ven as he would have given
his life if he had been captured by tribesmen and asked to betray his
fellow men as the price of liberty.

He threw himself back wearily in the chair. "Why tell me this now,--to
mock me, to exult?" he said, reproach in his voice.

"But it is the message, Sahib, that is more than the life of a _sepoy_,
is it not?"

Again he sat up: "Why do you say this--do you know where it is?"

She drew from beneath her bodice the sandal soles, saying: "These are
from the feet of the messenger who is dead. The one the Sahib beat
over the head with his pistol dropped them,--and he was carrying them
for a purpose. The Sahib knows, perhaps, the secret way of this land."

In the girl's hand was clasped the knife from her girdle, and she
tendered it, hilt first: "Bootea knows not if they are of value, the
leather soles, but if the Sahib would open them, then if there are eyes
that watch the curtains are drawn."

Barlow revivified, stimulated by hope, seized the knife and ran its
sharp point around the stitching of the soles. Between the double
leather of one lay a thin, strong parchment-like paper.

He gave a cry of exultation as, unfolding it, he saw the seal of his
Raj. His cry was a gasp of relief. Almost the shatterment of his
career had lain in that worn discoloured sole, and disaster to his Raj
if it had fallen into the hands of the conspirators.

In an ecstasy of relief he sprang to his feet, and lifting Bootea,
clasped her in his arms, smothering her face in kisses, whispering:
"Gulab, you are my preserver; you are the sweetest rose that ever
bloomed!"

He felt the pound of her heart against his breast, and her eyes
mirrored a happiness that caused him to realise that he was going too
far--drifting into troubled waters that threatened destruction. The
girl's soul had risen to her eyes and looked out as though he were a
god.

As if Bootea sensed the same impending evil she pushed Barlow from her
and sank back to the cushion, her face shedding its radiancy.

Cursing himself for the impetuous outburst Barlow slumped into the
chair.

"Gulab," he said presently, "my government gives reward for loyalty and
service."

"Bootea has had full reward," the girl answered.

He continued: "We had talk on the road about the Pindaris; what did
they who whisper in the dark say?"

"That the chief, Amir Khan, has gathered an army, and they fear that
because of an English bribe he will attack the Mah