Part 13 (2/2)

”It is not wise to n, though shesnakes, and their brains were active with the problem of whether to try to shoot or not It seemed to them that the snakes reached a resolution first, and struck And in the saers of death were jerked out of sight by hands that snatched at horsehair fros

”I have many such!” s she could not read the fear in theirs ”But that is not why the sahib shall beg of me” Kirby was not too overcome to notice the future tense ”That is only a reason why the sahibs should forget their Western manners But-if the pistols please the sahibs-”

They stowed their pistols away again and sat as if the very cushi+ons ht be stuffed with snakes, both of them aware that she had produced a e than the pistols would have been had they ave a sudden shrill cry that startled them and made them look wildly for the door; but she had done no more than coan to swing rhyth, if that were possible, to the mesmeric spell

”Now,” she said, ”I will tell a little of the why of things” And Colonel Kirby hoped it was the punkah, and not funk, that made the sweat stream down his neck until his collar was a mere uncomfortable mess ”For more than a year there has been ht it all to overnovernment-of a ripe tients of another Power, pretending to be merchants, who have sown their seed carefully in the bazaars And then there went natives in the pay of thethat it is not well to be carried over sea to fight another's quarrels All this the governovernment, but only a soldier with a ready pistol and a dull wit”

”What bearing has this on Ranjoor Singh?” asked Kirby It was so long since he had been spoken to so bluntly that he could not sit still under it

”I a for his Ranjoor Singh,” she smiled ”Does the fire burn yet, I wonder?”

She struck a gong, and a maid appeared in the door like an instant echo

”Does the fire still burn?” she asked

Thewhich Kirby and Warrington sat in silent wonder They wondered chiefly what the regiiment would ever know Then the maid came back

”It burns,” she said ”I can see flah not so much flame”

”So,” said Yasmini ”Listen, sahibs”

It is doubtful if a trumpet could have summoned them away, for she had them bound in her spells, and each in a different spell, as her way is She had little need to order them to listen

”The talk in the bazaars did little hariven thes They talk for the love of words, but they trade for the love of overnment protects their money Nay, it was not the bunnias who s of talk had reached the hills, and hillmen came to Delhi to hear more, as they ever have cooverni for a holy war-for the hills are cold, sahibs, and the hille, even as I am, of others' embarrassment Hillmen have no mercy, Colonel sahib I eaned aton both-for not all their ere stupefied-that she was sparring for titon saw a face reflected in one of the ed Kirby, and Kirby saw it too They both saw that she atching it It was a fat face, and it looked terrified, but the lips did not move and only the eyes had expression In a moment a curtain seemed to be drawn in front of it, and Yasmini took up her tale

”And then, sahibs, as I have told already, there caoverniments had been affected by the talk So a closer watch was set, then a net was drawn, and Ranjoor Singh ran into the net”

”An antelope er,” said Kirby

”I ahed

”With pistols to shoot the cobras and sweat to put out flaain? Sahib, thou shalt beg for Ranjoor Singh, who struck a hiller to hear treason!”

”Ranjoor Singh's honor anda native phrase that ad, and for a second Yasmini stared at him in doubt

She had heard that phrase used often to express native regard for a native, or for an Englishlishrinned mischievously ”Aye, I know the tale! It is the eve of war, and he commands a squadron, and there is need of him Is it not so? Yet the house that he entered burns And the hill for hiton followed suit Kirby's self-possession was returning and she must have known it; perhaps she even intended that it should But she lay curled on the divan, laughing up at hinity

”If he's alive, and you knohere he is,” said Kirby, ”I will pay you your price Na for hiht-Half- brothers burns! Beg for hiht cavalry is so little given to beg for things that the word beg has almost lapsed out of his vocabulary from desuetude