Part 12 (2/2)

A dozen-perhaps more-hillainst one wall and looked suspicious when they entered, but at sight of Kirby's military clothes they had looked alarmed and moved as if a whip had been cracked not far away The Northern adventurer does not care to be seen at his amusements, nor does he love to be looked in on by men in unifor her teeth and tripping in front of the her Her motion was that of a dance reduced to a walk for the sake of decorulass-bead curtain at the farther end of the long roo about with silks and furnished with deep-cushi+oned divans There were hed aloud to see how incongruous and coruff laugh came so suddenly that the maid nearly jumped out of her skin

”Will the sahibs be seated?” she asked alhtened the life out of her, and then she ran out of the roo curtain

So they sat down, Kirby trying the cushi+ons with his foot until he found sonity Cavalry dress-trousers are not built to sprawl on cushi+ons in; a ht or else stand

”I'll say this for runted, as he settled into place, ”it's the first time in my life I was ever inside a native woton did not com about the to be bored, but Kirby honestly interested by the splendor of the hangings and the general atrew uneasy first

”Feel as if any one was lookin' at you, sir?” he asked out of one side of his mouth And then Kirby noticed it, and felt his collar aardly

In all the world there is nothing so well calculated to sap athat he is secretly observed There was no sound, no ton looked in the mirrors keenly while he pretended to be interested in his little an to run down Colonel Kirby's teain to ht

”Yes,” he said, ”I do I'th of the long roo no ton; but the feeling still persisted

Suddenly a low laugh startled theh, full of camaraderie, that would have disarmed the suspicion of a wolf Just as unexpectedly a curtain less than a yard away from Kirby moved, and she stood before them-Yasmini She could only be Yasmini Besides, she had jasmine floorked into her hair

Like a pair of bull buffaloes startled from their sleep, the colonel and his adjutant shot to their feet and faced her, and to their credit let it be recorded that they dropped their eyes, both of the in on such loveliness

”Will the sahibs not be seated again?” she asked the in the neck, they each sat down

Now that the first feeling of iiven way to curiosity, neither had eyes for anything but her Neither had ever seen anything so beautiful, so fascinating, so i at them; each knew it, yet neither felt resentful

”Well?” she asked in Hindustani, and arched her eyebrows questioning

And Colonel Kirby stammered because she had made him think of his mother, and the tender prelude to a curtain lecture Yet this woh to have been his wife!

”I-I-I came to ask about a friend of h I understand you know hiht with a desire to let his mind wander The subtle hypnotis over him She stood so close! She seemed so like the war and falling of her bosoauzy drapery, ly, she had contrived to touch a chord in Colonel Kirby's heart that he did not know lived any ton was speechless; he could not have trusted himself to speak She had touched another chord in hiiven to understand,” said Kirby, and his own voice startled him, for it seemed harsh ”He is said to have listened to a lecture here-I was told the lecture was delivered by a German-and there was some sort of a fracas outside in the street afterward I'm told some of his squadron were near, and they thrashed a ”

”So?” said Yas for the prettiest yawn that Kirby had ever seen ”So the Jat is ! Yes, he came here, sahib He was never invited, but he ca until it suited him to sit where another man was; then he struck the other man-so, with the sole of his foot-and took the man's place, and heard what he came to hear Later, outside in the street, he and his men set on the Afridi whom he had struck with his foot and beat him”

”I have heard a variation of that,” said Kirby

”Have you ever heard, sahib, that he who strikes the wearer of a Northern knife is like to feel that knife? So Ranjoor Singh, the Jat, is , for he was not pleased to hear Ranjoor Singh spoken of slightingly A Jat h man, and usually is, but a Sikh is a Jat who is better

”And if he is , what has that to do with me?” asked Yasmini

”I have heard-, for it anity disaroes on in Delhi-”

”And-?” She was Iossaether; after all, it was not for long that anything less than an army corps could make him feel unequal to a situation This wo he had ever seen, but