United States or Malawi ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
A minute or so later he noticed that at a sign from Rewa Gunga a woman left the great window place and spirited the knife away. "May I have a sheet of paper?" he asked, for he knew that another fight for his self-command was due. Rewa Gunga gave an order, and a maid brought him scented paper on a silver tray. He drew out his own fountain pen then and made ready.
The Afridi's eyes furtively sought Rewa Gunga's and found no aid there. Watching the Rangar less furtively, but even less obviously, King was aware that his eyes were nearly closed, as if they were not interested. The fingers that clasped his knee drummed on it indifferently, seeing which King allowed himself to smile. "Never mind," he told Ismail. "It is no matter.
He recognized the same strange scent that had been wafted from behind Yasmini's silken hangings in her room in Delhi. As he unfolded the note it was not sealed he found time for a swift glance at Rewa Gunga's face. The Rangar seemed interested and amused. "Dear Captain King," the note ran, in English. "Kindly be quick to follow me, because there is much talk of a lashkar getting ready for a raid.
"Ah!" said King. "You have my leave to depart out of earshot." Then he turned on Rewa Gunga. "Whatever the truth of all this," he said quietly, "I suppose it means she has done what there was to do in Delhi?" "Sahib, trust her! Does a tigress hunt where no watercourses are, and where no game goes to drink? She follows the sambur!" "You are positive she has started for the North?"
The gold bracelet Rewa Gunga had given him gleamed in the pale moonlight. "May God be with thee!" boomed all five men together. King jumped to his feet so suddenly that all five gave way in front of him, and Darya Khan brought his rifle to the port. "Hast thou never seen me before?" he demanded, seizing Ismail by the shoulders and staring straight into his eyes. "Nay, I never saw thee!"
"I have heard that the 'Heart of the Hills' is there," King answered. "Is the 'Heart of the Hills' a treasure house?" Rewa Gunga laughed. "Ask her, sahib! Perhaps she will tell you! Perhaps she will let you see! Who knows? She is a woman of resource and unexpectedness Let her women dance for you a while." King nodded. Then he got up and laid the knife back on the little table.
I shall wait for you in Khinjan, whither my messenger shall show the way. Please let him keep his rifle. Trust him, and Rewa Gunga and my thirty whom you brought with you. The messenger's name is Darya Khan. "Your servant, "Ysamini." He passed the note to Courtenay, who read it and passed it back. "Are you the messenger who is to show this sahib the road to Khinjan?" he asked. "Aye!"
So, by rapid stages he developed into a native hakim by creed a converted Hindu, like Rewa Gunga, one of the men who practise yunani, or modern medicine, without a license and with a very great deal of added superstition, trickery and guesswork. "I wouldn't trust you with a ha'penny!" announced his brother when he had done. "Really? As good as all that?" "The part to a T."
In that case, especially supposing her to have received his ultimatum on the mullah's behalf before sending Rewa Gunga with the dagger, she must consider him at least dangerous. Could she be afraid? If so her game was lost already! Perhaps she saw her own peril.
In a moment he imagined a whole picture, as it might have been in a crystal, of himself trapped and made to don the Roman's armor and forced to pose to the savage "Hills' or fooled into posing to them as her lover, while Rewa Gunga lurked behind the scenes and waited for the harvest in the end. And what kind of harvest?
Word Of The Day