id: "Go ye to
your tents. I will remain here with the guard who watch."

CHAPTER XXIV

Captain Barlow and Bootea had gone from the scene of the murder through
the long dim-lighted hall, its walls broken here and there by niches of
mystery, some of them closed by marble fretwork screens that might have
been doors, and down the marble stairway, in silence. Barlow had
slipped a hand under her arm in the way of both a physical and mental
sustaining; his fingers tapped her arm in affectionate approbation.
Once he muttered to himself in English, "Splendid girl!" and not
comprehending, the Gulab turned her star-eyes upward to his face.

At the gate the soldier who had accompanied them spoke to the guard,
and the latter, standing on a step bellowed: "Ho, ye Pindaris, here
goes forth the Afghan in innocence of the foul crime! Above they have
the slayer, who was Hunsa the thug; and, Praise be to Allah! they will
apply the torture. Let him pass in peace, all ye. And take care that
no one molest the beautiful Gulab. The peace of Allah upon the soul of
the great Amir Khan!"

A rippling thunder of deep voices vibrated the thronged street, crying,
"Allah Akbar! the peace of God be upon the soul of the dead Chief!"

A lane was opened up to them by the grim, wild-eyed, bandit-looking
horsemen, _tulwar_ over shoulder and knives in belt, who called: "Back
ye! the favoured of the Commander passes. Back, make way! 'tis an
order."

The faces of the soldiers that had been wreathed in revenge and
blood-lust when Barlow had been brought, were now friendly, and there
were cries of "Salaam, brother! salaam, Flower of the Desert!" for it
had been spread that the Gulab had discovered the murderer, had
denounced him.

"Brave little Gulab!" Barlow said in a low voice, bending his head to
look into her eyes, for he felt the arm trembling against his hand.

She did not answer, and he knew that she was sobbing.

When they were past the turbulent crowd he said, "Bootea, your people
will all have fled or been captured."

"Yes, Sahib," she gasped.

"Perhaps even your maid servant will have been taken."

"No, Sahib, they would not take her; her home is here."

By her side he travelled to where the now deserted tents of the decoits
stood silent and dark, like little pagodas of sullen crime. A light
flickered in one tent, and silhouetted against its canvas side they
could see the form of a woman crouched with her head in her hand