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Updated: May 8, 2025
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."
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.
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.
"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?"
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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."
"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."
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