Part 23 (2/2)
”This is the House-of-the-Eight-Half-brothers, sahib”
”This is a hole where murderers hide! A man of mine was slain in the street below, and the ger fool who followed hi blosso like the promise of new love, as she paused to be insolent and let the insolence sink hoh did not answer, but she could draw no amusement from his silence, for his eye was unafraid
”I aht weakness,” she smiled sweetly
”Who asks mercy? I was seen and heard to enter There will be a hundred seeking me within an hour!”
”Sahib, within two hours there will be five thousand around this house, yet none will seek to enter! And they will find no h thou shalt see thy murderer Coht have blown her, so swiftly, lisso back at hi a trail of aroh, and, striding like a soldier, Ranjoor Singh followed Yas that the ued to himself that he was as safe in one rooerous; also, that it ht be when the squadron or his colonel h that hole!”
There was plenty of light in this room, for there was a lantern in every corner He could see that she was gazing through a hole in the wall at soht feet away froe-old; no two planks of it were of even width or length, but none creaked
At her invitation he looked through the little square hole she pointed out And then, for the first tih!” he exclaimed
He stepped back, blinked to reassure hiht hand to right, left hand to left, so that their arms were crossed behind them, and lashed waist to waist, a trooper of D Squadron and the Afridi who opposite walls Dumb misery was staery on the Afridi's
”Jagut Singh!” said the risaldar-major, louder this time; and the trooper looked up, alut Singh!”
The trooper grinned A white row of ivory showed between his black beard and mustache He tried to look sidewise, but the rope that held hiht to the Afridi hurt his neck
”I knew it, sahib!” he shouted ”I knew that one would coht until the ropes cut both of us; but take time, sahib! I can wait Attend to the duty first Only let hi water with hih looked sidewise He could see that Yasmini was absorbed in contemplation of her prisoners Her little lithe forainst the wall, less than two yards away He could guess, and he had heard a dozen tier than a panther and ht that if he had her in his arht ribs until she would yield and order her prisoner released The trooper's confidence deserved immediate, not postponed, reward
He watched for a ainst the ork; she was all unconscious of her danger, he was sure of it He changed his position, and she neither looked nor ht was all on his left foot; he was sure she had not noticed Then he sprang
He sprang sidewise, as a horse does that sees a snake by the roadside, every nerve and sinew keyed to the tightest pitch-eye, ear and instinct working together And she, in the sa, with outstretched ar him to her bosom, only she stepped a pace backward, instead of forward as she had seemed to intend
He landed where he had meant to, on the spot where she had stood His left hand clutched at the wall, and a second too late heto get his fingers into it What she had done he never knew, but the floor she had stood on yielded, and he heard her laugh as he slipped through the opening like a tiger into a pit-trap, and fell doard into blackness
With a last treht at the floor and held hier-ends But she caht, malice made her skilful, and she hurt him until he had to set his teeth and drop He would never have believed that those soft slipper-soles could have given so et not thy trooper in his need!” she called, as he fell away through the opening And then the trap shut
To his surprise he did not fall very far, and though he landed on an elbow and a hip, he struck so softly that for aThen his fingers, nuunny-bags, and of cotton-wool, and of paper Also, he s very like it