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Updated: May 7, 2025
"Well but " The situation hardly lent itself to such a discussion; he had the babu first to dispose of. Amber resumed his cross-examination. "Who are you?" he demanded. "And what is your business in this place?" The fat yellowish-brown face was distorted by a fugitive grimace of deprecation. "Hazoor, I am Behari Lal Chatterji, solicitor, of the Inner Temple." "Well? And your business here?"
Those whom the Voice calleth are not led to the Gateway by their noses." "But," Amber persisted, "suppose they won't go?" "Then, hazoor, doth the Council of the Hand sit in judgment upon them." The significance was savagely obvious, but Amber merely laughed. "And the Hand strikes, I presume?" Salig Singh nodded.
"Get up," he said; "get up and stand over there by the wall and don't be a silly ass." "Hazoor!" There was reproach in Salig Singh's accents; but he obeyed, rising and retreating to the further wall, there to hold himself at attention.
"Aye, hazoor." "And what next?" "I am to wait to conduct you back to your place of rest." "Um-m. You are, eh?" Amber, doubtful, tried the stone again; it was substantial enough; only the boat rocked. He struck a match; the short-lived flame afforded him a feeble, unsatisfactory impression of a long, narrow, vaulted chamber, whereof the floor was half water, half stone.
"It'll never be shut on me alone. We'll leave together, you and I, if we both go out feet first." He lifted the pistol and took the measure of the man, not in any spirit of bravado but with absolute sincerity. "I trust I make my meaning plain?" "Most clear, hazoor." The other showed his teeth in an appreciative smile.
Am I to be blamed for taking this for a sign of thy repentance?... Hazoor, the Body is patient, the Will benignant and long-suffering. Still is the Gateway open." "Is that what you wanted to tell me, Salig Singh?" "What else? Am I to believe thee a madman, weary of life, that thou shouldst venture hither with a heart hardened against the Will of the Body?
"Interesting," Amber interrupted brusquely, "if true. Is this what you wanted to show me?" "Nay, hazoor, not this alone. Come."
"I know naught of your 'Voice' or its mouthpiece; but certainly you are no child. You are either mad, or insolent or a fool to be kicked." And in exasperation Amber took a step toward the man as if to carry into effect his implied threat. Alarmed, the babu cringed and retreated a pace; then, suddenly, raising an arm, indicated the girl. "Hazoor!" he cried. "Be quick the woman faints!"
Then he found himself looking into the muzzle of Amber's weapon, and became apparently rigid with terror. "Sahib !" "Make no outcry, dog, and tell me no lies, if you value your contemptible life. Why did you drug me at whose instance?" "Sahib!..." "Answer me quickly, son of vipers!" "By Dhola Baksh, hazoor, I am innocent!
I landed, seeking shelter from the wind. If your talk was not for mine ears, remember that you used a tongue I did not know." "So you were listening!" Amber calmed himself. "Never mind. Where's your boat?" "I thought to hide it in the rushes. If the hazoor will be patient for a little moment ..." The native dropped down from the bund and disappeared into the reedy tangle of the lake shore.
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