Part 24 (2/2)

He could hear her hurry away, although she slammed the trap-door shut Evidently she was not satisfied to speak through the little hole, and he suspected that she was showing the estion's sake She was back within five rinned at his that you pro, thysoh ”I knohat his ansas! He said, 'Say to the risaldar-major sahib that I have eaten salt, but I aood one, and that I know he said it! I know that man, as e is but emptiness Thou hast heard nohat the answer is, once from him and once fromthe trap-door tight

The rats caainst the brute to death and flung it away, and he heard a hundred of its an to see little active eyes around him in the blackness, that watched his everysince that seeht wonder about things, how long it would be before Colonel Kirby would send for hi would happen then, he felt quite sure

The rats by this tiain twice; he found time to wonder what lies Yass He did not doubt she would lie herself out of it, but he wondered just how, along what unexpected line It began to see ti

”But they will come!” he assured himself

He was nearer to the mark when he expected unexpectedness from Yasmini, for she did not disappoint hiain the rats scampered for cover as Yasmini herself stood framed in it, with a lantern above her head

She was alone, and he could not see that she had any weapon

”This way, sahib!” she called sweetly to him

Never-North, South, East or West, in olden days or modern-did a siren call half so seductively Every olden aura shed by the la in the velvet blackness of the pit's h, as no man had ever yet seen woain; and he moved toward her

”Food and water wait! Thy trooper has drunk his fill Come, sahib!”

She made no move at all to protect herself from him She did not lead into the cavern beyond the door She waited for hi as if she and he were old friends who understood each other

”I but tried thee, Ranjoor Singh!” she s the lantern closer to his eyes, as if she would read behind them ”Thou art a soldier, and not a buffalo at all! I aoes out ever to a brave h!”

He was actually at her side, her clothes touched his, and he could have flung his arms around her But it was the move next after that which see the lantern a little, she read the hesitation in his eyes-the wavering between desire for vengeance, a soldierly regard for sex, andYashed ”Two cutting edges and a point! Not to be held save by the hilt, eh, Ranjoor Singh? Search er in thy hair-I arated harshly, for it needed all his willpower to prevent his self-co out He knew that behind temptation of any kind there lie the iron teeth of unexpected consequences

She let the lantern swing below her knees and leaned back to laugh at him, until the cavern behind her echoed as if all the underworld had seen and was amused

”I called thee a buffalo!” she panted ”Nay, I was very wrong! I laugh atof the lantern and a swerve of her lithe body, she slipped out of his reach and danced down an age-old hewn-stone passage, out of which doors seemed to lead at every six or seven yards; only the doors were all e that it would take two e them

He hurried after her But the faster he followed the faster she ran, until it needed little iination to conceive her a will-o'-the-wisp and hi to hi, as if dark passages beneath the Delhi streets were a fit setting for her skill and loveliness Ranjoor Singh had never heard the song before It was about a tiger who boasted and fell into a trap It ht have been, and when the darkness began to grow less opaque he slowed into a walk Then he stood still, for he could not see her any longer

It occurred to hiht had not ht around his legs and a big sheet, thrown out of the darkness, rapped and wrapped about him until he could neither shout nor ed the sheet, because he bit one's finger through it and she screamed Then he heard Yasmini's voice close to his ear

”Thy colonel sahib and another are outside!” she whispered ”It is not well to wait here, Ranjoor Singh!”