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"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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
"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 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.
"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.
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.
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