Part 2 (1/2)

The flutes in the ailed about hts, and the sandal-smoke, and the expectant silence e had its ho her feet and every sinuous muscle as no other woman in all India ever did

Men say that Yasmini is partly Russian, and that may be true, for she speaks Russian fluently Russian or not, the members of the Russian ballet are the only others in the world who share her art Certainly, she keeps in touch with Russia, and knows oes on beyond India's northern frontier She nifies the whole into a ht expressed the fascinationIt is her added gift of song that uages, and besides the love-songs that come southward from the hills, she knows all the interminable ballads of the South and the Central Provinces But when, as that evening, she is at her best, s of her ownthat night of the winds of the world which, she claih others say her sources of information speak more distinctly

It see and dance alike, and that the hillmen and beyond-the-hills-men, who sat back-to- the-wall and watched, could follow the ed on the floor, in circles one outside the other, until the European three becas of men who stared at the Then one of the Europeans drew his watch out; and he had to show it to the other two before he could convince the to do anything but watch and listen

”So wass!” said one of them-the drunken

”Du lieber Gott-schon halb zwolf!” said the second

The third h

The risaldar-riht lines in contrast to Yas the three Europeans; and it seemed there sat a hillman on the piece of floor he coveted

”Get up!” he coe, for an Afridi pretends to feel for a Sikh the scorn that a Sikh feels truly for Afridis The flat of Ranjoor Singh's foot caed In an instant he was on his feet, with a lightning right hand reaching for his knife

But Yasmini allows no butcher's work on her premises, and her words within those walls are law, since no man knoho is on whose side Yasmini beckoned him, and the Afridi slouched toward her sullenly She whispered so, and he started for the stairs at once, without any further protest

Then there vanished all doubt as to which of the three Europeans was most important The man who had come in first had accepted sherbet from the maid who sat beside him; he went suddenly from drowsiness to slumber, and the wo hi the cushi+ons The stout secondhelpless hands But the third man sat forward, and tense silence fell on the asseht his

Only Yas other than those gray European eyes; she saw that they were interested h, and the maids who noticed her expression of sweet innocence knew that she was thinking fast

”You are a Sikh?” said the gray-eyed man; and the crowd drew in its breath, for he spoke Hindustani with an accent that very few achieve, even with long practise

”Then you are of a brave nation-you will understand me The Sikhs are a martial race Their theory of politics is based on the h, who understood and tried to live the Sikh religion with all his gentleht, was there to acquire inforravely

”All martial nations expand eventually They tell me-I have heard- soh did not wince, though his back stiffened when the rinned; it is a sore point with the Sikhs that Canada does not accept their erants

”Sikhs are adray eyes ”They are welcoh

”That is the point The Sikhs want a place in the sun from which they are barred at present-eh? Now, Germany-”

”Germany? Where is Germany?” asked Yas a story on its way ”To the west is England Farther west, Ameliki To the north lies Russia To the south the kali pani-ocean Where is Gerray eyes took her literally, since his nation are not slow at seizing opportunity He launched without a word more of preliminary into a lecture on Germany that lasted hours and held his audience spellbound It was colorful, complete, and it did not seem to have been memorized But that was art

He had no word of blaland He even had praise, when praise reater; and the inference from first to last was of German super-virtue

Some one in the croho bore a bullet-ested to hiest and fiercest in the world So he told theue-long coluuarded by the prosperous hundred thousand factory chimneys that s, long after ination, he likened Gere for lack of room inside And he proved, then, that he knew he had made an impression on them, for he dishing at hio!” he said, as if he owned the place; and they all went except one

”That is a lot of talk,” said Ranjoor Singh, when the last man had started for the stairs ”What does it amount to? When will the bees swarm?”