"Can you see those, babuji? See them? Then earn them!"
"Oh, my G.o.d, sahib, I have positivelee earned a lakh of rupees this night already!"
"Where was Risaldar-Major Ranjoor Singh when he-"
Footsteps were approaching-undoubtedly a guard on his way to investigate. The babu seemed to sense Warrington"s impatience.
"Sahib" he said, "I am very meek person, having family of wife and children all dependent. Is that rupees twenty? I would graciously accept same, and positivelee hold my tongue!"
The steps came nearer.
"I was on my way to D Squadron quarters, sahib, to narrate story and pa.s.s begging bowl. Total price of story rupees twenty. Or else the sahib may deliver me to guard, and guard shall be regaled free gratis with full account of evening"s amus.e.m.e.nt? Yes?"
The steps came nearer yet. Recognizing an officer, the men halted a few paces away.
"Sahib, for sum of rupees twenty I could hold tongue for twenty years, unless in meantime deceased, in which case-"
"Take "em!" ordered Warrington; and the babu"s fingers shut tight on the money.
"Guard!" ordered Warrington. "Put this babu out into the street!"
"Good night, sahib!" said the babu. "Kindlee present my serious respects to the colonel sahib. Salaam, sahib!"
But Warrington had gone into the darkness.
The Four Winds come, the Four Winds go, (Ye wise o" the world, oh, listen ye!), Whispering, whistling what they know, Wise, since wandering made them so (Ye stay-at-homes, oh, listen ye!).
Ever they seek and sift and pry- Listening here, and hurrying by- Restless, ceaseless-know ye why?
(Then, wise o" the world, oh, listen ye!) The goal of the search of the hurrying wind Is the key to the maze of a woman"s mind, (And there is no key! Oh, listen ye!) YASMINI"S SONG.
CHAPTER VIII
So in a darkness that grew blacker every minute, Warrington swung his lantern and found his way toward D Squadron"s quarters. He felt rather pleased with himself. From his own point of view he would have rather enjoyed to have a story anent himself and Yasmini go the round of barracks-with modifications, of course, and the kneeling part left out-but he realized that it would not do at all to have Colonel Kirby"s name involved in anything of the sort, and he rather flattered himself on his tact in bribing the babu or being blackmailed by him.
"Got to admit that babu"s quite a huntsman!" he told himself, beginning to hum. "One day, if the war doesn"t account for me, I"ll come back and take a fall out of that babu. Hallo-what"s that? Who in thunder-who"s waking up the horses at this unearthly hour? Sick horse, I suppose. Why don"t they get him out and let the others sleep?"
He began to hurry. A light in stables close to midnight was not to be accounted for on any other supposition than an accident or serious emergency, and if there were either it was his affair as adjutant to know all the facts at once.
"What"s going on in there?" he shouted in a voice of authority while he was yet twenty yards away.
But there was no answer. He could hear a horse plunge, but nothing more.
"Um-m-m! Horse cast himself!" he straightway decided.
But there was no cast horse, as he was aware the moment he had looked down both long lines of sleepy brutes that whickered their protest against interrupted sleep. At the far end he could see that two men labored, and a big horse fiercely resented their unseasonable attentions to himself. He walked down the length of the stable, and presently recognized Bagh, Ranjoor Singh"s charger.
"What are you grooming him for at this hour?" he demanded.
"It is an order, sahib."
"Whose order?"
"Ranjoor Singh sahib"s order."
"The deuce it is! When did the order come?"
"But now."
"Who brought it?"
"A babu, with a leather ap.r.o.n."
Warrington walked away ten paces in order to get command of himself, and pinch himself, and make quite sure he was awake.
"A fat babu?" he asked, walking back again.
"Very fat," said one of the troopers, continuing to brush the resentful charger.
"So he delivered his message first, and then went to hunt for his loin-cloth!" mused Warrington. "And he had enough intuition, and guts enough, to look for it first in the shay! I"m beginning to admire that man!" Aloud he asked the trooper: "What was the wording of the risaldar-major sahib"s message?"
""Let Bagh be well groomed and held ready against all contingencies!"" said the trooper.
"Then take him outside!" ordered Warrington. "Groom him where you won"t disturb the other horses! How often have you got to be told that a horse needs sleep as much as a man? The squadron won"t be fit to march a mile if you keep "em awake all night! Lead him out quietly, now! Whoa, you brute! Now-take him out and keep him out- put him in the end stall in my stable when you"ve finished him-d"you hear?"
He flattered himself again. With all these mysterious messages and orders coming in from nowhere, he told himself it would be good to know at all times where Ranjoor Singh"s charger was, as well as a service to Ranjoor Singh to stable the brute comfortably. He told himself that was a very smart move, and one for which Ranjoor Singh would some day thank him, provided, of course, that-
"Provided what?" he wondered half aloud. "Seems to me as if Ranjoor Singh has got himself into some kind of a sc.r.a.pe, and hopes to get out of it by the back-door route and no questions asked! Well, let"s hope he gets out! Let"s hope there"ll be no court-martial nastiness! Let"s hope-oh, d.a.m.n just hoping! Ranjoor Singh"s a better man than I am. Here"s believing in him! Here"s to him, thick and thin! Forward- walk-march!"
He turned out the guard, and the particular troop sergeant with whom he wished to speak not being on duty, he ordered him sent for. Ten minutes later the sergeant came, still yawning, from his cot.
"Come over here, Arjan Singh," he called, thinking fast and furiously as he led the way.
If he made one false move or aroused one suspicion in the man"s mind, he was likely to learn less than nothing; but if he did not appear to know at least something, he would probably learn nothing either.
As he turned, at a distance from the guard-room light, to face the sergeant, though not to meet his eyes too keenly, the fact that would not keep out of his brain was that the fat babu had been out in the road, offering to eat Germans, a little while before he and the colonel had started out that evening. And, according to what Brammle had told him when they met near the colonel"s quarters, it was very shortly after that that the squadron came out of its gloom.
"What was the first message that the babu brought this evening?" he asked, still being very careful not to look into the sergeant"s eyes. He spoke as comrade to comrade-servant of the "Salt" to servant of the "Salt."
"Which babu, sahib?" asked Arjan Singh, unblinking.
Now, in all probability, this man-since he had been asleep-knew nothing about the message to groom Bagh. To have answered, "The babu who spoke about the charger," might have been a serious mistake.
"Arjan Singh, look me in the eyes!" he ordered, and the Sikh obeyed.
He was taller than Warrington, and looked down on him.
"Are you a true friend of the risaldar-major?"
"May I die, sahib, if I am not!"