Part 18 (2/2)
”Yes, Sahib, for he did not find me when he went to the camp, and I did not go there. But now he would betray the Sahibs, that is why I have brought back the paper of protection.”
”Will they kill Ajeet?” Barlow asked.
”I will tell the Sahib what is,” the girl answered, drawing her _sari_ over her curled-in feet, and leaning one arm on Barlow's chair. ”The decoity that was committed last night was, as Ajeet feared, because of treachery on the part of the Dewan. I will tell it all, though it might be thought a treachery to the decoits. As to being false to one's own clan Ajeet is, because he is a Bagree--but I am not.”
Barlow pondered over this statement. The girl had mystified him--that is as to her breeding. Sometimes she spoke in the first person and again in the third person, like so many natives, as if her language had been picked up colloquially. But then the use of the third person when she used Bootea instead of a nominative p.r.o.noun might be due to a cultured deference toward a Sahib.
”I thought you were not of these people--you are of high caste, Bootea,” he said presently.
He heard the girl gasp, and looking quickly into her eyes saw that they were staring as if in fright.
For a s.p.a.ce of a few seconds she did not answer; then she said, and Barlow felt her voice was being held under control by force of will: ”I am Bootea, one in the care of Ajeet Singh. That is the present, Sahib, and the past--” She touched the iron bracelet on her arm, and looked into Barlow's eyes as if she asked him to bury the past.
”Sorry, girl--forgive me,” he said.
”Ajeet has told why the men were brought--for what purpose?”
”Yes, Gulab; to kill Amir Khan.”
”And when they refused to go on this mission, the Dewan, to get them in his power, connived with Hunsa to make the decoity so that their lives would be forfeit, then if the Dewan punished them for not going the Raja of Karowlee could not make trouble. Hunsa told the Dewan that if I were sent to dance before Amir Khan, some of the men going as musicians and actors, the Chief would fall in love with me, and that I could betray him to those who would kill him; that he would come to my tent at night un.o.bserved--because he has a wife with him--and that Hunsa would creep into the tent and kill him as he slept; then we would escape.”
Barlow sprang to his feet and paced the floor; then he plumped into the chair again, saying: ”What an unholy scheme, even for India. Gad! how I wish I'd killed the brute when I had the chance.”
”I did not know that Hunsa had proposed this--neither did Ajeet; for they wanted to get him in their power through the decoity so that if he refused permission he might be killed. And now Ajeet is trapped through the decoity and Bootea is going to the Pindari camp.”
”You're not going to betray Amir Khan, have him murdered!” Barlow cried, aghast at the villainy, at the thought that one so sweet could be forced to complicity in such a ghastly crime.
”No, Sahib, to _save_ his life, for if I do not go now Ajeet will be killed, and all the others put in prison because of the decoity. Worse will happen Bootea,--she will be placed in the seraglio of Nana Sahib.”
”d.a.m.n it! they can't do that!” Barlow exclaimed angrily. ”I'll stop that.”
”No, the Sahib can't; and he has a mission, he is not of the service of protecting Bootea.”
”You can't save Amir Khan's life unless you betray the Bagrees to him?”
”Yes, Sahib, I can. Perhaps the Chief will like Bootea, and will listen to what she says. Men such as brave warriors always treat Bootea not as a _nautchni_ so I will ask him not to come to the tent at night because of ill repute. Hunsa will not be able to slay him unless it is a trap on my part to get him from the watching eyes of his men.
If Hunsa becomes suspicious, and there is real danger, I will threaten that I will expose him to the Chief. If we come back because we have failed in our mission, having tried to succeed, it will not be like refusing to go; and perhaps there will be mercy shown.”
”Mercy!” Barlow sneered; ”Nana Sahib knows nothing of mercy, he's a tiger.”
”But if I refuse to go another _nautchni_ will be sent, perhaps more beautiful than I am, and she would betray the Chief, and perhaps all would be killed.”
”By Jove! you're some woman, you're magnificent--you're like a Rajputni princess.”
A slim hand was placed on Barlow's wrist and the girl said, ”Sahib, I am just Bootea,--please, please!”
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