Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 24, 2025
Chunerbutty rushed forward. He was evidently greatly agitated. "Oh, Major Dermot! Major Dermot! Help! Help!" he cried excitedly. "A terrible thing has happened. Miss Daleham has been carried off by a party of Bhuttia raiders." "Carried off? By Bhuttias?" exclaimed the soldier. "When?" He made the elephant kneel and slipped off to the ground. "Barely two hours ago," replied the engineer.
By this lofty title are designated the members of the Indian Civil Service by lesser mortals, such as army officers who in return are contemptuously termed "brainless military popinjays" by the exalted caste. Their greeting over, Noreen introduced Chunerbutty to Ida, who nodded frigidly and then turned her back on him.
You are clever. You know the customs of these English. You have often told me how you did as you wished with the white women in England." "That is very different. It is easy there," and Chunerbutty smiled at pleasant memories. "There the women are shameless, and they prefer us to their own colour. And the men are not jealous. They are proud that their daughters and sisters should know us."
But he had faith in the Dewan, and the pledge of the great political party in England was reassuring. Admitted to the presence of the Rajah, Chunerbutty found him reclining languidly on a pile of soft cushions on the floor of a tawdrily-decorated room. The walls were crowded with highly-coloured chromos of Hindu gods and badly-painted indecent pictures.
Among the other out-of-date customs and silly superstitions that the younger Chunerbutty boasted of having freed himself from, were the respect and regard due to parents usually deep-rooted in all races of India, and indeed of the East generally.
But only the two women and Daleham followed Chunerbutty as he led the way to a table at the far end of the room. There were about twenty English guests altogether, eight or nine of whom were from the district in which Malpura was situated, the Rices among them.
He filled another glass and emptied it before continuing. "But, I tell you, I want this girl. I must have her. You must get her for me. Can you not carry her off and bring her here? You can have all the money you want to bribe any one. You said there are only two white men on the garden. I will send you a hundred soldiers." Chunerbutty looked alarmed.
Indeed her best friends, all except Payne, seemed to have agreed to ignore her. Mrs. Rice, however, was even sweeter in her manner than usual when she spoke to the girl. "Where is Mr. Chunerbutty today, dear?" she asked after lunch from where she sat on the verandah beside Dermot. Noreen was standing further along it with Payne, watching the play on the tennis-court in front of the club house.
It was at Chunerbutty's suggestion and with an introduction from him that Fred had sought for and obtained employment in the tea company, and as a result the young Englishman had ever since felt in the Bengali's debt. He inspired his sister with the same belief, and in consequence Noreen always endeavoured to show her gratitude to Chunerbutty by frank friendliness.
When she was lost to sight in the crowd of dancers he turned to Chunerbutty and seized his arm with a grip that made the engineer wince. "She is more beautiful than I thought," he muttered. "O you fools! You fools, who have failed me! But I shall get her yet." He licked his dry lips and went on: "Let us go! Let us go from here! I am parched. I want liquor. I want women."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking