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The khansamah would appear to be the only functionary in residence until the hour of departure draws near, when a whole party of underlings chowkidars, bheesties, and sweepers appear from nowhere in particular; and the lordly traveller, having presented them with about twopence apiece, rolls off along the dusty white road, leaving the khansamah and his myrmidons salaaming on the verandah.
Amber came to with a start and found himself sitting up on the edge of the charpoy, with a dreamy impression that two people had been standing over him and had just left the room, escaping by way of the khansamah's quarters. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and went out to remonstrate vigorously with the khansamah.
I'm not a khansamah, you know. Perhaps you frighten him. You should never frighten a servant. He loses his head. It's very bad policy. CAPT. G. He's so awf'ly stupid. MISS T. Then you should explain the dinner, dish by dish. CAPT. G. But I can't speak the vernacular. CAPT. G. I have, but I don't seem to be any the wiser. Are you? MISS T. I never passed the Higher Standard.
I didn't mean that. I wasn't thinking of mou eggs for an instant. I mean salt. Won't you have some sa sweets? I wish Mamma would come. By Jove! She doesn't look half bad when she colours up like that. MISS T. No, I made these myself. What are they like? CAPT. G. These! De-licious. How d'you make them? I can't get my khansamah to understand the simplest thing beyond mutton and fowl. MISS T. Yes?
I went into the next room and the daylight streamed through the open door. I was immensely brave. I would, at that hour, have played Black Pool with the owner of the big Black Pool down below. "Has this place always been a dâk-bungalow?" I asked. "No," said the khansamah. "Ten or twenty years ago, I have forgotten how long, it was a billiard room." "A how much?"
The Virginian remained long in rapt wondering contemplation of it, until the wind blowing across the waters had chilled him to the point of shivering; when he turned indoors to his bed. But he was to have little rest that night. The khansamah who attended him had hardly turned low his light when Amber was disturbed by the noise of an angry altercation in the compound.
If I had encouraged him the khansamah would have wandered all through Bengal with his corpse. I did not go away as soon as I intended. I stayed for the night, while the wind and the rat and the sash and the window-bolt played a ding-dong "hundred and fifty up." Then the wind ran out and the billiards stopped, and I felt that I had ruined my one genuine, hall-marked ghost story.
There are spare horses led by grooms, and watermen and water-carriers march alongside their bullocks. Among the miscellaneous concourse appears the head-servant, or khansamah, mounted generally on some steed discarded by his master, while his inferiors either walk on foot, or get a lift in a hackery, or on the back of a camel; but all trudge along with cheerfulness, and alacrity.
Frequently three or four visitors would arrive unannounced for dinner; the house was always "wide open." Whisky, brandy and beer were always on the sideboard, and in my absence the bearer or khansamah was expected, as a matter of course, to offer refreshments to all comers.
A khansamah or cook provides food and liquor at a fixed and reasonable rate.
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