Part 14 (1/2)
”I beg you to tell me where he is,” he said stiffly, and she clapped her hands and laughed with such delight that he blushed to his ears again
”I have had a prince on his knees to me, and many a priest,” she chuckled, ”aye, and many a soldier-but never yet a British colonel sahib Kneel and beg!”
”Why-hat d'ye mean?” demanded Kirby
”Is his honor not your honor? I have heard it said Then beg, Colonel sahib, on your knees-on those stiff British knees-beg for the honor of Ranjoor Singh!”
”D'youfor his life, on your knees, Colonel sahib!”
”I could look the other way, sir,” whispered Warrington, for the regiment's need was very real
”Nay, both of you! Ye shall both beg!” said Yash shall taste a hilli its head in shaood asfor his and thine-on your knees, Colonel sahib!”
Then it seean to swim, for ith the heat and ith an unconquerable dread of snakes, he was not in shape to play his will against this woman's
”What if I kneel?” he asked
”I will proh, alive and clean!”
”When?”
”In tiiment's need!”
”No use I want hio, sahib! Put out the fire with the sweat that streao! And what is a Sikh risaldar o, and let the Jat die!”
It is not to be written lightly that the British colonel of Outram's Own and his adjutant both knelt to a native woman-if she is a native-in a top back-room of a Delhi bazaar But it has to be recorded that for the sake of Ranjoor Singh they did
They knelt and placed their foreheads where she bade theh musk in their hair, for the love of mischief, to remind the nature the shts went out, each blown by a fan fros
They heard her silvery laugh, and they heard her spring to the floor In cold, creeping sweat they listened to footsteps, and a little voice whispered in Hindustani:
”This way, sahibs!”
They followed, since there was nothing else to do and their pride was all gone, to be pushed and pulled by unseen hands and chuckling girls down stairs that were cut out of sheer blackness And at the foot of the dark a voice that Warrington recognized shed new interest but no light on thethrough a door in front of theainst the lesser outer darkness ”Seeing regimental risaldar on the box seat, I took liberty The risaldar-er, and word to the effect that back way out of burning house was easier than front way in He sends salaa into Colonel Kirby's hands, and Kirby struck athat had the regiraved on it
”Not yet rewarded!” said the babu