I will tell the Sahib what is," the girl answered, drawing her _sari_
over her curled-in feet, and leaning one arm on Barlow's chair. "The
decoity that was committed last night was, as Ajeet feared, because of
treachery on the part of the Dewan. I will tell it all, though it
might be thought a treachery to the decoits. As to being false to
one's own clan Ajeet is, because he is a Bagree--but I am not."

Barlow pondered over this statement. The girl had mystified him--that
is as to her breeding. Sometimes she spoke in the first person and
again in the third person, like so many natives, as if her language had
been picked up colloquially. But then the use of the third person when
she used Bootea instead of a nominative pronoun might be due to a
cultured deference toward a Sahib.

"I thought you were not of these people--you are of high caste,
Bootea," he said presently.

He heard the girl gasp, and looking quickly into her eyes saw that they
were staring as if in fright.

For a space of a few seconds she did not answer; then she said, and
Barlow felt her voice was being held under control by force of will: "I
am Bootea, one in the care of Ajeet Singh. That is the present, Sahib,
and the past--" She touched the iron bracelet on her arm, and looked
into Barlow's eyes as if she asked him to bury the past.

"Sorry, girl--forgive me," he said.

"Ajeet has told why the men were brought--for what purpose?"

"Yes, Gulab; to kill Amir Khan."

"And when they refused to go on this mission, the Dewan, to get them in
his power, connived with Hunsa to make the decoity so that their lives
would be forfeit, then if the Dewan punished them for not going the
Raja of Karowlee could not make trouble. Hunsa told the Dewan that if
I were sent to dance before Amir Khan, some of the men going as
musicians and actors, the Chief would fall in love with me, and that I
could betray him to those who would kill him; that he would come to my
tent at night unobserved--because he has a wife with him--and that
Hunsa would creep into the tent and kill him as he slept; then we would
escape."

Barlow sprang to his feet and paced the floor; then he plumped into the
chair again, saying: "What an unholy scheme, even for India. Gad! how
I wish I'd killed the brute when I had the chance."

"I did not know that Hunsa had proposed this--neither did Ajeet; for
they wanted to get him in their power through the decoity so that if he
refused permi