The Winds of the World

e-Eight-Half-brothers. It yielded suddenly. He shot in headlong, and the door slammed behind him. As he fell forwa

e Masudis, and once in China, he was in full possession of trained soldier senses. Darkness, he calculated instantly, was a shi

ew a noosed rope, and caught each other. Ranjoor Singh could not see the ropes, but he could h

orward. He felt the whistle of a club that missed him by s

he club, and there was no measurable interval of time then before the darknes

possibilities he could not guess until an electric torch declared itself some twenty fe

a voice he thought he recognized. It was a

to answer. A human arm reached like a snake into the ring of light. He struc

is friends to come? Is Ranjoor Singh ashamed? Speak, sahib! Is

eavy beam that ran up and down it, locked firmly above and below. He prodded over his head behind him with the club, trying to find w

eased, leaving him dazed, but not so dazed that he did not hear a man sneak up and carry the splintered club away. He f

of steep stairs that he could dimly outline he halted, for ad

oft, woman's voice. "Lo

eath! See the hoode

and he turned to see four cobras come toward him, with the front third of their bodies raised from the floor and their hoods extended. He saw that

ll they follow thee up-stairs? See, they come!

wift as a well launched charge of light cavalry, he leaped for the stairs and took them four at a time. He reached

said a voice that he f

h beyond the light for

o the right-toward that door

ni. He stepped into a bare, dark, teak-walled room, and she followed him, and she had scarcely closed the door

with me?" demand

I invite t

who entered by that doo

ward, perhaps?" sh

house?" asked

-of-the-Eight-Half

of mine was slain in the street below, and

like a nodding blossom and smiling like the promise of new love, as she

he could draw no amusement from his

e quality of mercy is thought

eard to enter. There will be a hu

s house, yet none will seek to enter! And they will find no mur

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

Singh! Look thr

through a hole in the wall at something that amused her, and she motioned to another hole eight feet away from it.

ttle square hole she pointed out. And then

t Singh!" h

that their arms were crossed behind them, and lashed waist to waist, a trooper of D Squadron and the Afridi whom lie had kicked at Yasmin

r this time; and the trooper looked up, almos

ut S

is black beard and mustache. He tried to look sidewise, bu

as fought until the ropes cut both of us; but take time, sahib! I can wait. Attend to t

s than two yards away. He could guess, and he had heard a dozen times, that dancing had made her stronger than a panther and more swift. Yet he thought that if he had h

unconscious of her danger, he was sure of it. He changed his position, and she neither looked nor moved. He c

ar and instinct working together. And she, in the same second, turned to meet him smiling, with outstretched arms, as if she wo

ld grab at the hole she had peered through, trying to get his fingers into it. What she had done he never knew, but the floor she had st

e and trod on them, and though her weight was light, malice made her skilful, and she hurt him until he had to

" she called, as he fell away throug

moment he believed he must be mad, or dead, or dreaming. Then his fingers, numb from Yasmini's pressure, began to rec

ter for thy troope

more devilment expressed in it, for all her loveliness, than in her voice that neve

ish began to choke him. Then rats came to investigate him. He heard several of them scamper close, and one bit his leg; so he made ready to f

d, and the rats scampered aw

r answered!" mutt

ajor sahib thirsty

ng it back again. The metal rang and the water splashed deliriously, but h

kened the aperture, he did not

re?" she asked him;

then that the smell of dust and kerosene entered his consciousness as pincers enter the flesh of men in torment

g through the aperture once mo

; he gave her to understand that the next fire she dropped on him should be allowed to work God's will and bur

l fan the flame!" he vow

down to keep the sahi

sure that she wanted him alive, not dead, for otherwise he would have been

is very thi

and the men of his squadron were the one love of his w

when Ranjoor Singh sahib has

terest at last; it suggested future po

do what is req

ice of a drink

pay, or will he let

Go, ask him! Let i

little hole, and he suspected that she was showing the man water, perhaps giving some to the Afridi for sweet suggestion's s

sahib! He says he is thy trooper, th

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 e

e rats!" she said, slamm

e caught one rat in his fingers, squeezed the squealing brute to death and flu

ce that seemed to puzzle them. Also he wondered, as a drowning man might wonder about things, how long it would be befo

ni would tell to account for her share in things. He did not doubt she would lie herself out of it, but he wondered just

l come!" he a

*

or opened at one end of the black dark cellar, and again the rats scampered for cover as Yasmini herself sto

b!" she called

e she ever made was poetry expressed, but framed in a golden aura shed by the lamp, and swaying in the ve

called again; and h

Thy trooper has drunk

the cavern beyond the door. She waited for him, leaning against the door-po

closer to his eyes, as if she would read behind them. "Thou art a soldier, and not a buffalo at

ich seemed obscure. He wondered what her reply would be; and, moving the lantern a little, she read the hesitation in his eyes-the waveri

nt! Not to be held save by the hilt, eh, Ranjoor Singh? Search me fo

s willpower to prevent his self-command from giving out. He knew that behind

back to laugh at him, until the cavern behind her ech

ed. "Nay, I was very wrong! I laugh

down an age-old hewn-stone passage, out of which doors seemed to lead at every six or seven yards;

aster she ran, until it needed little imagination to c

ept calling t

ingh had never heard the song before. It was about a tiger who boasted and fell into a trap. It made him more cautious than he might hav

a big sheet, thrown out of the darkness, was wrapped and wrapped about him until he could neither shout nor move. He knew that they wer

outside!" she whispered. "It is not

of flame was so unmistakable-although he could feel no h

alight?" a

maid whose t

and pour water enough to fill this pa

For a moment he felt the outer air, and he caught the shout of a crowd that had seen flame

was driven through the streets for about nine minutes at a fast trot. Then the carriage stopped, and he was ca

ame moment his fingers, that had never once ce

minute he

not far from him, he made out the sheeted figure of another man, who lay exactly as he had

ngh!" he

stood up a

ught the

hib, in a

he

en

is that

d, s

ow

er first. Then, while she gave me to drink the Afridi attacked her, and I slew him with my hands, tearing his

per salu

prisoner in t

showing me the knives they would use. But she came, and they obeyed her, binding the Afridi f

And for the third time his t

trusted to ca

d answer me

round be he-sw

yet wary

raftiness, eye

flattery! Su

worthiness-yet

d answer me

lead him alon

el of his pulse

play with m