"I am from the North, where the quality of mercy is thought
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 murderer,
though thou shalt see thy murderer. Come this way, sahib."
A whiff of warm wind might have blown her, so swiftly, lissomely she
ran toward the other door, laughing back at him across her shoulder
and leaving a trail of aromatic scent. The two maids held their
candle-lanterns high, and, striding like a soldier, Ranjoor Singh
followed Yasmini, not caring that the maids shut the heavy door
behind him and bolted it. He argued to himself that he was as safe in
one room as in another, and she as dangerous; also, that it made no
difference in which room he might be when the squadron or his colonel
missed him.
"Look, Ranjoor Singh! Look through 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 something that amused her, and she motioned to another hole
eight feet away from it. He crossed a floor that was solid and age-old;
no two planks of it were of even width or length, but none creaked.
Pages:
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143