She was back
within five minutes, and by the way she opened the trap and grinned
at him he knew what her answer would be.
"He begs that you promise! He begs, sahib! He says he is thy
trooper, thy dog, thy menial, and very thirsty!"
"Bring some one who knows better how to lie!" said Ranjoor Singh. "I
_know_ what his answer was! He said, 'Say to the risaldar-major
sahib that I have eaten salt, but I am not thirsty!' Go, tell him his
answer was a good one, and that I know he said it! I know that man,
as men know each other. Thou art a woman, and thy knowledge is but
emptiness. Thou hast heard now twice what the answer is, once from
him and once from me!"
"I will leave thee to the rats!" she said, slamming the trap-door
tight.
The rats came, and he began to grope about for a weapon to use
against them. He caught one rat in his fingers, squeezed the
squealing brute to death and flung it away, and he heard a hundred of
its messmates race to devour the carcass.
He began to see little active eyes around him in the blackness, that
watched his every movement, and he kept moving since that seemed to
puzzle them. Also he wondered, as a drowning man might wonder about
things, how long it would be before Colonel Kirby would send for him
to ask about the murdered trooper. Something would happen then, he
felt quite sure.
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