It was startling. The leg that had
rested across a knee clamped noisily to the floor, and a smothered
"Damn!" escaped from his lips. What a devilish complicated thing it
was.
Ajeet resumed: "Hunsa rushed to where the Gulab was in hiding and
helped the men who had been sent by Nana Sahib to steal her. Then he
came back to our camp saying that many men had beaten him, and that he
had been forced to flee."
At this vagary Barlow chuckled inwardly.
"What of the two soldiers?" Hodson asked; "why were they here in this
land and at the camp of the Bagrees?"
"I know not, Sahib."
"Were the bodies robbed by your men--they would be--did they find
papers that would indicate the two were messengers?" and the Resident's
bloodless fingers that clasped a pen were trembling with the
suppression of the awful interest he strove to hide, for he knew, as
well as Barlow, what their mission was.
"Yes, Sahib, they were stripped and the bodies thrown in the pit with
the others. Eight rupees were taken, but as to papers I know nothing."
"Where is the woman you call the Gulab?"
"She will be in the hands of Nana Sahib," Ajeet answered; "and because
of that I have come to confess so your Honour will save my life from
him for he will make accusation that I was Chief of those who killed
the soldiers of the British; and that the Sahib will cause to have
returned to me the Gulab.
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