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With a wry face at the splintered trap-door, and a shrug of his shoulders of the kind he used when clients begged in tears for extra time in which to pay, Mukhum Dass looked about for Chamu with a sort of half-notion of giving him a small bribe. But Chamu was not to be seen.
He was sitting in the shade, chewing an unlit cigar, day-dreaming about water-pressure and dams and gallons-per-hour, when Gungadhura's note came and he ordered the dog-cart at once, rather glad of something to keep him occupied. As he drove away he did not see Mukhum Dass lurking near the small gate, as it was not intended that he should.
"I? Your title-deed? I know nothing of it. What title-deed?" Mukhum Dass cut expostulation short, and denied himself the pleasure of further threatening. "See. Here is a letter. Read it, and then hand me over my title-deed!" "Ah! That is different?" said Sita Ram, pocketing Yasmini's letter, for precaution's sake. "Wait here while I bring it!"
The trembling Chamu was led into a room where an ink-pot stood open on a desk, and watched narrowly while he made a thumb-mark and scratched a signature. Then: "Take the money and pay thy puppy's debt with it. Afterward beat the boy. And see to it," Yasmini advised, "that Mukhum Dass gives a receipt, lest he claim the debt a second time!"
"Truly, heavenborn. One son, who grows into a man the treasure of my old heart." "A gambler!" "A young man, heavenborn, who feels his manhood now and then gay now and then foolish " "A budmash!" "Nay, an honest one!" "Who borrowed from Mukhum Dass the money-lender, making untrue promises?" "Nay, the money was to pay a debt." "A gambling debt, and he lied about it."
He hardly dared seize Mukhum Dass or have him robbed, because the money-lender was registered as a British subject, which gave him full right to be extortionate in any state he pleased, with protection in case of interference. He could rob Dick Blaine with better prospect of impunity. Suddenly he decided to throw caution to the winds.
"Peace, woman!" "There is no peace where priests are," she retorted in the same sweet- humored voice. "I am engaged in war, not honey-gathering. I have lied sufficient times today to Mukhum Dass to need ten priests, if I believed in them or were afraid to lie! The shroff will come to ask about his title-deed.
I think I can't swear, because he didn't let me hold it, but I think that tube in Gungadhura's hand was the very identical one that I hid under the cellar floor that Mukhum Dass stole and that the maharajah now carries in his pocket. This map has blood on it. What's the inference?" He filled his pipe and smoked reflectively.
The priest told the god, and the god told a certain one to whom the finder brought the paper, asking a reward. That person holds the paper now as security for silence!" "It is against the law to keep my paper!" "The law catches whom it can, Mukhum Dass, letting all others go, like a python after monkeys in the tree-tops!" "From whom am I to get my paper for the lawsuit at the proper time?"
Mukhum Dass the money-lender has been foully murdered, struck down by a knife from behind by some one who relieved him of his money. Either a case of simply robbery, or else " "Or else what?" Colonel Willoughby de Wing screwed home his monocle. "That's as obvious as twice two. That rascal Mukhum Dass was bound to die violently sooner or later.
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