Then he stalked out of the room, with a slight bow to Yasmini as he pa.s.sed.
"Buffalo!" she murmured after him. "Jat buffalo!"
Then the Germans went away, after some heavy compliments that seemed to amuse Yasmini prodigiously, helping along the man who had drunk sherbet and who now seemed inclined to weep. They dragged him down the stairs between them, backward. Yasmini waited at the stair-head until she heard them pull him into a gharri and drive away. Then she turned to her favorite maid.
"Them-those cattle-I understand!" she said. "But it does not suit me that a Sikh, a Jat, a buffalo, should come here making mysteries of his own without consulting me! And what does not suit me I do not tolerate! Go, get that Afridi whom the soldier kicked-I told him to wait outside in the street until I sent for him."
The Afridi came, nearly as helpless as the man who had drunk sherbet, though less tearful and almost infinitely more resentful. What clothing had not been torn from him was soaked in blood, and there was no inch of him that was not bruised.
"Krishna!" said Yasmini impiously.
"Allah!" swore the Afridi.
"Who did it? What has happened?"
"Outside in the street I said to some men who waited that Ranjoor Singh the Sikh is a b.a.s.t.a.r.d. From then until now they beat me, only leaving off to follow him hence when he came out through the door!"
Yasmini laughed, peal upon peal of silver laughter-of sheer merriment.
"The G.o.ds love Yasmini!" she chuckled. "Aye, the G.o.ds love me! The Jat spoke of a squadron; it is evident that he spoke truth. So his squadron watched him here! Go, jungli! Go, wash the blood away. Thou shalt have revenge! Come again to-morrow. Nay, go now, I would sleep when I have finished laughing. Aye-the G.o.ds love Yasmini!"
The West Wind blows through the Ajmere Gate And whispers low (Oh, listen ye!), "The fed wolf curls by his drowsy mate In a tight-trod earth; but the lean wolves wait, And the hunger gnaws!" (Oh, listen ye!) "Can fed wolves fight? But yestere"en Their eyes were bright, their fangs were clean; They viewed, they took but yestere"en,"
(Oh, listen, wise heads, listen ye!) "Because they fed, is blood less red, Or fangs less sharp, or hunger dead?"
(Look well to the loot, and listen ye!) YASMINI"S SONG
CHAPTER III
The colonel of Outram"s Own dropped into a club where he was only one, and not the greatest, of many men ent.i.tled to respect. There were three men talking by a window, their voices drowned by the din of rain on the veranda roof, each of whom nodded to him. He chose, however, a solitary chair, for, though subalterns do not believe it, a colonel has exactly that diffidence about approaching senior civilians which a subaltern ought to feel.
In a moment all that was visible of him from the door was a pair of brown riding-boots, very much fore-shortened, resting on the long arm of a cane chair, and two sets of wonderfully modeled fingers that held up a newspaper. From the window where the three men talked he could be seen in profile.
"Wears well-doesn"t he?" said one of them.
"Swears well, too, confound him!"
"Hah! Been trying to pump him, eh?"
"Yes. He"s like a big bird catching flies-picks off your questions one at a time, with one eye on you and the other one c.o.c.ked for the next question. Get nothing out of him but yes or no. Good fellow, though, when you"re not drawing him."
"You mean trying to draw him. He"s the best that come. Wish they were all like Kirby."
The man who had not spoken yet-he looked younger, was some years older, and watched the faces of the other two while seeming to listen to something in the distance-looked at a cheap watch nervously.
"Wish the Sikhs were all like Kirby!" he said. "If this business comes to a head, we"re going to wish we had a million Kirbys. What did he say? Temper of his men excellent, I suppose?"
"Used that one word." "Um-m-m! No suspicions, eh?" "Said, "No, no suspicions!"" "Uh! I"ll have a word with him." He waddled off, shaking his drab silk suit into shape and twisting a leather watch-guard around his finger.
"Believe it will come to anything?" asked one of the two men he had left behind.
"Dunno. Hope not. Awful business if it does."
"Remember how we were promised a world-war two years ago, just before the Balkans took fire?"
"Yes. That was a near thing, too. But they weren"t quite ready then. Now they are ready, and they think we"re not. If I were asked, I"d say we ought to let them know we"re ready for "em. They want to fight because they think they can catch us napping; they"d think twice if they knew they couldn"t do it."
"Are they blind and deaf? Can"t they see and hear?"
"Quern deus vult perdere, prius dementat, Ponsonby, my boy."
The man in drab silk slipped into a chair next to Kirby"s as a wolf slips into his lair, very circ.u.mspectly, and without noise; then he rutched the chair sidewise toward Kirby with about as much noise as a company of infantry would make.
"Had a drink?" he asked, as Kirby looked up from his paper. "Have one?"
"Ginger ale, please," said Kirby, putting the paper down.
A turbaned waiter brought long gla.s.ses in which ice tinkled, and the two sipped slowly, not looking at each other.
"Know Yasmini?" asked the man in drab silk suddenly.
"Heard of her, of course."
"Ever see her?"
"No."
"Ah! Most extraordinary woman. Wonderful!"
Kirby looked puzzled, and held his peace.
"Any of your officers ever visit her?"
"Not when they"re supposed to be on duty."
"But at other times?"
"None of my affair if they do. Don"t know, I"m sure."
"Um-m-m!"
"Yes," said Kirby, without vehemence.
"Look at his beak!" said one of the two men by the window. "Never see a big bird act that way? Look at his bright eye!"
"Wish mine were as bright, and my beak as aquiline; means directness -soldierly directness, that does!"
"Who is your best native officer, supposing you"ve any choice?" asked the man in the drab silk suit, speaking to the ceiling apparently.