"You can't save Amir Khan's life unless you betray the Bagrees to him?"
"Yes, Sahib, I can. Perhaps the Chief will like Bootea, and will listen to what she says. Men such as brave warriors always treat Bootea not as a _nautchni_ so I will ask him not to come to the tent at night because of ill repute. Hunsa will not be able to slay him unless it is a trap on my part to get him from the watching eyes of his men. If Hunsa becomes suspicious, and there is real danger, I will threaten that I will expose him to the Chief. If we come back because we have failed in our mission, having tried to succeed, it will not be like refusing to go; and perhaps there will be mercy shown."
"Mercy!" Barlow sneered; "Nana Sahib knows nothing of mercy, he's a tiger."
"But if I refuse to go another _nautchni_ will be sent, perhaps more beautiful than I am, and she would betray the Chief, and perhaps all would be killed."
"By Jove! you're some woman, you're magnificent--you're like a Rajputni princess."
A slim hand was placed on Barlow's wrist and the girl said, "Sahib, I am just Bootea,--please, please!"
"And that's your reason for taking this awful chance, to save Ajeet and the others--is it?"
"There is another reason, Sahib." The girl dropped her eyes and turning a gold bangle on her wrist gazed upon a ruby that had the contour of a serpent's head. Presently she asked, "Will the Sahib go to Khureyra and have a knife thrust between his ribs?"
Barlow was startled by this query. "Why should I go to Khureyra, Gulab?"
"Because it is known. But the Chief is not now there--he has taken his horsemen to Saugor."
Again this was startling. Also the information was of great value. If the Pindari horde had left the territory of Sindhia and crossed the border into Saugor they were closer to the British.
Barlow patted the girl's hand, saying, "My salaams to you, little girl."
He felt her slim cool fingers press his hand, but he shrank from the claiming touch, muttering, "The damned barrier!"
Suddenly Barlow remembered Bootea had spoken of another reason for going to the Pindari camp. He puzzled over this a little, hesitating to question her; she had not told him what it was, but had asked if he were going there; the reason evidently had something to do with him. It couldn't be treachery--she had done so much for him; it must be the something that looked out of her eyes when they rested on his face, the unworded greatest thing on earth in the way of fealty and devotion. Possibly this was the grand motive, the reason she had given being secondary.