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"Pir Bakhs," he said to the head of them all, the butler, "tell me all you know. Your mistress is dead. Who is responsible?" The butler came forward and fell at his master's feet with clasped hands. "Lord of the Earth, I know nothing but this. At five all was quiet in the house, and our mistress sat in the garden singing. Then came to the door two runners with a palanquin.
Hamilton listened in perfect silence. The man's face was lined with grief, the tears rolled in streams down his livid cheeks. A wail went up from the other servants at his words. Hamilton and his mistress were their idols, and his grief was very real to themselves. Hamilton stretched out his hand to the trembling man with a benign gesture. "Pir Bakhs, I believe you.
My cousin tells me the compound is very large; the Sahib there kept four malis; very fine garden, many English roses there." "English roses I do not care for, Pir Bakhs," returned Hamilton with a melancholy smile. "The roses of the East are far fairer to me." The butler bowed with his hand to his forehead. He took his master's speech as a gracious compliment to his country.
"Could you really do all that, Pir Bakhs?" he asked; "and can you assure me that the house is a good one, and has the compound been well kept up?" "The house is about the same as this, but not quite so large. It is in the oasis of Deira, across the desert. The Sahib knows how well the palms grow there.
As soon as his dinner was disposed of, and all his other servants had retired from the room, Hamilton called his butler, Pir Bakhs, to him, and held a long conference with that intelligent and trustworthy individual.
Hamilton turned to his servant with a pleased smile on his handsome, animated face. "You are an artist, Pir Bakhs, and a sort of magician, to do all this in twelve hours." Pir Bakhs bowed and salaamed by the door, his well-formed polished face wreathed in many smiles.
When to-night Pir Bakhs was honoured by his confidence, the servant's whole will and all his keen energies rose with delight to serve his master. After he had listened in silence to Hamilton's wishes, he proceeded to make himself master of the whole scheme, detail by detail. "The Sahib wishes a very beautiful bungalow far out, away from the city?
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