"
Kassim pointed to the blood on the floor: "Thou wert a good messenger,
infidel; thou hast slain a follower of the Prophet."
But Bootea raised a slim hand, and, her voice trembling with intensity,
cried: "Commander, Amir Khan was not slain with the dagger, he was
killed by the _towel_. Look you at his throat and you will see the
mark."
"Bismillah!" came in a cry of astonishment from the Commander's throat,
and the marble walls of the _Surya-Mahal_ (room of audience) echoed
gasps and curses. Kassim himself had knelt by the dead Chief, and now
rising, said: "By Allah! it is true. That dog--" his finger was
thrusting like a dagger at Barlow.
But Bootea's clear voice hushed the rising clamour: "No, Commander, the
sahibs know not the thug trick of the _roomal_, and few thugs could
have overcome the Chief."
"Who then killed him--speak quick, and with the truth," Kassim
commanded.
He was interrupted by one of Hunsa's guards, crying: "Here, where go
you--you had not leave!" And Hunsa, who had turned to slip away, was
jerked back to where he had stood.
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