Part 45 (1/2)
But he knew he had won His heart was singing down inside hi since he left India behind But he stood quite humbly before her, for had he not kissed her?
”You think a kiss is the bond between us? You et! The kiss, my Athelstan, was the fruit, not the seed! The seed came first! If I loosed you-if I set you free-you would never dare go back to India!”
He scarcely heard her He knew he had won His heart was like a bird, fluttering wildly He knew that the next step would be shown hirace to pity her, knowing hoould have felt if she had won Besides, he had kissed her, and he had not lied Each kiss had been a tribute of ad-more to be desired than wine? He stood with bowed head, lest the triumph in his eyes offend her Yet if any one had asked him how he knew that he had won, he never could have told
”If you were to go back to India except as its conqueror, they would strip the buttons from your uniforainst a wall! My signature is known in India and I aa shall take a letter He shall take two-four-witnesses He shall see theive them the letter when they reach the Khyber and shall send them into India with it Have no fear Bull-with-a-beard shall not intercept thea shall return and tell me he saw ain about pity-you and I! Come!”
She took his arm, as if her threats had been caresses Triuhed at hi by his attitude
”Why don't you kill h his answer surprised her, it did not ood,” he said siood?”
”Certainly!” he said
She laughed at that as if it were the greatest joke she had ever heard It set her in the best humor possible, and by the time they reached the ebony table and she had taken the pen and dipped it in the ink, she was chuckling to herself as if the one good joke had grown into a hundred
She wrote in Urdu It is likely that for all her knowledge of the spoken English tongue she was not so swift or ready with the trick of writing it She had said herself that a babu read English books to her aloud But she wrote in Urdu with an easy flowing hand, and in two iven it to King to read It was not like a woman's letter It did not waste a word
”Your Captain King has been too much trouble He has taken money from the Germans He adopted native dress
He called hiht in the Khyber Pass These men will say that he carried the head to Khinjan, and their word is true, for I, Yasmini, saw He used the head for a passport, to obtain ades invasion of India! He held up his brother's head before five thousand men and boasted of theof the Khyber Rifles, he will be leading a jihad into India
You would have better trusted me Yasmini”
He read it and passed it back to her
”They will not disbelieve me,” she said, triumphant as the very devil over a branded soul all hot ”They will be sure you are mad, and they will believe the witnesses!”
He bowed She sealed the letter and addressed it with only a scrawled mark on its outer cover That, by the as utter insolence, for the mark would be understood at any frontier post by the officer coa shall start with this to-day!” she said, with more amusement thanhis eyes, at a loss to understand his carelessness He seeely unabased His folded ar
”I love you, Athelstan!” she said ”Do you love me?”
”I think you are very beautiful, Princess!”
”Beautiful? I know I am beautiful But is that all?”
”Clever!” he added
She began to druerous, which is not to infer by any means that she looked less lovely
”Do you love et I was born east of Mecca, but my folk were from the West We are slower to love than sorowth, less often surrender at first sight I think you are wonderful”