"
"Thou art a fool, Sookdee," Bootea declared. "The hand of your chief
is in pain though he shows it not in his face. Shall a brave man
suffer because you are without feeling!"
She turned to the Chief. "Here I have cocoanut oil and a bandage of
soft muslin. Hold to me your hand, Ajeet."
"It is not needed, Gulab, star-flower," the Chief declared proudly.
The Gulab had poured from a ram's horn cool soothing cocoanut oil upon
the burns, and then she wrapped about the hand a bandage of shimmering
muslin, bound in a wide strip of silk-like plantain leaf, saying: "This
will keep the oil cool to your wound, Chief; it will not let it dry out
to increase the heat."
There was another band of muslin passed around the leaf, and as the
Gulab turned away, she said: "Think you, Sookdee, that Bhowanee will be
offended because of mercy. Some day, Jamadar, fire will be put upon
your face, when the head has been lopped from your body, to hide the
features of a decoit that it may not bear witness against the tribe."
"You have delayed the ordeal," Sookdee answered surlily, "and because
of that Bhowanee will have anger.
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