nervous little brutes, startled by the huge white animal,
+swerved, and before the man who sat a-straddle of the one shaft
+gathered tight the cord to their nostrils, whisked the cart to the
+roadside where it toppled over the bank for a fall of fifteen feet into
+a ravine, carrying bullocks and driver with it.
+
+The moonlight fell full upon the face of the horseman, its light making
+still whiter the face of Captain Barlow.
+
+And Bootea recognised him.  It was the face that had been in her vision
+night and day since the _nautch_.
+
+"Save me, Sahib!" she cried; "these men are thieves; save me, Sahib!"
+
+The hunting crop in Barlow's hand crashed upon the thick head of Hunsa
+in ready answer to the appeal.  And as the sahib threw himself from the
+saddle the jamadar, with a snarl like a wounded tiger, dropped the girl
+and, whirling, grappled with the Englishman.
+
+Barlow was strong; few men in the force, certainly none in the
+officers' mess, could put him on his back; and he was lithe, supple as
+a leopard; and in combat cool, his mind working like the mind of a
+chess player: but he realised that the arms about him were the arms of
+a gorilla, the chest against which he was being crushed was the chest
+of a trained wrestler; a smaller man would have heard his bones
+cracking in that clutch.
+
+He raised a knee and drove it into the groin of the jamadar; then in
+the slight slackening of the holding arms as the Bagree shrank from the
+blow, he struck at the bearded chin; it was the clean, trained
+short-arm jab of a boxer.
+
+But even as the gorilla wavered staggeringly under the blow, a soft
+something slipped about Barlow's throat and tightened like the coils of
+a python.  And behind something was pressing him to his death.  The
+other Bagree springing to the assistance of Hunsa had looped his
+_roomal_ about the Sahib's throat with the art of a thug.
+
+Barlow's senses were going; his brain swam; in his fancy he had been
+shot from a cliff and was hurtling through space in which there was no
+air--his lungs had closed; in his brain a hammer was beating him into
+unconsciousness.
+
+Then suddenly the pressure on his throat ceased, it fell away; the air
+rushed to the parched lungs.  With a wrench his brain cleared, and he
+went down; but now with power in his arms, the arms that still clung
+about the dazed Hunsa, and he was on top.
+
+Scarce aware of the action, out of a fighting instinct, he dragged from
+its holster his heavy pistol, and beat with its butt the ugly head
+beneath, beat it till it was still.  Then he staggered to his feet and
+looked wonderingly at the form of the Bagree behind who lay sprawled on
+the road, a great red splash across the white jacket on his breast.
+
+In the Gulab's hand was still clutched the dagger she had drawn from
+her girdle and driven home to save the sahib who had sat like a god in
+her heart.  With the other hand she held out from contact with her
+limbs the muslin _sari_ that was crimsoned where the blood of the
+Bagree had fountained when she drew forth her knife.
+
+Barlow darted forward as Bootea reeled and caught her with an arm.
+Close, the face, fair as that of a memsahib in the pallor of fright and
+the paling moonlight, sweet, of finer mould, more spiritual than the
+Mona Lisa's, puritanically simple, the mass of black hair drawn
+straight back from the low broad brow--for the rich turban had fallen
+in her fight for freedom--woke memory in the sahib; and as the blood
+ebbed back through the girl's veins, the pale cheeks flushed with rose,
+her eyelids quivered and drew back their shutters from eyes that were
+like those of an antelope.
+
+"You--you, Gulab, the giver of the red rose, the singer of the love
+song!" Barlow gasped.
+
+"Yes, Captain Sahib, you who are like a god--" Bootea checked, her head
+drooped.
+
+But Barlow putting his fingers under her chin and gently lifting the
+face asked, "And what--what?"
+
+"You came like one in a dream.  Also, Sahib, I am but one who danced
+before you and you have saved me."
+
+"And, little girl, you saved my life."
+
+He felt a shudder run through the girl's form, and then she pushed him
+from her crying, "Sahib--Hunsa!  Quick!"
+
+For the jamadar, recovering his senses, had risen to his knees fumbling
+at his belt groggily for his knife.
+
+Barlow swung the pistol from its holster and rushed toward Hunsa, but
+the latter, at sight of the dreaded weapon, fled, pursued for a few
+paces by the Captain.
+
+The girl saw the sandal soles lying upon the ground where Hunsa had
+dropped them in the struggle, and slipped them beneath her breast-belt,
+a quick thought coming to her that if the Captain saw them he might
+recognise them as the footwear of the soldiers.  Also Hunsa had said
+they were for a purpose.
+
+Barlow followed the fleeing shadow for a dozen strides, then his pistol
+barked, and swinging on his heel he came back, saying, with a little
+laugh, "That was just to frighten the beggar so he wouldn't come back."
+
+But Bootea's eyes went wide now with a new fear; the sound of the shot
+would travel faster even than the fleeing Hunsa: and if the decoits
+came--for already they would be making ready for the road--this
+beautiful god, with eyes like stars and a voice of music, would be
+killed, would be no more than the Bagree lying on the road who was but
+carrion.  In her heart was a new thing.  The struggle with Hunsa, the
+fright, even the horribleness of the blood upon her knife, was washed
+away by a hot surging flood of exquisite happiness.  The Hindu name for
+love--"a pain in the heart"--was veritably hers in its intensity; the
+sahib's arm about her when she had closed her eyes had caused her to
+feel as if she were being lifted to heaven.
+
+She laid a hand on Barlow's arm and her eyes were lifted pleadingly to
+his: "You must go, Sahib--mount your horse and go, because--"
+
+"Because of what?"
+
+"There are many, and you will be killed.  Hunsa will bring others."
+
+"Others--who are they?"
+
+But the Gulab had turned from him and was listening, her eyes turned to
+the road up which floated from beyond upon the hushed silence that was
+about them,--that seemed deeper because of the dead man lying in the
+moonlight,--the beat of Hunsa's feet on the road.  Once there was the
+whining note of wheels that claimed a protest from a dry axle; once
+there was a clang as if steel had struck steel; and on the droning
+through the night-hush was a rasping hum as if voices clamoured in the
+distance.  This was the bee-hive stirring of the startled village.
+
+"What is it, Bootea?" Barlow asked.
+
+The eyes raised to his face were full of fright, a pleading fright.
+"Sahib," she answered, "do not ask--just go, because--"
+
+"Yes, girl, why?"
+
+"That this is dead (and her hand gestured toward the slain Bagree) and
+that others are dead, is; but you,--will you mount the horse and go
+back the way you came, Sahib?"
+
+Her small fingers clutched the sleeve of the coat he wore--it was of
+hunting cloth, red-and-green: "Others are dead yonder, and evil is in
+the hearts of those that live.  Go, Sahib--please go."
+
+Barlow's mind was racing fast, in more materialistic grooves than the
+Gulab's.  There was something about it he didn't understand; something
+the girl did not want to tell him; some horrible thing that she was
+afraid of--her face was full of suppressed dread.
+
+Suddenly, through no sequence of reasoning, in fact there was no data
+to go upon, nothing except that a girl--the Gulab was just that--stood
+there afraid--through him she had just escaped from a man who was
+little more than an ape--stood quivering in the moonlight alone, except
+for himself.  So, suddenly, he acted as if energised by logic, as if
+mental deduction made plain the way.
+
+"You are right," he said: "we must go."
+
+He laid a hand upon the bridle-rein of the grey, that had stood there
+with the submission of a cavalry horse, saying, "Come, Bootea."
+
+Foot in stirrup he swung to the saddle; and as the grey turned, he
+reached down both hands saying: "Come, I'll take you wherever you want
+to go."
+
+But the girl drew back and shook her beautifully-modelled head,--the
+delicate head with the black hair smoothed back to simplicity, and her
+voice was half sob: "It can't be, Sahib, I am but--"  She checked; to
+speak of the decoits even, might lead to talk that would cause the
+Sahib to go to their camp, and he would be killed; and she would be a
+witness to testify against her own people, the slayers of the sepoys.
+
+Barlow laughed, "Because you are a girl who dances you are not to be
+saved, eh?" he said.  "But listen, the Sahibs do not leave women at the
+mercy of villains; you must come," and his strong sun-browned hands
+were held out.
+
+Bootea, wonderingly, as if some god had called to her, put her hands in
+Barlow's, and with a twist of his strong arms she was swung across his
+knees.
+
+"Put your arms about my waist, Gulab," he said, as the grey, to the
+tickle of a spur, turned to the road.  "Don't lean away from me," he
+said, presently, "because we have a long way to go and that tires.
+That's better, girl," as her warm breast pressed against his body.
+
+The big grey, with a deep breath, and a sniffle of satisfaction,
+scenting that his head was turned homeward, paced along the ghost-strip
+of roadway in long free strides.  Even when a jackal, or it might have
+been a honey-badger, slipped across the road in front, a drifting
+shadow, the Turcoman only rattled the snaffle-bit in his teeth, cocked
+his ears, and then blew a breath of disdain from his big nostrils.
+
+In the easy swinging cradle of the horse's smooth stride the minds of
+both Barlow and the Gulab relaxed into restfulness; her arms about the
+strong body, Bootea felt as if she clung to a tower of strength--that
+she was part of a magnetic power; and the nightmare that had been, so
+short a time since, had floated into a dream of content, of glorious
+peace.
+
+Barlow was troubling over the problem of the gorilla-faced man, and
+thinking how close he had been to death--all but gone out except for
+that figure in his arms that was so like a lotus; and the death would
+have meant not just the forfeit of his life, but that his duty, the
+mission he was upon for his own people, the British government, had
+been jeopardised by his participation in some native affair of strife,
+something he had nothing to do with.  He had ridden along that road
+hoping to overtake the two riders that now lay dead in the pit with the
+other victims of the thugs--of which he knew nothing.  They were
+bearing to him a secret message from his government, and he had ridden
+to Manabad to there take it from them lest in approaching the city of
+the Peshwa, full of seditious spies and cutthroats, the paper might be
+stolen.  But at Manabad he had learned that the two had passed, had
+ridden on; and then, perhaps because of converging different roads, he
+had missed them.
+
+But most extraordinarily, just one of the curious, tangented ways of
+Fate, the written order lay against his chest sewn between the double
+sole of a sandal.  Once or twice the hard leather caused him to turn
+slightly the girl's body, and he thought it some case in which she
+carried jewels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+They had gone perhaps an eighth of a mile when the road they followed
+joined another, joined in an arrowhead.  The grey turned to the left, to
+the west, the homing instinct telling him that that way lay his stall in
+the city of the Peshwa.
+
+"This was the way of my journey, Bootea," Barlow said; "I rode from
+yonder," and he nodded back toward the highway into which the two roads
+wedged.  "It was here that I heard your call, the call of a woman in
+dread.  Also it might have been a business that interested me if it were
+a matter of waylaying travellers.  Did you see two riders of large
+horses, such as Arabs or of the breed I ride, men who rode as do
+_sowars_?"
+
+"No, Sahib, I did not see them."
+
+This was not a lie for it was Ajeet who had seen them, and because of the
+Sahib's interest she knew the two men must have been of his command; and
+if she spoke of them undoubtedly he would go back and be killed.
+
+"Were they servants of yours, Sahib--these men who rode?"
+
+Barlow gave off but a little sliver of truth: "No," he answered; "but at
+Manabad men spoke of them passing this way, journeying to Poona, and if
+they were strangers to this district, it might be that they had taken the
+wrong road at the fork.  But if you did not see them they will be ahead."
+
+"And meaning, Sahib, it would not be right if they saw you bearing on
+your horse one who is not a memsahib?"
+
+"As to that, Gulab, what might be thought by men of low rank is of no
+consequence."
+
+"But if the Sahib wishes to overtake them my burden upon the horse will
+be an evil, and he will be sorry that Bootea had not shame sufficient to
+refuse his help."
+
+She felt the strong arm press her body closer, and heard him laugh.  But
+still he did not answer, did not say why he was interested in the two
+horsemen.  If it were vital, and she believed it was, for him to know
+that they lay dead at the Bagree camp, it was wrong for her to not tell
+him this, he who was a preserver.  But to tell him would send him to his
+death.  She knew, as all the people of that land knew, that the sahibs
+went where their Raja told them was their mission, and laughed at death;
+and the face of this one spoke of strength, and the eyes of placid
+fearlessness; so she said nothing.
+
+The sandal soles that pinched her soft flesh she felt were a
+reproach--they had something to do with the thing that was between the
+Sahib and the dead soldiers.  There were tears in her eyes and she
+shivered.
+
+Barlow, feeling this, said: "You're cold, Gulab, the night-wind that
+comes up from the black muck of the cotton fields and across the river is
+raw.  Hang on for a minute," he added, as he slipped his arm from about
+her shoulders and fumbled at the back of his saddle.  A couple of buckles
+were unclasped, and he swung loose a warm military cloak and wrapped it
+about her, as he did so his cheek brushing hers.
+
+Then she was like a bird lying against his chest, closed in from
+everything but just this Sahib who was like a god.
+
+A faint perfume lingered in Barlow's nostrils from the contact; it was
+the perfume of attar, of the true oil of rose, such as only princes use
+because of its costliness, and he wondered a little.
+
+She saw his eyes looking down into hers, and asked, "What is it,
+Sahib--what disturbs you?  If it is a question, ask me."
+
+His white teeth gleamed in the moonlight.  "Just nothing that a man
+should bother over--that he should ask a woman about."
+
+But almost involuntarily he brushed his face across her black hair and
+said, "Just that, Gulab--that it's like burying one's nose in a rose."
+
+"The attar, Sahib?  I love it because it's gentle."
+
+"Ah, that's why you wore the rose that I came by at the _nautch_?"
+
+"Yes, Sahib.  Though I am Bootea, because of a passion for the rose I am
+called Gulab."
+
+"Lovely--the Rose! that's just what you are, Gulab.  But the attar is so
+costly!  Are you a princess in disguise?"
+
+"No, Sahib, but one brought me many bottles of it, the slim, long bottles
+like a finger; and a drop of it lasts for a moon."
+
+"Ah, I see," and Barlow smiled; "you have for lover a raja, the one who
+brought the attar."
+
+The figure in the cloak shivered again, but the girl said nothing.  And
+Barlow, rather to hear her voice, for it was sweet like flute music,
+chaffed: "What is he like, the one that you love?  A swaggering tall
+black-whiskered Rajput, no doubt, with a purple vest embroidered in gold,
+clanking with _tulwar_, and a voice like a Brahmini bull--full of demand."
+
+The slim arms about his waist tightened a little--that was all.
+
+"Confess, Gulab, it will pass the time; a love story is sweet, and Brahm,
+who creates all things, creates flowers beautiful and sweet to stir
+love," and he shook the small body reassuringly.
+
+"Sahib, when a girl dances before the great ones to please, it is
+permitted that she may play at being a princess to win the favour of a
+raja, and sing the love song to the music of the _sitar_ (guitar), but it
+is a matter of shame to speak it alone to the Presence."
+
+"Tell me, Gulab," and his strong fingers swept the smooth black hair.
+
+The girl unclasped her arms from about Barlow's waist and led his finger
+to a harsh iron bracelet upon her arm.
+
+At the touch of the cold metal, iron emblem of a child marriage, a
+shackle never to be removed, he knew that she was a widow, accounted by
+Brahminical caste an offence to the gods, an outcast, because if the
+husband still lived she would be in a _zenanna_ of gloomy walls, and not
+one who danced as she had at Nana Sahib's.
+
+"And the man to whom you were bound by your parents died?" he asked.
+
+"I am a widow, Sahib, as the iron bracelet testifies with cold
+bitterness; it is the badge of one who is outcast, of one who has not
+become _sati_, has not sat on the wood to find death in its devouring
+flame."
+
+Barlow knew all the false logic, the metaphysical Machiavellians, the
+Brahmins, advanced to thin out the undesirable females,--women considered
+at all times in that land of overpopulation of less value than men,--by
+the simple expedient of self-destruction.  He knew the Brahmins' thesis
+culled from their Word of God, the Vedas or the Puranas, calculated to
+make the widow a voluntary, willing suicide.  They would tell Bootea that
+owing to having been evil in former incarnations her sins had been
+visited upon her husband, had caused his death; that in a former life she
+had been a snake, or a rat.
+
+The dead husband's mother, had Bootea come of an age to live with him,
+though yet but a child of twelve years, would, on the slightest
+provocation, beat her--even brand her with a hot iron; he had known of it
+having been done.  She would be given but one meal a day--rice and
+chillies.  Even if she had not yet left her father's house he would look
+upon her as a shameful thing, an undesirable member of the family, one
+not to be rid of again in the way of marriage; for if a Hindu married her
+it would break his caste--he would be a veritable pariah.  No servant
+would serve him; no man would sell him anything; if he kept a shop no one
+would buy of him; no one would sit and speak with him--he would be
+ostracised.
+
+The only life possible for the girl would be that of a prostitute.  She
+might be married by the temple priests to the god Khandoka, as thousands
+of widows had been, and thus become a nun of the temple, a prostitute to
+the celibate priests.  Knowing all this, and that Bootea was what she
+was, her face and eyes holding all that sweetness and cleanness, that she
+lived in the guardianship of Ajeet Singh, very much a man, Barlow admired
+her the more in that she had escaped moral destruction.  Her face was the
+face of one of high caste; she was not like the ordinary _nautch_ girl of
+the fourth caste.  Everything about Bootea suggested breeding, quality.
+The iron bracelet, indicated why she had socially passed down the
+scale--there was no doubt about it.
+
+"I understand, Gulab," he said; "the Sahibs all understand, and know that
+widowhood is not a reproach."
+
+"But the Sahib questioned of love; and how can one such know of love?
+The heart starves and does not grow for it feeds upon love--what we of
+Hind call the sweet pain in the heart."
+
+"But have none been kind, Gulab--pleased by your flower face, has no one
+warmed your heart?"
+
+The slim arms that gripped Barlow in a new tightening trembled, the face
+that fled from the betraying moonlight was buried against his tunic, and
+the warm body quivered from sobs.
+
+Barlow turned her face up, and the moonlight showed vagrant pearls that
+lay against the olive cheeks, now tinted like the petals of a rose.  Then
+from a service point of view, and as a matter of caste, Barlow went
+_ghazi_.  He drooped his head and let his lips linger against the girl's
+eyes, and uttered a superb common-place: "Don't cry, little girl," he
+said; "I am seven kinds of a brute to bother you!"
+
+And Bootea thought it would have been better if he had driven a knife
+into her heart, and sobbed with increased bitterness.  Once her fingers
+wandered up searchingly and touched his throat.
+
+Barlow casting about for the wherefore of his madness, discovered the
+moonlight, and heard the soft night-air whispering through the harp
+chords of trees that threw a tracery of black lines across the white
+road; and from a grove of mango trees came the gentle scent of their
+blossoms; and he remembered that statistics had it that there was but one
+memsahib to so many square miles in that land of expatriation; and he
+knew that he was young and full of the joy of life; that a British
+soldier was not like a man of Hind who looked upon women as cattle.
+
+There did not obtrude into his mental retrospect as an accusation against
+this unwarrantable tenderness the vision of the Resident's
+daughter--almost his fiancee.  Indeed Elizabeth was the antithesis in
+physical appeal of the gentle Gulab; the drawing-room perhaps; repartee
+of Damascus steel fineness; tutored polish, class, cold integrity--these
+things associated admirably with the unsensuous Elizabeth.  Thoughts of
+her, remembrances, had no place in glamorous perfumed moonlight.
+
+So he set his teeth and admonished the grey Turcoman, called him the
+decrepit son of a donkey, being without speed; and to punish him stroked
+his neck gently: even this forced diversion bringing him closer to the
+torturing sweetness of the girl.
+
+But now he was aware of a throbbing on the night wind, and a faint shrill
+note that lay deep in the shadows beyond.  It was a curious rumbling
+noise, as though ghosts of the hills on the right were playing bowls with
+rounded rocks.  And the shrilling skirl grew louder as if men marched
+behind bagpipes.
+
+The Gulab heard it, too, and her body stiffened, her head thrust from the
+enveloping cloak, and her eyes showed like darkened sapphires.
+
+"Carts carrying cotton perhaps," he said.  But presently he knew that
+small cotton carts but rattled, the volume of rumbling was as if an army
+moved.
+
+From up the road floated the staccato note of a staff beating its
+surface, and the clanking tinkle of an iron ring against the wooden staff.
+
+"A mail-carrier," Barlow said.
+
+And then to the monotonous pat-pat-pat of trotting feet the mail-carrier
+emerged from the grey wall of night.
+
+"Here, you, what comes?" the Captain queried, checking the grey.
+
+The postie stopped in terror at the English voice.
+
+"Salaam, Bahadur Sahib; it is war."
+
+"Thou art a tree owl," and Barlow laughed.  "A war does not spring up
+like a drift of driven dust.  Is it some raja's elephants and carts with
+his harem going to a _durbar_?"
+
+"Sahib, it is, as I have said, war.  The big brass cannon that is called
+'The Humbler of Cities,' goes forth to speak its order, and with it are
+sepoys to feed it the food of destruction.  Beyond that I know not,
+Sahib, for I am a man of peace, being but a runner of the post."
+
+Then he salaamed and sifted into the night gloom like a thrown handful of
+white sand, echoing back the clamp-clamp-clamp of his staff's iron ring,
+which was a signal to all cobras to move from the path of him who ran,
+slip their chilled folds from the warm dust of the road.
+
+And on in front what had been sounds of mystery was now a turmoil of
+noises.  The hissing screech, the wails, were the expostulations of
+tortured axles; the rumbling boom was unexplainable; but the jungle of
+the hillside was possessed of screaming devils.  Black-faced,
+white-whiskered monkeys roused by the din, screamed cries of hate and
+alarm as they scurried in volplaning leaps from tree to tree.  And
+peacocks, awakened when they should have slept, called with their harsh
+voices from lofty perches.
+
+A party of villagers hurried by, shifting their cheap turbans to hide
+faces as they scurried along.
+
+The Gulab was trembling; perhaps the decoits, led by Hunsa, had come by a
+shorter way; for they were like beasts of the jungle in this art of
+silent, swift travel.
+
+"Sahib," she pleaded, "go from the road."
+
+"Why, Bootea?"
+
+"The one with the staff spoke of soldiers."
+
+He laughed and patted her shoulder.  "Don't fear, little lady," he said,
+"an army doesn't make war upon one, even if they are soldiers.  It will
+be but a wedding party who now take the wife to the village of her
+husband."
+
+"Not at night; and a Sahib who carries a woman upon his saddle will hear
+words of offence."
+
+Though Barlow laughed he was troubled.  What if the smouldering fire of
+sedition had flared up, and that even now men of Sindhia's were slipping
+on a night march toward some massing of rebels.  The resonant, heavy
+moaning of massive wheels was like the rumble of a gun carriage.  And,
+too, there was the drumming of many hoofs upon the road.  Barlow's ear
+told him it was the rhythmic beat of cavalry horses, not the erratic
+rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat of native ponies.
+
+With a pressure upon the rein he edged the grey from the white road to a
+fringe of bamboo and date palms, saying; "If you will wait here, Gulab,
+I'll see what this is all about."
+
+He slipped from the saddle and lifted her gently to the ground saying,
+"Don't move; of a certainty it is nothing but the passing of some raja.
+But, if by any chance I don't return, wait until all is still, until all
+have gone, and then some well-disposed driver of a bullock cart will take
+you on your way."  Putting his hand in his pocket, and drawing it forth,
+he added: "Here is the compeller of friendship--silver; for a bribe even
+an enemy will become a friend."
+
+But the Gulab with her slim fingers closed his hand over the rupees, and
+pressed the back of it against her lips saying, "If I die it is nothing.
+But stay here, Sahib, they may be--"
+
+She stopped, and he asked, "May be who, Gulab?"
+
+"Men who will harm thee."
+
+But Barlow lifting to the saddle passed to the road, and Bootea crumpled
+down in a little desolate heap of misery, her fingers thrust within her
+bodice, pleading with an amulet for protection for the Sahib.  She prayed
+to her own village god to breathe mercy into the hearts of those who
+marched in war, and if it were the Bagrees, that Bhowanee would vouchsafe
+them an omen that to harm the one on a white horse would bring her wrath
+upon their families and their villages.
+
+Captain Barlow reined in the grey on the roadside, for those that marched
+were close.  Now he could see, two abreast, horses that carried cavalry
+men.  Ten couples of the troop rode by with low-voiced exchanges of words
+amongst themselves.  A petty officer rode at their heels, and behind him,
+on a bay Arab, whose sweated skin glistened like red wine in the
+moonlight, came a _risiladar_, the commander of the troop.  A little down
+the road Barlow could see an undulating, swaying huge ribbon of
+white-and-pink bullocks, twenty-four yoke of the tall lean-flanked
+powerful _Amrit Mahal_, the breed that Hyder Ali long ago had brought on
+his conquering way to the land of the Mahrattas.  And beyond the
+ghost-like line of white creatures was some huge thing that they drew.
+
+The commander reined his Arab to a stand beside Barlow and saluted,
+saying, "Salaam, Major Sahib--you ride alone?"
+
+Barlow said: "My salaams, Risiladar, and I am but a captain.  I ride at
+night because the days are hot.  My two men have gone before me because
+my horse dropped a shoe which had to be replaced.  Did the Risiladar see
+my two servants that were mounted?"
+
+"I met none such," the commander answered.  "Perhaps in some village they
+have rested for a drink of liquor; they of the army are given to such
+practices when their Captain's eye is not upon them.  I go with
+this"--and he waved a gauntleted hand back toward the thing that loomed
+beyond the bullocks that had now come to a halt.  "It is the brass
+cannon, the like of which there is no other.  We go to the camp of the
+Amil, who commands the Sindhia troops, taking him the brass cannon that
+it may compel a Musselman zemindar to pay the tax that is long past due.
+Why the barbarian should not pay I know not for a tax of one-fourth is
+not much for a foreigner, a debased follower of Mahomet, to render unto
+the ruler of this land that is the garden of the world.  He has shut
+himself and men up in his mud fort, but when this brass mother of
+destruction spits into his stronghold a ball or two that is not opium he
+will come forth or we will enter by the gate the cannon has made."
+
+"Then there will be bloodshed, Risiladar," Barlow declared.
+
+"True, Captain Sahib; but that is, after a manner, the method of
+collecting just dues in this land where those who till the soil now,
+were, but a generation or two since, men of the sword,--they can't forget
+the traditions.  In the land of the British Raj six inches of a paper,
+with a big seal duly affixed, would do the business.  That I know, for I
+have travelled far, Sahib.  As to the bloodshed, worse will be the
+trampling of crops, for in the district of this worshipper of Mahomet the
+wheat grows like wild scrub in the jungle, taller than up to the belly of
+my horse.  That is the whyfore of the cannon, in a way of speaking,
+because from a hill we can send to this man a slaying message, and leave
+the wheat standing to fill the bellies of those who are in his hands as a
+tyrant.  Sirdar Baptiste was for sending a thousand sepoys to put the
+fear of destruction in the debtor; but the Dewan with his eye on revenue
+from crops, hit upon this plan of the loud-voiced one of brass."
+
+Then the commander ordered the advance, and saluting, said: "Salaam,
+Captain Sahib, and if I meet with your servants I will give them news
+that you desire their presence."
+
+When the huge cannon had rumbled by, and behind it had passed a company
+of sepoys on foot, Barlow turned his horse into the jungle for Gulab.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Bootea's eyes glistened like stars when, lowering a hand, Barlow said:
+"Put a foot upon mine, Gulab, and I'll swing you up."
+
+When they were on the road she said; "I saw them.  It is as the runner
+said, war--is it so, Sahib?"
+
+"The Captain says that he goes to collect revenue, but it may be that
+he spoke a lie, for it is said that a man of the land of the Five
+Rivers, which is the Punjaub, has five ways of telling a tale, and but
+one of them is the truth and comes last."
+
+The girl pondered over this for a little, and then asked; "Does the
+Sahib think perhaps it is war against his people?"
+
+That was just what was in Barlow's mind since he had seen the big gun
+going forth at night; that perhaps the plot that was just a whisper,
+fainter than the hum of a humming bird's wing, was moving with swift
+silent velocity.
+
+"Why do you ask that question?  Have you heard from lips--perhaps
+loosened by wine or desire--aught of this?"
+
+When she remained without answer, Barlow tapped his fingers lightly
+upon her shoulder, saying, "Tell me, girl."
+
+"I have heard nothing of war," she said.  "There was a something though
+that men whispered in the dark."
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"It was of the Chief of the Pindaris."
+
+She felt the quivering start that ran through Barlow's body; but he
+said quietly: "With the Pindaris there is always trouble.  Something of
+robbery--of a raid, was it?"
+
+"I will listen again to those that whisper in the dark," she answered,
+"and perhaps if it concerns you, for your protection, I will tell."
+
+"I hope those men didn't fall in with my two chaps," Barlow said,
+rather voicing his thoughts than in the way of speaking to the girl.
+
+"The two who rode--they were the Captain Sahib's servants?"
+
+Barlow started.  "Yes, they were: I suppose I can trust you."
+
+"And the Sahib is troubled?  Perhaps it was a message for the Sahib
+that they carried."
+
+"I don't know," he answered, evasively.  "I was thinking that perhaps
+they might be messengers, for our sepoys are not stationed here, and
+come but on such errands."
+
+"And if they were lulled, and the message stolen, it would cause
+trouble?"
+
+She felt him tremble as he looked down into her eyes.
+
+"I don't know.  But the messages of a Raj are not for the ears of men
+to whom they have not been sent."
+
+Barlow had an intuition that the girl's words were not prompted by idle
+curiosity.  He was possessed of a sudden gloomy impression that she
+knew something of the two men who rode.  And it was strange that they
+had not been seen upon either of the roads.  The officer spoke of them
+frankly, and not as a man hiding something.
+
+Suddenly he took a firm resolve, perhaps a dangerous one; not dangerous
+though if his men had really gone through.
+
+"Gulab," he said,--and with his hand he turned her face up by the chin
+till their eyes were close together,--"if the two bore a message for
+me, and it was stolen, I would be like that one you loved was lost."
+
+The beautiful face swung from his palm and he could hear her gasping.
+
+"You know something?" he said, and he caressed the smooth black tresses.
+
+"I did not see them, Sahib."
+
+They rode in silence for half a mile and then she said, "Perhaps,
+Sahib, Bootea can help you--if the message is lost."
+
+"And you will, girl?"
+
+"I will, Sahib; even if I die for doing it, I will."
+
+His arm tightened about her with a shrug of assuring thankfulness, and
+she knew that this man trusted her and was not sorry of her burden.
+Little child-dreams floated through her mind that the silver-faced moon
+would hang there above and light the world forever,--for the moon was
+the soul of the god Purusha whose sacrificed body had created the
+world,--and that she would ride forever in the arms of this fair-faced
+god, and that they were both of one caste, the caste that had as mark
+the sweet pain in the heart.
+
+And Barlow was sometimes dropping the troubled thought of the missing
+order and the turmoil that would be in the Council of the Governor
+General when it became known, to mutter inwardly: "By Jove! if the
+chaps get wind of this, that I carried the Gulab throughout a moonlit
+night, there'll be nothing for me but to send in my papers.  I'll be
+drawn;--my leg'll be pulled."  And he reflected bitterly that nothing
+on earth, no protestation, no swearing by the gods, would make it
+believed as being what it was.  He chuckled once, picturing the face of
+the immaculate Elizabeth while she thrust into him a bodkin of moral
+autopsy, should she come to know of it.
+
+Bootea thought he had sighed, and laying her slim fingers against his
+neck said, "The Sahib is troubled."
+
+"I don't care a damn!" he declared in English, his mind still on the
+personal trail.
+
+Seeing that she, not understanding, had taken the sharp tone as a
+rebuke, he said, "If I had been alone, Gulab, I'd have been troubled
+sorely, but perhaps the gods have sent you to help out."
+
+"Ah, yes, God pulled our paths together.  And if Bootea is but a
+sacrifice that will be a favour, she is happy."
+
+If the girl had been of a white race, in her abandon of love she would
+have laid her lips against his, but the women of Hind do not kiss.
+
+The big plate of burnished silver slid, as if pushed by celestial
+fingers, across the azure dome toward the loomed walls of the Ghats
+that it would cross to dip into the sea, the Indian Ocean, and mile
+upon mile was picked from the front and laid behind by the grey as he
+strode with untiring swing toward his bed that waited on the high
+plateau of Poona.
+
+The night-jars, even the bats, had stilled their wings and slept in the
+limbs of the neem or the pipal, and the air that had borne the soft
+perfume of blossoms, and the pungent breath of jasmine, had chilled and
+grown heavy from the pressure of advancing night.
+
+The two on the grey rode sleepily; the Gulab warm and happy, cuddled in
+the protecting cloak, and Barlow grim, oppressed by fatigue and the
+mental strain of feared disaster.  Now the muscles of the horse rippled
+in heavier toil, and his hoofs beat the earth in shorted stride; the
+way was rising from the plain as it approached the plateau that was
+like an immense shelf let into the wall of the world above the lowland;
+a shelf that held jewels, topaz and diamonds, that glinted their red
+and yellow lights, and upon which rested giant pearls, the moonlight
+silvering the domes and minarets of white palaces and mosques of Poona.
+The dark hill upon which rested the Temple of Parvati threw its black
+outline against the sky, and like a burnished helmet glowed the golden
+dome beneath which sat the alabaster goddess.  At their feet, strung
+out between forbidding banks of clay and sand, ran a molten stream of
+silver, the sleepy waters of the Muta.
+
+"By Jove!" and Barlow, suddenly cognisant that he had practically
+arrived at the end of his ride, that the windmill of Don Quixote stood
+yonder on the hill, realised that in a sense, so far as Bootea was
+concerned, he had just drifted.  Now he asked: "I'm afraid, little
+girl, your Sahib is somewhat of a fool, for I have not asked where you
+want me to take you."
+
+"Yonder, Sahib," and her eyes were turned toward the jewelled hill.
+
+As they rose to the hilltop that was a slab of rock and sand carrying a
+city, he asked: "Where shall I put you down that will be near your
+place of rest, your friends?"
+
+"Is there a memsahib in the home of the Sahib?" she asked.
+
+"No, Bootea, not so lucky--nobody but servants."
+
+"Then I will go to the bungalow of the Sahib."
+
+"Confusion!" he exclaimed in moral trepidation.
+
+Bootea's hand touched his arm, and she turned her face inward to hide
+the hot flush that lay upon it.  "No, Sahib, not because of Bootea; one
+does not sleep in the lap of a god."
+
+"All right, girl," he answered--"sorry."
+
+As the grey plodded tiredly down the avenue of trees, a smooth road
+bordered by a hedge of cactus and lanten, Barlow turned him to the
+right up a drive of broken stone, and dropping to the ground at the
+verandah of a white-waited bungalow, lifted the girl down, saying:
+"Within it can be arranged for a rest place for you."
+
+A _chowkidar_, lean, like a mummified mendicant, rose up from a
+squeaking, roped _charpoy_ and salaamed.
+
+"Take the horse to the stable, Jungwa, and tell the _syce_ to undress
+him.  Remember to keep that monkey tongue of yours between your teeth
+for in my room hangs a bitter whip.  It is a lie that I have not ridden
+home alone," Barlow commanded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+As Barlow led the Gulab within the bungalow she drew, as a veil, a
+light silk scarf across her face.
+
+Upon the floor of the front room a bearer, head buried in yards of pink
+cotton cloth, his _puggri_, lay fast asleep.
+
+As Barlow raised a foot to touch the sleeper in the ribs the girl drew
+him back, put the tips of her finger to her lips, and pointed toward
+the bedroom door.
+
+Barlow shook his head, the flickering flame of the wick in an iron
+oil-lamp that rested in a niche of the wall exaggerating to ferocity
+the frown that topped his eyes.
+
+But Bootea pleaded with a mute salaam, and raising her lips to his ear
+whispered, "Not because of what is not permitted--not because of
+Bootea--please."
+
+With an arm he swept back the beaded tendrils of a hanging
+door-curtain, the girl glided to the darkness of the room, and Barlow,
+lifting from its niche the iron lamp, followed.  Within, she pointed to
+the door that lay open and Barlow, half in rebellion, softly closed it.
+As he turned he saw that she had dropped from their holding cords the
+heavy brocaded silk curtains of the window.
+
+His limbs were numb from the long ride with the weight of the girl's
+body across his thighs; he was tired; he was mentally distressed over
+the messengers he had failed to locate, and this, the almost forced
+intrusion of Bootea into his bedroom, the closed door and the curtained
+windows, her doing, was just another turn of the kaleidoscope with its
+bits of broken glass of a nightmare.  He dropped wearily into a big
+cane-bottomed Hindu chair, saying; "Little wilted rose, cuddle up on
+that divan among the cushions and rest, while you tell me why we sit in
+_purdah_."
+
+The girl dragged a cushion from the divan, and placing it on the floor
+beside his chair, sat on it, curling her feet beneath her knees.
+
+Barlow groaned inwardly.  If his mind had not been so lethargic because
+of the things that weighted it, like the leaden soles upon a diver's
+boots, he would have roused himself to say, "Look here, a chap can't
+pull a girl who is as sweet as a flower and as trusting as a babe, out
+of trouble and then make bazaar love to her; he can't do it if he's any
+sort of a chap."  All this was casually in his mind, but he let his
+tired eyes droop, and his hand that hung over the teak-wood arm of the
+chair rested upon the girl's shoulder.
+
+"Bootea will soon go so that the Sahib may sleep, for he is tired," she
+said; "but first there is something to be said, and I have come close
+to the Sahib because men not alone whisper in the dark but they listen."
+
+The hand that rested on Bootea's shoulder lifted to her cheek, and
+strong fingers caressed its oval.
+
+"Would the Sahib sleep, and would his mind rest if he knew where the
+two who rode are?"
+
+Barlow sat bolt upright in the chair, roused, the lethargy gone, as if
+he had poured raw whisky down his throat.  And he was glad, the closed
+door and the drawn curtains were not now things of debasement.  Curious
+that he should care what this little Hindu maid was like, but he did.
+His hand now clasped the girl's wrist, it almost hurt in its tenseness.
+
+"Yes, Gulab,"--and he subdued his voice,--"tell me if you know."
+
+"They are dead upon the road beyond where you saved Bootea."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me this before?"
+
+"It was too late, Sahib; and if you had gone there they would have
+killed you."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"That, I cannot tell."
+
+"You must, Gulab."
+
+"No, Bootea will not."
+
+Barlow stared angrily into the big eyes that were lifted to his, that
+though they lingered in soft loving upon his face, told him that she
+would not tell, that she would die first; even as he would have given
+his life if he had been captured by tribesmen and asked to betray his
+fellow men as the price of liberty.
+
+He threw himself back wearily in the chair.  "Why tell me this now,--to
+mock me, to exult?" he said, reproach in his voice.
+
+"But it is the message, Sahib, that is more than the life of a _sepoy_,
+is it not?"
+
+Again he sat up: "Why do you say this--do you know where it is?"
+
+She drew from beneath her bodice the sandal soles, saying: "These are
+from the feet of the messenger who is dead.  The one the Sahib beat
+over the head with his pistol dropped them,--and he was carrying them
+for a purpose.  The Sahib knows, perhaps, the secret way of this land."
+
+In the girl's hand was clasped the knife from her girdle, and she
+tendered it, hilt first: "Bootea knows not if they are of value, the
+leather soles, but if the Sahib would open them, then if there are eyes
+that watch the curtains are drawn."
+
+Barlow revivified, stimulated by hope, seized the knife and ran its
+sharp point around the stitching of the soles.  Between the double
+leather of one lay a thin, strong parchment-like paper.
+
+He gave a cry of exultation as, unfolding it, he saw the seal of his
+Raj.  His cry was a gasp of relief.  Almost the shatterment of his
+career had lain in that worn discoloured sole, and disaster to his Raj
+if it had fallen into the hands of the conspirators.
+
+In an ecstasy of relief he sprang to his feet, and lifting Bootea,
+clasped her in his arms, smothering her face in kisses, whispering:
+"Gulab, you are my preserver; you are the sweetest rose that ever
+bloomed!"
+
+He felt the pound of her heart against his breast, and her eyes
+mirrored a happiness that caused him to realise that he was going too
+far--drifting into troubled waters that threatened destruction.  The
+girl's soul had risen to her eyes and looked out as though he were a
+god.
+
+As if Bootea sensed the same impending evil she pushed Barlow from her
+and sank back to the cushion, her face shedding its radiancy.
+
+Cursing himself for the impetuous outburst Barlow slumped into the
+chair.
+
+"Gulab," he said presently, "my government gives reward for loyalty and
+service."
+
+"Bootea has had full reward," the girl answered.
+
+He continued: "We had talk on the road about the Pindaris; what did
+they who whisper in the dark say?"
+
+"That the chief, Amir Khan, has gathered an army, and they fear that
+because of an English bribe he will attack the Mahrattas; so the Dewan
+has brought men from Karowlee to go into the camp of the Pindaris in
+disguise and slay the chief for a reward."
+
+This information coming from Bootea was astounding.  Neither Resident
+Hodson nor Captain Barlow had suspected that there had been a leak.
+
+"And was there talk of this message from the British to--?" Barlow
+checked.
+
+"To the Sahib?" Bootea asked.  "Not of the message; but it was
+whispered that one would go to the Pindari camp to talk with Amir Khan,
+and perhaps it was the Sahib they meant.  And perhaps they knew he
+waited for orders from the government."
+
+Then suddenly it flashed upon Barlow that because of this he had been
+marked.  The foul riding in the game of polo that so nearly put him out
+of commission--it had been deliberately foul, he knew that, but he had
+attributed it to a personal anger on the part of the Mahratta officer,
+bred of rivalry in the game and the fanatical hate of an individual
+Hindu for an Englishman.
+
+"Now that a message has come will the Sahib go to the Pindari camp?"
+Bootea persisted.
+
+"Why do you ask, Gulab?"
+
+"Not in the way of treachery, but because the Sahib is now like a god;
+and because I may again be of service, for those who will slay Amir
+Khan will also slay the Sahib."
+
+"Gulab,--"
+
+Barlow's voice was drowned by yells of terror in the outer room.
+
+"Thieves!  Thieves have broken in to rob, and they have stolen my lamp!
+_Chowkidar, chowkidar_! wake, son of a pig!"
+
+It was the bearer, who, suddenly wakened by some noise, had in the dark
+groped for his lamp and found it missing.
+
+"Heavens!" the Captain exclaimed.  "Now the cook house will be
+empty--the servants will come!"  He rubbed a hand perplexedly over his
+forehead.  "Quick, Gulab, you must hide!"
+
+He swung open a wooden door between his room and a bedroom next.
+Within he said: "There's a bed, and you must sleep here till daylight,
+then I will have the _chowkidar_ take you to where you wish to go.  You
+couldn't go in the dark anyway.  Bar the door; you will be quite safe;
+don't be frightened."  He touched her cheek with his fingers: "Salaam,
+little girl."  Then, going out, he opened the door leading to the room
+of clamour, exclaiming angrily, "You fool, why do you scream in your
+dreams?"
+
+"God be thanked! it is the Sahib."  The bearer flopped to his knees and
+put his hands in abasement upon his master's feet.
+
+Jungwa had rushed into the room, staff in hand, at the outcry.  Now he
+stood glowering indignantly upon the grovelling bearer.
+
+"It is the opium, Sahib," he declared; "this fool spends all his time
+in the bazaar smoking with people of ill repute.  If the Presence will
+but admonish him with the whip our slumbers will not again be
+disturbed."
+
+The bearer, running true to the tenets of native servants, put up the
+universal alibi--a flat denial.
+
+"Sahib, you who are my father and my mother, be not angry, for I have
+not slept.  I observed the Sahib pass, but as he spoke not, I thought
+he had matters of import upon his mind and wished not to be disturbed."
+
+"A liar--by Mother Gunga!"  The _chowkidar_ prodded him in the ribs
+with the end of his staff, and turning in disgust, passed out.
+
+"Come, you fool!" Barlow commanded, returning to his room, and, sitting
+down wearily upon the bed, held up a leg.
+
+The bearer knelt and in silence stripped the _putties_ from his
+master's limbs, unlaced the shoes, and pulled off the breeches.
+
+When Barlow had slipped on the pyjamas handed him, he said: "Tell the
+_chowkidar_ to come to me at his waking from the first call of the
+crows."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+An omen of dire import all thugs believe is to hear the cry of a kite
+between midnight and dawn; to hear it before midnight does not matter,
+for the sleeper in turning over smothers the impending disaster beneath
+his body.  But Captain Barlow had put up no such defence if evil hung
+over him, for when the _chowkidar_ stood outside the door calling
+softly, "Captain Sahib!  Captain Sahib!"  Barlow lay just as he had
+flopped on the bed, his tiredness having held him as one dead.
+
+Gently the soft voice of the _chowkidar_ pulled him back out of his
+Nirvana of non-existence, and he called sleepily, "What is it?"
+
+"It is Jungwa," the watchman answered, "and I have received the Sahib's
+order to come at this hour."
+
+Then Barlow remembered.  He swung his feet to the floor, saying, "Come!"
+
+When the watchman had walked out of his sandals to approach in his bare
+feet, the Captain said, "Is your tongue still to remain in your mouth,
+Jungwa, or has it been made sacrifice to the knife for the sin of
+telling in the cookhouse tales of your Sahib and last night?"
+
+"No, Sahib, I have not spoken.  I am a Meena of the Ossary _jat_.  In
+Jaipur we guard the treasury and the zenanna of the Raja, and it is our
+chief who puts the _tika_ upon the forehead of the Maharaja when he
+ascends to the throne.  Think you, then, Sahib, that an Ossary would
+betray a trust?"
+
+Barlow fixed the lean saffron-hued face with a searching look, and
+muttered, "Damned if I don't believe the old chap is straight!"  "I
+think it is true," he said.  "Shut the door."  Then he continued: "The
+one who came last night is in the next room and you must take her out
+through the bathroom door, for there is cover of the crotons and
+oleanders, and then to the road.  Acquire a _gharry_ and go with her to
+where she directs you."
+
+"Salaam, Sahib! your servant will obey.  And as to the _chota hazri_,
+Sahib?"
+
+"By Jove! right you are, Jungwa"; for Barlow had forgotten that--the
+little breakfast, as it was called.
+
+Then he ran his fingers through his hair.  To send the Gulab off
+without even a cup of tea was one thing; to admit the bearer to know of
+her presence was another.
+
+The wily old watchman sensed what was passing in his master's mind, and
+he hazarded, diplomatically, "If the One is of high caste she will not
+eat what is brought by the bearer who is of the Sudra caste, but from
+the hands of a Meena none but the Brahmin _pundits_ refuse food."
+
+Barlow laughed; indeed the grizzled one had perception--he was an
+accomplice in the plot of secrecy.
+
+"Good!  Eggs and toast and tea.  Demand plenty--say your Sahib is
+hungry because of a long ride and nothing to eat.  But hurry, I hear
+the 'seven sisters' (crows) calling to sleepers that the sun is here
+with its warmth."
+
+Then the bearer entered, but Barlow ordered him away, saying, "Sit
+without till I call."
+
+As he slipped into breeches and brown riding boots he cursed softly the
+entanglement that had thrust upon him this thing of ill flavour.  Of
+course the watchman, even if he did keep his mouth shut, which would be
+a miracle in that land of bazaar gossip, would have but one opinion of
+why Bootea had spent the night in the bungalow.  But if Barlow squared
+this by speaking of a secret mission, that would be a knowledge that
+could be exchanged for gold.  Perhaps not all servants were spies, but
+there were always spies among servants.
+
+"Damn the thing!" he muttered; but he was helpless.  The old man would
+give no sign of what, no doubt, was in his mind; he would hold that
+leathery face in placid acquiescence in prevalent moral vagary.
+
+Then he tapped lightly on the wooden door, calling softly,
+"Bootea--Bootea!"
+
+When it was opened he said: "Food is coming, Gulab.  A man of caste
+brings it, and it is but eggs from which no life has been taken, so you
+may eat.  Then the _chowkidar_ will go with you."
+
+Jungwa brought the breakfast and put it down, saying, "I will wait,
+Sahib, outside the bathroom door."
+
+"Here is money--ten rupees for whatever is needed.  Be courteous to the
+lady, for she is not a _nautchni_."
+
+"The Sahib would entertain none such," the _chowkidar_ answered with a
+grave salaam.
+
+"Damn the thing!" Barlow groaned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+An hour later Barlow, mounted on a stalky Cabuli polo-pony, rode to the
+Residency, happy over the papers in his pocket, but troubling over how
+he could explain their possession and keep the girl out of it.  To even
+mention the Gulab, unless he fabricated a story, would let escape the
+night-ride, and, no doubt, in the perversity of things, Resident Hodson
+would want to know where she was and where he had taken her, and insist
+on having her produced for an official inquisition.  The Resident, a
+machine, would sacrifice a native woman without a tremor to the
+official gods.
+
+Barlow could formulate no plausible method; he could not hide the death
+of the two native messengers, and would simply have to take the stand
+of, "Here is this message from His Excellency and as to how I came by
+it is of as little importance as an order from the War Office
+regulating the colour of thread that attaches buttons to a tunic."
+
+He turned the Cabuli up the wide drive that led to the Residency, the
+big white walled bungalow in which Hodson lived, and shook his riding
+crop toward Elizabeth who was reading upon the verandah.  He swung from
+the saddle, and held out his hand to the girl, saying cheerily, "Hello,
+Beth!  Didn't you ride this morning, or are you back early?"
+
+The novel seemed to require support of the girl's hand, or she had not
+observed that of the caller.  Her face, always emotionless, was
+repellent in its composure as she said; "Father is just inside in his
+office with a native, and I fancy it's one of the usual dark things of
+mystery, for he asked me to sit here by the window that he might have
+both air and privacy; I'm to warn off all who might stand here against
+the wall with an open ear."
+
+"I'll pull a chair up and chat to you till he's--"
+
+"No, Captain Barlow--" Barlow winced at this formality--"Father, I'm
+sure, wants you in this matter; in fact, I think a _chuprassi_ is on
+his way now to your bungalow with the Resident's salaams."
+
+Barlow laid his fingers on the girl's shoulder: "I'm ghastly tired,
+Beth.  I'll come back to you."
+
+"Yes, India is enervating," she commented in a flat tone.
+
+Barlow had a curious impression that the girl's grey eyes had turned
+yellow as she made this observation.
+
+"Ah, Captain, glad you've come," Hodson said, rising and extending a
+hand across a flat-topped desk.  "I'm--I'm--well--pull a chair.  This
+is one Ajeet Singh," and he drooped slightly his thin, lean, bald head
+toward the Bagree Chief, who stood stiff and erect, one arm in a sling.
+
+At this, Ajeet, knowing it for an informal introduction, put his hand
+to his forehead, and said, "Salaam, Sahib."
+
+"_Tulwar_ play, sir, and an appeal for protection to the British, eh?"
+and Barlow indicated the arm in the sling.
+
+Still speaking in English Hodson said: "As to that,--" he pursed his
+thin lips,--"something dreadful has happened; this man has been mixed
+up in a decoity and has come for protection; he wants to turn Approver."
+
+"The usual thing; when these cut-throats are likely to be caught they
+turn Judas; to save their own necks they offer a sacrifice of their
+comrades."
+
+"Yes," the Resident affirmed, "but I'm glad he came.  Perhaps we had
+better just sit tight and let him go on--he's only nicely started.
+I've practically promised him that if what he confesses is of service
+to His Excellency's government I will give him our conditional pardon,
+and use what influence I have with the Peshwa.  But I fancy that old
+Baji Rao is mixed up in it himself."
+
+He turned to the decoit: "Commence again, and tell the truth; and if I
+believe, you may be given protection from the British; but as to
+Sindhia I have no power to protect his criminals."
+
+The decoit cleared his throat and began: "I, Ajeet Singh, hold
+allegiance to the Raja of Karowlee, and am Chief of the Bagrees, who
+are decoits."
+
+The Resident held up his hand: "Have patience."  He rose, and took from
+a little cabinet a small alabaster figure of _Kali_ which he placed
+upon the table, saying in English to Barlow, "When these decoits
+confess to be made Approvers, half of the confession is lies, for to
+swear them on our Bible is as little use as playing a tin whistle.  If
+he's a Bagree this is his goddess."
+
+In Hindi he said: "Ajeet Singh, if you are a Bagree decoit you are in
+the protection of Bhowanee, and you make oath to her."
+
+"Yes, Sahib."
+
+"This is Bhowanee,--that is your name for Kali,--and with obeisance to
+her make oath that you will tell the truth."
+
+"Yes, Sahib, it is the proper way."
+
+"Proceed."
+
+The jamadar with the fingers of his two hands clasped to his forehead
+in obeisance, declared: "If I, Ajeet Singh, tell that which is not
+true, Mother _Kali_, may thy wrath fall upon me and my family."
+
+Then Hodson shifted the black goddess and let it remain upon a corner
+of his table, surmising that the sight of it would help.
+
+"Speak, now," the Resident commanded; and the Jamadar proceeded.
+
+"Dewan Sewlal sent to Raja Karowlee for men for a mission, and whether
+it was in the letter he sent that _thugs_ should come I know not, but
+in our party were thugs, and that led to why I am here."
+
+"What is the difference, Ajeet," Hodson asked sharply.  "You are a
+decoit who robs and kills, and thugs kill and rob; you are both
+disciples of this murderous creature, Kali."
+
+"We who are decoits, while we make offerings to Kali, are not thugs.
+They have a chief mission of murder, while we have but desire to gain
+for our families from the rich.  The thugs came in this wise, sahib.
+Bhowanee created them from the sweat of her arms, and gave to them her
+tooth for a pick-axe, which is their emblem, a rib for a knife, and the
+hem of her garment for a noose to strangle.  The hem of her sacred
+garment was yellow-and-white, and the _roomal_ that they strangle with
+is yellow-and-white.  They are thugs, Sahib, and we are decoits."
+
+"A fine distinction, sir," and Barlow laughed.
+
+"Proceed," Hodson commanded.
+
+"We were told by the Dewan to go to the camp of the Pindaris and bring
+back the head of Amir Khan."
+
+"Lovely!" Barlow muttered softly; but Hodson started,--a slight rouge
+crept over his pale face and he said, "By Gad! this grows interesting,
+my dear Captain."
+
+"Absolutely Oriental," Barlow added.
+
+Then when their voices had stilled Ajeet continued: "But Hunsa had
+ridden with the Pindari Chief and he knew that he was well guarded, and
+that it would be impossible to bring his head in a basket, so we
+refused to go on this mission.  The Dewan was angry and would not give
+us food or pay.  Through Hunsa the Dewan sent word that we must obtain
+our living in the way of our profession, which is decoity."
+
+"I wonder," Barlow queried.
+
+But Hodson, nodding his head said: "Quite possible; and also quite
+probable that the dear avaricious Dewan would claim a share of the loot
+if it were of value, jewels especially."  He addressed Ajeet, "I have
+nothing to do with this; I am not Sindhia."
+
+"True, Sahib Bahadur, but a decoity was made upon a merchant on the
+road and he and his men were killed, but also two English _sowars_ were
+slain."
+
+"By heavens!"  The cool, trained, bloodless machine, that was a British
+Resident at a court of intrigue, was startled out of his composure; his
+eyes flashed to those of Barlow.
+
+But the Captain, knowing all this beforehand, had an advantage, and he
+showed no sign of trepidation.
+
+Then the thin drawn face of the Resident was flattened out by control,
+and he commanded the decoit to talk on.
+
+"I tried to save the two sepoys, and one was a sergeant, but I was
+stricken down with a wound and it was in the way of treachery."
+
+Ajeet laid a hand upon his wounded shoulder, saying, "When the two
+_sepoys_ rode suddenly out of the night into our camp, where there in
+the moonlight lay the bodies of the merchant and his men, the Bagrees
+were afraid lest the two should make report.  They rushed upon the two
+riders, and it was then that I was wounded.  I would have been killed
+but for this protection," and Ajeet rubbed affectionately the beautiful
+strong shirt-of-mail that enwrapped his torso.
+
+"And observe, Sahib, the wound is from behind, which is a wound of
+treachery.  As I rushed to the two and cried to them to be gone, a ball
+from a short gun in the hands of some Bagree smote me upon the
+shoulder, and this,--" he again touched the shirt-of-mail,--"and my
+shoulder-blade turned it from my heart.  Even then Hunsa thought I was
+dead.  And he was in league with the Dewan to obtain for Nana Sahib a
+girl of my household, who is called the Gulab because she is as
+beautiful as the moon."
+
+At this statement Barlow knew why the man he had beaten with his pistol
+had tried to seize the Gulab.  It was startling.  The leg that had
+rested across a knee clamped noisily to the floor, and a smothered
+"Damn!" escaped from his lips.  What a devilish complicated thing it
+was.
+
+Ajeet resumed: "Hunsa rushed to where the Gulab was in hiding and
+helped the men who had been sent by Nana Sahib to steal her.  Then he
+came back to our camp saying that many men had beaten him, and that he
+had been forced to flee."
+
+At this vagary Barlow chuckled inwardly.
+
+"What of the two soldiers?" Hodson asked; "why were they here in this
+land and at the camp of the Bagrees?"
+
+"I know not, Sahib."
+
+"Were the bodies robbed by your men--they would be--did they find
+papers that would indicate the two were messengers?" and the Resident's
+bloodless fingers that clasped a pen were trembling with the
+suppression of the awful interest he strove to hide, for he knew, as
+well as Barlow, what their mission was.
+
+"Yes, Sahib, they were stripped and the bodies thrown in the pit with
+the others.  Eight rupees were taken, but as to papers I know nothing."
+
+"Where is the woman you call the Gulab?"
+
+"She will be in the hands of Nana Sahib," Ajeet answered; "and because
+of that I have come to confess so your Honour will save my life from
+him for he will make accusation that I was Chief of those who killed
+the soldiers of the British; and that the Sahib will cause to have
+returned to me the Gulab."
+
+The Resident took from a drawer a form, and his pen scratched irritably
+at blanks here and there.  He tossed it over to Barlow saying, "I'm
+going to give this decoit this provisional pardon; perhaps it will nail
+him.  What he has confessed is of value.  You translate this to him
+while I think; I can't make mistakes--I must not."
+
+Captain Barlow read to Ajeet the pardon, which was the form adopted by
+the British government to be issued to certain thugs and decoits who
+became spies, called Approvers, for the British.
+
+
+"You, Ajeet Singh, are promised exemption from the punishment of death
+and transportation beyond seas for all past offences, and such
+reasonable indulgence as your services may seem to merit, and may be
+compatible with your safe custody on condition:--1st, that you make
+full confession of all the decoities in which you have been engaged;
+2nd, that you mention truly the names of all your associates in these
+crimes, and assist to the utmost of your power in their arrest and
+conviction.  If you act contrary to these conditions--conceal any of
+the circumstances of the decoities in which you have been
+engaged--screen any of your friends--attempt to escape--or accuse any
+innocent person--you shall be considered to have forfeited thereby all
+claims to such exemption and indulgence."
+
+
+When the Captain had finished interpreting this the Resident passed it
+to the decoit, saying: "This will protect you from the British.  You
+are now bound to the British; and I want you to bring me any papers
+that may have been found upon the two soldiers.  Bring here this woman,
+the Gulab, if you can find her.  Go now."
+
+When Ajeet, with a deep salaam, had gone from the room Hodson threw
+himself back in his chair wearily and sighed.  Then he said: "A woman!
+the jamadar was lying--all that stuff about Nana Sahib.  There's been
+some deviltry; they've used this woman to trap the messengers; that's
+India.  It's the papers they were after; they must have known they were
+coming; and they've hidden the woman.  We've got to lay hands upon her,
+Captain--she's the key-note."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Barlow had waited until the decoit would have gone before showing the
+papers that were in his pocket because it was an advantage that the
+enemy should think them lost.  He was checked now as he put a hand in
+his pocket to produce them by the entrance of Elizabeth, and he fancied
+there was a sneer on her thin lips.
+
+"Father," she said, as she leaned against the desk, one hand on its
+teak-wood top, "I've been listening to the handsome leader of thieves;
+I couldn't help hearing him.  I fancy that Captain Barlow could tell
+you just where this woman, the Gulab, who is as beautiful as the moon,
+is.  I'm sure he could bring her here--if he _would_."
+
+The Captain's fingers unclasped from the papers in his pocket, and now
+were beating a tattoo on his knee.
+
+"Elizabeth!" the father gasped, "do you know what you are saying?"  His
+cold grey eyes were wide with astonishment.  "Did you hear all of Ajeet
+Singh's story?"
+
+"Yes, all of it."
+
+"It's your friend, Nana Sahib, whom you treat as if he were an
+Englishman and to be trusted, that knows where this woman is,
+Elizabeth."
+
+A cynical laugh issued from the girl's lips that were so like her
+father's in their unsympathetic contour: "Yes, one may trust men, but a
+woman's eyes are given her to prevent disaster from this trust which is
+so natural to the deceivable sex."
+
+"Elizabeth! you do not know what you are saying--what the inference
+would be."
+
+"Ask Captain Barlow if he doesn't know all about the Gulab's movements."
+
+The Resident pushed irritably some papers on his desk, and turning in
+his chair, asked, "Can you explain this, Captain--what it is all about?"
+
+There were ripples of low temperature chilling the base of Barlow's
+skull.  "I can't explain it--it's beyond me," he answered doggedly.
+
+The girl turned upon him with ferocity.  "Don't lie, Captain Barlow; a
+British officer does not lie to his superior."
+
+"Hush, Beth," the father pleaded.
+
+"Don't you know, Captain Barlow," the girl demanded, "that this woman,
+the Gulab, is one who uses her beauty to betray men, even Sahibs?"
+
+"No, I don't know that, Miss Hodson.  I saw her dance at Nana Sahib's
+and I've heard Ajeet's statement.  I don't know anything evil of the
+girl, and I don't believe it."
+
+"A man's sense of honour where a woman is concerned--lie to protect
+her.  I have no illusions about the Sahibs in India," she continued, in
+a tone that was devilish in its cynicism, "but I did think that a
+British officer would put his duty to his King above the shielding of a
+_nautch_ girl."
+
+"Elizabeth!"  Hodson rose and put a hand upon the girl's arm; "do you
+realise that you are doing a dreadful thing--that you are impeaching
+Captain Barlow's honour as a soldier?"
+
+Barlow's face was white, and Hodson was trembling, but the girl stood,
+a merciless cold triumph in her face: "I do realise that, father.  For
+the girl I care nothing, nor for Captain Barlow's intrigue with such,
+but I am the daughter of the man who represents the British Raj here."
+
+Barlow, knowing the full deviltry of this high protestation, knowing
+that Elizabeth, imperious, dominating, cold-blooded, was knifing a
+supposed rival--a rival not in love, for he fancied Elizabeth was
+incapable of love--felt a surge of indignation.
+
+"For God's sake, Elizabeth, what impossible thing has led you to
+believe that Captain Barlow has anything to do with this girl?" the
+father asked.
+
+"I'll tell you; the matter is too grave for me to remain silent.  This
+morning I rode early--earlier than usual, for I wanted to pick up the
+Captain before he had started.  As I turned my mount in to his compound
+I saw, coming from the back of the bungalow, this native woman, and she
+was being taken away by his _chowkidar_.  She had just come out some
+back door of the bungalow, for from the drive I could see the open
+space that lay between the bungalow and the servants' quarters."
+
+Hodson dropped a hand to the teak-wood desk; it looked inadequate,
+thin, bloodless; blue veins mapped its white back.  "You are mistaken,
+Elizabeth, I'm sure.  Some other girl--"
+
+"No, father, I was not mistaken.  There are not many native girls like
+the Gulab, I'll admit.  As she turned a clump of crotons she saw me
+sitting my horse and drew a gauze scarf across her face to hide it.  I
+waited, and asked the _chowkidar_ if it were his daughter, and the old
+fool said it was the wife of his son; and the girl that he claimed was
+his son's wife had the iron bracelet of a Hindu widow on her arm.  And
+the Gulab wears one--I saw it the night she danced."
+
+A ghastly hush fell upon the three.  Barlow was moaning inwardly, "Poor
+Bootea!"; Hodson, fingers pressed to both temples, was trying to think
+this was all the mistaken outburst of an angry woman.  The
+strong-faced, honest, fearless soldier sitting in the chair could not
+be a traitor--_could not be_.
+
+Suddenly something went awry in the inflamed chambers of Elizabeth's
+mind--as if an electric current had been abruptly shut off.  She
+hesitated; she had meant to say more; but there was a staggering
+vacuity.
+
+With an effort she grasped a wavering thing of tangibility, and said:
+"I'm going now, father--to give the keys to the butler for breakfast.
+You can question Captain Barlow."
+
+Elizabeth turned and left the room; her feet were like dependents,
+servants that she had to direct to carry her on her way.  She did not
+call to the butler, but went to her room, closed the door, flung
+herself on the bed, face downward, and sobbed; tears that scalded
+splashed her cheeks, and she beat passionately with clenched fist at
+the pillow, beating, as she knew, at her heart.  It was incredible,
+this thing, her feelings.
+
+"I don't care--I don't care--I never did!" she gasped.
+
+But she did, and only now knew it.
+
+"I was right--I'm glad--I'd say it again!"
+
+But she would not, and she knew it.  She knew that Barlow could not be
+a traitor; she knew it; it was just a battered new love asserting
+itself.
+
+And below in the room the two men for a little sat not speaking of the
+ghoulish thing.  Barlow had drawn the papers from his pocket; he passed
+them silently across the table.
+
+Hodson, almost mechanically, had stretched a hand for them, and when
+they were opened, and he saw the seal, and realised what they were,
+some curious guttural sound issued from his lips as if he had waked in
+affright from a nightmare.  He pulled a drawer of the desk open, took
+out a cheroot--and lighted it.  Then he commenced to speak, slowly,
+droppingly, as one speaks who has suddenly been detected in a crime.
+He put a flat hand on the papers, holding them to the desk.  And it was
+Elizabeth he spoke of at first, as if the thing under his palm, that
+meant danger to an empire, was subservient.
+
+"Barlow, my boy," he said, "I'm old, I'm tired."
+
+The Captain, looking into the drawn face, had a curious feeling that
+Hodson was at least a hundred.  There was a floaty wonderment in his
+mind why the fifty-five-years'-service retirement rule had not been
+enforced in the Colonel's case.  Then he heard the other's words.
+
+"I've had but two gods, Barlow, the British Raj and Elizabeth; that's
+since her mother died.  In a little, a few years more, I will retire
+with just enough to live on plus my pension--perhaps in France, where
+it's cheap.  And then I'll still have two gods, Elizabeth and the one
+God.  And, Captain, somehow I had hoped that you and Elizabeth would
+hit it off, but I'm afraid she's made a mistake."
+
+Barlow had been following this with half his receptivity, for, though
+he fought against it, the memory of Bootea--gentle, trusting, radiating
+love, warmth--cried out against the bitter unfemininity of the girl who
+had stabbed his honour and his cleanness.  The black figure of Kali
+still rested on the table, and somehow the evil lines in the face of
+the goddess suggested the vindictiveness that had played about the thin
+lips of his accuser.
+
+And the very plea the father was making was reacting.  It was this,
+that he, Barlow, was rich, that a chance death or two would make him
+Lord Barradean, was the attraction, not love.  A girl couldn't be in
+love with a man and strive to break him.
+
+Hodson had taken up the papers, and was again scanning them mistily.
+
+"They were on the murdered messenger--he was killed, wasn't he, Barlow?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And has any native seen these papers, Captain?"
+
+"No, I cut them from the soles of the sandals the messenger wore,
+myself, Sir."
+
+"That is all then, Captain; we have them back--I may say, thank God!"
+He stood up and holding out his hand added, "Thank you, Captain.  I
+don't want to know anything about the matter--I'm too much machine now
+to measure rainbows--fancy I should wear a strip of red-tape as a tie."
+
+"If you will listen, Sir--there is another that I want to put right.
+Your daughter did see the Gulab, but because she had brought me the
+sandals.  And you can take an officer's word for it that the Gulab is
+not what Elizabeth believes."
+
+"Captain, I have lived a long time in India, too long to be led away by
+quick impressions, as unfortunately Elizabeth was.  I've outlived my
+prejudices.  When the _mhowa_ tree blooms I can take glorious pleasure
+from its gorgeous fragrant flowers and not quarrel with its leafless
+limbs.  When the pipal and the neem glisten with star flowers and
+sweeten the foetid night-air, it matters nothing to me that the natives
+believe evil gods home in the branches.  I know that even a cobra tries
+to get out of my way if I'll let him, and I know that the natives have
+beauty in their natures--one gets to almost love them as children.  So,
+my dear Captain, when you tell me that the Gulab rendered you and me
+and the British Raj this tremendous service, and add, quite
+unnecessarily, that she's a good girl, I believe it all; we need never
+bring it up again.  Elizabeth has just made a mistake.  And, Barlow,
+men are always forgiving the mistakes of women where their feelings are
+concerned--they must--that is one of the proofs of their strength.  But
+these"--and he patted the papers lovingly--"well, they're rather like a
+reprieve brought at the eleventh hour to a man who is to be executed.
+We're put in a difficult position, though.  To pass over in silence the
+killing of two soldiers would end only in the House of Commons;
+somebody would rise in his place and want to know why it had been
+hushed up.  But to take action, to create a stir, would give rise to a
+suspicion of the existence of this."
+
+Hodson rose from his chair and paced the floor, one hand clasped to his
+forehead, his small grey eyes carrying a dream-look as though he were
+seeking an occult enlightenment; then he sat down wearily, and spoke as
+if interpreting something that had been whispered him.
+
+"Yes, Barlow, this decoit has been seized by the Nana Sahib lot.  His
+life was forfeit, and they've offered him his life back to come here
+and turn Approver--to become a spy, not _for_ us but as a spy _on_ us
+for them.  Ajeet would know that information of his coming to me would
+be carried to them by spies--the spies are always with me--and his life
+wouldn't be worth two annas.  I gave him that pardon because we have no
+power to seize him here, but it will make them think that we have
+fallen into the trap.  They might even believe--wily and suspicious as
+they are--that what he gleans here is the truth.
+
+"There's a curious efficacy, Barlow, in what I might call an
+affectation of simplicity.  You know those stupid heavy-headed
+crocodiles in that big pool of the Nerbudda below the marble gorge, and
+how they'll take nearly an hour wallowing and sidling up to a mud-bank
+before they crawl out to bask in the sun; but just show the tip of your
+helmet above the rock and they're gone.  That's perhaps what I mean.
+As we might say back in dear old London, this wily Rajput thinks he has
+pulled my leg."
+
+"I think, Colonel, that you are dead onto his wicket."
+
+"Well, then, the thing to do is to emulate the mugger.  But
+this"--Hodson lifted the paper and he grew crisp, incisive, his grey
+eyes blued like temper purpling polished steel--"we've got to act:
+they've got to be delivered, and soon."
+
+"I am ready, Sir."
+
+"It's a dangerous mission--most dangerous."
+
+"Pardon, Sir?"
+
+"Sorry, Captain.  I was just thinking aloud--musing; forgive me.
+Perhaps when one likes a young man he lets the paternal spirit come in
+where it doesn't belong.  I'm sorry.  There's a trusty Patan here who
+could go with you," Hodson continued, "and this side of his own border
+he is absolutely to be trusted; I have my doubts if any Patan can be
+relied upon by us across the border."
+
+"I will go alone," Barlow said quietly.  Then his strong white teeth
+showed in a smile.  "You know the Moslem saying, Colonel, that ten
+Dervishes can sleep on one blanket, but a kingdom can only hold one
+king.  I don't mean about the honour of it, but it will be easier for
+me.  I went alone through the Maris tribe when we wanted to know what
+the trouble was that threatened up above the Bolan, and I had no
+difficulty.  You know, Sir, the playful name the chaps have given me
+for years?"
+
+"Yes--the 'Patan'--I've heard it."
+
+"I make a good Musselman--scarce need any make-up, I'm so dark; I can
+rattle off the _namaz_ (daily prayer), and sing the _moonakib_, the
+hymn of the followers of the Prophet."
+
+"Yes," Hodson said, his words coming slowly out of a deep think, "there
+will be Patans in the Pindari camp; in fact Pindari is an all-embracing
+name, having little of nationality about it.  Rajputs, Bundoolas,
+Patans, men of Oudh, Sindies--men who have the lust of battle and loot,
+all flock to the Pindari Chief.  Yes, it's a good idea, Captain, the
+disguise; not only for an unnoticed entrance to the camp, but to escape
+a waylaying by Nana Sahib's cut-throats."
+
+"Yes, Colonel, from what I have learned--from the Gulab it was,
+Sir--the Dewan has an inkling that I am going on a mission; and if I
+rode as myself the King might lose an officer, and officers cost pounds
+in the making."
+
+The Resident toyed with the papers on his desk, his brow wrinkled from
+a debate going on behind it; he rose, and grasping the black Kali
+carried it back to the cabinet, saying: "That devilish thing, so
+suggestive of what we are always up against here, makes me shiver."
+
+Then he sat down, adding, "Captain, there is another important matter
+connected with this.  The Rana of Udaipur is being stripped of every
+rupee by Holkar and Sindhia; they take turn about at him.  Holkar is up
+there now, where we have chased him--threatened to sack Udaipur unless
+he were paid seventy lakhs, seven million rupees--the accursed thief!
+We have managed to get an envoy to the Rana with a view to having him,
+and the other smaller rulers of Mewar, join forces with us to crush
+forever the Mahratta power--drive them out of Mewar for all time.  The
+Rajputs are a brave lot--men of high thought, and it is too bad to have
+these accursed cut-throats bleeding to death such a race.  If the Rana
+would sign this paper also as an assurance of friendship, to be shown
+the Pindari Chief, it would help greatly."
+
+"I understand, Colonel.  You wish me to get that from the Rana?"
+
+"Yes, Captain; and I may say that if you can get through with all this
+there will be no question about your Majority; you might even go higher
+up than Major."
+
+"By Jove! as to that, my dear Colonel, this trip is just good sport--I
+love it: less danger than playing polo with these rotters.  I'll swing
+over to Udaipur first--it's just west of the Pindari camp,--been there
+once before on a little pow-wow--then I'll switch back to Amir Khan."
+
+"I wish you luck, Captain; but be careful.  If we can feel sure that
+this horde of Pindaris are not hovering on our army's flank, like the
+Russians hovered on Napoleon's in the Moscow affair, it will be a great
+thing--you will have accomplished a wonderful thing."
+
+"Right you are, Sir," Barlow exclaimed blithely.  The stupendous task,
+for it was that, tonicked him; he was like a sportsman that had
+received news of a tiger within killing distance.  He rose, and
+stretched out his hand for the paper, saying: "I've got a job of
+cobbling to do--I'll put this between the soles of my sandal, as it was
+carried before--it's the safest place, really.  To-morrow I'll become
+an apostate, an Afghan; and I'll be busy, for I've got to do it all
+myself.  I can trust no one with a dark skin."
+
+"Not even the Gulab, I fear, Captain; one never knows when a woman will
+be swayed by some mental transition."  He was thinking of Elizabeth.
+
+"You're right, Colonel," Barlow answered.  "I fancy I could trust the
+Gulab--but I won't."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+Captain Barlow had been through a busy day.  The very fact that all he
+did in preparation for his journey to the Pindari camp had been done
+with his own hands, held under water, out of sight, had increased the
+strain upon him.
+
+In India in the usual routine of matters, a staff of ten servants form
+a composite second self to a Sahib: to hand him his boots, and lace
+them; to lay out his clothes, and hold them while slipped into; to
+bring a cheroot or a peg of whiskey; a _syce_ to bring the horse and
+rub a towel over the saddle--to hold the stirrup, even, for the lifted
+foot, and trotting behind, guard the horse when the Sahib makes a call;
+a man to go here and there with a note or to post a letter; a servant
+to whisk away a plate and replenish the crystal glass with pearl-beaded
+wine without sign from the drinker, and appear like a bidden ghost,
+clad in speckless white, silent and impassive of face, behind his
+master's chair at the table when he dines out; everything in fact
+beyond the mental whirl of the brain to be arranged by one or other of
+the ten.
+
+But this day Barlow had been like a man throwing detectives off his
+trail.  Not one of his servants must suspect that he contemplated a
+trip--no, not just that, for the Captain had intimated casually to the
+butler that he would go soon to Satara.
+
+Thus it had to be arranged secretly that he would ride from his
+bungalow as Captain Barlow and leave the city as Ayub Alli, an Afghan.
+
+Perhaps Barlow was over tired, that curious knotted condition of the
+nerves through overstrain that rasps a man's mental fibre beyond the
+narcotic of sleep, and yet holds him in a hectic state of half
+unconsciousness.  He counted camels--long strings of soured,
+complaining beasts, short-legged, stout, shaggy desert-ships, such as
+merchants of Kabul used to carry their dried fruits,--figs and dates
+and pomegranates, and the wondrous flavoured Sirdar melon,--wending
+across the Sind Desert of floating white sand to Rajasthan.
+
+Once a male, tickled to frenzy by the caress of a female's velvet lips
+upon his rump, with a hoarse bubbling scream, wheeled suddenly,
+snapping the thin lead-cord that reached from the tail of the camel in
+front to the button in his nostril, and charged the lady in an
+exuberance of affection with a full broadside--thrust from his chest
+that bowled her over, where she lay among the fragments of two huge
+broken burnt-clay _gumlas_, that, filled with water, had been lashed to
+her sides.
+
+Barlow sat up at this startling tumult that was the outcome of his
+slipping a little into slumber.  He threw his head back on the pillow
+with a smothered, "Damn!"
+
+His bed had creaked, and an answering echo as if something had slipped
+or slid, perhaps the sole of a bare foot on the fibrous floor matting,
+at the window, fell upon his senses.  Turning his face toward the sound
+he waited, eyes trying to pierce the gloom, and ear attuned.  He almost
+cried out in alarm as something floated through the dark from the
+window and fell with a soft thud upon his face.  He brushed at the
+something--perhaps a bat, or a lizard, or a snake--with his hand and
+received a sharp prick, a little dart of pain in a thumb.  He sprang
+from the bed, lighted the wick that floated in the iron lamp, and
+discovered that the thing of dread was a rose, its petals red against
+the white sheet.
+
+He knew who must have thrown the rose, and almost wished that it had
+been a chance missil, even a snake, but he put the lamp down, passed
+into the bathroom, and unbarring the wooden door, called softly, "Who
+is there?"
+
+From the cover of an oleander a slight girlish form rose up and came to
+the door saying, "It is Bootea, Sahib; do not be angry,--there is
+something to be said."
+
+By the arm he led her within and bidding her wait, passed to the
+bedroom and drew the heavy curtains of the windows.  Then he went
+through the drawing-room and out to the verandah, where the watchman
+lay asleep on his roped charpoy.  Barlow woke him: "There's a thief
+prowling about the bungalow.  Do not sleep till I give you permission.
+See that no one enters," he commanded.
+
+He went back to his room, closed and barred the door, and told Bootea
+to come.
+
+When the girl entered he said: "You should not have come here; there
+are eyes, and ears, and evil tongues."
+
+"That is true, Sahib, but also death is evil--sometimes."
+
+"I have brought this to the Sahib," Bootea said as she drew a paper
+from her breast and passed it to the Captain.  It was the pardon the
+Resident had given that morning to Ajeet Singh.
+
+Barlow, though startled, schooled his voice to an even tone as he
+asked: "Where did you get this--where is Ajeet?"
+
+"As to the paper, Sahib, what matters how Bootea came by it; as to
+Ajeet, he is in the grasp of the Dewan who learned that he had been to
+the Resident in the way of treachery."
+
+"Ajeet thought Nana Sahib had stolen you, Bootea."
+
+"Yes, Sahib, for he did not find me when he went to the camp, and I did
+not go there.  But now he would betray the Sahibs, that is why I have
+brought back the paper of protection."
+
+"Will they kill Ajeet?" Barlow asked.
+
+"I will tell the Sahib what is," the girl answered, drawing her _sari_
+over her curled-in feet, and leaning one arm on Barlow's chair.  "The
+decoity that was committed last night was, as Ajeet feared, because of
+treachery on the part of the Dewan.  I will tell it all, though it
+might be thought a treachery to the decoits.  As to being false to
+one's own clan Ajeet is, because he is a Bagree--but I am not."
+
+Barlow pondered over this statement.  The girl had mystified him--that
+is as to her breeding.  Sometimes she spoke in the first person and
+again in the third person, like so many natives, as if her language had
+been picked up colloquially.  But then the use of the third person when
+she used Bootea instead of a nominative pronoun might be due to a
+cultured deference toward a Sahib.
+
+"I thought you were not of these people--you are of high caste,
+Bootea," he said presently.
+
+He heard the girl gasp, and looking quickly into her eyes saw that they
+were staring as if in fright.
+
+For a space of a few seconds she did not answer; then she said, and
+Barlow felt her voice was being held under control by force of will: "I
+am Bootea, one in the care of Ajeet Singh.  That is the present, Sahib,
+and the past--"  She touched the iron bracelet on her arm, and looked
+into Barlow's eyes as if she asked him to bury the past.
+
+"Sorry, girl--forgive me," he said.
+
+"Ajeet has told why the men were brought--for what purpose?"
+
+"Yes, Gulab; to kill Amir Khan."
+
+"And when they refused to go on this mission, the Dewan, to get them in
+his power, connived with Hunsa to make the decoity so that their lives
+would be forfeit, then if the Dewan punished them for not going the
+Raja of Karowlee could not make trouble.  Hunsa told the Dewan that if
+I were sent to dance before Amir Khan, some of the men going as
+musicians and actors, the Chief would fall in love with me, and that I
+could betray him to those who would kill him; that he would come to my
+tent at night unobserved--because he has a wife with him--and that
+Hunsa would creep into the tent and kill him as he slept; then we would
+escape."
+
+Barlow sprang to his feet and paced the floor; then he plumped into the
+chair again, saying: "What an unholy scheme, even for India.  Gad! how
+I wish I'd killed the brute when I had the chance."
+
+"I did not know that Hunsa had proposed this--neither did Ajeet; for
+they wanted to get him in their power through the decoity so that if he
+refused permission he might be killed.  And now Ajeet is trapped
+through the decoity and Bootea is going to the Pindari camp."
+
+"You're not going to betray Amir Khan, have him murdered!" Barlow
+cried, aghast at the villainy, at the thought that one so sweet could
+be forced to complicity in such a ghastly crime.
+
+"No, Sahib, to _save_ his life, for if I do not go now Ajeet will be
+killed, and all the others put in prison because of the decoity.  Worse
+will happen Bootea,--she will be placed in the seraglio of Nana Sahib."
+
+"Damn it! they can't do that!" Barlow exclaimed angrily.  "I'll stop
+that."
+
+"No, the Sahib can't; and he has a mission, he is not of the service of
+protecting Bootea."
+
+"You can't save Amir Khan's life unless you betray the Bagrees to him?"
+
+"Yes, Sahib, I can.  Perhaps the Chief will like Bootea, and will
+listen to what she says.  Men such as brave warriors always treat
+Bootea not as a _nautchni_ so I will ask him not to come to the tent at
+night because of ill repute.  Hunsa will not be able to slay him unless
+it is a trap on my part to get him from the watching eyes of his men.
+If Hunsa becomes suspicious, and there is real danger, I will threaten
+that I will expose him to the Chief.  If we come back because we have
+failed in our mission, having tried to succeed, it will not be like
+refusing to go; and perhaps there will be mercy shown."
+
+"Mercy!" Barlow sneered; "Nana Sahib knows nothing of mercy, he's a
+tiger."
+
+"But if I refuse to go another _nautchni_ will be sent, perhaps more
+beautiful than I am, and she would betray the Chief, and perhaps all
+would be killed."
+
+"By Jove! you're some woman, you're magnificent--you're like a Rajputni
+princess."
+
+A slim hand was placed on Barlow's wrist and the girl said, "Sahib, I
+am just Bootea,--please, please!"
+
+"And that's your reason for taking this awful chance, to save Ajeet and
+the others--is it?"
+
+"There is another reason, Sahib."  The girl dropped her eyes and
+turning a gold bangle on her wrist gazed upon a ruby that had the
+contour of a serpent's head.  Presently she asked, "Will the Sahib go
+to Khureyra and have a knife thrust between his ribs?"
+
+Barlow was startled by this query.  "Why should I go to Khureyra,
+Gulab?"
+
+"To see Amir Khan."
+
+"What makes you say that?"
+
+"Because it is known.  But the Chief is not now there--he has taken his
+horsemen to Saugor."
+
+Again this was startling.  Also the information was of great value.  If
+the Pindari horde had left the territory of Sindhia and crossed the
+border into Saugor they were closer to the British.
+
+Barlow patted the girl's hand, saying, "My salaams to you, little girl."
+
+He felt her slim cool fingers press his hand, but he shrank from the
+claiming touch, muttering, "The damned barrier!"
+
+Suddenly Barlow remembered Bootea had spoken of another reason for
+going to the Pindari camp.  He puzzled over this a little, hesitating
+to question her; she had not told him what it was, but had asked if he
+were going there; the reason evidently had something to do with him.
+It couldn't be treachery--she had done so much for him; it must be the
+something that looked out of her eyes when they rested on his face, the
+unworded greatest thing on earth in the way of fealty and devotion.
+Possibly this was the grand motive, the reason she had given being
+secondary.
+
+"You said, Gulab, that you had another reason for this awful trip; what
+is it?" he asked.
+
+The girl's eyes dropped to the ruby bracelet again; "To acquire merit
+in the eyes of Mahadeo, Sahib."
+
+"To do good acts so that you may be reincarnated as a heaven-born, a
+Brahmini, perhaps even come back as a memsahib."
+
+At this her big eyes rose to Barlow's face, and he could swear that
+there were tears misting them; and sensing that if she had fallen in
+love with him, what he had said about her becoming a memsahib had hurt.
+Perhaps she, as he did, realised that that was the barred door to
+happiness--that she wasn't of the white race.
+
+"Yes, Sahib," she said presently, "a Swami told me that in a former
+life I had been evil."
+
+"The Swami is an awful liar!" Barlow ejaculated.
+
+"The holy ones speak the truth, Sahib.  The Swami said that because of
+having been beautiful I had caused deaths through jealousy."
+
+"Oh, the crazy fool!" Barlow declared in English; "and it's all rot!
+This is the reason you spoke of, Gulab--good deeds; is it the only
+other reason?"
+
+The girl turned her face away, and Barlow saw her shoulders quiver.
+
+He rose from the chair, and lifting the girl to her feet held her in
+his arms, saying: "Look me in the eyes, Gulab, and tell me if you are
+going through this devilish thing because of me."
+
+"Bootea is going to the camp of Amir Khan because Hunsa and the others
+have been told to kill the Sahib; and she will see that this is not
+accomplished."
+
+Barlow clasped the girl to his breast and smothered her face in kisses;
+"You are the sweetest little woman that ever lived," he said; "and I am
+a sinner, for this can only bring you misery."
+
+"Sahib--it can't be, but it is not misery.  The sweet pain has been put
+in the heart of Bootea by the Sahib's eyes, and she is happy.  But do
+not go as a Sahib."
+
+Barlow cursed softly to himself, muttering, "India!  Even dreams are
+not unheard!"  Then, "What made you say that?" he queried.
+
+"It is known because that is the way of the Sahib.  He knows that where
+he sleeps or eats, or plays games with the little balls, that there are
+always servants, and it is known that Captain Barrle is called the
+Patan by his friends."
+
+"St. George and the Cross!" he ejaculated.  "If I were thus would they
+know me?" he asked.  "There would be danger, but the Sahib knowing of
+this, could take more care in the way of deceit.  But Bootea will
+know--the eyes will not be hidden."
+
+Then he thought of Hunsa, and asked, "But aren't you afraid to go with
+that beast, Hunsa?"
+
+The girl laughed.  "The decoits have orders from the Dewan to kill him
+if I complain of him; but if they do not he is promised the torture
+when he comes back if I make complaint.  If the Sahib will but wait a
+few days before the journey so that Bootea has made friends with Amir
+Kami before he comes, it will be better.  We will start in two days."
+
+"I'll see, Gulab," he answered evasively.  "You are going now?"
+
+"Yes, Sahib--it has been said."
+
+"I'll send the doorman with you."
+
+"No, Bootea will be better alone," she touched the knife in her sash;
+"it must not be known that Bootea came to the Sahib."
+
+Barlow took her arm leading her through the bathroom to the back door;
+he opened it, and listened intently for a few seconds.  Then he took
+her oval face in his palms and kissed her, passionately, saying,
+"Good-bye, little girl; God be with you.  You are sweet."
+
+"The Sahib is like a god to Bootea," she whispered.
+
+As the girl slipped away between the bushes, like something floating
+out of a dream, Barlow stood at the open door, a resurge of abasement
+flooding his soul.  In the combat between his mentality and his heart
+the heart was making him a weakling, a dishonourable weakling, so it
+seemed.  He pulled the door shut, and went back to his bed and finally
+fell asleep, a thing of tortured unrest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+Barlow was up early next morning, wakened by that universal alarm clock
+of India, the grey-necked, small-bodied city crow whose tribe is called
+the Seven Sisters--noisy, impudent, clamorous, sharp-eyed thieves that
+throng the compounds like sparrows, that hop in through the open window
+and steal a slice of toast from beside the cup of tea at the bedside.
+
+He mounted the waiting Cabuli pony and rode to the Residency.  He had
+much to talk over with Hodson in the light of all that had transpired
+in the last two days, and, also, he had a hope that Elizabeth would be
+possessed of an after-the-storm calm, would greet him, and somehow give
+him a moral sustaining against his lapse in heart loyalty.  Mentally he
+didn't label his feeling toward Elizabeth love.  Toward her it had been
+largely a matter of drifting, undoubted giving in to suasion, more of
+association than what was said.  She had class; she was intellectual;
+there was no doubt about her wit--it was like a well-cut diamond,
+sparkling, brilliant--no warmth.  When Barlow reflected, jogging along
+on the Cabuli, that he probably did not love Elizabeth, picturing the
+passion as typified by Romeo and Juliet as instance, he suddenly asked
+himself: "By Jove! and does anybody except the pater love Elizabeth?"
+He was doubtful if anybody did.  All the servants held her in esteem,
+for she was just, and not niggardly; but hers was certainly not a
+disposition to cause spontaneous affection.  Perhaps the word admirable
+epitomised Elizabeth all round.  But he felt that he needed a sort of
+Christian Science sustaining, as it were, in this sensuous
+drifting--something to make his slipping appear more obnoxious.
+
+As he rode up to the verandah of the Residency he saw Elizabeth cutting
+flowers, probably to decorate the breakfast table.  That was like
+Elizabeth; instead of leaving it to the _mahli_ (gardener), with the
+butler to festoon the table, she was doing it herself.  It was an
+occupation akin to water-colour painting or lace work, just the sort of
+thing to find Elizabeth at--typical.
+
+Barlow was possessed of a hopeful fancy that perhaps she had not ridden
+expecting that he would call on the Resident; but as always with the
+Resident's daughter he could deduct nothing from her manner.  She
+nodded pleasantly, looking up, a gloved hand full of roses; and, as he
+slipped from the saddle, relinquishing the horse to the _syce_, she
+fell in beside him as far as the verandah, where they stood talking
+desultory stuff; the morning sun on the pink and white oleanders, the
+curious snake-like mottling of the croton leaves, and the song of a
+_dhyal_ that, high in a tamarind, was bubbling liquid notes of joy.
+
+"The Indian robin red-breast makes one homesick," Elizabeth said.
+
+"Home--", but the girl put a quick hand on his arm checking him; the
+action was absolutely like Elizabeth, imperious.  A small, long-tailed,
+brown-breasted bird had darted across the compound to a mango tree from
+where he warbled a love song as sweet and rich toned as the evensong of
+a nightingale.
+
+The _dhyal_, as if feeling defeat in the sweeter carol of his rival,
+hushed.
+
+"The _shama_," Elizabeth said; "when I hear him I close my eyes and
+picture the downs and oaked hills of England, and fancy I'm listening
+to the nightingale or the lark."
+
+Barlow turned involuntarily to look into the girl's face; it was an
+inquisitive look, a wondering look; gentle sentiment coming from
+Elizabeth was rather a reversal of form.
+
+Also there was immediately a reversal of bird form, a shatterment of
+sentiment, a rasping maddening note from somewhere in the dome of a
+pipal tree.  A Koel bird, as if in derision of the feathered songsters,
+sent forth his shrill plaintive, "Koe-e-el, Koe-e-el, Ko-e-e-el!"
+
+"Ah-a-a!" Barlow exclaimed in disgust--"that's India; the fever-bird,
+the koel, harbinger of the hot-spell, of burning sun and stifling dust,
+and throbbing head."
+
+He cursed the koel, for the gentle mood had slipped from Elizabeth.  He
+had hoped that she would have spoken of yesterday, give him a shamed
+solace for the hurt she had given him.  Of course Hodson would have
+told her all about the Gulab.  But while that, the service, was
+sufficient for the Resident, Elizabeth would consider the fact that
+Barlow knew Bootea well enough to have this service rendered; it would
+touch her caste--also her exacting nature.
+
+Something like this was floating through his mind as he groped mentally
+for an explanation of Elizabeth's attitude, the effect of which was
+neutral; nothing to draw him toward her in a way of moral sustaining,
+but also, nothing to antagonise him.
+
+She must know that he was leaving on a dangerous mission; but she did
+not bring it up.  Perhaps with her usual diffident reserve she felt
+that it was his province to speak of that.
+
+At any rate she called to a hovering bearer telling him to give his
+master Captain Barlow's salaams.  Then with the flowers she passed into
+the bungalow.  She had quite a proppy, military stride, bred of much
+riding.
+
+Barlow gazed after Elizabeth ruefully, wishing she had thrown him a
+life belt.  However, it did not matter; it was up to him to act in a
+sane manner, men of the Service were taught to rely on themselves.  And
+in Barlow was the something of breeding that held him to the true
+thing, to the pole; the breeding might be compared to the elusive thing
+in the magnetic needle.  It did not matter, he would probably marry
+Elizabeth--it seemed the proper thing to do.  Devilish few of the chaps
+he knew babbled much about love and being batty over a girl--that is,
+the girls they married.
+
+Then the bearer brought Hodson's salaams to the Captain.
+
+And Hodson was a Civil Servant in excelsis.  He took to bed with him
+his Form D and Form C--even the "D. O.", the Demi Official business,
+and worried over it when he should have slept or read himself to sleep.
+Duty to him was a more exacting god than the black Kali to the
+Brahmins; it had dried up his blood--atrophied his nerves of enjoyment.
+And now he was depressed though he strove to greet Barlow cheerily.
+
+"It's a devilish shindy, this killing of our two chaps," he burst forth
+with; "I've pondered over it, I've worried over it; the only solace in
+the thing is, that the arm of the law is long."
+
+"I think you've got it, sir," Barlow encouraged.  "When we've smashed
+Sindhia--and we will--we'll demand these murderers, hang a few of them,
+and send the rest to the Andamans."
+
+"Yes, it has simply got to wait; to stir up things now would only let
+the Peshwa know what you are going to do--we'd show him our hand.  And
+I don't mind telling you, Captain, that he is an absolute traitor; and
+I believe that it's that damn Nana Sahib who's influencing him."
+
+"There's no doubt about it, sir."
+
+"No, there is not!" the Resident declared gloomily.  "The two dead
+_sowars_ must be considered as sacrifice, just as though they had
+fallen in battle; it's for the good of the Raj.  If I get hauled over
+the coals for this I don't give a damn.  I've pondered over it, almost
+prayed over it, and it's the only way.  There's talk of a big loot of
+jewellery by these decoits, and the killing of the merchant and his
+men, but I've got nothing to do with that.  The one wonderful thing is,
+that we saved the papers.  That little native woman that brought them
+to you must be rewarded later.  By the way, Barlow, I took the liberty
+of explaining all that to Elizabeth, and I think she's pretty badly cut
+up over the way she acted.  But you understand, don't you, Captain?  I
+believe that if it had been my case I'd have, well, I'd have known that
+it was because the girl cared.  Elizabeth is undemonstrative--too much
+so, in fact; but I fancy--well, never mind: it's so long ago that I
+took notice of these things that I find I'm trying to speak in an
+unknown tongue."
+
+The little man rose and bustled about, pulling out drawers from the
+cabinet and shoving them back again, venting little asthmatic coughs of
+sheer nervousness.  Then coming up to Barlow he held out his hand
+saying: "My dear boy, God be with you; but don't take chances--will
+you?"
+
+At that instant Elizabeth appeared at the doorway: "Captain Barlow will
+have breakfast with us, won't he, father--it's all ready, and Boodha
+says he has a chop-and-kidney curry that is a dream?"
+
+"Jupiter!" Hodson exclaimed; "fancy I'm getting India head; was sending
+Barlow off without a word about breakfast.  Of course he'll
+stay--thanks, Elizabeth."
+
+The tired drawn parchment face of the Resident became revivified, it
+was the face of a happy boy; the grey eyes blued to youth.  Inwardly he
+murmured: "Elizabeth is wonderful!  I knew it; good girl!"
+
+It was a curious breakfast--mentally.  Elizabeth was the Elizabeth of
+the verandah.  Perhaps it was the passionate beating of the pillow the
+day before, when she had realised for the first time what Barlow meant
+to her, that now cast her into defence; encased her in an armour of
+protection; caused her to assume a casualness.  She would give worlds
+to not have said what she had said the day before, but the Captain must
+know that she had been roused by a knowledge of his intimacy with the
+Gulab.  Just what had occurred did not matter--not in the least; it was
+his place to explain it.  That was Elizabeth's way--it was her manner
+of thought; a subservience of impulse to propriety, to class.  In the
+light of her feeling when she had lain, wet-eyed, beating the pillow,
+she knew that if he had put his arms about her and said just even
+stupid words--"I'm sorry, Beth, you know I love you"--she would have
+capitulated, perhaps even in the capitulation have said a Bethism: "It
+doesn't matter--we'll never mention it again."
+
+But Barlow, very much of a boy, couldn't feel this elusive thing, and
+rode away after breakfast from the bungalow muttering: "By gad!
+Elizabeth should have said something over roasting me.  Fancy she
+doesn't care a hang.  Anyway--I'll give her credit for that--she
+doesn't hunt with the hounds and run with the hare.  If it's the
+prospect of sharing a title with me, a rotter would have eaten the
+leek.  Yes, Elizabeth is class."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+Dewan Sewlal was in a shiver of apprehension over the killing of the
+two sepoys; there would be trouble over this if the Resident came to
+know of it.
+
+But Hunsa had assured him that the soldiers and their saddles had been
+buried in the pit with the others, and that nobody but the decoits knew
+of their advent.
+
+Then when he learned that Ajeet Singh had been to the Resident he was
+in a panic.  But as that British official made no move, said nothing
+about the decoity, he fancied that perhaps Ajeet had not mentioned
+this, in fact he had no proof that he had made a confession at all.
+But Ajeet's complicity in the decoity where the merchant and his men
+had been killed, gave the Dewan just what he had planned for--the power
+of death over the Chief.  As to his own complicity he had taken care to
+speak of the decoity to no one but Hunsa.  The yogi had been inspired,
+of course, but the yogi would not appear as a witness against him, and
+Hunsa would not, because it would cost him his head.
+
+So now, at a hint from Nana Sahib, the Dewan seized upon Ajeet, voicing
+a righteous indignation at his crime of decoity, and gave him the
+alternative of being strangled with a bow-string or forcing the Gulab
+to go to the camp of Amir Khan to betray him.  Not only would Ajeet be
+killed, but Bootea would be thrust into the _seraglio_, and the other
+Bagrees put in prison--some might be killed.  Ajeet was forced to yield
+to these threats.  The very complicity of the Dewan made him the more
+hurried in this thing.  Also he wanted to get the Bagrees away to the
+Pindari camp before the Resident made a move.
+
+The mission to Amir Khan would be placed in the hands of Hunsa and
+Sookdee, Ajeet being retained as a pawn; also his wound had
+incapacitated him.  He was nominally at liberty, though he knew well
+that if he sought to escape the Mahrattas would kill him.
+
+The jewels that had been stolen from the merchant were largely retained
+by the Bagrees, though the Dewan found, one night, very mysteriously, a
+magnificent string of pearls on his pillow.  He did not ask questions,
+and seemingly no one of his household knew anything about the pearls.
+
+When the yogi asked Hunsa about the ruby, the Akbar Lamp, Hunsa, who
+had determined to keep it himself, as, perhaps, a ransom for his life
+in that troublous time, declared that in the turmoil of the coming of
+the soldiers he had not found it.  Indeed this seemed reasonable, for
+he, having fled down the road to the Gulab, had not been there when
+they had opened the box and looted it.
+
+So the Dewan sent for Ajeet, Hunsa and Sookdee, and declared that if
+the Bagree contingent of murder did not start at once for the Pindari
+camp he would have them taken up for the decoity.
+
+It was Ajeet who answered the Dewan: "Dewan Sahib, we be men who
+undertake all things in the favour of Bhowanee, and we make prayer to
+that goddess.  If the Dewan will give fifty rupees for our _pooja_,
+to-morrow we will make sacrifice to her, for without the feast and the
+sacrifice the signs that she would vouchsafe would be false.  Then we
+will take the signs and the men will go at once."
+
+"You shall have the money," the Dewan declared: "but do not delay."
+
+That evening the Bagrees made their way to a mango grove for the feast,
+carrying cocoanuts, raw sugar, flour, butter, and a fragrant gum,
+goojul.  A large hole was dug in the ground and filled with dry
+cow-dung chips which were set on fire.  Sweet cakes were baked on the
+fire and then broken into small pieces, a portion of the fire raked to
+one side, and their priest sprinkled upon it the fragrant gum, calling
+in a loud voice: "Maha Kali, assist and guide us in our expedition.
+Keep calamity from us who worship Thee, and have made this feast in Thy
+honour.  Give us the sign, that we may know if it is agreeable to Thee
+that we destroy the enemy of Maharaja Sindhia."
+
+When the Bagrees had eaten much cooked rice and meat-balls, which were
+served on plantain leaves, they drank robustly of _mhowa_ spirit, first
+spilling some of this liquor upon the ground in the name of the goddess.
+
+The strong rank native liquor roused an enthusiasm for their
+approaching interview of the sacred one.  Once Ajeet laid his hand upon
+the pitcher that Hunsa was holding to his coarse lips, and pressing it
+downward, admonished:
+
+"Hunsa, whilst Bhowanee does not prohibit, it is an offence to approach
+her except in devout silence."
+
+The surly one flared up at this; his ungovernable rage drew his hand to
+a knife in his belt, and his eyes blazed with the ferocity of a wounded
+tiger.
+
+"Ajeet," he snarled, "you are now Chief, but you are not Raja to
+command slaves."
+
+With a swift twist of his wrist Ajeet snatched the pitcher from the
+hand of Hunsa, saying: "Jamadar, it is the liquor that is in you,
+therefore you have had enough."
+
+But Hunsa sprang to his feet and his knife gleamed like the spitting of
+fire in the slanting rays of the setting sun, as he drove viciously at
+the heart of his Chief.  There was a crash as the blade struck and
+pierced the matka which Ajeet still held by its long neck.
+
+There was a scream of terror from the throats of the women; a cry of
+horror from the Guru at this sacrilege--the spilling of liquor upon the
+earth in anger at the feast of Bhowanee.
+
+Ajeet's strong fingers, slim bronzed lengths of steel, had gripped the
+wrist of his assailant as Bootea, darting forward, laid a hand upon the
+arm of Hunsa, crying, "Shame! shame!  You are like sweepers of low
+caste--eaters of carrion, they who respect not Bhowanee.  Shame! you
+are a dog--a tapper of liquor!"
+
+At the touch of the Gulab on his arm, and the scorn in her eyes, Hunsa
+shivered and drew back, his head hanging in abasement, but his face
+devilish in its malignity.
+
+Ajeet, taking a brass dish, poured water upon the hand that had gripped
+the wrist of Hunsa, saying, "Thus I will cleanse the defilement."  Then
+he sat down upon his heels, adding: "Guru, holy one, repeat a prayer to
+appease Bhowanee, then we will go into the jungle and take the
+auspices."
+
+The Guru strode over to Hunsa, and holding out his thin skinny palm
+commanded, "Jamadar, from you a rupee; and to-morrow I will put upon
+the shrine of Kali cocoanuts and sweet-meats and marigolds as peace
+offerings."
+
+Hunsa took from his loin cloth a silver coin and dropped it surlily in
+the outstretched hand, sneering: "To Bhowanee you will give four annas,
+and you will feast to the value of twelve annas, for that is the way of
+your craft.  The vultures always finish the bait when the tiger has
+been slain."
+
+Soon the feathery lace work of bamboos beneath which they sat were
+whispering to the night-wind that had roused at the dropping of the
+huge ball of fire in the west, and the soft radiance of a gentle moon
+was gilding with silver the gaunt black arms of a babool.  Then the
+priest said: "Come, jamadars, we now will go deeper into the silent
+places and listen for the voice of Bhowanee."
+
+He untangled from the posture of sitting his parchment-covered matter
+of bones, and carrying in one hand a brocaded bag of black velvet and
+in the other a staff, with bowed head and mutterings started deeper
+into the jungle of cactus and slim whispering bamboo, followed by
+Ajeet, Sookdee and Hunsa.  Presently he stopped, saying, "Sit you in a
+line, brave chiefs, facing the great temple of Siva, which is in the
+mountains of the East, so that the voice of Bhowanee coming out of the
+silent places and from the mouth of the jackal or the jackass, shall be
+known to be from the right or the left, for thus will be the
+interpretation."
+
+The priest took his place in front of the jamadars, sitting with his
+back to them, and placed upon the ground, first a white cloth of
+cotton, and then the velvet bag, upon which rested a silver pickaxe.
+
+When Ajeet saw the pickaxe he said angrily: "That is the emblem of
+thugs; we be decoits, not stranglers, Guru."
+
+"They are equal in honour with Bhowanee," the Guru replied: "they slay
+for profit, even as you do, and among you are those who are thugs, for
+I minister to both."
+
+Then the Guru buried his shrivelled skull in his thin hands and drooped
+forward in silent listening.  Ajeet objected no more, and in the new
+silence they could hear the shrill rasping of cicadae in the foliage of
+a gigantic elephant-creeper, that, like a huge python, crawled its way
+from branch to branch, sprawling across a dozen stately trees.  From
+somewhere beyond was a steady "tonk! tonk! tonk!"--like the beat of
+wood against a hollow pipe--of the little green-plumaged coppersmith
+bird.  A honey-badger came timorously creeping, his feet shuffling the
+fallen leaves, peered at the strange figures of the men, and, at the
+move of an arm, fled scurrying through the stillness with the noise of
+some great creature.
+
+Suddenly the jungle was stilled, even from the voice of the rasping
+cicadae; the leaves had ceased to whisper, for the wind had hushed.
+The devotees could hear the beating of their hearts in the strain of
+waiting for a manifestation from the dread goddess.  The white-robed
+figure of the Guru was like a shrivelled statue of alabaster where the
+faint moon picked it out in blotches as the light filtered through
+leaves above.
+
+Sookdee gasped in terror as just above them a tiny tree owl called,
+"Whoo-whoo, whoo-whoo!" as if he jeered.  But Ajeet knew that that, in
+their belief, was a sign of encouragement, meaning not overmuch, but
+not an evil omen.  From far off floated up on the dead night air the
+belling note of a startled cheetal, and almost at once the harsh,
+grating, angry roar of a leopard, as though he had struck for the
+throat of the stag and missed.  These were but jungle voices, not in
+the curriculum of their pantheistic belief, so the Guru and the Bagrees
+sat in silence, and no one spoke.
+
+Then, the night carried the faint trembling moan of a jackal, as the
+Guru knew, a _female_ jackal, coming from a distance on the left.
+
+"Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo!  Aye-aye! yi-yi-yi-yi!" the jackal wailed, the note
+rising to a fiendish crescendo; and then suddenly it hushed and there
+was only a ghastly silence in the jungle depths.
+
+The white-clothed, ghost-like priest sprang to his feet, and with his
+lean left arm stretched high in suppliance, said: "Bhowanee, thou hast
+vouchsafed to thy devotees the _pilsao_.  We will strew thy shrine with
+flowers and sweetmeats."
+
+He turned to the jamadars who had risen, saying, "Bhowanee is pleased;
+the suspicies are favourable; had the call of the jackal been from the
+right it would have been the _tibao_ and we should have had to wait
+until the sweet goddess gave us another sign.  Now we may go back, and
+perhaps she will confirm this omen as we go."
+
+Hunsa, always possessed of a mean disposition, and still sulky over the
+encounter with Ajeet, was in an evil mood as they trudged through the
+jungle to their camp.  When Ajeet spoke of the priest's success in his
+appeal, he snarled: "The hangman always advises the one who is to have
+his neck stretched that he is better off dead."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" Ajeet queried.
+
+"Just that you are not going on this mission, Ajeet;" then he laughed
+disagreeably.
+
+"If you are afraid to go Sookdee will be well without you," Ajeet
+retorted.
+
+Before more could be said in this way, and as they approached the camp,
+the lowing of a cow was heard.
+
+"Dost hear that, Guru?" Hunsa queried.  "In a decoity is not the lowing
+of a cow in a village held to be an evil omen?"
+
+"Not so, Hunsa," the Priest declared.  "It is an evil omen if the
+decoity is to be made on the village in which the cow raises her voice,
+but we are going to our own camp in peace, and it is a voice of
+approval."
+
+"As to that," Ajeet commented, "if Hunsa is right, it is written in our
+code of omens that hearing a cow call thus simply means that one of the
+party making the decoity will be killed; perhaps as he was the one to
+notice it, the evil will fall upon him."
+
+"You'd like that," Hunsa growled.
+
+"Not being given to lies, it would not displease me, for, as the
+hangman said, you would be better dead."
+
+But they were now at their camp, and the jamadars, standing together
+for a little, settled it that the omens being favourable, and the wrath
+of the Dewan feared, they would take the way to the Pindari camp next
+day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Dewan Sewlal had warned Hunsa and Sookdee against their natural
+proclivities for making a decoity while travelling to the Pindari camp,
+as the mission was more important than loot--an enterprise that might
+cause them to be killed or arrested.  Indeed the Gulab had made this a
+condition of her going with them.  She was practically put in command.
+Both Nana Sahib and the Dewan were pleased over what they deemed her
+sensible acquiescence in the scheme.  As has been said, the Dewan,
+recognising the debased ferocity of Hunsa, had promised him the torture
+when he returned if Bootea had any cause of complaint.
+
+The decoit, believing that Bootea was designed for Nana Sahib's harem,
+knew that as one favoured in the Prince's eyes, he would surely be put
+to death if he offended her.
+
+So, travelling with the almost incessant swift progress which was an
+art with all decoits, in a few days they arrived at Rajgar, the town to
+which Amir Khan had shifted.  He had taken possession of a palace
+belonging to the Rajput Raja as his head-quarters, and his army of
+horsemen were encamped in tents on the vast sandy plain that extended
+from both sides of the river Nahal: the local name of this river was
+"The Stream of Blood," so named because a fierce force of Arab
+mercenaries in the employ of Sindhia, many years before, had butchered
+the entire tribe of Nahals--man, woman, and child,--higher up in the
+hills.
+
+As had been planned, some of the decoits had come as recruits to the
+Pindari standard.  This created no suspicion, because free-lance
+soldiers, adventurous spirits, from all over India flocked to a force
+that was known to be massed for the purpose of loot.  It was an easy
+service; little discipline; a regular Moslem fighting horde, holding
+little in reverence but the daily prayer and the trim of a spear, or
+the edge of a sword.  Amir Khan was the law, the army regulation, the
+one thing to obey.  As to the matter of prayers, for those who were not
+followers of the Prophet, who carried no little prayer carpet to kneel
+upon, face to Mecca, there was, it being a Rajput town, always the
+shrine of Shiva and his elephant-headed son, Ganesh, to receive
+obeisance from the Hindus.  And those who had come as players,
+wrestlers, were welcomed joyously, for, there being no immediate matter
+of a raid and throat-cutting, and little of disciplinary duties, time
+hung heavy on the hands of these grown-up children.
+
+Hunsa was remembered by several of the Pindaris as having ridden with
+them before; and he also had suffered an apostacy of faith for he now
+swore by the Beard of the Prophet, and turned out at the call of the
+_muezzin_, and testified to the fact that there was but one god--Allah.
+And he had known his Amir Khan well when he had told the Dewan that the
+fierce Pindari was gentle enough when it came to a matter of feminine
+beauty, for Bootea made an impression.
+
+Of course it would have taken a more obdurate male than Amir Khan to
+not appreciate the exquisite charm of the Gulab; no art could have
+equalled the inherent patrician simplicity and sweetness of her every
+thought and action.  Perhaps her determination to ingratiate herself
+into the good graces of the Chief was intensified, brought to a finer
+perfection, by the motive that had really instigated her to accept this
+terrible mission, her love for the Englishman, Barlow.
+
+Of course this was not an unusual thing; few women have lived who are
+not capable of such a sacrifice for some one; the "grand passion," when
+it comes, and rarely out of reasoning, smothers everything in the heart
+of almost every woman--once.  It had come to Bootea; foolishly,
+impossible of an attainment, everything against its ultimate
+accomplished happiness, but nothing of that mattered.  She was there,
+waiting--waiting for the service that Fate had whispered into her being.
+
+And she danced divinely--that is the proper word for it.  Her dancing
+was a revelation to Amir Khan who had seen _nautchnis_ go through their
+sensuous, suggestive, voluptuous twistings of supple forms, disfigured
+by excessive decoration--bangles, anklets, nose rings, high-coloured
+swirling robes, and with voices worn to a rasping timbre that shrilled
+rather than sang the _ghazal_ (love song) as they gyrated.  But here
+was something different.  Bootea's art was the art that was taught
+princesses in the palaces of the Rajput Ranas, not the bidding of a
+courtesan for the desire of a man.  Her dress was a floating cloud of
+gauzy muslin: and her sole evident adornment the ruby-headed gold
+snake-bracelet, the iron band of widowhood being concealed higher on
+her arm.  Some intuition had taught the girl that this mode would give
+rise in the warrior's heart to a feeling of respectful liking: it had
+always been that way with real men where she was concerned.
+
+When Amir Kahn passed an order that Bootea was to be treated as a
+queen, his officers smiled in their heavy black beards and whispered
+that his two wives would yet be hand-maidens to a third, the favourite.
+
+Hunsa saw all this, for he was the one that often carried a message to
+the Gulab that her presence was desired in the palace.  But there were
+always others there; the players and the musicians--the ones who played
+the sitar (guitar) and the violin; and the officers.
+
+Hunsa was getting impatient.  Every time he looked at the handsome
+black-bearded head of the warrior he was like a covetous thief gazing
+upon a diamond necklace that is almost within his grasp.  He had come
+there to kill him and delay was dangerous.  He had been warned by the
+Dewan that they suspected Barlow meant to visit the Chief on behalf of
+the British.  He might turn up any day.  When he spoke to Bootea about
+her part in the mission, the enticing of Amir Khan to her tent so that
+he might be killed, she simply answered:
+
+"Hunsa, you will wait until I give you a command to kill the Chief.  If
+you do not, it is very likely that you will be the sacrifice, for he is
+not one to be driven."  She vowed that if he broke this injunction she
+would denounce him to Amir Khan; she would have done so at first but
+for the idea that treachery to her people could not be justified but by
+dire necessity.
+
+Every day the Gulab, as she walked through the crowded street, scanned
+the faces of men afoot and on horseback, looking for one clothed as a
+Patan, but in his eyes the something she would know, the something that
+would say he was the deified one.  And she had told Amir Khan that
+there was a Patan coming with a message for him, and that when such an
+one asked for audience that he should say nothing, but see that he was
+admitted.
+
+Then one day--it was about two weeks of waiting--Captain Barlow came.
+He was rather surprised at the readiness with which he was admitted for
+an audience with the Chief.  It was in the audience hall that he was
+received, and the Chief was surrounded, as he sat on the Raja's dais,
+by officers.
+
+Barlow had come as Ayub Alli, an Afghan, and as it was a private
+interview he desired, he made the visit a formal one, the paying of
+respects, with the usual presenting of the hilt of his sword for the
+Chief to touch with the tips of his fingers in the way of accepting his
+respects.
+
+The Chief, knowing this was the one Bootea had spoken of, wrote on a
+slip of yellow paper something in Persian and tendered it to Barlow,
+saying, "That will be your passport when you would speak with me if
+there is in your heart something to be said."
+
+Going, Barlow saw that he had written but the one word [Transcriber's
+note: three Afghan or Persian characters], translated, "the Afghan."
+
+Hunsa, too, had watched for the coming of Barlow.  The same whisper
+that had come to Bootea's ears that he would ride as a Patan had been
+told him by the Dewan.  Knowing that when Barlow arrived he would
+endeavour to see the Chief in his quarters, Hunsa daily hovered near
+the palace and chatted with the guard at the gates; the heavy double
+teak-wood gates, on one side of which was painted, on a white
+stone-wall, a war-elephant and the other side a Rajput horseman, his
+spear held at the charge.  This was the allegorical representation, so
+general all over Mewar, of Rana Pertab charging a Mogul prince mounted
+on an elephant.
+
+Thus Hunsa had seen the tall Patan and heard him make the request for
+an audience with Amir Khan.  It was the walk, the slight military
+precision, that caused the decoit to mutter, "No hill Afghan that."
+
+And when Barlow had come forth the Bagree trailed him up through the
+chowk; and just as the man he followed came to the end of the narrow
+crowded way, Hunsa saw Bootea, coming from the opposite direction,
+suddenly stop, and her eyes go wide as they were fixed on the face of
+the tall Patan.
+
+"It is the accursed Sahib," Hunsa snarled between his grinding teeth.
+He brooded over the advent of the messenger and racked his animal brain
+for some scheme to accomplish his mission of murder, and counteract the
+other's influence.  And presently a bit of rare deviltry crept into his
+mind, joint partner with the murder thought.  If he could but kill the
+Chief and have the blame of it cast upon the Sahib, who, no doubt,
+would have his interviews with Amir Khan alone.
+
+During the time Hunsa had been there, several times in the palace,
+somewhat of a privileged character, known to be connected with the
+Gulab, he had familiarised himself with the plan of the marble
+building: the stairways that ran down to the central court; the many
+passages; the marble fret-work screen niches and mysterious chambers.
+
+Either Hunsa or Sookdee was now always trailing Barlow--his every move
+was known.  And then, as if some evil genii had taken a spirit hand in
+the guidance of events, Hunsa's chance came.  Barlow, who had tried
+three times to see Amir Khan, one day received a message at the gate
+that he was to come back that evening, when the Chief, having said his
+prayers, would give him a private audience.
+
+Hunsa had seen Barlow making his way from the _serai_ where he camped
+with his horse toward the palace, and hurrying with the swift celerity
+of a jungle creature, he reached the gate first.  His head wrapped in
+the folds of a turban so that his ugly face was all but hidden, he was
+talking to the guard when Barlow gave the latter his yellow slip of
+passport; and as the guard left his post and entered the dim entrance
+to call up the stairway for one to usher in the Afghan, Hunsa slipped
+nonchalantly through the gate and stood in the shadow of a jutting
+wall, his black body and drab loin-cloth merging into the gloom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+"Is the one alone?" Amir Khan asked when a servant had presented
+Barlow's yellow slip of paper.
+
+"But for the orderly that is with him."
+
+"Tell him to enter, and go where your ears will remain safe upon your
+head."
+
+The bearer withdrew and Captain Barlow entered, preceded by the
+orderly, who, with a deep salaam announced:
+
+"Sultan Amir Khan, it is Ayub Alli who would have audience."  Then he
+stepped to one side, and stood erect against the wall.
+
+"Salaam, Chief," Barlow said with a sweep of a hand to his forehead,
+and Amir Khan from his seat in a black ebony chair inlaid with
+pearl-shell and garnets, returned the salutation, asking: "And what
+favour would Ayub Alli ask?"
+
+"A petition such as your servant would make is but for the ears of Amir
+Khan."
+
+The black eyes of the Pindari, deep set under the shaggy eyebrows, hung
+upon the speaker's face with the fierce watchful stab of a falcon's.
+
+Barlow saw the distrust, the suspicion.  He unslung from his waist his
+heavy pistol, took the _tulwar_ from the wide brass-studded belt about
+his waist, and tendered them to the orderly saying: "It is a message of
+peace but also it is alone for the ears of Amir Khan."
+
+The Pindari spoke to the orderly, "Go thou and wait below."
+
+When he had disappeared the Pindari rose from the ebon-wood chair,
+stretched his tall giant form, and laughed.  "Thou art a seemly man,
+Ayub Alli, but thinkst thou that Amir Khan would have fear that thou
+sendst thy playthings by the orderly?"
+
+"No, Chief, it was but proper.  And you will know that the message is
+such that none other may hear it."
+
+"Sit on yonder divan, Afghan, and tell this large thing that is in thy
+mind."
+
+As Barlow took a seat upon the divan covered by a red-and-green
+Bokharan rug, lifting his eyes suddenly, he was conscious of a mocking
+smile on the Pindari's lips; and the fierce black eyes were watching
+his every move as he slipped a well-strapped sandal from a foot.
+Rising, he stepped to the table at one end of which the Pindari sat,
+and placing the sandal upon it, said: "If the Chief will slit the
+double sole with his knife he will find within that which I have
+brought."
+
+"The matter of which you speak, Afghan, is service, and Amir Khan is
+not one to perform a service of the hands for any one."
+
+"But if I asked for the Chief's knife, not having one--"
+
+"_Inshalla_! but thou art right; if thou hadst asked for the knife thou
+mightst have received it, and not in the sandal," he laughed.  The
+laugh welled up from his throat through the heavy black beard like the
+bubble of a bison bull.
+
+The Pindari reached for the sandal, and as he slit at the leather
+thread, he commented: "Thou hast the subtlety of a true Patan; within,
+I take it, is something of value, and if it were in a pocket of thy
+jacket, or a fold at thy waist, those who might seek it with one slit
+of their discoverer, which is a piece of broken glass carrying an edge
+such as no blade would have, would take it up.  But a man's sandals
+well strapped on are removed but after he is dead."
+
+"Bismillah!"  The Pindari had the paper spread flat upon the black
+table and saw the seal of the British Raj.  He seemed to ponder over
+the document as if the writing were not within his interpretation.
+Then he said: "We men of the sword have not given much thought to the
+pen, employing scribblers for that purpose, but to-morrow a _mullah_
+will make this all plain."
+
+Barlow interrupted the Chief.  "Shall I read the written word?"
+
+"What would it avail?  Hereon is the seal of the _Englay_ Raj, but as
+you read the thumb of the Raj would not be upon your lip in the way of
+a seal.  The _mullah_ will interpret this to me.  Is it of an
+alliance?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"It is, Chief."
+
+The Pindari laughed: "Holker would give me a camel-load of gold rupees
+for this and thy head: Sindhia might add a province for the same."
+
+"True, Chief.  And has Amir Khan heard a whisper of reward and a dress
+of honour from Sindhia's Dewan for his head?"
+
+"Afghan, there is always a reward for the head of Amir Khan; but a gift
+is of little value to a man who has lost his life in the trying.
+Without are guards ready to run a sword through even a shadow, and here
+I could kill three."
+
+He raised his black eyes and scanned the form of Ayub Alli.  There was
+a quizzical smile on his lips as he said:
+
+"Go back and sit thee upon the divan."
+
+When Barlow had taken his place, the Chief laughed aloud, saying, "Well
+done, Captain Sahib; thou art perfect as a Patan; even to the manner of
+sitting down one would have thought that, except for a saddle, thou
+hadst always sat upon thy heels."
+
+Barlow smiled good humouredly, saying, "It is even so; I am Captain
+Barlow.  And this,"--he tapped the loose baggy trousers of the Afghan
+hillman, and the sheepskin coat with the wool inside--"was not in the
+way of deceit but for protection on the road."
+
+"It is well thought of," the Pindari declared, "for a Sahib travelling
+alone through Rajasthan would be robbed by a Mahratta or killed by a
+Rajput.  But as to the deceiving of Amir Khan, dost thou suppose that
+he gives to a Patan the paper of admittance, or of passing, such as he
+gave to thee.  Even at the audience I was pleased with thy manner of
+disguise."
+
+Barlow was startled.  "Did you know then that I was a Sahib--how did
+you know?"
+
+"Because thou wert placed in my hand in the way of protection."
+
+Then Barlow surmised that of all outside his own caste there could be
+but one, and he knew that she was in the camp, for he had seen her.
+"It was a woman."
+
+"A rare woman; even I, Chief of the Pindaris--and we are not bred to
+softness--say that she is a pearl."
+
+"They call her the Gulab," Barlow ventured.
+
+"She is well named the Gulab; the perfume of her is in my nostrils
+though it mixes ill with the camel smell.  Without offence to Allah I
+can retain her for it is in the Koran that a man may have four wives
+and I have but two."
+
+"But the Gulab is of a different faith," Barlow objected and a chill
+hung over his heart.
+
+The Pindari laughed.  "The Sahibs have agents for the changing of
+faith, those who wear the black coat of honour; and a _mullah_ will
+soon make a good Musselmani of the beautiful little infidel.  Of
+course, Sahib, there is the other way of having a man's desire which is
+the way of all Pindaris; they consider women as fair loot when the
+sword is the passport through a land.  But as to the Gulab, the flower
+is most too fair for a crushing.  In such a matter as I have spoken of
+the fragrance is gone, and a man, when he crushes the weak, has
+conflict with himself."
+
+"It's a topping old barbarian, this leader of cut-throats," Barlow
+admitted to himself; but in his mind was a horror of the fate meant for
+the girl.  And somehow it was a sacrifice for him, he knew, an
+enlargement of the love that had shown in the soft brown eyes.  As he
+listened schemes of stealing the Gulab away, of saving her were
+hurtling through his brain.
+
+"And mark thee, Sahib, Amir Khan has found favour with the little
+flower, for when I thought of an audience with her in her own tent--for
+to be a leader of men, in possession of two wives, and holding strong
+by the faith of Mahomet, it is as well to be circumspect--the Gulab
+warned me that a knife might be presented as I slept.  A jealous lover,
+perhaps, I think--it would not have been Ayub Alli by any chance?"
+
+What Barlow was thinking, was, "A most subtle animal, this."  And he
+now understood why the Pindari, as if he had forgotten the message, was
+talking of the Gulab; as an Oriental he was coming to the point in
+circles.
+
+"It was not, Chief," Barlow answered.  "A British officer on matters of
+state, would break his _izzat_ (honour) if he trifled with women."
+
+"Put thy hand upon thy beard, Afghan--though thou hast not one--and
+swear by it that it was not thee the woman meant when she spoke of a
+knife, for I like thee."
+
+Barlow put his hand to his chin.  "I swear that there was nothing of
+evil intent against Amir Khan in my heart," he said; "and that is the
+same as our oath, for it is but one God that we both worship."
+
+The Chief again let float from his big throat his low, deep, musical
+laugh.
+
+"An oath is an oath, nothing more.  To trust to it and go to sleep in
+its guardianship, one may never wake up.  Even the gods cannot bind a
+heart that is black with words.  It was one of my own name who swore on
+the shrine of Eklinga at Udaipur friendship for a Prince of Marwar, and
+changed turbans with him, which is more binding than eating opium
+together, then slew him like a dog.  Of my faith, an oath, 'by the
+Beard of the Prophet,' is more binding, I think.  Too many gods, such
+as the men of Hind have, produce a wavering.  But thou hast sworn to
+the truth as I am a witness.  The delay of an audience was that thou
+mightst be well watched before much had been said, for a child at play
+hides nothing, and if thou hadst gone but once to the tent of the
+Gulab, Amir Khan would have known.
+
+"But as to this,"--his hand tapped the document--"it has been said that
+the British Raj doles out the lives of its servants as one doles grain
+in a time of famine.  If an envoy, such as a Raja sends in a way of
+pride, came with this, and were made a matter of sacrifice, perhaps
+twenty lives would have paid of the trying, but as it is, but one is
+the account."
+
+Barlow shot a quick searching look into the Pindari's eyes; was it a
+covert threat?  But he answered: "It is even so, it was spoken of as a
+matter for two, but--"
+
+The Chief laughed: "I know, Sahib; thou art pleasing to me.  Of the
+Sahibs I have little knowledge, but I have heard it said they were a
+race of white Rajputs, save that they did not kill a brother or a
+father for the love of killing.  What service want they of Amir Khan?"
+
+"There are rumours that the Mahrattas, forgetting the lessons they have
+received--both Holkar and Sindhia having been thoroughly beaten by the
+British--are secretly preparing war."
+
+"A _johur_, a last death-rush, is it not?"
+
+"They will be smashed forever, and their lands taken."
+
+"But the King of Oudh has been promised a return to glory to join in
+this revolt.  The fighting Rajputs--what of them?  Backed by the
+English they should hold these black accursed Mahrattas in check."
+
+Barlow rose and, the wary eyes of the Chief on every move, stepped over
+to the table and pointed to a signature upon the document.
+
+"That," he said, "is the signature of the Rana of Mewar, meaning that
+he also passes the salt of friendship to Amir Khan."
+
+He turned the document over, and there written upon it was the figure
+"74 1/2."
+
+"Bismillah!" the Chief cried for he had not noticed this before; "it is
+the _tilac_, the Rana's sealing of the document; it is the mystic
+number that means that the contents are sacred, that the curse of the
+Sack of Fort Chitor be upon him who violates the seal, it is the oath
+of all Rajputs--_tilac_, that which is forbidden.  And the Sahibs have
+heard a rumour that Amir Khan has a hundred thousand horsemen to cut in
+with.  Even Sindhia is afraid of me and desires my head.  The Sahibs
+have heard and desire my friendship."
+
+"That is true, Chief."
+
+"This is the right way," and the Pindari brought his palm down upon the
+Government message.  "I have heard men say that the English were like
+children in the matter of knowing nothing but the speaking of truth; I
+have heard some laugh at this, accounting it easy to circumvent an
+enemy when one has knowledge of all his intentions, but truth is
+strength.  We have faith in children because they have not yet learned
+the art of a lie.  In two days, Captain Sahib, thou wilt be called to
+an audience."  He rose from his chair, and, with a hand to his forehead
+said: "Salaam, Sahib.  May the protection of Allah be upon you!"
+
+"Salaam, Chief," Barlow answered, and he held out a hand with a boyish
+frankness that caused the Pindari to grasp it, and the two stood, two
+men looking into each other's eyes.
+
+"Go thou now, Sahib; thou art a man.  Go alone and with quiet, for I
+would view this message and put it in yonder strong box before others
+enter."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+When Captain Barlow had gone Amir Khan took up the message and read it.
+Once he chuckled, for it was in his Oriental mind that the deceiving of
+Barlow as to his knowledge of writing was rather a joke.  Once as he
+read the heavy silk _purdah_ of the door swayed a little at one side as
+if a draught of wind had shifted it and an evil face appeared in the
+opening.
+
+Presently he rose from his chair, took the lamp in one hand and the
+paper in the other, and crossed to the iron box in a far corner of the
+room.  He set the flickering light upon the floor, and dropping to his
+knees, drew from his waistband a silver chain, at the end of which were
+his seal and keys.  His broad shoulders blanked the tiny cone of light,
+and behind through a marble fretwork, a delicate tracery of lotus
+flowers that screened the window, trickled cold shafts of moonlight
+that fell upon something evil that wriggled across the white and black
+slabs of marble from beneath the door curtain.  The moonlight glistened
+the bronze skin of the silent, crawling thing that was a huge snake, or
+a giant centipede; it was even like a square-snouted, shovel-headed
+_mugger_ that had crept up out of the slimy river that circled
+sluggishly the eastern wall of the palace.
+
+Once as Amir Khan fitted a key in the lock he checked and knelt, as
+silent, as passive as a bronze Buddha, listening; and the creeping
+thing was but a blur, a shadow without movement, silent.  Then he
+raised the lid of the box and paused, holding it with his right hand,
+the flickering light upon his bronze face showing a smile as his eyes
+dwelt lovingly upon the gold and jewels within.
+
+And again the thing crept, or glided, not even a slipping purr,
+noiseless, just a drifting shadow; only where a ribbon of moonlight
+from between a lotus and a leaf picked it out was the brown thing of
+evil marked against the marble.  Then the divan blurred it from sight.
+From behind the divan to the ebony chair, and the wide black-topped
+table the shadow drifted; and when Amir Khan had clanged the iron lid
+closed, and risen, lamp in hand, there was nothing to catch his eye.
+
+He placed the lamp that was fashioned like a lotus upon the table, and
+dropping into his chair, yawned sleepily.  Then he raised his voice to
+call his bearer:
+
+"Abd--"
+
+The name died on his lips, for the brown thing behind the chair had
+slipped upward with the silent undulation of a panther, and a deadly
+_roomal_ (towel) had flashed over the Chief's head and was now a
+strangling knot about his tawny throat; the hard knuckles of Hunsa were
+kneading his spine at the back of the skull with a half twist of the
+cloth.  He was pinioned to the back of the chair; he was in a vise, the
+jaws of which closed his throat.  Just a stifled gurgle escaped from
+his lips as his hand clutched at a dagger hilt.  The muscles of the
+naked brown body behind stood out in knobs of strength, and the face of
+the strangler, pan-reddened teeth showing in the flickering light as if
+they had bitten into blood, was the face of a ghoul.
+
+The powerful Pindari struggled in smothering desperation; and Hunsa,
+twisting the gorilla hands, sought in vain to break the neck--it was
+too strong.
+
+Then the chair careened sidewise, and the Pindari shot downward, his
+forehead striking a marble slab, stunning him.  Hunsa, with the
+death-grip still on the roomal, planted a knee between the victim's
+shoulder-blades, and jerked the head upward--still the spine did not
+snap; and slowly tightening the pressure of the cloth he smothered the
+man beneath his knee till he felt the muscles go slack and the body lie
+limp--dead!
+
+Then Hunsa crossed the _roomal_ in his left hand, and stretching out
+his right grasped the Chief's dagger where it lay upon the floor, and
+drove it, from behind, through his heart.  He placed the knife upon the
+floor where drops of blood, trickling from its curved point, lay upon
+the white marble like spilled rubies.  He unfastened the silver chain
+that carried the keys and crossed the floor with the slouching crouch
+of a hyena.  Rapidly he opened the iron box, took the paper Amir Khan
+had placed there, and hesitated for a second, his ghoulish eyes
+gloating over the jewels and gold; but he did not touch them, his
+animal cunning holding him to the simple plan that was now working so
+smoothly.  He locked the box and slipped the key-chain about the dead
+man's waist; then seizing the right hand of his victim he smeared the
+thumb in blood and imprinted it upon the paper just beside the seal of
+the British Raj, muttering: "This will do for Nana Sahib as well as
+your head, Pindari, and is much easier hidden."
+
+He placed the paper in a roll of his turban, blew out the flickering
+light, and with noiseless bare feet glided cautiously to the door.  The
+_purdah_ swung back and there was left just the silent room, all dark,
+save for little trickles of silver that dropped spots and grotesque
+lines upon the body of the dead Chief.  It fell full upon the knife
+flooding its blade into a finger-like mirror, and glinted the blood
+drops as if in reality they had turned to rubies.  Without the _purdah_
+Hunsa did not crouch and run, he walked swiftly, though noiselessly, as
+one upon a message.  Ten paces of the dim-lighted hall he turned to the
+right to a balcony.
+
+Here at the top of a narrow winding stone stairway Hunsa listened; no
+sound came from below, and he glided down.  Beneath was a balcony
+corresponding with the one above, and just beyond was a domed cell that
+he had investigated.  It was a cell that at one time had witnessed the
+quick descent of headless bodies to the river below.  A teakwood beam
+with a round hole in the centre spanned the cell just above an opening
+that had all the appearance of a well.  Hunsa had investigated this
+exit for this very purpose, for he had been somewhat of a privileged
+character about the palace.
+
+He now unslung from about his waist, hidden by his baggy trousers, a
+strong, fine line of camel hair.  Making one end fast to the teakwood
+sill he went down hand over hand, his strong hard palms gripping the
+soft line.  At the end of it he still had a drop of ten or twelve feet,
+but bracing his shoulders to one wall and his feet to the other he let
+go.  Hunsa was shaken by his drop of a dozen feet, but the soft sand of
+the river bed had broken the shock of his fall.  He picked himself up,
+and crouching in the hiding shadow of the bank hurried along for fifty
+yards; then he clambered up cautiously to the waste of white sand that
+was studded with the tents of the Pindari horsemen.  On his right,
+floating up the hill in terraces, its marble white in the moonlight,
+was the palace where Amir Khan lay dead.  It still held a sombre
+quietude; the murder had not been discovered.
+
+He had mapped this route out carefully in the day and knew just how to
+avoid the patrolling guards, and he was back in the narrow _chouk_ of
+the town that was a struggling stream of swaggering Pindaris, and
+darker skinned Marwari bunnias and shopkeepers.  Hunsa pushed his way
+through this motley crowd and continued on to the gate of the palace.
+
+To the guard who halted him he said: "If the other who went up to see
+the Chief has gone, I would go now, _meer_ sahib.  As I have said, it
+is a message from the Gulab Begum."
+
+"I looked for you when I returned from above," the guard answered, "but
+you had gone.  The Afghan has gone but a little since--stay you here."
+
+He called within, "Yacoub!"
+
+It was the orderly who had conducted Barlow to Amir Khan who answered,
+and to him the guard said: "Go to the Chief's apartment and say that
+one waits here with word from the favourite."
+
+Hunsa sat down nonchalantly upon a marble step, and drew the guard into
+a talk of raids, explaining that he had ridden once upon a time with
+Chitu, on his foray into the territory of the Nizam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Hunsa had come back to the palace in haste so that the murder of Amir
+Khan might be discovered soon after Captain Barlow had left, and that
+the crime might be fastened upon the Sahib.  As he waited, chatting to
+the guard, there was suddenly a frenzied deep-throated call of alarm
+from the upper level of rooms that was answered by other voices here
+and there crying out; there was the hurrying scuffling of feet on the
+marble stairs, and Yacoub appeared, his eyes wide in fright, crying:
+
+"The Chief has been stabbed! he's dead! he's murdered!  Guard the
+door--let no one out--let no one in!"
+
+"Beat the _nakara_," the guard commanded; "raise the alarm!"
+
+He seized his long-barrelled matchlock, blew on the fuse, and pointing
+up toward the moonlit sky, fired.  Just within, in a little court,
+Yacoub, with heavy drum-stick, was pounding from the huge drum a
+thunderous vibrant roar, and somebody at his command had seized a horn,
+and from its copper throat a strident shriek of alarm split the air.
+
+The narrow street was now one surging mass of excited Pindaris.  With
+their riding whips they slashed viciously at any one other than their
+own soldier caste that ventured near, driving them out, crying: "This
+is alone for the Pindaris!"
+
+A powerful, whiskered jamadar pushed his way through the mob, throwing
+men to the right and left with sweeps of his strong arm, and, reaching
+the guard, was told that Amir Khan lay up in his room, murdered.  Then
+an _hazari_ (commander of five thousand) came running and pushed
+through the throng that the full force of the tragedy held almost
+silent.
+
+The guard saluted, saying: "Commander Kassim, the Chief has been slain."
+
+"How--who?"
+
+"I know not, Commander."
+
+"Who has passed the guard here?"
+
+"But one, the Afghan, who was expected by the Chief.  He went forth but
+lately."
+
+"A Patan!" Kassim roared.  "Trust a woman and a snake but not a Patan."
+He turned to the whiskered jamadar: "Quick, go you with men and bring
+the Afghan."  To another he said, "Command to enter from there"--his
+hand swept the mob in front--"a dozen trusty _sowars_ and flood the
+palace with them.  Up, up; every room, every nook, every place of
+hiding; under everything, and above everything, and through everything,
+search.  Not even let there be exemption of the seraglio--murder lurks
+close to women at all times.  Seize every servant that is within and
+bind him; let none escape."
+
+He swept a hand out toward the Pindaris in the street that were like a
+pack of wolves: "Up the hill--surround the palace!  and guard every
+window and rat-run!"
+
+The guard saluted, venturing: "Commander, none could have entered from
+outside to do the foul deed."
+
+"Liar! lazy sleeper!"--he smashed with his foot the _hookah_ that sat
+on the marble floor, its long stem coiled like a snake--"While you
+busied over such, and opium, one has slipped by."
+
+He reached out a powerful hand and seized the shoulder of a Pindari and
+jerked him to the step, commanding: "Stay here with this monkey of the
+tall trees, and see that none pass.  I go to the Chief.  When the
+Afghan comes have him brought up."
+
+Hunsa had stood among the Pindaris, shoved hither and thither as they
+surged back and forth.  Once the flat of a _tulwar_ had smote him
+across the back, but when he turned his face to the striker who
+recognised him as a man of privilege, one of the amusers, he was
+allowed to remain.
+
+The startling cry, "The Chief has been murdered! the Sultan is dead!"
+swept out over the desert sand that lay white in the moonlight, and the
+night air droned with the hum of fifty thousand voices that was like
+the song of a world full of bees.  And the night palpitated with the
+beat of horses' feet upon the hard sand and against the stony ford of
+the parched river as the Pindari horsemen swept to Rajgar as if they
+rode in the sack of a city.
+
+Hoarse bull-throated cries calling the curse of Allah upon the murderer
+were like a deep-voiced hymn of hate--it was continuous.
+
+The _bunnias_, and the oilmen, and the keepers of cookshops hid their
+wares and crept into dark places to hide.  The flickering oil lamps
+were blotted out; but some of the Pindaris had fastened torches to
+their long spears, and the fluttering lights waved and circled like
+shooting stars.
+
+Rajgar was a Shoel; it was as if from the teak forests and the jungles
+of wild mango had rushed its full holding of tigers, and leopards, and
+elephants, and screaming monkeys.
+
+Soon a wedge of cavalry, a dozen wild-eyed horsemen, pushed their way
+through the struggling mob, at their head the jamadar bellowing: "Make
+way--make the road clean of your bodies."
+
+"They bring the Afghan!" somebody cried and pointed to where Barlow sat
+strapped to the saddle of his Beluchi mare.
+
+"It is the one who killed the Chief!" another yelped; and the cries
+rippled along from mouth to mouth; _tulwars_ flashed in the light of
+the lurid torches as they swept upward at the end of long arms
+threateningly; but the jamadar roared: "Back, back! you're like jackals
+snapping and snarling.  Back! if the one is killed how shall we know
+the truth?"
+
+One, an old man, yelled triumphantly: "Allah be praised! a wisdom--a
+wisdom!  The torture; the horse-bucket and the hot ashes!  The jamadar
+will have the truth out of the Afghan.  Allah be praised! it is a
+wisdom!"
+
+At the gate straps were loosed and Barlow was jerked to the marble
+steps as if he had been a blanket stripped from the horse's back.
+
+"It is _the_ one, Jamadar," the guard declared, thrusting his face into
+Barlow's; "it is the Afghan.  Beyond doubt there will be blood upon his
+clothes--look to it, Jamadar."
+
+"We found the Afghan in the _serai_, and he was attending to his horse
+as if about to fly; beyond doubt he is the murderer of our Chief," one
+who had ridden with the jamadar said.
+
+"Bring the murderer face to face with his foul deed," the jamadar
+commanded; and clasped by both arms, pinioned, Barlow was pushed
+through the gate and into the dim-lighted hall.  In the scuffle of the
+passing Hunsa sought to slip through, impelled by a devilish
+fascination to hear all that would be said in the death-chamber.  If
+the case against the Sahib were short and decisive--perhaps they might
+slice him into ribbons with their swords--Hunsa would then have nothing
+to fear, and need not attempt flight.
+
+But the guard swept him back with the butt of his long smooth-bore,
+crying: "Dog, where go you?"  Then he saw that it was Hunsa, the
+messenger of his Chiefs favourite--as he took the Gulab to be--and he
+said: "You cannot enter, Hunsa.  It is a matter for the jamadars alone."
+
+At that instant the Gulab slipped through the struggling groups in the
+street, the Pindaris gallantly making way for her.  She had heard of
+the murder of the Chief, and had seen the dragging in of the Afghan.
+
+"Let me go up, guard," she pleaded.
+
+"It is a matter for men," he objected.  "The jamadar would be angry,
+and my sword and gun would be taken away and I should be put to scrub
+the legs of horses if I let you pass."
+
+"The jamadar will not be angry," she pleaded, "for there is something
+to be said which only I have knowledge of.  It was spoken to me by the
+Chief, he had fear of this Afghan, and, please, in the name of Allah,
+let Hunsa by, for being alone I have need of him."
+
+The soft dark eyes pleaded stronger than the girl's words, and the
+guard yielded, half reluctantly.  To the young Pindari he said, "Go you
+with these two, and if the jamadar is for cutting off their heads, say
+that those in the street pulled me from the door-way, and these slipped
+through; I have no fancy for the compliment of a sword on my neck."
+
+In the dim hallway two men stood guarding the door to the Chief's
+chamber, and when the man who had taken the Gulab up explained her
+mission, one of them said, "Wait you here.  I will ask of Kassim his
+pleasure."  Presently he returned; "The Commander will see the woman
+but if it is a matter of trifling let the penalty fall upon the guard
+below.  The mingling of women in an affair of men is an abomination in
+the sight of Allah."
+
+When Bootea entered the chamber she gave a gasping cry of horror.  The
+Chief lay upon the floor, face downward, just as he had dropped when
+slain, for Kassim had said; "Amir Khan is dead, may Allah take him to
+his bosom, and such things as we may learn of his death may help us to
+avenge our Chief.  Touch not the body."
+
+Her entrance was not more than half observed, for Kassim at that moment
+was questioning the Afghan, who stood, a man on either side of him, and
+two behind.
+
+He was just answering a question from the Commander and was saying: "I
+left your Chief with the Peace of Allah upon both our heads, for he
+gripped my hand in fellowship, and said that we were two men.  Why
+should I slay one such who was veritably a soldier, who was a follower
+of Mahomet?"
+
+The man who had brought Barlow up to Amir Khan when he came for the
+audience, said: "Commander, I left this one, the Afghan, here with the
+Chief and took with me his sword and the short gun; he had no weapons."
+
+"Inshalla! it was but a pretence," the Commander declared; "a pretence
+to gain the confidence of the Chief, for he was slain with his own
+knife.  It was a Patan trick."
+
+The Commander turned to the Afghan: "Why hadst thou audience with the
+Chief alone and at night here--what was the mission?"
+
+Barlow hesitated, a slight hope that might save his own life would be
+to declare himself as a Sahib, and his mission; but he felt sure that
+the Chief had been murdered because of this very thing, that somebody,
+an agent of Nana Sahib, had waited hidden, had killed the Chief and
+taken the paper.  To speak of it would be to start a rumour that would
+run across India that the British had negotiated with the Pindaris, and
+if the paper weren't found there--which it wouldn't be--he wouldn't be
+believed.  Better to accept the roll of the dice as they lay, that he
+had lost, and die as an Afghan rather than as an Englishman, a spy who
+had killed their Chief.
+
+"Speak, Patan," Kassim commanded; "thou dwellest overlong upon some
+lie."
+
+"There was a mission," Barlow answered; "it was from my own people, the
+people of Sind."
+
+"Of Sindhia?"
+
+"No; from the land of Sind, Afghanistan.  We ride not with the
+Mahrattas; they are infidels, while we be followers of the true
+Prophet."
+
+"Thou art a fair speaker, Afghan.  And was there a sealed message?"
+
+"There was, Commander Sahib."
+
+"Where is it now?"
+
+"I know not.  It was left with Amir Khan."
+
+There was a hush of three seconds.  Then Kassim, whose eye had searched
+the room, saw the iron box.  "This has a bearing upon matters," he
+declared; "this affair of a written message.  Open the box and see if
+it is within," he commanded a Pindari.
+
+"How now, woman," for the Gulab had stepped forward; "what dost thou
+here--ah! there was talk of a message from the Chief.  It might be, it
+might be, because,"--his leonine face, full whiskered, the face of a
+wild rider, a warrior, softened as he looked at the slight
+figure,--"our noble Chief had spoken soft words of thee, and passed the
+order that thou wert Begum, that whatsoever thou desired was to be."
+
+"Commander," Bootea said, and her voice was like her eyes, trembling,
+vibrant, "let me look upon the face of Amir Khan; then there are things
+to be said that will avenge his death in the sight of Allah."
+
+Kassim hesitated.  Then he said; "It matters not--we have the killer."
+And reverently, with his own hands, he turned the Chief on his back,
+saying, softly, "In the name of Allah, thou restest better thus."
+
+The Gulab, kneeling, pushed back the black beard with her hand, and
+they thought that she was making oath upon the beard of the slain man.
+Then she rose to her feet, and said: "There is one without, Hunsa,
+bring him here, and see that there is no weapon upon him."
+
+Kassim passed an order and Hunsa was brought, his evil eyes turning
+from face to face with the restless query of a caged leopard.
+
+"There is no paper, Commander Sahib," the jamadar said, returning from
+his search of the iron-box.
+
+"There was none such," Kassim growled; "it was but a Patan lie; the
+message is yonder," and he pointed to the smear of blood upon the
+marble floor.
+
+Then he turned to Bootea: "Now, woman, speak what is in thy mind, for
+this is an affair of action."
+
+"Commander Sahib," Bootea began, "yonder man,"--and she pointed a slim
+hand toward Barlow--"is not an Afghan, he is a Sahib."
+
+This startling announcement filled the room with cries of astonishment
+and anger; _tulwars_ flashed.  Barlow shivered; not because of the
+impending danger, for he had accepted the roll of the dice, but at the
+thought that Bootea was betraying him, that all she had said and done
+before was nothing--a lie, that she was an accomplice in this murder of
+the Chief, and was now giving the Pindaris the final convincing proof,
+the reason.
+
+To deny the revelation was useless; they would torture him, and he was
+to die anyway; better to die claiming to be a _messenger_ from the
+British rather than as one sent to murder the Chief.
+
+Kassim bellowed an order subduing the tumult; then he asked: "What art
+thou, a Patan, or as the woman says, an Englay?"
+
+"I am a Sahib," Barlow answered; "a Captain in the British service, and
+came to your Chief with a written message of friendship."
+
+Kassim pointed to the blood on the floor: "Thou wert a good messenger,
+infidel; thou hast slain a follower of the Prophet."
+
+But Bootea raised a slim hand, and, her voice trembling with intensity,
+cried: "Commander, Amir Khan was not slain with the dagger, he was
+killed by the _towel_.  Look you at his throat and you will see the
+mark."
+
+"Bismillah!" came in a cry of astonishment from the Commander's throat,
+and the marble walls of the _Surya-Mahal_ (room of audience) echoed
+gasps and curses.  Kassim himself had knelt by the dead Chief, and now
+rising, said: "By Allah! it is true.  That dog--" his finger was
+thrusting like a dagger at Barlow.
+
+But Bootea's clear voice hushed the rising clamour: "No, Commander, the
+sahibs know not the thug trick of the _roomal_, and few thugs could
+have overcome the Chief."
+
+"Who then killed him--speak quick, and with the truth," Kassim
+commanded.
+
+He was interrupted by one of Hunsa's guards, crying: "Here, where go
+you--you had not leave!"  And Hunsa, who had turned to slip away, was
+jerked back to where he had stood.
+
+"It is that one," Bootea declared, sweeping a hand toward Hunsa.
+"About his waist is even now the yellow-and-white _roomal_ that is the
+weapon of Bhowanee.  With that he killed Amir Khan.  Take it from him,
+and see if there be not black hairs from the beard of the Chief in its
+soft mesh."
+
+"By the grace of Allah it is a truth!" the Commander ejaculated when
+the cloth passed to him had been examined.  "It is a revelation such as
+came to Mahomet, and out of the mouth of a woman.  Great is Allah!"
+
+"Will the Commander have Hunsa searched for the paper the Sahib has
+spoken of?" Bootea asked.
+
+"In his turban--" Kassim commanded--"in his turban, the nest of a
+thief's loot or the hiding-place of the knife of a murderer.  Look ye
+in his turban!"
+
+As the turban was stripped from the head of Hunsa the Pindari gave it a
+whirling twist that sent its many yards of blue muslin streaming out
+like a ribbon and the parchment message fell to the floor.
+
+"Ah-ha!" and a man, stooping, thrust it into the hands of the Commander.
+
+The Pindari who held the turban, threw it almost at the feet of Bootea,
+saying, "Methinks the slayer will need this no more."
+
+Bootea picked up the blue cloth and rolled it into a ball, saying, "If
+it is permitted I will take this to those who entrusted Hunsa with this
+foul mission to show them that he is dead."
+
+"A clever woman thou art--it is a wise thought; take it by all means,
+for indeed that dog's head will need little when they have finished
+with him," the soldier agreed.
+
+Kassim had taken the written paper closer to the light.  At sight of
+the thumb blood-stain upon the document, he gave a bellow of rage.
+"Look you all!" he cried holding it spread out in the light of the
+lamp; "here is our Chief's message to us given after he was dead; he
+sealed it with his thumb in his own blood, after he was dead.  A
+miracle, calling for vengeance.  Hunsa, dog, thou shalt die for
+hours--thou shalt die by inches, for it was thee."
+
+Kassim held the paper at arm's length toward Barlow, asking: "Is this
+the message thou brought?"
+
+"It is, Commander."
+
+Kassim whirled on Hunsa, "Where didst thou get it, dog of an infidel?"
+
+"Without the gate of the palace, my Lord.  I found it lying there where
+the Sahib had dropped it in his flight."
+
+"Allah! thou art a liar of brazenness."  He spoke to a Jamadar: "Have
+brought the leather nosebag of a horse and hot ashes so that we may
+come by the truth."
+
+Then Kassim held the parchment close to the lamp and scanned it.  He
+rubbed a hand across his wrinkled brow and pondered.  "Beside the seal
+here is the name, Rana Bhim," and he turned his fierce eyes on Barlow.
+
+"Yes, Commander; the Rana has put his seal upon it that he will join
+his Rajputs with the British and the Pindaris to drive from Mewar
+Sindhia--the one whose Dewan sent Hunsa to slay your Chief."
+
+"Thou sayest so, but how know I that Hunsa is not in thy hand, and that
+thou didst not prepare the way for the killing?  Here beside the name
+of the Rana is drawn a lance; that suggests an order to kill, a secret
+order."  He turned to a sepoy, "Bring the Rajput, Zalim."
+
+While they waited Bootea said: "It was Nana Sahib who sent Hunsa and
+the decoits to slay Amir Khan, because he feared an alliance between
+the Chief and the British."
+
+"And thou wert one of them?"
+
+"I came to warn Amir Khan, and--"
+
+"And what, woman--the decoits were your own people?"
+
+"Yonder Sahib had saved my life--saved me from the harem of Nana Sahib,
+and I came to save his life and your Chief's."
+
+Now there was an eruption into the chamber; men carrying a great pot of
+hot ashes, and one swinging from his hand the nosebag of a horse; and
+with them the Rajput.
+
+"Here," Kassim said, addressing the Hindu, "what means this spear upon
+this document?  Is it a hint to drive it home?"
+
+The Rajput put his fingers reverently upon the Rana's signature.
+"That, Commander, is the seal, the sign.  I am a Chondawat, and belong
+to the highest of the thirty-six tribes of Mewar, and that sign of the
+lance was put upon state documents by Chonda; it has been since that
+time--it is but a seal.  Even as that,"--and Zalim proudly swung a long
+arm toward the wall where a huge yellow sun embossed on gypsum
+rested--"even that is an emblem of the Children of the Sun, the
+Sesodias of Mewar, the Rana."
+
+"It is well," Kassim declared; "as to this that is in the message,
+to-morrow, with the aid of a mullah, we will consider it.  And now as
+to Hunsa, we would have from him the truth."
+
+He turned to the Gulab; "Go thou in peace, woman, for our dead Chief
+had high regard for thee; and Captain Sahib, even thou may go to thy
+abode, not thinking to leave there, however, without coming to pay
+salaams.  Thou wouldst not get far."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+When the two had gone Kassim clapped his hands together: "Now then for
+the ordeal, the search for truth," he declared.
+
+Hot wood-ashes were poured into the horse-bag, and, protesting,
+cursing, struggling, the powerful Bagree was dragged to the centre of
+the room.
+
+"Who sent thee to murder Amir Khan?" Kassim asked.
+
+"Before Bhowanee, Prince, I did not kill him!"
+
+At a wave of Kassim's hand upward the bag of ashes was clapped over the
+decoit's head, and he was pounded on the back to make him breathe in
+the deadly dust.  Then the bag was taken off, and gasping, reeling, he
+was commanded to speak the truth.  Once Kassim said: "Dog, this is but
+gentle means; torches will be bound to thy fingers and lighted.  The
+last thing that will remain to thee will be thy tongue, for we have
+need of that to utter the truth."
+
+Three times the nosebag was applied to Hunsa, like the black cap over
+the head of a condemned murderer, and the last time, rolling on the
+floor in agony, his lungs on fire, his throat choked, his eyes searing
+like hot coals, he gasped that he would confess if his life were spared.
+
+"Dog!" Kassim snarled, "thy life is forfeit, but the torture will
+cease; it is reward enough--speak!"
+
+But the Bagree had the obstinate courage of a bulldog; the nerves of
+his giant physical structure were scarce more vibrant than those of a
+bull; as to the torture it was but a question of a slower death.  But
+his life was something to bargain for.  Half dead from the choking of
+his lungs, with an animal cunning he thought of this; it was the one
+dominant idea in his numbed brain.  As he lay, his mighty chest pumping
+its short staccato gasps, Commander Kassim said: "Bring the dog of an
+infidel water that he may tell the truth."
+
+When water had been poured down the Bagree's throat, he rolled his
+bloodshot eyes beseechingly toward the Commander, and in a voice scarce
+beyond a hoarse whisper, said: "If you do not kill me, Prince, I will
+tell what I know."
+
+"Tell it, dog, then die in peace," Kassim snarled.
+
+But Hunsa shook his gorilla head, and answered, "Bhowanee help me, I
+will not tell.  If I die I die with my spirit cast at thy shrine."
+
+Kassim stamped his foot in rage; and a jamadar roared: "Tie the torches
+to the infidel's fingers; we will have the truth."
+
+Half-a-dozen Pindaris darted forward, and poised in waiting for the
+command to bind to the fingers of the Bagree oil-soaked torches; but
+Kassim moved them back, and stood, his brow wrinkled in pondering, his
+black eyes sullenly fixed on the face of the Bagree.  Then he said:
+"What this dog knows is of more value to our whole people, considering
+the message that has been brought, than his worthless life that is but
+the life of a swine."
+
+He took a turn pacing the marble floor, and with his eyes called a
+jamadar to one side.  "These thugs, when they cast themselves in the
+protection of Kali, die like fanatics, and this one is but an animal.
+Torture will not bring the truth.  Mark you, Jamadar, I will make the
+compact with him.  Do not lead an objection, but trust me."
+
+"But the dead Chief, Commander--?"
+
+"Yes, because of him; he loved his people.  And the knowledge that yon
+dog has he would not have sacrificed."
+
+"But is Amir Khan to be unavenged?" the jamadar queried.
+
+"Allah will punish yonder infidel for the killing of one of the true
+faith.  Go and summon the officers from below and we will decide upon
+this."
+
+Soon a dozen officers were in the room, and the sowars were sent away.
+Then Kassim explained the situation saying: "A confession brought forth
+by torture is often but a lie, the concoction of a mind crazed with
+pain.  If this dog, who has more courage than feeling, sees the chance
+of his life he will tell us the truth."
+
+But they expostulated; saying that if they let him go free it would be
+a blot upon their name.
+
+"The necessity is great," Kassim declared, "and this I am convinced is
+the only way.  We may leave his punishment to Allah, for Allah is
+great.  He will not let live one so vile."
+
+Finally the others agreed with Kassim who said that he would take the
+full onus upon himself for not slaying the murderer, that if there were
+blame let it be upon his head.  Then he spoke to Hunsa: "This has been
+decided upon, dog, that if thou confess, reveal to us information that
+is of value to our people, the torture shall cease, and no man's head
+in the whole Pindari camp shall be raised against thee either to wound
+or take thy life."
+
+"But the gaol, Hazari Sahib?"
+
+"No, dog, if thou but tell the truth in full, that we may profit,
+to-morrow thou may go free, and if any man in the camp wounds thee his
+life will pay for it.  Till noon thou may have for the going; even food
+for thy start on the way back to the land of thy accursed tribe.  By
+the Beard of the Prophet no man of all the Pindari force shall wound
+thee.  Now speak quick, for I have given a pledge."
+
+There were murmurs amongst the jamadars at Kassim's terms, for their
+hearts were full of hate for the creature who had slain their loved
+chief.  But Kassim was a man famous for his intelligence.  In all the
+councils Amir Khan had been swayed by the Hazari's judgment.  It was an
+accursed price to pay, they felt, but the Chief was dead; to kill his
+slayer perhaps was not as great a thing as to have Hunsa's confession
+written and attested to.  All that vast horde of fierce riding Pindaris
+and Bundoolas had been gathered by Amir Khan with the object of being a
+power in the war that was brewing--the war in which the Mahrattas were
+striving for ascendency, and the British massing to crush the Mahratta
+horde.  It had been Amir Khan's policy to strike with the winning
+force; perhaps his big body of hard-riding _sowars_ being the very
+power that would throw the odds to one or other of the contenders.
+Their reward would be loot, unlimited loot, so dear to the heart of the
+Pindari, and an assignment of territory.  To know, beyond doubt, who
+had instigated the murder of the Chief was precious knowledge.  It
+might be, as the Gulab had said, Sindhia's Dewan, but there was the
+English officer there at that time; and the message of friendship may
+have been a message of deceit and the true object the slaying of Amir
+Khan who was looked upon as a great leader.
+
+Hunsa had lain watching furtively the effect of the Commander's words
+upon the others; now he said, "I will tell the truth, Hazari, for thou
+hast given a promise in the name of Allah that I am free of death at
+the hands of thy people."
+
+"Wait, dog of an infidel!" Kassim commanded: "quick, call the _Mullah_
+to write the confession, for this is a sin to be washed out in much
+blood, and the proof must be at hand so the guilty will have no plea
+for mercy.  Also it is a matter of secrecy; we here being officers will
+have it on our honour, and the _Mullah_, because of his priesthood,
+will not speak of it: also he will bear witness of its sanctity."
+
+Soon a Pindari announced, "Commander Sahib, here is the holy one," and
+at a word from Kassim the priest unrolled his sheets of yellow paper,
+and sitting cross-legged upon a cushion with a salaam to the dead
+Chief, dipped his quill in a little ink-horn and held it poised.
+
+Then Hunsa, his eyes all the time furtively watching the scowling faces
+about him; fear and distrust in his heart over the gift of his life,
+but impelled by his knowledge that it was his only chance, narrated the
+story of Nana Sahib and the Dewan's scheme to rid the Mahrattas of the
+leader they feared, Amir Khan; told that they knew that the British
+were sending overtures for an alliance, but that fearing to kill the
+messenger--unless it could be done so secretly it would never be
+discovered--they had determined to remove the Chief.  When he spoke of
+the other Bagrees, Kassim realised that in the excitement of fixing the
+murder upon one there they had forgotten his troop associates, and a
+hurried order was passed for their capture.
+
+Of course it was too late; the others, at the first alarm, had slipped
+away.
+
+When the confession was finished Kassim commanded the _Mullah_ to rub
+his cube of India ink over the thumb of the decoit and the mark was
+imprinted on the paper.  Then he was taken to one of the cave cells cut
+out of the solid rock beneath the palace, and imprisoned for the night.
+
+"Come, Jamadars," Kassim said--and his voice that had been so coarse
+and rough now broke, and sobs floated the words scarce articulate--"and
+reverently let us lay Amir Khan upon his bed.  Then, though there be no
+call of the _muezzin_, we will kneel here; even without our prayer
+carpets, and pray to Allah for the repose of the soul of a true
+Musselman and a great warrior.  May his rest be one of peace!"
+
+He passed his hand lovingly over the face of the Chief and down his
+beard, and his strong fearless eyes were wet.
+
+Then Amir Khan was lifted by the Jamadars and carried to a bed in the
+room that adjoined the _surya mahal_.
+
+When they had risen from their silent prayer, Kassim said: "Go ye to
+your tents.  I will remain here with the guard who watch."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+Captain Barlow and Bootea had gone from the scene of the murder through
+the long dim-lighted hall, its walls broken here and there by niches of
+mystery, some of them closed by marble fretwork screens that might have
+been doors, and down the marble stairway, in silence.  Barlow had
+slipped a hand under her arm in the way of both a physical and mental
+sustaining; his fingers tapped her arm in affectionate approbation.
+Once he muttered to himself in English, "Splendid girl!" and not
+comprehending, the Gulab turned her star-eyes upward to his face.
+
+At the gate the soldier who had accompanied them spoke to the guard,
+and the latter, standing on a step bellowed: "Ho, ye Pindaris, here
+goes forth the Afghan in innocence of the foul crime!  Above they have
+the slayer, who was Hunsa the thug; and, Praise be to Allah! they will
+apply the torture.  Let him pass in peace, all ye.  And take care that
+no one molest the beautiful Gulab.  The peace of Allah upon the soul of
+the great Amir Khan!"
+
+A rippling thunder of deep voices vibrated the thronged street, crying,
+"Allah Akbar! the peace of God be upon the soul of the dead Chief!"
+
+A lane was opened up to them by the grim, wild-eyed, bandit-looking
+horsemen, _tulwar_ over shoulder and knives in belt, who called: "Back
+ye! the favoured of the Commander passes.  Back, make way! 'tis an
+order."
+
+The faces of the soldiers that had been wreathed in revenge and
+blood-lust when Barlow had been brought, were now friendly, and there
+were cries of "Salaam, brother! salaam, Flower of the Desert!" for it
+had been spread that the Gulab had discovered the murderer, had
+denounced him.
+
+"Brave little Gulab!" Barlow said in a low voice, bending his head to
+look into her eyes, for he felt the arm trembling against his hand.
+
+She did not answer, and he knew that she was sobbing.
+
+When they were past the turbulent crowd he said, "Bootea, your people
+will all have fled or been captured."
+
+"Yes, Sahib," she gasped.
+
+"Perhaps even your maid servant will have been taken."
+
+"No, Sahib, they would not take her; her home is here."
+
+By her side he travelled to where the now deserted tents of the decoits
+stood silent and dark, like little pagodas of sullen crime.  A light
+flickered in one tent, and silhouetted against its canvas side they
+could see the form of a woman crouched with her head in her hands.
+
+"The maid is there," Barlow said: "but it is not enough.  I will bring
+my blankets and sleep here at the door of your tent."
+
+"No, Sahib, it is not needed," the girl protested.
+
+"Yes, Bootea, I will come."  Then with a little laugh he added; "The
+gods have ordained that we take turns at protecting each other.  It is
+now my turn; I will come soon."
+
+She turned her small oval face up to look at this wonderful man, to
+discover if he were really there, that it was not some kindly god who
+would vanish.  He clasped the face, with its soul of adoration, in his
+two palms and kissed her.  Then fearing that she would fall, for she
+had closed her eyes and reeled, he took her by the arm, opened the flap
+of the tent, and steadied her into the arms of her handmaid.
+
+It was a fitful night's sleep for Barlow; the beat of horses' hoofs on
+the streets or the white sands beyond was like the patter of rain on a
+roof.  There were hoarse bull-throated cries of men who rode hither and
+thither; tremulous voices floated on the night air wild dirges, like
+the weird Afghan love song.  Sometimes a long smooth-bore barked its
+sharp call.  At sunrise the Captain was roused from this tiring sleep
+by the strident weird sing-song of the Mullah sending forth from a
+minaret of the palace his call to the faithful to prayer, prayer for
+the dead Chief.  And when the voice had ceased its muezzin:
+
+  "Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar;
+  Confess that there is no God but God;
+  Confess that Mohammad is the prophet of God;
+  Come to Prayer, Come to Prayer,
+  For Prayer is better than Sleep."
+
+the big drums sent forth a thundering reverberation.  He could hear the
+voices of the two women within, and called, "Bootea, Bootea!"
+
+The Galub came shyly from the tent saying, "Salaam, Sahib."  Then she
+stood with her eyes drooped waiting for him to speak.
+
+"It is this, Bootea," Barlow said, "do not go away until I am ready to
+depart, then I will take you where you wish to go."
+
+"If it is permitted, Sahib, I will wait," she answered as simply as a
+child.
+
+Barlow put a finger under her chin, and lifting her face smiled like a
+great boy, saying: "Gulab, you are wonderfully sweet."
+
+Then Barlow went to the _serai_, looked after his horse, had his
+breakfast, and passed back into the town.  He saw a continuous stream
+of men moving toward the small river that swept southward, to the east
+of the town, and asking of one the cause was told that the _ahiria_
+(murderer)--for now Hunsa was known as the murderer--was being sent on
+his way.  The speaker was a Rajput.  "It is strange, Afghan," he said,
+"that one who has slain the Chief of these wild barbarians, who are
+without gods, should be allowed to depart in peace.  We Rajputs worship
+a god that visits the sin upon the head of the sinner, but the order
+has been passed that no man shall harm the slayer of Amir Khan.
+Perhaps it is whispered in the Bazaar that Commander Kassim coveted the
+Chiefship."
+
+Barlow being in the guise of a Musselman said solemnly: "Allah will
+punish the murderer, mark you well, man of Rajasthan."
+
+"As to that, Afghan, one stroke of a _tulwar_ would put the matter
+beyond doubt; as it is, let us push forward, because I see from yonder
+steady array of spears that the Pindaris ride toward the river, and I
+think the prisoner is with them.  It was one Hunsa, a thug, and though
+the thugs worship Bhowanee, they are worse than the _mhangs_ who are of
+no caste at all."
+
+As Barlow came to where the town reached to the river bank he saw that
+the concourse of people was heading south along the river.  This was
+rather strange, for a bridge of stone arches traversed by the aid of
+two islands the Nahal to the other side.  A quarter of a mile lower
+down he came to where the river, that above wandered in three channels
+over a rocky bed, now glided sluggishly in one channel.  It was like a
+ribboned lake, smooth in its slow slip over a muddy bed, and circling
+in a long sweep to the bank.  On the level plain was a concourse of
+thousands, horsemen, who sat their lean-flanked Marwari or Cabul horses
+as though they waited to swing into a parade, the march past.  The
+_sowars_ Barlow had seen in the town were in front of him, riding four
+abreast, and at a command from their leader, opened up and formed a
+scimitar-shaped band, their horses' noses toward the river.  As he came
+close Barlow saw Kassim in a group of officers, and Hunsa, a soldier on
+either side of him, was standing free and unshackled in front of the
+Commander.  Save for the clanking of a bit, or the clang of a
+spear-haft against a stirrup, or the scuffle of a quick-turning horse's
+hoofs, a silence rested upon that vast throng.  Wild barbaric faces
+held a look of expectancy, of wonderment, for no one knew why the order
+had been passed that they were to assemble at that point.
+
+Kassim caught sight of Barlow as he drew near, and raising his hand in
+a salute, said: "Come close, Sahib, the slayer of Amir Khan, in
+accordance with my promise, is to go from our midst a free man.  His
+punishment has been left to Allah, the one God."
+
+Without more ado he stretched forth his right arm impressively toward
+the murky stream, that, where it rippled at some disturbance carried on
+its bosom ribbons of gold where the sun fell, saying:
+
+"Yonder lies the way, infidel, strangler, slayer of a follower of the
+Prophet!  Depart, for, failing that, it lacks but an hour till the sun
+reaches overhead, and thy time will have elapsed--thou will die by the
+torture.  You are free, even as I attested by the Beard of the Prophet.
+And more, what is not in the covenant,"--Kassim drew from beneath his
+rich brocaded vest the dagger of Amir Khan, its blade still carrying
+the dried blood of the Chief--"this is thine to keep thy vile life if
+you can.  Seest thou if the weapon is still wedded to thy hand.  It is
+that thou goest hand-in-hand with thy crime."
+
+He handed the knife to a soldier with a word of command, and the man
+thrust it in the belt of Hunsa.  Even as Kassim ceased speaking two
+round bulbs floated upon the smooth waters of the sullen river, and
+above them was a green slime; then a square shovel just topped the
+water, and Barlow could hear, issuing from the thing of horror, a
+breath like a sigh.  He shuddered.  It was a square-nosed _mugger_
+(crocodile) waiting.  And beyond, the water here and there swirled, as
+if a powerful tail swept it.
+
+And Hunsa knew; his evil swarthy face turned as green as the slime upon
+the crocodile's forehead; his powerful naked shoulders seemed to
+shrivel and shrink as though blood had ceased to flow through his
+veins.  He put his two hands, clasped palm to palm, to his forehead in
+supplication, and begged that the ordeal might pass, that he might go
+by the bridge, or across the desert, or any way except by that pool of
+horrors.
+
+Kassim again swept his hand toward the river and his voice was horrible
+in its deadliness: "These children of the poor that are sacred to some
+of thy gods, infidel, have been fed; five goats have allotted them as
+sacrifice and they wait for thee.  They serve Allah and not thy gods
+to-day.  Go, murderer, for we wait; go unless thou art not only a
+murderer but a coward, for it is the only way.  It was promised that no
+Pindari should wound or kill thee, dog, but they will help thee on thy
+way."
+
+Hunsa at this drew himself up, his gorilla face seemed to fill out with
+resolve; he swept the vast throng of horsemen with his eyes, and
+realised that it was indeed true--there was nothing left but the pool
+and the faint, faint chance that, powerful swimmer that he was, and
+with the knife, he might cross.  Once his evil eyes rested on Kassim
+and involuntarily a hand twitched toward the dagger hilt; but at that
+instant he was pinioned, both arms, by a Pindari on either side.  Then,
+standing rigid, he said:
+
+"I am Hunsa, a Bagree, a servant of Bhowanee; I am not afraid.  May she
+bring the black plague upon all the Pindaris, who are dogs that worship
+a false god."
+
+He strode toward the waters, the soldiers, still a hand on either arm,
+marching beside him.  On the clay bank he put his hands to his
+forehead, calling in a loud voice: "_Kali Mia_, receive me!"  Then he
+plunged head first into the pool.
+
+A cry of "Allah!  Allah!" went up from ten thousand throats as the
+Bagree shot from view, smothered in the foam of the ruffled stream.
+And beyond the waters were churned by huge ghoulish forms that the
+blood of goats had gathered there.  Five yards from the bank the ugly
+head of Hunsa appeared; a brown arm flashed once, in the fingers
+clutched a knife that seemed red with fresh blood.  The water was
+lashed to foam; the tail of a giant _mugger_ shot out and struck flat
+upon the surface of the river like the crack of a pistol.  Again the
+head, and then the shoulders, of the swimmer were seen; and as if
+something dragged the torso below, two legs shot out from the water,
+gyrated spasmodically, and disappeared.
+
+Barlow waited, his soul full of horror, but there was nothing more;
+just a little lower down in the basin of the sluggish pool two bulbous
+protrusions above the water where some crocodile, either gorged or
+disappointed, floated lazily.
+
+A ghastly silence reigned--no one spoke; ten thousand eyes stared out
+across the pool.
+
+Then the voice of Kassim was heard, solemn and deep, saying: "The
+covenant has been kept and Allah has avenged the death of Amir Khan!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+Commander Kassim touched Barlow on the arm: "Captain Sahib, come with
+me.  The death of that foul murderer does not take the weight off our
+hearts."
+
+"He deserved it," Barlow declared.
+
+Though filled with a sense of shuddering horror, he was compelled
+involuntarily to admit that it had been a most just punishment; less
+brutal, even more impressive--almost taking on the aspect of a
+religious execution--than if the Bagree had been tortured to death;
+hacked to pieces by the _tulwars_ of the outraged Pindaris.  He had
+been executed with no evidence of passion in those who witnessed his
+death.  And as to the subtlety of the Commander in obtaining the
+confession, that, too, according to the ethics of Hindustan, was
+meritorious, not a thing to be condemned.  Hunsa's animal cunning had
+been over-matched by the clear intellect of this wise soldier.
+
+"We will walk back to the Chamber of Audience," Kassim said, "for now
+there are things to relate."
+
+He spoke to a soldier to have his horse led behind, and as they walked
+he explained: "With us, Sahib, as at the death of a Rana of Mewar,
+there is no interregnum; the dead wait upon the living, for it is
+dangerous that no one leads, even for an hour, men whose guard is their
+sword.  So, as Amir Khan waits yonder where his body lies to be taken
+on his way to the arms of Allah in Paradise, they who have the welfare
+of our people at heart have selected one to lead, and one and all, the
+jamadars and the hazaris, have decreed that I shall, unworthily, sit
+upon the _ghuddi_ (throne) that was Amir Khan's, though with us it is
+but the back of a horse.  And we have taken under advisement the
+message thou brought.  It has come in good time for the Mahrattas are
+like wolves that have turned upon each other.  Sindhia, Rao Holkar,
+both beaten by your armies, now fight amongst themselves, and suck like
+vampires the life-blood of the Rajputs.  And Holkar has become insane.
+But lately, retreating through Mewar, he went to the shrine of Krishna
+and prostrating himself before his heathen image reviled the god as the
+cause of his disaster.  When the priests, aghast at the profanity,
+expostulated, he levied a fine of three hundred thousand rupees upon
+them, and when, fearing an outrage to the image these infidels call a
+god, they sent the idol to Udaipur, he way-laid the men who had taken
+it and slew them to a man."
+
+"Your knowledge of affairs is great, Chief," Barlow commented, for most
+of this was new to him.
+
+"Yes, Captain Sahib, we Pindaris ride north, and east, and south, and
+west; we are almost as free as the eagles of the air, claiming that our
+home is where our cooking-pots are.  We do not trust to ramparts such
+as Fort Chitor where we may be cooped up and slain--such as the Rajputs
+have been three times in the three famed sacks of Chitor--but also,
+Sahib, this is all wrong."
+
+The Chief halted and swept an arm in an encompassing embrace of the
+tent-studded plain.
+
+"We are not a nation to muster an army because now the cannon that
+belch forth a shower of death mow horsemen down like ripened grain.  It
+was the dead Chief's ambition, but it is wrong."
+
+Barlow was struck with the wise logic of this tall wide-browed warrior,
+it _was_ wrong.  Massed together Pindaris and _Bundoolas_ assailed by
+the trained hordes of Mahrattas, with their French and Portuguese
+gunners and officers, would be slaughtered like sheep.  And against the
+war-trained Line Regiments of the British foot soldiers they would meet
+the same fate.  "You are right, Chief Kassim," Barlow declared; "even
+if you cut in with the winning side, especially Sindhia, he would turn
+on you and devour you and your people."
+
+"Yes, Sahib.  The trade of a Pindari, if I may call it so, has been
+that of loot in this land that has always been a land of strife for
+possession.  I rode with Chitu as a jamadar when we swept through the
+Nizam's territory and put cities under a tribute of many _lakhs_, but
+that was a force of five thousand only, and we swooped through the land
+like a great flock of hawks.  But even at that Chitu, a wonderful
+chief, was killed by wild animals in the jungle when he was fleeing
+from disaster, almost alone."
+
+They were now close to the palace, and as they entered, just within the
+great hall Kassim said: "There will be nothing to say on thy part,
+Captain Sahib; the officers will come even now to the audience and it
+is all agreed upon.  Thou wilt be given an assurance to take back to
+the British, for by chance the others have great confidence in me, even
+more in a matter of diplomacy than they had in the dead leader, may
+Allah rest his soul!"
+
+And to the audience chamber--where had sat oft two long rows of minor
+chiefs, at their head on a raised dais the Rajput Raja, a Seesodia, one
+of the "Children of the Sun," as the flaming yellow gypsum sun above
+the dais attested--now came in twos and threes the wild-eyed whiskered
+riders of the desert.  They were lean, raw-boned, steel-muscled, tall,
+solemn-faced men, their eyes set deep in skin wrinkled from the scorch
+of sun on the white sands of the desert.  And their eyes beneath the
+black brows were like falcon's, predatory like those of birds of prey.
+And the air of freedom, of self-reliance, of independence was in every
+look, in the firm swinging stride, and erect set of the shoulders.
+They were men to swear by or to fear; verily men.  And somehow one
+sharp look of appraisement, and one and all would have sworn by Allah
+that the Sahib in the garb of an Afghan was a man.
+
+As each one entered he strode to the centre of the room, drew himself
+erect facing the heavy curtain beyond which lay the dead Chief, and
+raising a hand to brow, said in a deep voice: "Salaam, Amir Khan, and
+may the Peace of Allah be upon thy spirit."
+
+"Now, brothers," Kassim said, when the curtain entrance had ceased to
+be thrust to one side, "we will say what is to be said.  One will stand
+guard just without for this is a matter for the officers alone."
+
+He took from his waist the silver chain and unlocked the iron box,
+brought forth the paper that Barlow had carried, and holding it aloft,
+said: "This is the message of brotherhood from the English Raj.  Are ye
+all agreed that it is acceptable to our people?"
+
+"In the name of Allah we are," came as a sonorous chorus from one and
+all.
+
+"And are ye agreed that it shall be said to the Captain Sahib, who is
+envoy from the Englay, that we ride in peace to his people, or ride not
+at all in war?"
+
+"Allah! it is agreed," came the response.
+
+He turned to Barlow.  "Captain Sahib, thou hast heard.  The word of a
+Pindari, taken in the name of Allah, is inviolate.  That is our answer
+to the message from the Englay Chief.  There is no writing to be given,
+for a Pindari deals in yea and nay.  Is it to be considered.  Captain
+Sahib; is it a message to send that is worthy of men to men?"
+
+"It is, Commander Kassim," Barlow answered.
+
+"Then wait thou for the seal."
+
+He raised his _tulwar_ aloft,--and as he did so the steel of every
+jamadar and hazari flashed upward,--saying, "We Pindaris and Bundoolas
+who rode for Amir Khan, and now ride for Kassim, swear in the name of
+Allah, and on the Beard of Mahomet, who is his Prophet, friendship to
+the Englay Raj."
+
+"By Allah and the Beard of Mahomet, who is his Prophet, we make oath!"
+the deep voices boomed solemnly.
+
+"It is all," Kassim said quietly.  "I would make speech for a little
+with the Captain."
+
+As each officer passed toward the door he held out a hand and gripped
+the hand of the Englishman.
+
+When they had gone Kassim said: "Go thou back, Sahib, to the one who is
+to receive our answer, and let our promise be sent to the one who
+commands the Englay army and is even now at Tonk, in Mewar, for the
+purpose of putting the Mahrattas to the sword.  Tell the Sahib to
+strike and drive the accursed dogs from Mewar, and have no fear that
+the Pindaris will fall upon his flank.  Even also our tulwars and our
+spears are ready for service so be it there is a reward in lands and
+gold."
+
+The Pindari Chief paced the marble floor twice, then with his eyes
+watching the effect of his words in the face of Barlow he said:
+"Captain Sahib, it is of an affair of feeling I would speak now.  It
+relates to the woman who has done us all a service, which but shows
+what a perception Amir Khan had; a glance and he knew a man for what he
+was.  Therein was his power over the Pindaris.  And it seems, which is
+rarer, that he knew what was in the heart of a woman, for the Gulab is
+one to rouse in a man desire.  And I, myself, years of hard riding and
+combat having taken me out of my colt-days, wondered why the Chief,
+being busy otherwise, and a man of short temper, should entail labour
+in the way of claiming her regard.  I may say, Sahib, that a Pindari
+seizes upon what he wants and backs the claiming with his sword.  But
+now it is all explained--the wise gentleness that really was in the
+heart of one so fierce as the Chief--Allah rest his soul!  What say
+thou, Captain Sahib?"
+
+"Bootea is wonderful," Barlow answered fervidly; "she is like a Rajput
+princess."
+
+Kassim coughed, stroked his black beard, adjusted the hilt of his
+_tulwar_, then coughed again.
+
+"Inshalla! but thou hast said something."  He turned to face Barlow
+more squarely: "Captain Sahib, the one who suffered the wrath of Allah
+to-day last night sent a salaam that I would listen to a matter of
+value.  Not wishing to have the hated presence of the murderer in the
+room near where was Amir Khan I went below to where in a rock cell was
+this Hunsa.  This is the matter he spoke of, no doubt hoping that it
+would make me more merciful, therefore, of a surety I think it is a
+lie.  It is well known, Sahib, that the Rana of Udaipur had a beautiful
+daughter, and Raja Jaipur and Raja Marwar both laid claim to her hand;
+even Sindhia wanted the princess, but being a Mahratta--who are nothing
+in the way of breeding such as are the Children of the Sun--dust was
+thrown upon his beard.  But the Rajputs fly to the sword over
+everything and a terrible war ensued in which Udaipur was about ruined.
+Then one hyena, garbed as the Minister of State, persuaded the cowardly
+Rana to sacrifice Princess Kumari to save Udaipur.
+
+"All this is known, Sahib, and that she, with the courage of a
+Rajputni, drained the cup that contained the poison brewed from poppy
+leaves, and died with a smile on her lips, saying, 'Do not cry, mother;
+to give my life for my country is nothing.'  That is the known story,
+Sahib.  But what Hunsa related was that Kumari did not die, but lives,
+and has the name of Bootea the Gulab."
+
+The Chief turned his eyes quizzically upon the Englishman, who muttered
+a half-smothered cry of surprise.
+
+"It can't be--how could the princess be with men such?"
+
+"Better there than sacrifice.  Hunsa learned of this thing through
+listening beneath the wall of a tent at night while one Ajeet Singh
+spoke of it to the Gulab.  It was that the Rana got a yogi, a man
+skilled in magical things, either drugs or charms, and that Kumari was
+given a potion that caused her to lie dead for days; and when she was
+brought back to life of course she had to be removed from where Jaipur
+or Marwar might see her or hear of this thing, because they would fly
+to the sword again."
+
+Kassim ceased speaking and his eyes carried a look of interrogation as
+if he were anxious for a sustaining of his half-faith in the story.
+
+"It's all entirely possible," Barlow declared emphatically; "it's a
+common practice in India, this deceit as to death where a death is
+necessary.  It could all be easily arranged, the Rana yielding to
+pressure to save Mewar, and dreading the sin of being guilty of the
+death of his daughter.  Even the Gulab is like a Princess of the
+Sesodias--like a Rajputni of the highest caste."
+
+"Indeed she is, Captain Sahib, the quality of breeding never lies."
+
+"What discredits Hunsa's story," Barlow said thoughtfully, "is that the
+Gulab was in the protection of Ajeet Singh who was but a _thakur_ at
+best--really a protector of decoits."
+
+"To save Kumari's life she had been given to the yogi, and he would act
+not out of affection for the girl's standing as a princess, but to
+prevent discovery, bloodshed, and, her life.  It is also known that
+these ascetics--infidels, children of the Devil--by charm, or drugs, or
+otherwise, can cause something like death for days--a trance, and the
+one who goes thus knows not who he was when he comes back," Kassim
+argued.
+
+"Well," Barlow said, "it is a matter unsolvable, and of no importance,
+for the Gulab, Kumari or otherwise, is a princess, such as men fight
+and die for."
+
+There was a little silence, Barlow carrying on in his mind this, the
+main interest, so far as he was concerned, Bootea; as a woman appealing
+to the senses or to the subtlest mentality she was the sweetest woman
+he had ever known.
+
+There was a flicker of grim humour in Kassim's dark eyes: "Captain
+Sahib," he said, "that evil-faced Bagree has a curious deep cunning, I
+believe.  I'll swear now by the hilt of my _tulwar_ that he made up the
+whole story for the purpose of having audience with me, and in his
+heart was a favour desired, for, as I was leaving, he asked that I
+would have his turban given back to him to wear on his going; he
+pleaded for it.  Of course, Sahib, a turban is an affair of caste, and
+I suppose he was feeling a disgrace in going forth without it.  It
+appears that Gulab had taken it as an evidence that he had been killed,
+but when I sent a man for it she told him that the cloth was possessed
+of vermin and she had burned it."
+
+"But still, Chief, though Hunsa has an animal cunning, yet he could not
+make up such a story--he has heard it somewhere."
+
+Barlow felt his heart warm toward the grizzled old warrior as he,
+dropping the nebulous matter of Kumari, said: "And to think, Captain
+Sahib, that but for the Gulab we would have slain you as the murderer
+of Amir Khan.  As a Patan, even if I had wished it, I could not have
+fended the _tulwars_ from your body.  And you were a brave man, such as
+a Pindari loves; rather than announce thyself as an Englay--the paper
+gone and thy mission failed--thou wouldst have stood up to death like a
+soldier."
+
+He put his hand caressingly on Barlow's knee, adding: "By the Beard of
+the Prophet thou art a man!  But all this, Sahib, is to this end; we
+hold the Gulab in reverence, as did Amir Khan, and if it is permitted,
+I would have her put in thy hands for her going.  Those that were here
+in the camp with her fled at the first alarm, and my riders discovered
+to-day, too late, that they hid in an old mud-walled fort about three
+miles from here whilst my Pindaris scoured the country for them; then
+when my riders returned they escaped.  So the Gulab is alone.  I will
+send a guard of fifty horsemen and they will ride with thee till thou
+turnest their horses' heads homeward, and for the Gulab there will be a
+_tonga_, such as a Nawab might use, drawn by well-fed, and well-shod
+horses.  That, too, she may keep to the end of her journey and
+afterwards, returning but the driver."
+
+"My salaams to you, Chief, for your goodness.  To-morrow if it please
+you I will go with your promises to the British."
+
+"It is a command, Sahib--to-morrow.  And may the Peace of Allah be upon
+thee and thy house always!"
+
+He held out a hand and his large dark eyes hovered lovingly over the
+face of the Englishman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+Captain Barlow walked along to the tent of Bootea to tell her of the
+arrangement that had been made for their leaving the camp so that she
+might be ready.  He could see in the girl's eyes the reflection of a
+dual mental struggle, an ineffable sweetness varied by a changing cloud
+of something that was apprehension or doubt.
+
+"The Sahib is a protector to Bootea," she said.  "Sometimes I wondered
+if such men lived; yet I suppose a woman always has in her mind a vague
+conception that such an one might be.  But always that, that is like a
+dream, is broken--one wakes."
+
+Prosaically taking the matter in hand Barlow said, "You would wish to
+go back to your people at Chunda--is it not so?"
+
+The girl's eyes flashed to his face, and her brows wrinkled as if from
+pain.  "Those who have fled will be on their way to Chunda, and they
+will tell of the slaying of Amir Khan.  The Dewan will be pleased, and
+they will be given honour and rich reward; they will be allowed to
+return to Karowlee."
+
+"Yes," Barlow interposed; "that Hunsa goes not back will simply be
+taken as an affair of war, that he was captured and killed; there will
+be nobody to relate that you revealed the plot.  When you arrive there
+you, also, will be showered with favours, and Ajeet Singh will owe his
+life to you; they will set him at liberty."
+
+"And as to Nana Sahib?" Bootea asked, and there was pathetic dread in
+her eyes.
+
+"What is it--you fear him?"
+
+"Yes, Sahib, he will claim Bootea; a Mahratta never keeps faith.  There
+will be a fresh covenant, because he is like a beast of the jungle."
+
+Barlow paced back and forth the small confine of the tent, muttering.
+"It's hell!"  He pictured the Gulab in the harem of Nana Sahib--in a
+gaudy prison chained to a serpent.  To interfere on her behalf would be
+to sacrifice what came first, his duty as an officer of state, to what
+would be called, undoubtedly, an infatuation.  Elizabeth would take it
+that way; even his superiors would call it at least inexpedient, bad
+form.  For a British officer to be interested or mixed up with a native
+woman, no matter how noble the impulse, would be a shatterment of both
+official and personal caste.
+
+"I won't allow that," he declared vehemently, shifting into words his
+mental traverse.
+
+Bootea had followed with her eyes his struggle; then she said: "The
+Sahib has heard of the women of the Rajputs who, with smiles on their
+lips faced death, who, when the time of the last danger came were not
+afraid?"
+
+"Yes, Gulab.  But for you it is not that way.  You have said that I am
+your protector--I will be."
+
+There was a smile on the girl's lips as she raised her eyes to
+Barlow's.  "It is not permitted, Sahib; the gods have the matter in
+their lap.  For a little--yes, perhaps.  It is the time of the
+pilgrimage to the shrine of Omkar at Mandhatta, and Bootea will make
+the pilgrimage; at the shrine is the priest that told Bootea of her
+reincarnations, as I related to the Sahib."
+
+A curious superstitious chill struck with full force upon the heart of
+Barlow.  Kassim's story of Kumari revivified itself with startling
+remembrance.  Was this the priest that, to save Kumari's sacrifice, had
+wafted her by occult or drug method from one embodied form into
+another, from Kumari to Bootea?  It was so confusing, so overpowering
+in its clutch that he did not speak of it.
+
+The girl was adding: "It is on the Sahib's way to Poona; there will be
+many from Karowlee at Mandhatta and I can return with them."
+
+This seemed reasonable to Barlow; she would there be in the company of
+people not at war.  And then, erratically, rebelliously, he felt a
+heart hunger; but he cursed this feeling as being vicious--it was.  He
+smothered it, shoving it back into a niche of his mind, thinking he had
+locked it up--had turned a key in the door of the closet to hide the
+skeleton.
+
+He temporised, saying; "Well, we'll see, Gulab; perhaps at Mandhatta I
+could wait while you made an offering and a prayer to Omkar, and then
+you could journey on to Chunda."  To himself he muttered in English:
+"By God!  I'll not stand for that slimy brute, Nana Sahib's, possession
+of the girl--she's too good.  I know enough now to denounce him."
+
+In council with himself, standing Captain Barlow firmly on his feet to
+face the realities, he realised the impossibility of being anything
+more to Bootea than just a Sahib who had by fate been thrown into her
+path temporarily.  And then, feeling the sway, the compelling force of
+a fascinating femininity he almost trembled for himself.  Weaker
+sahibs--gad! he knew several, one a Deputy Commissioner.  A beautiful
+little Kashmiri girl had nursed him through cholera when even his own
+servants had fled.  The Kashmiri, who had the dainty flower-like
+sweetness of a Japanese maid, and practically the same code, had lived
+in his protection before this.  After the nursing incident he had
+married her, with benefit of clergy, and the result had been hell, a
+living suicide, ostracism.  A good officer, he still remained Deputy
+Commissioner, the highest official of the district, but the social
+excellence was wiped out--he was a pariah, an outcast.  And the girl,
+who now could not remain just a native, could not attain to the dignity
+of a Deputy-Commissioner Memsahib.
+
+Barlow knew several such.  Of course of drifters he knew also, the
+white inland beach-combers--men who had come out to India to fill
+subordinate positions in the telegraph, or the railroad, or mills; and,
+as they sloughed off European caste, and possessed of the eternal
+longing for woman companionship, had married natives.  Barlow shuddered
+at mentally rehearsed visions of the degradation.  Thus everything
+logical was on that side of the ledger--all against the Gulab.  On the
+other side was the fierce compelling fascination that the girl held for
+him.
+
+Yes, at Mandhatta they would both sacrifice to the gods.  Curiously
+Elizabeth stood in the computation a cipher; probably he would marry
+her, but the escapement from disaster, from wreck, would not be because
+of any moral sustaining from her, any invisible thread of love binding
+him to the daughter of the Resident.  He knew that until he parted from
+Bootea at Mandhatta his soul would be torn by a strife that was
+foolish, contemptible, that should never have originated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+And next day when Barlow, sitting his horse, still riding as the
+Afghan, went forth, his going was somewhat like the departure of a
+Nawab.  Chief Kassim and a dozen officers had clanked down the marble
+steps from the palace with him and stood lined up at the gates raising
+their deep voices in full-throated salaams and blessings of Allah upon
+his head.
+
+The horsemen of the guard, spears to boot-leg, fierce-looking riders of
+the plain, were lined up four abreast.  The _nakara_ in the open court
+of the palace was thundering a farewell like a salute of light
+artillery.
+
+The _tonga_ with Bootea had gone on before with a guard of two
+out-riders.
+
+All that day they travelled to the south, on their left, against the
+eastern sky, the lofty peaks of the Vindhya mountains holding the gold
+of the sun till they looked like a continuous chain of gilded temples
+and tapering pagodas.  For hours the road lay over hard basaltic rocks
+and white limestone; then again it was a sea of white sand they
+traversed with its blinding eye-stinging glare.
+
+At night, when they camped, Barlow had a fresh insight into the fine
+courtesy, the rough nobility that breeds into the bone of men who live
+by the sword and ride where they will.  The Pindaris built their
+camp-fires to one side, and two of them came to where the Sahib bad
+spread his blankets near the _tonga_ and built a circle of smudge-fires
+from chips of camel-dung to keep away the flies.  Then they went back
+to their fellows, and when Barlow had pulled the blanket over himself
+to sleep the clamour of voices where the horsemen sat was hushed.
+
+And Bootea had been treated like a princess.  At each village that they
+passed some would ride in and rejoin the cavalcade with fowl, and eggs,
+and fruit, and sugar cane, and fresh vegetables; and a mention of
+payment would only draw a frown, an exclamation of, "_Shookur_! these
+are but gifts from Allah.  There has been more than payment that we
+have not cut off the _kotwal's_ head, not even demanded a peep at the
+money chest.  We are looked upon as men who confer favours."
+
+It was the second day one of the horses in the _tonga_ showing
+lameness, or perhaps even weariness, for the yoke of the _tonga_ across
+their backs did not ride with the ease of a man, the jamadar went into
+a village and came forth with his men leading two well-fed horses.
+Again when Barlow spoke of pay for them the jamadar answered, "We will
+leave these two with the unbelievers, and a message, in the name of
+Allah, that when we return if the horses we leave are not treated like
+those of the Sultan there will be throats slit.  _Bismillah_! but it is
+a fair way of treating these unbelievers; they should be grateful."
+
+The road ran through the large towns of Bhopal and Sehore, and at each
+place Jamadar Jemla explained to all and sundry of the officials that
+the Patan, meaning Barlow, was a trusted officer with Sindhia and they
+were escorting a favourite for Sindhia's harem.  It was a plausible
+story, and avoided interference, for while the Pindaris might be turned
+back if there was a force handy, to interfere with a lady of the King's
+harem might bring a horde of cut-throat Mahrattas down on them with a
+snipping off of official heads.
+
+On the fourth day, and now they were on a good trunk road that ran to
+Indore, and branching to the left, that crossed the Nerbudda River at
+Mandhatta, they were constantly passing pilgrims on their way to the
+Temple of Omkar.  In the affrighted eyes of the Hindus Barlow could
+read their dread of the Pindaris; they would cringe at the roadside and
+salaam, as fearful were they as if a wolf-pack swept down the highway.
+
+The jamadar would laugh in his deep throat, and twist his black
+moustache with forefinger and thumb, and call the curse of Mahomet upon
+these worshippers of stone images and foul gods.  He loved to ride
+stirrup to stirrup with the Englishman, and Barlow found delight in the
+man's broad conception of life; the petty things seemed to have no
+resting place in his mind, unless perhaps as a matter for ridicule.
+The sweep of a country with free rein and a sharp sword, and always the
+hazard of loot or death was an engrossing subject.  Even the enemy who
+fought and bled and died, were like themselves--by Allah! men; but the
+merchants, the shop-keepers, and the money-lenders, who cringed and
+paid tribute when the Pindaris drove at them in a raid, were pigs,
+cowardly dogs who robbed the poor and gave only to the accursed
+Brahmins and their foul gods.  He would dwell lovingly upon the feats
+of courage of the Rajputs, lamenting that such fine men should be
+excluded from heaven, dying as they did such glorious deaths, sword in
+hand, because of their mistaken infidelity; they were souls lost
+because of being led away from a true god, the one god, Allah, through
+false priests.
+
+"Mark thou, Sahib," Jemla said once, "I do not hold that it is a merit
+in the sight of Allah to slay such except there is need, but when it is
+a _jihad_, a question of the supremacy of a true god, Allah, or the
+Sahib's God--which no doubt is one and the same--as against the evil
+gods of destruction and depravity such as Shiva and Kali, then it is a
+merit to slay the children of evil.  Mahomet did much to put this
+matter right," he declared; "he made good Musselmen of thousands who
+would otherwise have been cast into _jehannum_ (hell), at times holding
+the sword over their heads as argument.  Therein Mahomet was a true
+prophet, a saver of souls rather than a destroyer of such."
+
+By noon they were drawing toward Mandhatta, and when they came to where
+the road from Indore to Mandhatta joined the one they were travelling,
+there was an increase in the stream of pilgrims and Barlow could see a
+look of uneasiness in the jamadar's eyes.
+
+There was a grove of wild mango trees on the left, running from the
+road down to a stream that gurgled on its way from the hills to the
+Nerbudda river, and Jemla said, "We might camp here, Sahib, for there
+is both good water and fire-wood."
+
+They could see, as they rested and ate, a party of Hindus down by the
+stream where there was a shrine to Krishna that nestled under a huge
+banyan that was like the roof of a cave from which dropped to earth to
+take roots hundreds of slender shoots, like stalactites, and whose
+roots, creeping from the earth like giant worms, crawled on to lave in
+the stream.  When they had finished eating, Jemla said, "That is a
+temple of the Preserver;" then he laughed a full-throated sneer:
+"_Allah hafiz_! (God protect us), give me a fine-edged _tulwar_,--and
+mine own is not so dull--methinks yon grinning affair of stone would
+not preserve a dozen of these infidels had there been cause for anger."
+
+"What do the pilgrims there, for they go, it would seem, to Omkar?"
+Barlow queried.
+
+"There has been a death--perhaps it was even a year ago, and at a
+shrine of Krishna, especially this one that is on a water that is like
+a trickle of holy tears to the sacred Narbudda, _straddhas_ (prayers
+for the dead) are said.  Come, Sahib, we will look upon this mummy, the
+only savour of grace about the infidel thing being that it perhaps
+brings to their hearts a restfulness, having the faith that they have
+helped the soul of the dead."
+
+Barlow rose from where he sat and they went down to where a party of a
+dozen were engaged in the service of an appeal to the god for rest for
+the soul of a dead relative.  The devotees did not resent the
+appearance of the two who were garbed as Moslems.  The shrine was one
+of those, of which there are many in India, that, curiously enough, is
+sacred to both Hindus and followers of the Prophet.  On a flat rock,
+laved by the stream, was an imprint of a foot, a legendary foot-print
+of Krishna, perhaps left there as he crossed the stream to gambol with
+the milkmaids in the meadow beyond.  And it was venerated by the
+Musselman because a disciple of Mohammed had attained to great sanctity
+by austerities up in the mountain behind, and had been buried there.
+
+But Barlow was watching with deep interest the ceremonial form of the
+_straddha_.  He saw the women place balls of rice, milk, and leaves of
+the _tulsi_ plant in earthenware platters, then sprinkle over this
+flowers and kusa-grass; they added threads, plucked from their
+garments, to typify the presenting of the white death-sheet to the dead
+one; a priest all the time mumbling a prayer, at the end of the simple
+ceremony receiving a fee of five rupees.
+
+As the two men turned back toward their camp Jemla chuckled: "Captain
+Sahib, thou seest now the weapon of the Brahmin; his loot of silver
+pieces was acquired with little effort and no strife; as to the
+rice-balls the first jackal that catches their wind will have a filled
+stomach.  It is something to be thought of in the way of regard for a
+long abiding in heaven that such foolish ones will not attain to it.
+The setting up of false gods, carved images, I was once told by a
+priest of thy faith, is sufficient to exclude such.  It makes one's
+_tulwar_ clatter in its scabbard to see such profanation in an approach
+to God."
+
+Then Jemla spoke of the matter that had engendered the troubled look
+Barlow had observed: "The Captain Sahib has intimated that the
+One"--and he tipped his head toward the girl--"would proceed to the
+temple of Omkar to make offerings at the shrine?"
+
+"Yes, she goes there."
+
+"There will be a hundred thousand of these infidels at Mandhatta, and
+when they see fifty Pindaris, _tulwar_ and spear and match-lock, there
+will be unrest; perhaps there will be altercation--they will fear that
+we ride in pillage."
+
+"I was thinking of that," Barlow replied; "and it would be as well that
+you turned your faces homeward."
+
+"We have received an order from our Chief that our lives are at the
+disposal of the Captain Sahib, and we will drive into the heart of a
+Mahratta force if needs be, but if it is the Sahib's command we will
+ride back from here," Jemla said.
+
+"Yes; there is no need of a guard for the Gulab now--just that the
+_tonga_ carries her as far as she wishes it," Barlow concurred.
+
+"Indeed we are not needed; those infidels come to worship their heathen
+gods, not to combat men, and Mandhatta is but a matter of twelve _kos_
+now," Jemla affirmed.
+
+When Captain Barlow, and Bootea in the _tonga_, drew out from the
+encampment to proceed on their way the Pindaris rode on in front, and
+then, at a command from Jemla, wheeled their horses into a continuous
+line facing the road, stirrup to stirrup, the horsemen sitting erect
+with their _tulwars_ at the salute.  As Barlow passed a cry of,
+"Salaam, aleikum! the protection of Allah be upon you," rippled down
+the line.  Then the horsemen wheeled with their faces to the north.
+Jemla swept a hand to his forehead and from his deep throat welled a
+farewell, "Salaam, bhai!  (brother)."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+The Jamadar's tribute from man to man, one encased in a dark skin and
+one in a white, was akin to the tribulation that would not be driven
+from Barlow's mind over the Gulab, that in their case made the matter
+of a skin colourisation the bar sinister.  He rode in a brooding
+silence.  And now the way was one of ascent toward the pass through the
+Vindhya mountains; a red gravelly undulating formation had given place
+to basaltic rocks.  They passed from groups of _mhowa_ trees and left
+behind a wide shallow stream, its bed dotted with pools fringed by
+great _kowa_ trees, and its banks lined by a thick green cover of
+_jamun_ and _karonda_.  Thorny _babul_ thrust their spiked branches out
+over the roadway, white with tufts of cotton torn by its thorns from
+bales, loose pressed, on their way to market in buffalo carts; "Babul
+the thief," the natives called this acacia.  Higher up a torch-wood
+tree gleamed as if sprayed with gold, its limbs, lean and bare of
+foliage, holding at their extremities in wisp-like fingers bright,
+yellow, solitary blooms.  From a _tendu_ tree a pair of droll little
+brown monkeys chattered and grimaced at the clattering cart.
+
+A spotted owlet, disturbed by the driver's encouraging, "Pop-pop!
+Dih-dih-dih!  Ho-ho-ho! children of jungle swine; brothers to buffalo!"
+addressed to the horses lagging in the climb, fluttered away with his
+silly little cackle.
+
+These incidents of travel were almost unnoticed of Barlow.  All up the
+climb the retrospect was with him, claiming his thoughts.  Just
+that--all that was in evidence, a pigment in the skin, _caste_; and yet
+reacting away back to God's mandate against the union of the white and
+black.  And verily a sin to be visited even unto the third and fourth
+generation, for the bar sinister would be upon his children; they would
+be half-castes with all of the opprobrium the name carried.  Even the
+son of a king, the offspring of such a union would be spoken of in mess
+and drawing-room as a half-caste: the indelible sign would be upon him,
+the blue tint to the white moons in his finger nails.  Barlow
+shuddered.  Why contemplate the matter at all--it was impossible.  Nana
+Sahib had named the barrier when he had spoken of _varna_, meaning
+colour, as _caste_, a shirt-of-mail that protected from disaster.
+
+Sometimes as he dropped back past the _tonga_, the face of Bootea would
+appear beneath the lifted curtain, and though on the lips would be a
+sweet ravishing smile, the eyes were pathetic, full of heart hunger.
+Sometimes he vowed that he would put off the parting--dream on; carry
+her on to her people at Chunda.  Then he would realise that this was
+cowardice, a desire flooding his sense of nobility into a chasm of
+possible disaster; not fair to the girl; the animal mastery of male
+over female, the domination of sex.  Beyond doubt, wrapped in his arms,
+not even the omnipotence of the gods would take her away from him.  If
+there were less innate nobility in his avatar, if he were like men that
+were called red-blooded men, yet lacking the finer sensibility, this
+might be; not a villainous rush, just drifting.  That was it, the
+superlative excellence of the Gulab; the very quality that attracted,
+was the shield, the immaculate robe that clothed her and preserved her
+like a vestal virgin from such violation.  Barlow could not word all
+these things; subconsciously they swayed him--like the magnetic needle,
+always toward the pole of right.
+
+When they had topped the pass and descended into the valley of the
+Narbudda, clothed in arboreal beauty, passed from a forest of evergreen
+_sal_ to giant teak trees with huge umbrella-like leaves that formed a
+canopy over the straight column-like boles of eighty feet, and on
+amidst topes of wild mango and wild date, down, down, to the lower
+levels where the _dhak_ jungles gave way to feathery bamboo and
+plantain and waving grass, the sun, like a great ball of molten gold,
+was splashing its yellow sheen upon the waters of a stream that hurried
+south to Mother Narbudda.
+
+There was a small village of Gonds, or Korkus, like a toy thing, the
+houses woven from split bamboo, nestling against the billowing hills.
+
+"Here we will rest and eat," Barlow said to the Gulab.
+
+"As the Sahib wishes," she answered, and smiled at him like a child.
+
+The huge medallion of gold had slid down in the west from the dome
+through which were shot great streamers of red and mauve, and a peacock
+perched high in a sal tree far up on the mountainside sent forth his
+strident cry of "Miaou! miaou! miaou!" his evening salute to the god of
+warmth.
+
+As the harsh call, like an evening _muezzin_, died out, the sweet song
+of a shama, in tones as pure as those of a nightingale, broke the
+solemn hush of eventide.
+
+Barlow turned his face to where the songster was perched in the top
+branches of a wild-fig, and Bootea, said in a low voice: "Sahib, it is
+said that the shama is a soul come back to earth to sing of love that
+men may not grow harsh."
+
+Soon a silver moon peeped over the walls of the Vindhya hills, and from
+the forests above the night wind, waking at the fleeing of the sun,
+whispered down through feathered _sal_ trees carrying the scent of
+balsam and from a group of _salei_ trees a sweet unguent, the perfume
+of the gum which is burnt at the shrines of Hindu gods.
+
+When they had eaten, Barlow said: "I wonder, Gulab, if this is like
+_kailas_, the heaven those who have passed through many transitions and
+become holy, attain to."
+
+"It is just heaven, my Lord," she replied fervently.
+
+"And to-morrow I will be plodding on through the sands and dust, and
+I'll be all alone.  But you, little girl, you will be making your peace
+with Omkar and dreaming of the greater heaven."
+
+"Yes, it will be that way; the Sahib will not have the tribulation of
+protecting Bootea, and she will be in the protection of Omkar."
+
+There was so much of pathetic resignation in the timbre of the girl's
+voice, for it was half sigh, that Barlow shivered, as if the chilling
+mist of the valley had crept up to the foothills.  Why had he not
+treated her as an alien, kept all interest in abeyance?  His self
+recrimination was becoming a disease, an affliction.
+
+He rose, muttering, "Damn!  I'm like the young wasters that swarm up to
+London from Oxford and get splashed with the girls from the
+theatres--that's what I'm like."
+
+As he strode over to where his horse was tethered, munching his ration
+of grain, Bootea followed him with her eyes, wondering why he had
+broken into English; perhaps he was chanting an evening prayer.
+
+When Barlow came back he fell to wishing that they were at Mandhatta so
+that he would start on the rest of his journey in the morning; he
+dreaded the long evening with the girl.  He could have sat there with
+Elizabeth, although their marriage hovered on the horizon, and talked
+of trivial things: of sport, of shooting; or damned the Executive
+sitting beneath _punkahs_ in offices with windows all closed, far away
+in Calcutta.  Or could have traversed, mentally, leagues of sea and
+rehabilitated past scenes in London.  It would be like talking to a
+brother officer.  But with the Gulab, and the hush and perfume of the
+forest-clad hills, and the gentle glamour of moonlight, his senses
+would smother placid intellectuality; he would be like a toper with a
+bottle at his elbow mocking weak resolve.
+
+Then the girl said something: a shy halting request that set his blood
+galloping: "Sahib, it is not far to Mandhatta--four _kos_, or perhaps
+it is five; would it be unpermitted to suggest that we go there, for
+the moon is beautiful and the road is good."
+
+"All right, girl!" and remembering that he had spoken in English, he
+added, "It will be expedient, for you will there find shelter."
+
+"Yes, Sahib, Guru Swami will be there, and I am known of him; and there
+are places where one may rest."
+
+"I'll tell the driver to hitch up," Barlow declared, rising.
+
+But she laid a detaining hand upon his arm: "Sahib, the sweetest thing
+in all Bootea's life was the time she rode on the horse with him.
+Then, too, the moon, that is the soul of Purusha, smiled upon her.
+Would it be permitted to Bootea just one more happiness, for
+to-morrow--to-morrow--"
+
+The girl turned away, and seemed busy adjusting her gold-embroidered
+jacket.
+
+"So you shall, Gulab," Barlow declared.  And he, too, thought of the
+sweetness of that ride where she lay like a confiding child in his
+arms; and also for him, too, was to-morrow--to-morrow; and for him,
+too, just one more foolish, useless happiness--just a sensuous burying
+of his face in flowers that on the morrow would have shrivelled.
+
+"I'll send the _tonga_ on ahead," he declared, "and we'll just have
+that jolly old farewell ride together, girl--I'd love it."
+
+Now she turned back to him and her face was placid, soft, content, as
+though Mona Lisa had stepped out from the painted canvas, and, now
+embodied, was there listening to the sigh of the night-wind through the
+feathered _sal_ forest.
+
+With ejaculations of "Bap, bap, bap!  _Shabaz_!" and queer gurgling
+clucking of the throat, and a sonorous rumble from the wide, low
+wheels, the driver drove the tonga on into the moonlight.  Barlow had
+saddled his horse and thrown his blanket loosely behind the saddle.
+The air was chilling, but his sheepskin coat would turn its cold
+breath; the blanket was for Bootea.
+
+As he had done once before, his feet in stirrups, he reached down a
+hand and swung the girl up in front of him.  Then he enveloped her in
+the blanket as she nestled against his chest, arms about his waist.
+Her warm body was like a draught of wine and he muttered, "My God!  I
+shouldn't have done this!"  But he knew that he would have had that
+ride if devils had jeered at him from the jungle that lined the road.
+
+As the horse swung along in leisured walking stride, the girl seemed to
+have gone to sleep; her cheek lay against Barlow's shoulder, and he
+could feel the pulsating throb of her heart.  Once a sigh came from her
+lips, but it was like a breath of deep content.  Barlow felt that he
+must talk to the girl; his senses were rampant; he was sitting like the
+lotus-eaters drinking in a deadly intoxication.
+
+But it was Bootea who broke the silence as though she, too, felt
+herself slipping.  She took from beneath her vestment a little bag of
+silk and taking from it a ruby she put it in Barlow's hand, saying:
+"Here is the 'Lamp of Akbar;' it protects and gives power."
+
+"Where did you get this magnificent ruby, girl--it is of great value?"
+Barlow queried in amazement.
+
+"Do you remember, Sahib, when Bootea asked for the turban of Hunsa, the
+time it was stripped from his head, and the paper of message found
+hidden in it?"
+
+"Yes, you said you would take it back to the Bagrees to show them that
+Hunsa was dead."
+
+He could hear the Gulab chuckle.  "That was but the deceit of a woman,
+Sahib; the simple things that a woman says to deceive a clever man.  I
+knew that Hunsa had the ruby sewn in a corner of the turban, and when I
+had taken the stone I burned the turban in the fire, for it was like
+Hunsa--very dirty."
+
+"Where did Hunsa get it?"
+
+"When the Bagrees killed the jewel merchant, that time the Sahib saved
+Bootea, he stole it from the other decoits, hiding it in his turban,
+because the Dewan wanted it."
+
+"But I don't want the stone--I can't take it," Barlow expostulated.
+
+"It is for a service, Sahib.  Nana Sahib will assuredly cause Ajeet to
+be put to death if Bootea does not return to his desire, but the Sahib
+can buy his life with the ruby of great price."
+
+"But if it were stolen would not Nana Sahib demand it, and then kill
+Ajeet?"
+
+"No; it was not his ruby; and to obtain it he will set Ajeet free."
+
+"I'll do that, Gulab," Barlow agreed, and the girl's hand pushed up
+from the folds of the blanket to caress his cheek, and her face nestled
+against his shoulder.
+
+The fingers thrilled him, and, though he had made solemn vow that he
+would ride like an anchorite, he bent his head and kissed her with a
+claiming warmth that caused her to cry out as if in misery.
+
+Presently a whimsical fancy swayed the girl, and she said, "Ayub Alli!"
+
+Barlow laughed, and answered: "Bismillah!"
+
+"So, Afghan, riding thus, it is not disrespect, just that we be of
+different faith, Hindu and Musselman."
+
+"If it were thus, we'd not part at Mandhatta.  And as to the faith,
+thou wouldst become a follower of the Prophet."
+
+"Yes, Bootea would.  If she could go forever thus she would sacrifice
+entrance to _kailas_.  But this is heaven; and perhaps Omkar, when I
+make the sacrifice--I mean offering--will listen to Bootea's prayers,
+and--and--"
+
+"And what, Gulab?" Barlow asked, for the girl turned her face against
+his breast, and her voice had smothered.
+
+Their thoughts were distracted by a din in front that shattered the
+solemn hush of the night.  There was a thunderous beat of tom-toms, the
+shrill rasping screech of conch-shells, and in intervals of subversion
+of instrumental clamour they could hear women's voices, high-pitched,
+singing the _scahailia_ (song of joy).  Loud cries of "Jae, Jae,
+Omkar!" rose in a chorus from a hundred swelling throats.
+
+At a turning around a huge banyan tree they saw the flickering flames
+of torches, and Barlow knew that plodding in front was a large body of
+pilgrims.
+
+He quickened his horse's pace, drawing Bootea closer to hide her from
+curious eyes, and as he passed the Hindus he knew from their scowling
+faces and cries of, "It is a Kaffir--a barbarian!" that they took him
+for a Mussulman, perhaps one of Sindhia's Arabs.
+
+At the head of the procession, carried on a platform gaily decorated
+with gaudy cloths, borne on the shoulders of four men, was a figure of
+Ganesha.  The obese, four-armed, jovial son of Shiva, bobbing in the
+rhythmic stride of his carriers, seemed to nod his elephant head at the
+horseman approvingly, wishing him luck as was the wont of Ganesha.  The
+procession drove in upon Barlow's mind the thought that they were
+nearing Mandhatta; he realised it with a pang of reluctance.  It seemed
+but a matter of just minutes since he had lifted Bootea to the saddle.
+
+It had hurried the Gulab's mind, too, for at another turn where the
+road slid into the valley, bringing to their nostrils the soft perfume
+of _kush-kush_ grass and the savour of _jamun_ that grew luxuriantly on
+the banks of the Narbudda, the Gulab asked: "The Sahib will marry the
+young Memsahib who is at the city of the Peshwa?"
+
+Barlow was startled.  It was like a voice crying out in the night that
+shattered a blissful dream.
+
+"Why do you ask that, Gulab?"
+
+"Because it was said.  And the Missie Baba's heart will be full of the
+Sahib, for he is like a god."
+
+"Is the Gulab jealous of the Missie Baba?" Barlow asked mundanely,
+almost out of confusion.
+
+"No, Sahib, because--because one is not jealous of a princess; because
+that is to question the ways of the gods.  If I had been an Englay and
+he loved me, and the Missie Baba claimed him, Bootea would kill her."
+
+This was said with the simple conviction of a child uttering a weird
+threat, but Barlow shivered.
+
+"And now, Gulab," he persisted, "if you thought I loved you would you
+kill the Missie Baba?"
+
+"No, Sahib, because it is Bootea's fault.  It can't be.  It is
+permitted to Bootea to love the Sahib, but at the shrine Omkar will
+take that sin and all the other sins away when she makes sacrifice--"
+
+"What sacrifice, Gulab?"
+
+"Such as we make to the gods, Sahib."
+
+Then something curious happened.  The girl broke, she clung to Barlow
+convulsively; sobs choked her.
+
+He clasped her tight and laid his cheek against hers soothingly, and
+said, "Gulab, what is it?  Don't go to the Shrine of Omkar.  Come with
+me to your people at Chunda, and if you do not want to remain with them
+I will have it arranged, through the Resident, that the British will
+reward you with protection.  You have done the British Raj a great
+service."
+
+"No, Sahib."  The girl drew herself erect, so that her eyes gazed into
+Barlow's, They were luminous with an intensity of resolve.  "Let Bootea
+speak what is in her heart, and be not offended; it is necessary.
+There is, at the end of the journey the place that is called _jahannam_
+(hell) for Bootea.  The Nana Sahib waits like a tiger crouched by a
+pool at night for the coming of a stag to drink."
+
+"The Resident will protect you against the Mahratta," Barlow declared.
+
+"Bootea could do that," and in her small hand there gleamed in the
+moonlight the sheen of her dagger blade.  She thrust it back into her
+belt.
+
+"What then do you fear, Gulab?" he queried.
+
+"The Sahib."
+
+"_Me_, Gulab?"
+
+"Yes, Khudawand.  To see you and not be permitted to hear your voice,
+nor feel your hand upon my face, would be worse than sacrifice.  Bootea
+would rather die, slip off into death with the goodness, the sweetness
+of to-night upon her soul.  There, where the Sahib would be, Bootea's
+heart would be full of evil, the evil of craving for him.  No, this is
+the end, and Bootea will make offering of thanks--marigolds and a
+cocoanut to Omkar, and sprinkle attar upon his shrine in thankfulness
+for the joy of the Sahib's presence.  It is said!" and the girl nestled
+down against Barlow's breast again as though she had gone to sleep in
+content.
+
+But he groaned inwardly: there was something of dread in his heart, her
+resignation was so deep--suggesting an utter giving up, a helplessness.
+She had named sacrifice; the word rang ominously in his mind, beating
+at his fears.  And yet, what she had said was philosophy--wise; a
+something that had been worded, perhaps differently, for a million
+years; the brave acceptance of Fate's decree--something that always
+triumphed over the weak longings of humans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+Now they could see the wide silver ribbon of Mother Narbudda lying
+serene and placid in the moonlight, in the centre of the river's wide
+flow the gloomy rock embrasures of Mandhatta Island.  Where it towered
+upward in cliffs and coned hills the summit showed the flickering
+lights of many temples, and like the sing of a storm through giant
+trees there floated on the night wind the sound of many voices, and the
+beating of drums, and the imperious call of horns and conch-shells.
+
+They came upon the _tonga_ waiting by the roadside, and Barlow,
+thrusting back the covering from the girl's face said: "Now, Gulab, I
+will lift you down.  We must find a place in the village beyond for you
+to rest to-night; I, too, will remain there and in the morning we will
+make our salaams."
+
+Then he drew her face to his and kissed her.
+
+He slipped from the saddle and lifted the girl down, carrying her in
+his arms to the _tonga_.
+
+As they neared the village that was situated on the flat land that
+swept back from the Narbudda in a wide plain, and nestled against the
+river bank, they were swept into a crowd such as would be encountered
+on a trip to the Derby.  The road was thronged with people, and the
+village itself, from which a bridge reached to the Island of Mandhatta,
+was a town in holiday attire, for to the Hindus the _mela_ of Omkar was
+a union of festivity and devotion.
+
+Both sides of the main street were lined with booths for the sale of
+everything; calicoes from Calicut, where these prints first got their
+name; hammered Benares ware; gold-threaded cotton puggris from Mewar;
+tulwars and khandas from Bhundi.  In some of the little shops, bamboo
+structures that thrust an underlip out into the street, there was Mhowa
+liquor, and _julabis_, and _kabobs_ of goat meat.  Open spaces held
+tiny circuses--abnormal animals and performing goats, and a moon-bear
+on a ring and strap.
+
+The street was full of gossiping men and women and children dodging
+here and there; it was an outing where the _ryot_ (farmer) had escaped
+from his crotched stick of wood that was a plough, and the village
+tradesmen had left his shop, and the servant his service, to feel the
+joyousness of a holiday.  Mendicants were in abundance prowling in
+their ugliness like spirits in a nightmare; some naked, absolute,
+others with but a loin-cloth, their lean shrivelled bodies smeared with
+ashes--sometimes the ashes of the dead--and cow-dung, carrying on their
+arms and foreheads the red and white horizontal bars of Shiva--who was
+Omkar at Mandhatta.  In their hands were either iron-tongs, with loose
+clattering ring, or a yak's tail, or the three-ribbed horn of a
+black-buck.
+
+Some of the _yogis_, perhaps Goswamies that had come from the country
+where Eklinga was the tutelary deity, had their hair braided and woven
+around their foreheads, holding in its fold lotus seeds; beneath the
+tiara of hair a crescent of white on their foreheads.  A flowing yellow
+robe half hid their ash-smeared limbs.  A tall Sannyasi--the most
+ascetic of sects--his lean yellow-robed form supported by a long staff
+at the end of which swung a yellow bag, strode solemnly along with eyes
+fixed on a book, the Bhagavad Gita, muttering, "Aum, to the light of
+earth, the divine light that illumines our souls.  Aum!"
+
+To Barlow it was like a grotesque pantomime with no directing head.
+Nautch girls tripped along laughing and chatting, bracelets jingling,
+and tiny bells at their ankles tinkling musically.  It depressed him;
+it was such a terrible juxtaposition of frivolity and the gloomed
+shadow of idol worship that lay just the bridge's span of the sullen
+Narbudda: the gloomy, broken scraps of the long since deserted forts
+that cut with jagged lines the moonlit sky; and beyond them again the
+many temples with their scowling Brahmin priests, and the shrine
+wherein the god of destruction, Omkar, sat athirst for sacrifice.  He
+shivered as though the white mist that veiled the river crept into his
+marrow.
+
+The Gulab seemed at home amongst these gathered ones.  Two or three
+times she had bade the driver stop his creeping pace, and looking out
+from beneath the curtain had questioned a man or woman.  At last, as
+they were stopped by a wall of people watching the antics of some
+strolling players upon a platform, Bootea spoke to a stout woman who
+was pressed against the opening into the cart by the mob.
+
+"_Lucker khan Bhaina, Bowree_," the Gulab said in a low voice, and the
+woman's eyes took on a startled look for it was a decoit password, and
+the Bowrees were a clan of decoits akin to the Bagrees.  From the woman
+Bootea learned where she could find a good resting place with the
+family of a shop-keeper.  There was no doubt about it, the Bowree woman
+assured her, for the _tonga_ would impress him, and he was one who
+profited from the loot of decoits.
+
+The Gulab was given a place to sleep in the shopkeeper's house that
+extended back from his little shop.  The driver was ordered to return
+in the morning to the Pindari camp.  Barlow was for keeping the
+_tonga_, hoping that perhaps Bootea would change her mind and go on to
+Chunda, but the girl was firm in her determination to end it all at
+Mandhatta.
+
+Before Barlow left her to seek some camping place in hut or serai, and
+food for himself and horse, the girl said: "If the Sahib will delay his
+going to-morrow for a little, Bootea will proceed early to the shrine
+to see the Swami--then she will return here, for she would want to see
+his face once more before the ending."
+
+"I'll wait, Gulab," he acquiesced; "I'll be here at the tenth hour."
+He felt even then an unaccountable chill of their parting, for, many
+being about, he could not take her in his arms to kiss her; but their
+eyes spoke, and the girl's were luminous, and sweet with a look of
+hunger, of pathetic longing, of sublime trust.
+
+As Barlow turned away leading his horse, he muttered over and over,
+"Gad! it's incomprehensible that a Sahib should feel this over a--yes,
+a native woman; it's damnable!"
+
+He reviled himself, declaring that it was harder on the Gulab than on
+him--and he was actually suffering.  It would be better if he swung to
+the saddle and fled from the misery that prolongation but intensified.
+And the girl's brave resignation in giving him up was wonderful, was so
+like her.
+
+Then the sight of Mahratta _sowars_, who, it being Sindhia's territory,
+were a guard to watch the pilgrim throng, flashed him back to a sense
+of duty, his own mission.  But it had not suffered because of Bootea;
+it had benefitted through her; but for her the written message from the
+British would have been lost--stolen by Hunsa, and would have landed in
+Nana Sahib's hands; and he would have been slain as the Patan, killer
+of Amir Khan.
+
+But the Gulab was right; from that time forward should she listen to
+him and go on to Poona, God alone knew where it would lead to--misery.
+It would be utter ruin morally, officially, in a caste way; even in
+time passionate enthusiasm, engendered by her lovableness, dulled,
+would bring utter debasement, degradation of spirit, of man fibre.  It
+was the wisdom of God that entailed upon the union of the white and
+dark-skinned the bar sinister.
+
+Until he slept, wrapped in his blankets on the sand beside his tethered
+horse, Barlow was tortured by this mental inquisition.  Even in his
+troubled sleep there was a nightmare that waked him, panting and
+exhausted, and the remembrance was vivid--Bootea lay beneath the mighty
+paws of a tiger and he was beating hopelessly at the snarling brute
+with a clubbed rifle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+In the morning Captain Barlow underwent a sartorial metamorphosis; he
+attained to the sanctity of a Hindu pilgrim by the purchase of a
+tight-ankled pair of white trousers to replace the voluminous baggy
+ones of a Patan, and a blue shot-with-gold-thread Rajput turban.  He
+shoved the Patan turban with its conical fez in his saddle-bags, and
+wound the many yards of blue material in a rakish criss-cross about his
+shapely head, running a fold or two beneath his chin.  The Patan
+sheepskin coat was left with his horse.
+
+When Bootea came at ten to where Barlow--who was now Jaswant
+Singh--paced up and down with the swagger of a Rajput in front of the
+_bunnia's_ shop, she stood for a little, her eyes searching the crowd
+for her Sahib.  When he laughed, and called softly, "Gulab," her eyes
+almost wept for joy, for not seeing him at once, a dread that he had
+gone had chilled her.
+
+"You see how easy it is, in a good cause, to change one's caste," he
+said.
+
+"With you, Sahib, yes, because you can also change your skin."
+
+There it was again, the indestructible barrier, the pigmented badge.
+It drove the laugh from Barlow's lips.
+
+"Why has the Afghan Musselman become a Hindu?" Bootea asked.
+
+"I have no wish to anger these people who are on a holy pilgrimage by
+going into their temples as a Moslem."
+
+"You are going to the shrine of Omkar?" the Gulab asked aghast.
+
+"Are you--again?" Barlow parried.
+
+"Yes, Sahib, soon."
+
+"I am going with you," Barlow declared.
+
+Bootea expostulated with almost fierce eagerness; with a fervour that
+increased the uneasiness in Barlow's mind.  He had a premonition of
+evil; dread hung on his soul--perhaps born of the dream of a tiger
+devouring the girl.
+
+"The Sahib still has the Akbar Lamp--the ruby?" the girl queried,
+presently.
+
+"I have it safe," he answered, tapping his breast.
+
+"If the Sahib is not going to the shrine Bootea would desire that we
+could go out beyond the village to a _mango tope_ where there are none
+to observe, for she would like to make the final salaams in his
+arms--then nothing would matter."
+
+"Perhaps we had better go anyway," Barlow said eagerly--"though I am
+going over to the shrine with you; for now, being a Hindu, I can pass
+as your brother--and there there would not be opportunity."
+
+The girl turned this over in her mind, then said: "No, we will not go
+to the grove, for Bootea can say farewell to the Sahib in the cloister
+where Swami Sarasvati has a cell for vigils."
+
+Then asking Barlow to wait she went into the house and soon returned
+clothed in spotless white muslin.  He noticed that she had taken off
+all her ornaments, her jewellery.  The bangle of gold that was a
+twisting snake with a ruby head, she pressed upon Barlow, saying: "When
+the Sahib is married to the Englay will he give her this from me as a
+safeguard against evil; and that it may cause her to worship the Sahib
+as a god, even as Bootea does."
+
+The simplicity, the genuine nobleness of this tribute of renunciation,
+hazed Barlow's eyes with a mist--almost tears; she was a strange
+combine of dramatic power and gentle sweetness.
+
+"Now, come, Sahib," she said, "if you insist.  It will not bring misery
+to Bootea but to you."
+
+Barlow strode along beside the girl steeped in ominous misgivings.
+Perhaps his presence at the temple would avert whatever it was, that,
+like evil genii seemed to poison the air.
+
+There was a moving throng of pilgrims that poured along in a joyous
+turbulent stream toward the bridge.  No shadow of the dread god, Omkar,
+gloomed their spirits; they chatted and laughed.  Of those who would
+make devotions the men were stripped to the waist, their limbs draped
+in spotless white.  And the women, on their way to have their sins
+forgiven, were taking final license--the _purdah_ of the veil was
+almost forgotten, for this was permitted in the presence of the god.
+Even their beautifully formed bodies and limbs, the skin fresh
+anointed, gleaming like copper in the sunlight, showed entrancingly,
+voluptuously, with a new-born liberty.
+
+Once, half way of the bridge, a man's voice rang out commandingly,
+calling backward, admonishing some one to hurry, crying, "It is the
+_kurban_!"
+
+Barlow started; the _kurban_ meant a human sacrifice.  He looked at
+Bootea--he could have sworn her head had drooped, and that she
+shivered.  The girl must have sensed his thoughts, for she turned her
+eyes up to his, but they held nothing of fear.
+
+Beyond the bridge they passed across a lower level, jungle clad with
+delicate bamboos and dhak, and sweet-scented shrubs, and clusters of
+gorgeous oleanders.  The way was thronged with white-clothed figures
+that seemed like wraiths, ghosts drifting back to the cavern of the
+Destroyer.
+
+Then they commenced the ascent following the bed of a stream that had
+cut a chasm through black trap-rock, leaving jagged cliffs.  And the
+persistent jungle, ever encroaching on space, had out-posts of champac
+and wild mango, their giant roots, like the arms of an octopus, holding
+anchorage in clefts of the rock.  And from the limbs above floated down
+the scolding voices of _lungoor_, the black-faced grey-whiskered
+monkeys, who rebuked the intrusion of the earth-dwellers below.  Where
+the path lay over rocks it was worn smooth and slippery by naked feet,
+the feet of pilgrims for a thousand years.  On the right the mouth of a
+deep cave had been walled up by masonry.  Within, so the legend ran,
+the High Priest of Mandhatta, centuries before, had imprisoned the
+goddess Kali to stop a pestilence, making vow to offer to Bhairava, her
+son, a yearly human sacrifice.  Higher up, approaching the plateau
+where were the ruins of a thousand gorgeous shrines, both sides of the
+pathway were lined by mendicants who sat cross-legged, in front of them
+a little mat for the receipt of alms--cowries, pice, silver; the
+mendicants muttering incessantly "_Jae, Jae, Omkar_!"  (Victory to
+Omkar).
+
+In front of the temple within which sat the god, was a conical black
+stone daubed with red, the Linga, the generative function of Siva, and
+before it, the symbol of reproduction, women made offering of
+cocoanuts, and sweets, and garlands of flowers,--generally
+marigolds,--and prayed for the bestowal of a son; even their postures,
+carried away as they were by desire, showing a complete abandon to the
+sex idea.  A Brahmin priest sat cross-legged upon a stone platform
+repeating in a sing-song cadence prayers, and from somewhere beyond a
+deep-toned bell boomed out an admonishing call.
+
+Holy water from the sacred Narbudda was poured into the two jugs each
+pilgrim carried and sealed by the Brahmins, who received, without
+thanks, stoically, as a matter of right, a tribute of silver.
+
+Towering eighty feet above the temple spire was a cliff, and from a
+ledge near its top a white flag fluttered idly in the lazy wind.  It
+was the death-leap, the ledge from which the one of the human sacrifice
+to Omkar leapt, to crash in death beside the Linga.
+
+Almost without words Barlow and the girl had toiled up the ascent,
+scarcely noticed of the throng; and now Bootea said: "Sahib, remain
+here, I go to speak to the High Priest."
+
+Barlow saw her speak into the open portal of one of the cloister
+chambers that surrounded the temple, then disappear within.  After a
+time she came forth, and approaching him said, "The Priest would speak
+with thee, Sahib; for because of many things I have told him who thou
+art, though mentioning not the nature of the mission, for that is not
+permitted."
+
+Barlow's foreboding of evil was now a certainty as he strode forward.
+
+The priest rose at the Captain's entrance.  He was a fine specimen of
+the true Brahmin, the intellectual cult, that through successive
+generations of mental sway and homage from the millions of untutored
+ones had become conscious of its power.  Tall, spare of form, with wide
+high forehead and full expressive eyes, almost olive skin, Barlow felt
+that the Swami was quite unlike the begging yogis and mendicants; a man
+who was by the close alliance of his intellect to the essence of
+created things a Sannyasi.  Larger in his conceptions than the yogis
+who misconstrued the Vedas and the Law of Manu as imposing an
+association of filth--smeared ashes, and uncombed, uncleansed hair--as
+a symbol of piety and abnegation of spirit, a visible assertion that
+the body had passed from regard--that it, with its sensualities and
+ungodly cravings, had become subservient to the spirit, the soul.
+
+Swami Sarasvati was austere; Barlow felt that he dwelt on a plane where
+the trivialities of life were but pestilential insects, to be endured
+stoically in a physical way, with the mind freed from their irritation
+grasping grander things; life was a wheel that revolved with the
+certainty of celestial bodies.
+
+It was so curious, and yet so unfailing, that Bootea, with her
+hyper-intuition should have found, selected this spiritual tutor from
+the horde of gurus, byragies, and yogis that were connecting links
+between the tremendous pantheon of grotesque gods and the common
+people.  Here she had come to an intellectual, though no doubt an
+ascetic; one possessed of fierce fervour in his ministry.  There would
+be no swaying of that will force developed to the keen flexible
+unflawed temper of a Damascus blade.
+
+Now the priest was saying in the _asl_ (pure) Hindustani of the
+high-bred Brahmin: "The Sahib confers honour upon Sri Swami Sarasvati
+by this visit, for the woman has related that he is of high caste
+amongst the Englay and has been trusted by the Raj with a mission.
+That he comes in the garb of my people is consideration for it avoids
+outrage to their feelings.  I am glad to know that the Englay are so
+considerate."
+
+"I came, Swami, because of regard for Bootea for she is like a
+princess."
+
+The priest shot a quick, searching look into the eyes of the speaker,
+then he asked, "And what service would the Sahib ask?"
+
+The question caught Captain Barlow unaware; he had not formulated
+anything--it had all been nebulous, this dread.  He hesitated, fearing
+to voice that which perhaps did not exist in the minds of either the
+priest or Bootea.
+
+The girl perceived the hesitancy and spoke rapidly in a low voice to
+the priest.
+
+"Captain Sahib," the Swami began, "I see that thy heart is inclined to
+the woman, and it is to be admired, for she is, as thou thinkest, like
+a flower of the forest.  But also, Captain Sahib, thy heart is the
+heart of a soldier, of a brave man, the light of valour is in thine
+eyes, in thy face, and I would ask thee to be brave, and instead of
+being cast in sorrow because of what I am going to tell thee, thou must
+realise that it is for the good of the woman whose face is in thy
+heart.  To-day she insures to her soul a place in kattas, the heaven of
+Siva, the abiding place of Brahm, the Creator of all that is."
+
+Barlow felt himself reel at this sudden confirmation of his fears--the
+blow.  The cry "_Kurban_" that he had heard on the bridge was a
+reality--a human sacrifice.
+
+"God!" he cried in a voice of anguish, "it can't be.  Young and
+beautiful and good, to die--it's wrong.  I forbid such a cruel, wanton
+sacrifice of a sweet life."
+
+The Swami, taking a step toward the door, swept his long thin arm with
+a gesture that embraced the thousands beyond.
+
+"Captain Sahib," he said solemnly, "if thou wert to raise thy voice in
+anger against this holy, soul-redeeming observance thou wouldst be torn
+to pieces; not even I could stop them if insult were offered to Omkar.
+And, besides, the Englay Raj would call thee accursed for breeding hate
+in the hearts of the Hindus through the sacrilege of an insult to the
+High Priest of the Temple of Omkar.  This is the territory of the
+Mahrattas, and the English have no authority here."
+
+Barlow knew that he was helpless.  Even if there were jurisdiction of
+the British, one against thousands of religious fanatics would avail
+nothing.
+
+The priest saw the torture in the man's face, and continued: "The woman
+has told me much.  Her heart is so with thee that it is already dead.
+Thou canst not take her to thy people, for the living hell is even
+worse than the hell beyond.  If thou lovest the woman glory in her
+release from pain of spirit, from the degradation of being
+outcast--that she judges wisely, and there is not upon her soul the sin
+of taking her own life, for if she went with thee, proud and high-born
+as she is, it would come to that, Sahib--thou knowest it.  There are
+things that cannot be said by me concerning the woman; vows having been
+taken in the sanctity of a temple."
+
+A figment of the rumour Barlow had heard that Bootea was Princess
+Kumari floated through his mind, but that did not matter; Bootea as
+Bootea was the sweetest woman he had ever known.  It must be that she
+had filled his heart with love.
+
+Again Bootea spoke in a low voice to the priest, and he said: "Sahib, I
+go forth for a little, for there are matters to arrange.  I see yonder
+the sixteen Brahmins who, according to our rites, assemble when one is
+to pass at the Shrine of Omkar to _kailas_."
+
+His large luminous eyes rested with tolerant placidity upon the face of
+this man whom he must consider, according to his tenets, as a creature
+antagonistic to the true gods, and said, in his soft, modulated voice:
+"Thou art young, Sahib, and full of the life force which is essential
+to the things of the earth--thou art like the blossom of the _mhowa_
+tree that comes forth upon bare limbs before the maturity of its
+foliage, it is then, as thou art, joyous in the freshness of awaking
+life.  But life means eternity, the huge cycle that has been since
+Indra's birth.  Life here is but a step, a transition from condition to
+condition, and the woman, by one act of sacrifice, attains to the
+blissful peace that many livings of reincarnated body would not
+achieve.  It is written in the law of Brahm that if one sacrifices his
+life, this phase of it, to Omkar, who is Siva, even though he had slain
+a Brahmin he shall be forgiven, and sit in heaven with the _Gandharvas_
+(angels).  But it is also written that whosoever turns back in terror,
+each step that he takes shall be equivalent to the guilt of killing a
+Brahmin."
+
+The priest's voice had risen in sonorous cadence until it was
+compelling.
+
+Bootea trembled like a wind-wavered leaf.
+
+To Barlow it was horrible, the mad infatuation of a man prostrate
+before false gods, idols, a rabid materialism.  That one, to fall
+crushed and bleeding from the dizzy height of the ledge of sacrifice
+upon a red-daubed stone representation of the repulsive emblem, could
+thus wipe out the deadly sin of murder, was, even spiritually,
+impossible.
+
+The priest, his soul submerged by the sophistry of his faith, passed
+from the gloomed cloister to the open sunlight.
+
+And Barlow, conscious of his helplessness unless Bootea would now yield
+to his entreaties and forswear the horrible sacrifice, turned to the
+girl, his face drawn and haggard, and his voice, when he spoke,
+vibrating tremulously from the pressure of his despair.  He held out
+his arms, and Bootea threw herself against his breast and sobbed.
+
+"Come back to Chunda with me, Gulab,"  Barlow pleaded.
+
+"No, Sahib," she panted, "it cannot be."
+
+"But I love you, Bootea," he whispered.
+
+"And Bootea loves the Sahib," and her eyes, as she lifted her face,
+were wonderful.  "There," she continued, "the Sahib could not make the
+_nika_ (marriage) with Bootea, both our souls would be lost.  But it is
+not forbidden,--even if it were and was a sin, all sins will be
+forgiven Bootea before the sun sets,--and if the Sahib permits it
+Bootea will wed herself now to the one she loves.  Hold me in your
+arms--tight, lest I die before it is time."
+
+And as Barlow pressed the girl to him, fiercely, crushing her almost,
+she raised her lips to his, and they both drank the long deep draught
+of love.
+
+Then the Gulab drew from his arms and her face was radiant, a soft
+exultation illumined her eyes.
+
+"That is all, Sahib," she said.  "Bootea passes now, goes out to
+_kailas_ in a happy dream.  Go, Sahib, and do not remain below for this
+is so beautiful.  You must ride forth in content."
+
+She took him by the arm and gently led him to the door.
+
+And from without he could hear a chorus of a thousand voices, its
+burden being, "The _Kurban_!"
+
+Barlow turned, one foot in the sunshine and one in the cloister's
+gloom, and kissed Bootea; and she could feel his hot tears upon her
+cheek.
+
+Once more he pleaded, "Renounce this dreadful sacrifice."
+
+But the girl smiled up into his face, saying, "I die happily, husband.
+Perhaps Indra will permit Bootea to come back in spirit to the Sahib."
+
+The High Priest strode to the entrance of the cloister, his eyes
+holding the abstraction of one moving in another world; he seemed
+oblivious of the Englishman's presence as he said:
+
+"Come forth, ye who seek _kailas_ through Omkar."
+
+As Barlow staggered, almost blind, over the stony path from the
+cloister, he saw the group of sixteen Brahmins, their foreheads and
+arms carrying the white bars of Siva.
+
+Then Bootea was led by the priest down to the cold merciless stone
+Linga, where she, at a word from the priest, knelt in obeisance, a
+barbaric outburst of music from horn and drum clamouring a salute.
+
+When Bootea arose to her feet the priest tendered her some _mhowa_
+spirit in a cocoanut shell, but the girl, disdaining its stimulation,
+poured it in a libation upon the Linga.
+
+From the amphitheatre of the enclosing hills thirty thousand voices
+rose in one thundering chorus of "Jae, jae, Omkar!" and, "To Omkar the
+_Kurban_!"
+
+Many pressed forward, mad fanaticism in their eyes, and held out at
+arm's length toward the girl bracelets and ornaments to be touched by
+her fingers as a beneficence.
+
+But Swami Sarasvati waved them back, and turning to Bootea tendered
+her, with bowed head, the _pan supari_ (betel nut in a leaf) as an
+admonition that the ceremony had ceased, and there was nothing left but
+the sacrifice.
+
+As the girl with firm step turned to the path that led up through shrub
+and jungle growth to the ledge where fluttered the white flag, a tumult
+of approbation went up from the multitude at her brave devotion.  Then
+a solemn hush enwrapped the bowl of the hills, and the eyes of the
+thousands were fixed upon the jutting shelf of rock.
+
+A dirge-like cadence, a mighty gasp of, "Ah, Kuda!" sounded as a slim
+figure, white robed, like a wraith, appeared on the ledge, and from her
+hand whirled down to the rocks below a cocoanut, cast in sacrifice;
+next a hand-mirror, its glass shimmering flickers of gold from the
+sunlight.
+
+For five seconds the white-clothed figure disappeared in the shrouding
+bushes; men held their breath, and women gasped and clutched at their
+throats as if they choked.
+
+Then they saw her again, arms high held as though she reached for God.
+And as the white-draped, slender form came hurtling through the air
+women swooned and men closed their eyes and shuddered.
+
+An Englishman, clothed as a Hindu, lay prone on his face on the
+hillside sobbing, the dry leaves drinking in his tears, cursing himself
+for a sin that was not his.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Caste, by W. A. Fraser
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CASTE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 16752.txt or 16752.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/5/16752/
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/16752.zip b/16752.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6547dc9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/16752.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c608ba0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #16752 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16752)