LITMIR.BIZ

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have played threat against threat. But the perfectly composed and loose-knit figure by her side, watching every movement, chin in hand, ready, alert, confident, was an unknown quantity that baffled and distressed her.

      There was a sound of a discreet cough, and Juggut Singh waddled toward them, bowing abjectly, to whisper something to the Queen. She laughed scornfully, and motioned him back to his post.

      'He says the night is passing,' she explained, 'and it is death for him and for me to be without the palace.'

      'Don't let me keep you,' said Tarvin, rising. 'I think we understand each other.' He looked into her eyes. 'Hands off!'

      'Then I may not do what I please?' she said, 'and you will go to Colonel Nolan to-morrow?'

      'That depends,' said Tarvin, shutting his lips. He thrust his hands into his pockets as he stood looking down at her.

      'Seat yourself again a moment, Tarvin Sahib,' said Sitabhai, patting the slab of the tomb invitingly with her little palm. Tarvin obeyed. 'Now, if I let no more timber fall, and keep the grey apes tied fast----'

      'And dry up the quicksands in the Amet River,' pursued Tarvin grimly. 'I see. My dear little spitfire, you are at liberty to do what you like. Don't let me interfere with your amusements.'

      'I was wrong. I should have known that nothing would make you afraid,' said she, eyeing him thoughtfully out of the corner of her eye; 'and, excepting you, Tarvin Sahib, there is no man that I fear. If you were a king as I a queen, we would hold Hindustan between our two hands.'

      She clasped his locked fist as she spoke, and Tarvin, remembering that sudden motion to her bosom when he had whistled, laid his own hand quickly above hers, and held them fast.

      'Is there nothing, Tarvin Sahib, that would make you leave me in peace? What is it you care for? You did not come here to keep the Maharaj Kunwar alive.'

      'How do you know I didn't?'

      'You are very wise,' she said, with a little laugh, 'but it is not good to pretend to be too wise. Shall I tell you why you came?

      'Well, why did I? Speak up.'

      'You came here, as you came to the temple of Iswara, to find that which you will never find, unless'--she leaned toward him--'I help you. Was it very cold in the Cow's Mouth, Tarvin Sahib?'

      Tarvin drew back, frowning, but not betraying himself further.

      'I was afraid that the snakes would have killed you there?'

      'Were you?'

      'Yes,' she said softly. 'And I was afraid, too, that you might not have stepped swiftly enough for the turning stone in the temple.'

      Tarvin glanced at her. 'No?'

      'Yes. Ah! I knew what was in your mind, even before you spoke to the King--when the bodyguard charged.'

      'See here, young woman, do you run a private inquiry agency?'

      She laughed. 'There is a song in the palace now about your bravery. But the boldest thing was to speak to the King about the Naulahka. He told me all you said. But he--even he did not dream that any feringhi could dare to covet it. And I was so good--I did not tell him. But I knew men like you are not made for little things. Tarvin Sahib,' she said, leaning close, releasing her hand and laying it softly on his shoulder, 'you and I are kin indeed! For it is more easy to govern this State--ay, and from this State to recapture all Hindustan from these white dogs, the English--than to do what you have dreamed of. And yet a stout heart makes all things easy. Was it for yourself, Tarvin Sahib, that you wanted the Naulahka, or for another--even as I desire Gokral Seetarun for my son? We are not little people. It is for another, is it not?'

      'Look here,' said Tarvin reverently, as he took her hand from his shoulder and held it firmly in his clutch again, 'are there many of you in India?'

      'But one. I am like yourself--alone.' Her chin drooped against his shoulder, and she looked up at him out of her eyes as dark as the lake. The scarlet mouth and the quivering nostrils were so close to his own that the fragrant breath swept his cheek.

      'Are you making states, Tarvin Sahib, like me? No; surely it is a woman. Your government is decreed for you, and you do what it orders. I turned the canal which the Government said should run through my orange-garden, even as I will bend the King to my will, even as I will kill the boy, even as I will myself rule in Gokral Seetarun through my child. But you, Tarvin Sahib--you wish only a woman! Is it not so? And she is too little to bear the weight of the Luck of the State. She grows paler day by day.' She felt the man quiver, but he said nothing.

      From the tangle of scrub and brushwood at the far end of the lake broke forth a hoarse barking cough that filled the hills with desolation as water brims a cup. Tarvin leaped to his feet. For the first time he heard the angry complaint of the tiger going home to his lair after a fruitless night of ranging.

      'It is nothing,' said the Queen, without stirring. 'It is only the tiger of the Dungar Talao. I have heard him howling many times when I was a gipsy, and even if he came you would shoot him, would you not, as you shot the ape?'

      She nestled close to him, and, as he sank beside her on the stone again, his arm slipped unconsciously about her waist.

      The shadow of the beast drifted across an open space by the lake-shore as noiselessly as thistledown draws through the air of summer, and Tarvin's arm tightened in its resting-place--tightened on a bossed girdle that struck cold on his palm through many folds of muslin.

      'So little and so frail--how could she wear it?' resumed the queen.

      She turned a little in his embrace, and Tarvin's arm brushed against one, and another, and then another, strand of the girdle, studded like the first with irregular bosses, till under his elbow he felt a great square stone.

      He started, and tightened his hold about her waist, with paling lips.

      'But we two,' the Queen went on, in a low voice, regarding him dreamily, 'could make the kingdoms fight like the water-buffaloes in spring. Would you be my prime minister, Tarvin Sahib, and advise me through the curtain?'

      'I don't know whether I could trust you,' said Tarvin briefly.

      'I do not know whether I could trust myself,' responded the Queen; 'for after a time it might be that I should be servant who have always been queen. I have come near to casting my heart under the hoofs of your horse--not once, but many times.' She put her arms around his neck and joined them there, gazing into his eyes, and drawing his head down to hers. 'Is it a little thing,' she cooed, 'if I ask you to be my king? In the old days, before the English came, Englishmen of no birth stole the hearts of begums, and led their armies. They were kings in all but the name. We do not know when the old days may return, and we might lead our armies together.'

      'All right. Keep the place open for me. I might come back and apply for it one of these days when I've worked a scheme or two at home.'

      'Then you are going away--you will leave us soon?'

      'I'll leave you when I've got what I want, my dear,' he answered, pressing her closer.

      She bit her lip. 'I might have known,' she said softly. 'I, too, have never turned aside from anything I desired. Well, and what is it?'

      The mouth drooped a little at the corners, as the head fell on his shoulder. Glancing down, he saw the ruby jewelled jade handle of a little knife at her breast.

      He disengaged himself from her arms with a quick movement, and rose to his feet. She was very lovely as she stretched her arms appealingly out to him in the half light; but he was there for other things.

      Tarvin looked at her between the eyes, and her glance fell.

      'I'll take what you have around your waist, please.'

      'I might have known that the white man thinks only of money!' she cried scornfully.

      She unclasped a silver belt from her waist and threw it from her, clinking, upon the marble.

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