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 Small crown Zvo, cloth, price y. 6d. 
 
 THE AVERAGE WOMAN 
 
 A COMMON STORY 
 REFFEY 
 CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN 
 By WOLCOTT BALESTIER 
 
 With a Biographical Sketch 
 By HENRY JAMES 
 
 hi preparation 
 
 Three volumes, crown Zvo, price 31s. 6d. 
 
 'BENEFITS FORGOT 
 
 By WOLCOTT BALESTIER 
 
 LONDON: WILLIAM IIEINEMANN
 
 ^ Irl £1 U I H D R H I WEST AND 
 
 EAST 
 
 <By T{VT>rAR i D KIPLlNq 
 And WOLCOTT <BJLESTIER 
 
 LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN 
 
 MDCCCXCII BEDFORD STREET W.C. 
 
 THACKER, SPINK & CO., CALCUTTA
 
 THE NAULAIIKA 
 
 A STORY OF WEST AND EAST. 
 
 " There was a strife 'twixt man and maid — 
 Oh that was at the birth o' time ! 
 But what befell 'twixt man and maid, 
 Oh that's beyond the grip o' rhyme. 
 'Twas : ' Sweet, I must not bide wi' you,' 
 
 And : ' Love, I canna bide alone ; ' 
 For baith were young, and baith were true, 
 And baith were hard as the nether stone." 
 
 — Auchmleck's Ride. 
 
 Nicholas Tarvin sat in the moonlight on the unrailed 
 bridge that crossed the irrigating ditch above Topaz, 
 dangling his feet over the stream. A brown, sad-eyed 
 little woman sat beside him, staring quietly at the moon. 
 She was tanned with the tan of the girl who does not 
 mind wind and rain and sun, and her eyes were sad with 
 the settled melancholy of eyes that know big mountains, 
 and seas of plain, and care, and life. The women of 
 the West shade such eyes under their hands at sunset 
 in their cabin-doors, scanning those hills or those grass- 
 less, treeless plains for the home-coming of their men. 
 A hard life is always hardest for the woman. 
 
 Kate Sheriff had lived with her face to the West and 
 with her smouldering eyes fixed upon the wilderness 
 
 A
 
 2 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 since she could walk. She had advanced into the 
 wilderness with the railroad. Until she had gone away 
 to school, she had never lived where the railroad ran both 
 ways. She had often stayed long enough at the end of 
 a section with her family to see the first glimmering 
 streaks of the raw dawn of civilisation, usually helped 
 out by the electric light ; but in the new and still newer 
 lands to which her father's civil engineering orders called 
 them from year to year there were not even arc lamps. 
 There was a saloon under a tent, and there was the 
 section-house, where they lived, and where her mother 
 had sometimes taken to board the men employed by her 
 husband. But it was not these influences alone that 
 had produced the young woman of twenty-three who sat 
 near Tarvin, and who had just told him gently that she 
 liked him, but that she had a duty elsewhere. 
 
 This duty, as she conceived it, was, briefly, to spend 
 her life in the East in the effort to better the condition 
 of the women of India. It had come to her as an in- 
 spiration and a command two years before, toward the 
 end of her second year at the St. Louis school, where 
 she went to tie up the loose ends of the education she 
 had given herself in lonely camps. 
 
 Kate's mission had been laid on her one April after- 
 noon, warmed and sunned with the first breath of spring. 
 The green trees, the swelling buds, and the sunlight out- 
 side had tempted her from the prospect of a lecture on 
 India by a Hindu woman ; and it was finally because it 
 was a school duty not to be escaped that she listened to 
 Pundita Ramabai's account of the sad case of her sisters 
 at home. It was a heart-breaking story, and the girls, 
 making the offerings begged of them in strange accents, 
 went from it stilled and awed to the measure of their 
 natures, and talked it over in the corridors in whispers, 
 until a nervous giggle broke the tension, and they began 
 chattering again.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 3 
 
 Kate made her way from the hall with the fixed, 
 inward-looking eye, the flaming cheek, and air-borne 
 limbs of one on whom the mantle of the Spirit has 
 descended. She went quickly out into the school- 
 garden, away from everybody, and paced the flower- 
 bordered walks, exalted, rich, sure, happy. She had 
 found herself. The flowers knew it, the tender-leaved 
 trees overhead were aware, the shining sky had word. 
 Her head was high ; she wanted to dance, and, much 
 more, she wanted to cry. A pulse in her forehead went 
 beat, beat ; the warm blood sang through her veins ; 
 she stopped every little while to take a deep draught 
 of the good air. In those moments she dedicated 
 herself. 
 
 All her life should take breath from this hour; she 
 vowed it to the service this day revealed to her, as once 
 to the prophets — vowed all her strength and mind and 
 heart. The angel of the Lord had laid a command 
 upon her. She obeyed joyfully. 
 
 And now, after two years spent in fitting herself for 
 her calling, she returned to Topaz, a capable and in- 
 structed nurse, on fire for her work in India, to find 
 that Tarvin wished her to stay at Topaz and many 
 him. 
 
 "You can call it what you like," Tarvin told her, 
 while she gazed at the moon; "you can call it duty, 
 or you can call it woman's sphere, or you can call it, 
 as that meddling missionary called it at church to-night, 
 'carrying the light to them that sit in darkness.' I've 
 no doubt you've got a halo to put to it; they've taught 
 you names enough for things in the E?st. But for me, 
 what I say is, it's a freeze-out." 
 
 " Don't say that, Nick ! It's a call." 
 
 " You've got a call to stay at home ; and if you 
 haven't heard of it, I'm a committee to notify you," 
 said Tarvin doggedly. He shied a pebble into the
 
 4 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 irrigating ditch, and eyed the racing current with lower- 
 ing brows. 
 
 " Dear Nick, how can you bear to urge any one who 
 is free to stay at home and shirk after what we've heard 
 to-night ? " 
 
 " Well, by the holy smoke, some one has got to urge 
 girls to stand by the old machine, these days ! You 
 girls are no good at all under the new regulations until 
 you desert. It's the road to honour." 
 
 " Desert ! " gasped Kate. She turned her eyes on 
 him. 
 
 "Well, what do you call it? That's what the little 
 girl I used to know on Section 10 of the N. P. and Y. 
 would have called it. O Kate dear, put yourself back 
 in the old days; remember yourself then, remember 
 what we used to be to each other, and see if you don't 
 see it that way. You've got a father and mother, haven't 
 you ? You can't say it's the square thing to give them 
 up. And you've got a man sitting beside you on this 
 bridge who loves you for all he's worth — loves you, you 
 dear old thing, for keeps. You used to like him a 
 little bit too. Eh ? " 
 
 He slid his arm about her as he spoke, and for 
 a moment she let it rest there. 
 
 " Does that mean nothing to you either ? Don't you 
 seem to see a call here, too, Kate ? " 
 
 He forced her to turn her face to him, and gazed 
 wistfully into her eyes for a moment. They were brown, 
 and the moonlight deepened their sober depths. 
 
 "Do you think you have a claim?" she asked, after 
 a moment. 
 
 " I'll think almost anything to keep you. But no ; 
 I haven't any claim — or none at least that you are not 
 free to jump. But we all have a claim; hang it, the 
 situation has a claim. If you don't stay, you go back 
 on it. That's what I mean."
 
 THE NAULAHKA 5 
 
 "You don't take a serious view of things, Nick," she 
 said, putting down his arm. 
 
 Tarvin didn't see the connection ; but he said good- 
 humouredly, " Oh yes, I do ! There's no serious view 
 of life I won't take in fun to please you." 
 
 "You see, — you're not in earnest." 
 
 " There's one thing I'm in earnest about," he whis- 
 pered in her ear. 
 
 " Is there?" She turned away her head. 
 
 "I can't live without you." He leaned toward her, 
 and added in a lower voice : " Another thing, Kate— 
 I won't." 
 
 Kate compressed her lips. She had her own will. 
 They sat on the bridge beating out their difference until 
 they heard the kitchen clock in a cabin on the other 
 side of the ditch strike eleven. The stream came 
 clown out of the mountains that loomed above them ; 
 they were half-a-mile from the town. The stillness 
 and the loneliness closed on Tarvin with a physical 
 grip as Kate got up and said decisively that she must 
 go home. He knew she meant that she must go to 
 India, and his own will crumpled helplessly for the 
 moment within hers. He asked himself whether this 
 was the will by which he earned his living, the will 
 which at twenty-eight had made him a successful man 
 by Topaz standards, which was taking him to the State 
 Legislature, and which would one day take him much 
 further, unless what ceased to be what. He shook 
 himself scornfully; but he had to add to himself that 
 after all she was only a girl, if he did love her, before 
 he could stride to her side, as she turned her back 
 on him, and say, " See here, young woman, you're 
 away off ! " 
 
 She did not answer, but walked on. 
 
 " You're not going to throw your life away on this 
 Indian scheme," he pursued. " I won't have it. Your
 
 6 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 father won't have it. Your mother will kick and scream 
 at it, and I'll be there to encourage her. We have some 
 use for your life, if you haven't. You don't know the 
 size of your contract. The land isn't fit for rats ; it's 
 the Bad Lands — yes, that's just what it is, a great big 
 Bad Lands — morally, physically, and agriculturally, Bad 
 Lands. It's no place for white men, let alone white 
 women ; there's no climate, no government, no drain- 
 age ; and there's cholera, heat, and fighting until you 
 can't rest. You'll find it all in the Sunday papers. You 
 want to stay right where you are, young lady ! " 
 
 She stopped a moment in the road they were follow- 
 ing back to Topaz and glanced at his face in the 
 moonlight. He took her hand, and, for all his master- 
 fulness, awaited her word with parted lips. 
 
 "You're a good man, Nick, but," she drooped her 
 eyes, "I'm going to sail on the 31st for Calcutta."
 
 II. 
 
 " Beware the man who's crossed in love, 
 For pent-up steam must find its vent ; 
 Step back when he is on the move, 
 And lend him all the Continent." 
 
 — The Buck and the Saw. 
 
 To sail from New York the 31st she must leave Topaz 
 by the 27th at latest. It was now the 15th. Tarvin 
 made the most of the intervening time. He called on 
 her at her home every evening, and argued it out with 
 her. 
 
 Kate listened with the gentlest willingness to be con- 
 vinced, but with a dread firmness round the corners of 
 her mouth, and with a sad wish to be good to him, if 
 she could, battling in her eyes with a sadder helplessness. 
 
 "I'm called!" she cried. "I'm called. I can't get 
 away from it. I can't help listening. I can't help 
 going." 
 
 And, as she told him, grieving, how the cry of her 
 
 sisters out of that dim misery, that was yet so distinct, 
 
 tugged at her heart — how the useless horror and torture 
 
 of their lives called on her by night and by day, Tarvin 
 
 could not refuse to respect the solemnly felt need that 
 
 drew her from him. He could not help begging her in 
 
 every accent he knew not to hearken to it, but the painful 
 
 pull of the cry she heard was not a strange or incredible 
 
 thing to his own generous heart. He only urged hotly 
 
 that there were other cries, and that there were other 
 
 people to attend to this one. He, too, had a need, 
 
 7
 
 8 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 the need for her ; and she another, if she would stop a 
 moment to listen to it. They needed each other ; that 
 was the supreme need. The women in India could 
 wait ; they would go over and look them up later, when 
 the Three C.'s had come to Topaz, and he had made 
 his pile. Meanwhile there was happiness ; meanwhile 
 there was love ! He was ingenious, he was deeply in 
 love, he knew what he wanted, and he found the most 
 persuasive language for making it seem to be what she 
 wanted in disguise. Kate had to strengthen her reso- 
 lution often in the intervals between his visits. She 
 could not say much in reply. She had no such gift 
 of communicating herself as Tarvin. Hers was the 
 still, deep, voiceless nature that can only feel and act. 
 
 She had the kind of pluck and the capacity for silent 
 endurance which goes with such natures, or she must 
 often have faltered and turned back from the resolve 
 which had come upon her in the school-garden that 
 spring day, in the two years that followed it. Her 
 parents were the first obstacle. They refused outright 
 to allow her to study medicine. She had wished to be 
 both physician and nurse, believing that in India she 
 would find use for both callings; but since she could 
 follow only one, she was content to enrol herself as a 
 student at a New York training-school for nurses, and 
 this her parents suffered in the bewilderment of finding 
 that they had forgotten how to oppose her gently resolute 
 will through the lifelong habit of yielding to it. 
 
 Her ideas had made her mother wish, when she 
 explained them to her, that she had let her grow up 
 wild, as she had once seemed certain to do. She was 
 even sorry that the child's father had at last found 
 something to do away from the awful railroad. The 
 railroad now ran two ways from Topaz ; Kate had 
 returned from school to find the track stretching a 
 hundred miles to the westward, and her family still
 
 THE NAULAHKA 9 
 
 there. This time the boom had overtaken them before 
 they could get away. Her father had bought city lots 
 in the acre form and was too rich to move. He had 
 given up his calling and had gone into politics. 
 
 Sheriff's love for his daughter was qualified by his 
 general flatness ; but it was the clinging affection not 
 uncommon with shallow minds, and he had the habit 
 of indulgence toward her which is the portion of an 
 only child. He was accustomed to say that " what she 
 did was about right," he guessed, and he was usually 
 content to let it go at that. He was anxious now that 
 his riches should do her some good, and Kate had 
 not the heart to tell him the ways she had found to 
 make them do her good. To her mother she con- 
 fided all her plan ; to her father she only said that she 
 wished to learn to be a trained nurse. Her mother 
 grieved in secret with the grim, philosophic, almost 
 cheerful hopelessness of women whose lives have taught 
 them always to expect the worst. It was a sore trial to 
 Kate to disappoint her mother; and it cut her to the 
 heart to know that she could not do what both her father 
 and mother expected of her. Indefinite as the expectation 
 was — it was simply that she should come home and live, 
 and be a young lady, like the rest of the world — she felt 
 its justice and reason, and she did not weep the less for 
 them, because for herself she believed, modestly, that it 
 was ordered otherwise. 
 
 This was her first trouble. The dissonance between 
 those holy moments in the garden and the hard prose 
 which was to give them reality and effect, grew deeper 
 as she went on. It was daunting, and sometimes it 
 was heart-sickening ; but she went forward — not always 
 strong, not every moment brave, and only a very little 
 wise, but always forward. 
 
 The life at the training-school was a cruel disillusion. 
 She had not expected the path she had set before her to
 
 io THE NAULAHKA 
 
 bloom with ease ; but at the end of her first month she 
 could have laughed bitterly at the difference between her 
 consecrating dreams and the fact. The dreams looked 
 to her vocation ; the fact took no account of it. She 
 had hoped to befriend misery, to bring help and healing 
 to pain from the first days of her apprenticeship. What 
 she was actually set to do was to scald babies' milk- 
 cans. 
 
 Her further duties in these early days were no more 
 nearly related to the functions of a nurse, and looking 
 about her among the other girls to see how they kept 
 their ideals alight in the midst of work so little connected 
 with their future calling, she perceived that they got on 
 for the most part by not having any. As she advanced, 
 and was trusted first with babies themselves, and later 
 with the actual work of nursing, she was made to feel 
 how her own purpose isolated her. The others were 
 here for business. With one or two exceptions they had 
 apparently taken up nursing as they might have taken up 
 dressmaking. They were here to learn how to make 
 twenty dollars a week, and the sense of this dispirited 
 her even more than the work she was given to do as 
 a preparation for her high calling. The talk of the 
 Arkansas girl, who sat on a table and swung her legs 
 while she discussed her flirtations with the young 
 doctors at the clinics, seemed in itself sometimes a 
 final discouragement. Through all ran the bad food, 
 the scanty sleep, the insufficient hours for recreation, 
 the cruelly long hours assigned for work, the nervous 
 strain of supporting the life from the merely physical 
 point of view. 
 
 In addition to the work which she shared with the 
 others, she was taking regular lessons in Hindustani ; 
 and she was constantly grateful for the earlier days which 
 had given her robust health and a sound body. Without 
 them she must often have broken down ; and soon it
 
 THE NAULAHKA It 
 
 began to be a duty not to break down, because it had 
 become possible to help suffering a little. It was this 
 which reconciled her finally to the low and sordid con- 
 ditions under which the whole affair of her preparation 
 went on. 
 
 The repulsive aspects of the nursing itself she did not 
 mind. On the contrary, she found herself liking them 
 as she got into the swing of her work ; and when, at the 
 end of her first year, she was placed in charge of a ward 
 at the women's hospital, under another nurse, she began 
 to feel herself drawing in sight of her purpose, and 
 kindled with an interest which made even the suniical 
 operations seem good to her because they helped, and 
 because they allowed her to help a little. 
 
 From this time she went on working strongly and 
 efficiently toward her end. Above all, she wanted to be 
 competent — to be wise and thorough. When the time 
 came when those helpless, walled-up women should have 
 no knowledge and no comfort to lean on but hers, she 
 meant that they should lean on the strength of solid 
 intelligence. Her trials were many, but it was her con- 
 solation in the midst of them all that her women loved 
 her, and lived upon her comings and goings. Her 
 devotion to her purpose carried her forward. She was 
 presently in full charge, and in that long, bare ward 
 where she strengthened so many sufferers for the last 
 parting, where she lived with death and dealt with it, 
 where she went about softly, soothing unspeakable pain, 
 learning the note of human anguish, hearing no sound 
 but the murmur of suffering or relief, she sounded one 
 night the depths of her own nature, and received from 
 an inward monitor the confirmation of her mission. She 
 consecrated herself to it afresh with a joy beyond her 
 first joy of discovery. 
 
 And now, every night at half-past eight, Tarvin's hat 
 hung on the hat-rack in the hall-way of her home. He
 
 12 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 removed it gloomily at a little after eleven, spending the 
 interval in talking over her mission with her persuasively, 
 commandingly, imploringly, indignantly. His indigna- 
 tion was for her plan, but it would sometimes irre- 
 pressibly transfer itself to Kate. She was capable not 
 only of defending her plan, but of defending herself 
 and keeping her temper; and as this last was an art 
 beyond Nick, these sessions often came to an end 
 suddenly, and early in the evening. But the next 
 night he would come and sit before her in penitence, 
 and with his elbows on his knees, and his head sup- 
 ported moodily in his hands, would entreat her sub- 
 missively to have some sense. This never lasted long, 
 and evenings of this kind usually ended in his trying 
 to pound sense into her by hammering his chair-arm 
 with a convinced fist. 
 
 No tenderness could leave Tarvin without the need 
 to try to make others believe as he did ; but it was a 
 good-humoured need, and Kate did not dislike it. She 
 liked so many things about him, that often as they sat 
 thus, facing each other, she let her fancy wander where it 
 had wandered in her school-girl vacations — in a possible 
 future spent by his side. She brought her fancy back 
 again sharply. She had other things to think of now; 
 but there must always be something between her and 
 Tarvin different from her relation to any other man. 
 They had lived in the same house on the prairie at 
 the end of the section, and had risen to take up the 
 same desolate life together morning after morning. The 
 sun brought the morning greyly up over the sad grey 
 plain, and at night left them alone together in the midst 
 of the terrible spaces of silence. They broke the ice 
 together in the muddy river near the section-house, and 
 Tarvin carried her pail back for her. A score of other 
 men lived under the same roof, but it was Tarvin who 
 was kind. The others ran to do what she asked them
 
 THE NAULAHKA 13 
 
 to do. Tarvin found things to do, and did them while 
 she slept. There was plenty to do. Her mother had 
 a family of twenty-five, twenty of whom were boarders — 
 the men working in one capacity or another directly 
 under Sheriff. The hands engaged in the actual work 
 of building the railroad lived in huge barracks near by, 
 or in temporary cabins or tents. The Sheriffs had a 
 house ; that is, they lived in a structure with projecting 
 eaves, windows that could be raised or lowered, and a 
 verandah. But this was the sum of their conveniences, 
 and the mother and daughter did their work alone with 
 the assistance of two Swedes, whose muscles were firm 
 but whose cookery was vague. 
 
 Tarvin helped her, and she learned to lean on him ; 
 she let him help her, and Tarvin loved her for it. The 
 bond of work shared, of a mutual dependence, of isola- 
 tion, drew them to each other ; and when Kate left the 
 section-house for school there was a tacit understanding 
 between them. The essence of such an understanding, 
 of course, lies in the woman's recognition of it. When 
 she came back from school for the first holiday, Kate's 
 manner did not deny her obligation, but did not confirm 
 the understanding, and Tarvin, restless and insistent as 
 he was about other things, did not like to force his claim 
 upon her. It wasn't a claim he could take into court. 
 
 This kind of forbearance was well enough while he 
 expected to have her always within reach, while he 
 imagined for her the ordinary future of an unmarried 
 girl. But when she said she was going to India she 
 changed the case. He was not thinking of courtesy or 
 forbearance, or of the propriety of waiting to be formally 
 accepted as he talked to her on the bridge, and after- 
 ward in the evenings. He ached with his need for her, 
 and with the desire to keep her. 
 
 But it looked as if she were going — going in spite of 
 everything he could say, in spite of his love. He had
 
 I 4 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 made her believe in that, if it was any comfort ; and it was 
 real enough to her to hurt her, which was a comfort ! 
 
 Meanwhile she was costing him much, in one way 
 and another, and she liked him well enough to have 
 a conscience about it. But when she would tell him 
 that he must not waste so much time and thought on 
 her, he would ask her not to bother her little head about 
 him : he saw more in her than he did in real estate or 
 politics just then ; he knew what he was about. 
 
 " I know," returned Kate. " But you forget what a 
 delicate position you put me in. I don't want to be 
 responsible for your defeat. Your party will say I 
 planned it." 
 
 Tarvin made a positive and unguarded remark about 
 his party, to which Kate replied that if he didn't care 
 she must ; she couldn't have it said, after the election, 
 that he had neglected his canvass for her, and that her 
 father had won his seat in consequence. 
 
 " Of course," she added frankly, " I want father to go 
 to the State legislature, and I don't want you to go, 
 because if you win the election, he can't ; but I don't 
 want to help prevent you. from getting in." 
 
 " Don't worry about your father getting that seat, 
 young lady ! " cried Tarvin. " If that's all you've got to 
 lie awake about, you can sleep from now until the Three 
 C.'s comes to Topaz. I'm going to Denver myself this 
 fall, and you'd better make your plans to come along. 
 Come ! How would it suit you to be the speaker's 
 wife, and live on Capitol Hill ? " 
 
 Kate liked him well enough to go half credulously 
 with him in his customary assumption that the difference 
 between his having anything he wanted and his not 
 having it, was the difference between his wanting it and 
 his not wanting it. 
 
 "Nick!" she exclaimed, deriding but doubtful, "you 
 won't be speaker ! "
 
 THE NAULAHKA 15 
 
 " I'd undertake to be governor, if I thought the idea 
 would fetch you. Give me a word of hope, and you'll 
 see what I'd do ! " 
 
 " No, no ! " she said, shaking her head. " My governors 
 are all Rajahs, and they live a long way from here." 
 
 " But say, India's half the size of the United States. 
 Which State are you going to ? " 
 
 "Which ?" 
 
 " Ward, township, county, section ? What's your 
 post-office address ? " 
 
 "Rhatore, in the province of Gokral Seetarun, Raj- 
 putana, India." 
 
 " All that ! " he repeated despairingly. There was a 
 horrible definiteness about it ; it almost made him 
 believe she was going. He saw her drifting hopelessly 
 out of his life into a land on the nether rim of the 
 world, named out of the Arabian Nights, and probably 
 populated out of them. " Nonsense, Kate ! You're 
 not going to try to live in any such heathen fairy- 
 land. What's it got to do with Topaz, Kate ? What's 
 it got to do with home? You can't do it, I tell you. 
 Let them nurse themselves. Leave it to them ! Or 
 leave it to me ! I'll go over myself, turn some of their 
 pagan jewels into money, and organise a nursing corps 
 on a plan that you shall dictate. Then we'll be married, 
 and I'll take you out to look at my work. I'll make a 
 go of it. Don't say they're poor. That necklace alone 
 would fetch money enough to organise an army of 
 nurses ! If your missionary told the truth in his 
 sermon at church the other night, it would pay the 
 national debt. Diamonds the size of hens' eggs, yokes 
 of pearls, coils of sapphires the girth of a man's wrist, 
 and emeralds until you can't rest — and they hang all 
 that around the neck of an idol, or keep it stored in a 
 temple, and call on decent white girls to come out and 
 help nurse them ! It's what I call check."
 
 1 6 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 "As if money could help them! It's not that. 
 There's no charity or kindness or pity in money, Nick ; 
 the only real help is to give yourself." 
 
 " All right. Then give me too ! I'll go along," he 
 said, returning to the safer humorous view. 
 
 She' laughed, but stopped herself suddenly. "You 
 mustn't come to India, Nick. You won't do that ! You 
 won't follow me ! You shan't." 
 
 " Well, if I get a place as rajah, I don't say I wouldn't. 
 There might be a dollar in it." 
 
 " Nick ! They wouldn't let an American be a rajah." 
 
 It is strange that men to whom life is a joke find 
 comfort in women to whom it is a prayer. 
 
 " They might let him run a rajah, though," said 
 Tarvin, undisturbed ; " and it might be the softer snap. 
 Rajahing itself is classed extra hazardous, I think." 
 
 " How ? " 
 
 " By the accident insurance companies — double pre- 
 mium. None of my companies would touch the risk. 
 They might take a vizier, though," he added medita- 
 tively. " They come from that Arabian Nights' section, 
 don't they ? " 
 
 " Well, you are not to come," she said definitively. 
 " You must keep away. Remember that." 
 
 Tarvin got up suddenly. " Oh, good night ! Good 
 night ! " he cried. 
 
 He shook himself together impatiently, and waved 
 her from him with a parting gesture of rejection and 
 cancellation. She followed him into the passage, where 
 he was gloomily taking his hat from its wonted peg ; but 
 he would not even let her help him on with his coat. 
 
 No man can successfully conduct a love-affair and a 
 political canvass at the same time. It was perhaps the 
 perception of this fact that had led Sheriff to bend 
 an approving eye on the attentions which his oppo- 
 nent in the coming election had lately been paying
 
 THE NAULAHKA 17 
 
 his daughter. Tarvin had always been interested in 
 Kate, but not so consecutively and intensely. Sheriff 
 was stumping the district and was seldom at home, but 
 in his irregular appearances at Topaz he smiled stolidly 
 on his rival's occupation. In looking forward to an easy 
 victory over him in the joint debate at Canon City, how- 
 ever, he had perhaps relied too much on the younger 
 man's absorption. Tarvin's consciousness that he had 
 not been playing his party fair had lately chafed against 
 his pride of success. The result was irritation, and 
 Kate's prophecies and insinuations were pepper on an 
 open wound. 
 
 The Canon City meeting was set down for the night 
 following the conversation just recorded, and Tarvin set 
 foot on the shaky dry goods box platform at the roller 
 skating rink that night, with a raging young intention to 
 make it understood that he was still here — if he was in 
 love. 
 
 Sheriff had the opening, and Tarvin sat in the back- 
 ground dangling a long, restless leg from one knee. The 
 patchily illumined huddle of auditors below him looked 
 up at a nervous, bony, loose-hung man, with a kind, 
 clever, aggressive eye, and a masterful chin. His nose 
 was prominent, and he had the furrowed forehead and 
 the hair thinned about the temples which come to young 
 men in the West. The alert, acute glance which went 
 roving about the hall, measuring the audience to which 
 he was to speak, had the look of sufficiency to the next 
 need, whatever it might be, which, perhaps, more than 
 anything else, commends men to other men beyond the 
 Mississippi. He was dressed in the short sack-coat, 
 which is good enough for most Western public func- 
 tions ; but he had left at Topaz the flannel of everyday 
 wear, and was clad in the white linen of civilisation. 
 
 He was wondering, as he listened to Sheriff, how a 
 father could have the heart to get off false views on silver 
 
 E
 
 iS THE NAULAHKA 
 
 and the tariff to this crowd, while his daughter was hatch- 
 ing that ghastly business at home. The true views were 
 so much mixed up in his own mind with Kate, that when 
 he himself rose at last to answer Sheriff, he found it hard 
 not to ask how the deuce a man expected an intelligent 
 mass meeting to accept the political economy he was 
 trying to apply to the government of a State, when he 
 couldn't so much as run his own family ? Why in the 
 world didn't he stop his daughter from making such a 
 hash of her life ? — that was what he wanted to know. 
 What were fathers for ? He reserved these apt remarks, 
 and launched instead upon a flood of figures, facts, and 
 arguments. 
 
 Tarvin had precisely the gift by which the stump 
 orator coils himself into the heart of the stump auditor : 
 he upbraided, he arraigned; he pleaded, insisted, de- 
 nounced ; he raised his lean, long arms, and called the 
 gods and the statistics and the Republican party to wit- 
 ness, and, when he could make a point that way, he did 
 not scorn to tell a story. " Why," he would cry defiantly, 
 in that colloquial shout which the political orator uses 
 for his anecdotes, " that is like a man I used to know 
 
 back in Wisconsin, who " It wasn't very much like 
 
 the man in Wisconsin : and Tarvin had never been in 
 Wisconsin, and didn't know the man ; but it was a good 
 story, and when the crowd howled with delight Sheriff 
 gathered himself together a little and tried to smile, and 
 that was what Tarvin wanted. 
 
 There were dissentient voices, and the jcintness of 
 the debate was sometimes not confined to the platform ; 
 but the deep, relishing groans which would often follow 
 applause or laughter, acted as a spur to Tarvin, who had 
 joined the janitor of the rink that afternoon in mixing 
 the dusky brew on the table before him, and who really 
 did not need a spur. Under the inspiration of the mix- 
 ture in the pitcher, the passionate resolve in his heart,
 
 THE NAULAHKA 19 
 
 and the groans and hisses, he melted gradually into an 
 ecstasy of conviction which surprised even himself, and 
 he began to feel at last that he had his audience under 
 his hand. Then he gripped them, raised them aloft like 
 a conjuror, patted and stroked them, dropped them to 
 dreadful depths, snatched them back, to show that he 
 could, caught them to his heart, and told them a story. 
 And with that audience hugged to his breast he marched 
 victoriously up and down upon the prostrate body of the 
 Democratic party, chanting its requiem. It was a great 
 time. Everybody rose at the end and said so loudly ; 
 they stood on benches and shouted it with a bellow that 
 shook the building. They tossed their caps in the air, 
 and danced on one another, and wanted to carry Tarvin 
 around the hall on their shoulders. 
 
 But Tarvin, with a choking at the throat, turned his 
 back on it all, and, fighting his way blindly through the 
 crowd which had gathered on the platform, reached the 
 dressing-room behind the stage. He shut and bolted 
 the door behind him, and flung himself into a chair, 
 mopping his forehead. 
 
 " And the man who can do that," he muttered, " can't 
 make one tiny little bit of a girl marry him.",
 
 III. 
 
 " Who are the Rulers of Ind? — to whom shall we bow the knee? 
 Make thy peace with the women, and men shall make thee L. G." 
 
 — Maxims of Hafiz. 
 
 It was an opinion not concealed in Canon City the 
 next morning, that Tarvin had wiped up the floor with 
 his adversary ; and it was at least definitely on record, 
 as a result of Tarvin's speech, that when Sheriff rose 
 half-heartedly to make the rejoinder set down for him 
 on the programme, he had been howled back into his 
 seat by a united public opinion. But Sheriff met Tarvin 
 at the railway station where they were both to take the 
 train for Topaz with a fair imitation of a nod and smile, 
 and certainly showed no inclination to avoid him on 
 the journey up. If Tarvin had really done Kate's 
 father the office attributed to him by the voice of 
 Canon City, Sheriff did not seem to be greatly dis- 
 turbed by the fact. But Tarvin reflected that Sheriff 
 had balancing grounds of consolation — a reflection 
 which led him to make the further one that he had 
 made a fool of himself. He had indeed had the satis- 
 faction of explaining publicly to the rival candidate 
 which was the better man, and had enjoyed the plea- 
 sure of proving to his constituents that he was still a 
 force to be reckoned with, in spite of the mad mis- 
 sionary notion which had built a nest in a certain young 
 woman's head. But how did that bring him nearer 
 Kate? Had it not rather, so far as her father could 
 influence the matter, put him farther away — as far as
 
 THE NAULAHKA 21 
 
 it had brought his own election near. He believed 
 he would be elected now. But to what? Even the 
 speakership he had dangled before her did not seem 
 so remote in the light of last night's occurrences. But 
 the only speakership that Tarvin cared to be elected 
 to was the speakership of Kate's heart. 
 
 He feared he shouldn't be chosen to fill that high 
 office immediately, and as he glanced at the stumpy, 
 sturdy form standing next him on the edge of the track, 
 he knew whom he had to thank. She would never go 
 to India if she had a man for a father like some men 
 he knew. But a smooth, politic, conciliating, selfish, 
 easy-going rich man — what could you expect ? Tarvin 
 could have forgiven Sheriff's smoothness if it had been 
 backed by force. But he had his opinion of a man who 
 had become rich by accident in a town like Topaz. 
 
 Sheriff presented the spectacle, intolerable to Tarvin, 
 of a man who had become bewilderingly well-to-do 
 through no fault of his own, and who now wandered 
 vaguely about in his good fortune, seeking anxiously to 
 avoid giving offence. In his politics he carried this far ; 
 and he was a treasury of delight just at this time to the 
 committees of railroad engineers' balls, Knight Templars, 
 excursions, and twilight coteries, and to the organisers 
 of church bazaars, theatricals, and oyster suppers, who 
 had tickets to sell. He went indiscriminately to the 
 oyster suppers and bazaars of all denominations in 
 Topaz, and made Kate and her mother go with him ; 
 and his collection of Baptist dolls, Presbyterian embroi- 
 dery, and Roman Catholic sofa-pillows and spatter-work, 
 filled his parlour at home. 
 
 But his universal good nature was not so popular as it 
 deserved to be. The twilight coteries took his money 
 but kept their opinion of him ; and Tarvin, as the 
 opposing candidate, had shown what he thought of his 
 rival's system of politics by openly declining to buy a
 
 22 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 single ticket. This feeble-foolish wish to please every- 
 body was, he understood very well, at the root of Sheriff's 
 attitude toward his daughter's mania. Kitty wanted to 
 go so bad, he supposed he'd better let her, was his 
 slouching version of the situation at home. He de- 
 clared that he had opposed the idea strongly when she 
 had first suggested it, and Tarvin did not doubt that 
 Sheriff, who he knew was fond of her, had really done 
 what he could. His complaint against him was not on 
 the score of disposition but of capacity. He recognised, 
 however, that this was finally a complaint, like all his 
 others, against Kate ; for it was Kate's will which made 
 all pleadings vain. 
 
 When the train for Topaz arrived at the station, Sheriff 
 and Tarvin got into the drawing-room car together. 
 Tarvin did not yearn to talk to Sheriff on the way to 
 Topaz, but neither did he wish to seem to shirk conver- 
 sation. Sheriff offered him a cigar in the smoking-room 
 of the Pullman, and when Dave Lewis, the conductor, 
 came through, Tarvin hailed him as an old friend, and 
 made him come back and join them when he had gone 
 his rounds. Tarvin liked Lewis in the way that he liked 
 the thousand other casual acquaintances in the State 
 with whom he was popular ; and his invitation was not 
 altogether a device for avoiding private talk with Sheriff. 
 The conductor told them that he had the president of 
 the Three C.'s on behind in a special car, with his party. 
 
 " No ! " exclaimed Tarvin, and begged him to intro- 
 duce him on the spot ; he was precisely the man he 
 wanted to see. The conductor laughed, and said he 
 wasn't a director of the road — not himself; but when 
 he had left them to go about his duties, he came 
 back, after a time, to say that the president had been 
 asking whom he could recommend at Topaz as a fair- 
 minded and public-spirited man, able to discuss in a 
 reasonable spirit the question of the Three C.'s coming
 
 THE NAULAHKA 23 
 
 to Topaz. The conductor toid him that he had two 
 such gentlemen on board his train at that moment ; and 
 the president sent word to them by him that he would 
 be glad to have a little talk with them if they would 
 come back to his car. 
 
 For a year the directorate of the Three C.'s had been 
 talking of running their line through Topaz, in the dis- 
 passionate and impartial manner of directorates which 
 await encouragement. The board of trade at Topaz 
 had promptly met and voted the encouragement. It 
 took the shape of town bonds and gifts of land, and 
 finally of an undertaking to purchase shares of stock in 
 the road itself, at an inflated price. This was handsome 
 even for a board of trade ; but, under the prick of town 
 ambition and town pride, Rustler had done better. 
 Rustler lay fifteen miles from Topaz, up in the moun- 
 tains, and by that much nearer the mines ; and Topaz 
 recognised it as its rival in other matters than that of the 
 Three C.'s. 
 
 The two towns had enjoyed their boom at about 
 the same time ; then the boom had left Rustler and 
 had betaken itself to Topaz. This had cost Rustler a 
 number of citizens, who moved to the more prosperous 
 place. Some of the citizens took their houses up bodily, 
 loaded them on a flat car and sent them over to Topaz 
 as freight, to the desolation of the remaining inhabitants 
 of Rustler. But Topaz now began in her turn to feel 
 that she was losing her clutch. A house or two had 
 been moved back. It was Rustler this time which was 
 gaining. If the railroad went there, Topaz was lost. If 
 Topaz secured the railroad, the town was made. The 
 two towns hated each other as such towns hate in the 
 West — malignantly, viciously, joyously. If a convulsion 
 of nature had obliterated one town, the other must have 
 died from sheer lack of interest in life. If Topaz could 
 have killed Rustler, or if Rustler could have killed
 
 24 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Topaz, by more enterprise, push, and go, or by the 
 lightnings of the local press, the surviving town would 
 have organised a triumphal procession and a dance of 
 victory. But the destruction of the other town by any 
 other than the heaven-appointed means of schemes, 
 rustle, and a board of trade, would have been a poig- 
 nant grief to the survivor. 
 
 The most precious possession of a citizen of the West 
 is his town pride. It is the flower of that pride to hate 
 the rival town. Town pride cannot exist without town 
 jealousy, and it was therefore fortunate that Topaz and 
 Rustler lay within convenient hating distance of each 
 other, for this living belief of men in the one spot of 
 all the great Western wilderness on which they have 
 chosen to pitch their tents, contains within itself the 
 future and the promise of the West. 
 
 Tarvin cherished this sentiment as a religion. It was 
 nearer to him than anything in the world but Kate, and 
 sometimes it was even nearer than Kate. It did duty 
 with him for all the higher aspirations and ideals which 
 beckon other men. He wished to succeed, he wished 
 to make a figure, but his best wish for himself was one 
 with his best wish for the town. He could not succeed 
 if the town failed ; and if the town prospered he must 
 prosper. His ambition for Topaz, his glory in Topaz, 
 were a patriotism — passionate and personal. Topaz was 
 his country ; and because it was near and real, because 
 he could put his hand on it, and, above all, because 
 he could buy and sell pieces of it, it was much more 
 recognisably his country than the United States of 
 America, which was his country in time of war. 
 
 He had been present at the birth of Topaz. He had 
 known it when his arms could almost encircle it ; he had 
 watched and fondled and caressed it ; he had pegged down 
 his heart with the first peg of the survey ; and now he knew 
 what was good for it. It wanted the Three C.'s.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 25 
 
 The conductor presented Tarvin and Sheriff to the 
 president when he had led them back to his private 
 car, and the president made them both known to his 
 young wife — a blonde of twenty-five, consciously pretty 
 and conspicuously bridal — by whose side Tarvin placed 
 himself with his instant perception. There were apart- 
 ments in the private car before and beyond the drawing- 
 room into which they had been shown. The whole 
 was a miracle of compactness and convenience ; the 
 decoration was of a specious refinement. In the draw- 
 ing-room was a smother of plushes, in hues of no kin- 
 dred, a flicker of tortured nickel work, and a flash of 
 mirrors. The studied soberness of the woodwork, in a 
 more modern taste, heightened the high pitch of the rest. 
 
 The president of the embryo Colorado and California 
 Central made room for Sheriff in one of the movable 
 wicker chairs by tilting out a heap of illustrated papers, 
 and bent two beady black eyes on him from under a 
 pair of bushy eyebrows. His own bulk filled- and over- 
 flowed another of the frail chairs. He had the mottled 
 cheeks and the flaccid fulness of chin of a man of fifty 
 who has lived too well. He listened to the animated 
 representations which Sheriff at once began making him 
 with an irresponsive, sullen face, while Tarvin engaged 
 Mrs. Mutrie in a conversation which did not imply the 
 existence of railroads. He knew all about the marriage 
 of the president of the Three C.'s, and he found her 
 very willing to let him use his knowledge flatteringly. 
 He made her his compliments ; he beguiled her into 
 telling him about her wedding journey. They were 
 just at the end of it ; they were to settle in Denver. 
 She wondered how she should like it. Tarvin told her 
 how she would like it. He guaranteed Denver; he 
 gilded and graced it for her ; he made it the city of a 
 dream, and peopled it out of an Eastern fairy tale. Then 
 he praised the stores and the theatres. He said they
 
 26 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 beat New York, but she ought to see their theatre at 
 Topaz. He hoped they meant to stay over a day or two 
 at Topaz. 
 
 Tarvin would not praise Topaz crudely, as he praised 
 Denver. He contrived to intimate its unique charm, 
 and when he had managed to make her see it in fancy 
 as the prettiest, and finest, and most prosperous town 
 in the West, he left the subject. But most of their 
 subjects were more personal, and while he discussed 
 them with her he pushed out experimentally in one 
 direction and another, first for a chord of sympathy, 
 then for her weak point. He wanted to know how she 
 could be reached. That was the way to reach the presi- 
 dent. He had perceived it as soon as he entered the 
 car. He knew her history, and had even known her 
 father, who had once kept the hotel where he stayed 
 when he went to Omaha. He asked her about the old 
 house, and the changes of proprietorship since he had 
 been there. Who had it now? He hoped they had 
 kept the head waiter. And the cook ? It made his 
 mouth water to think of that cook. She laughed with 
 instant sociability. Her childhood had been passed 
 about the hotel. She had played in the halls and 
 corridors, drummed on the parlour piano, and consumed 
 candy in the office. She knew that cook — knew him 
 personally. He had given her custards to take to bed 
 with her. Oh yes ! He was still there. 
 
 There was an infectious quality in Tarvin's open and 
 friendly manner, in his willingness to be amused, and 
 in his lively willingness to contribute to the current stock 
 of amusement, and there was something endearing in 
 his hearty, manly way, his confident, joyous air, his 
 manner of taking life strongly, and richly, and happily. 
 He had an impartial kindness for the human species. 
 He was own cousin to the race, and own brother to the 
 members of it he knew, when they would let him be.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 27 
 
 He and Mrs. Mutrie were shortly on beautiful terms, 
 and she made him come back with her to the bow- 
 window at the end of the car, and point out the show 
 sights of the Grand Canon of the Arkansas to her. 
 Theirs was the rearmost carriage, and they looked back 
 through the polished sweep of glass, in which the presi- 
 dent's car terminated, at the twisting streak of the reced- 
 ing track, and the awful walls of towering rock between 
 which it found its way. They stooped to the floor to 
 catch sight of the massy heights that hung above them, 
 and peered back at the soaring chaos of rock which, 
 having opened to let them through, closed again immiti- 
 gably as they left it behind. The train went racketing 
 profanely through the tumbled beauty of this primeval 
 world, miraculously keeping a foothold on the knife- 
 edge of space, won for it at the bottom of the canon 
 from the river on one side, and from the rock on the 
 other. Mrs. Mutrie would sometimes lose her balance 
 as the train swept them around the ceaseless curves, and 
 only saved herself by snatching at Tarvin. It ended in 
 his making her take his arm, and then they stood and 
 rocked together with the motion of the train, Tarvin 
 steadying their position with outstretched legs, while 
 they gazed up at the monster spires and sovereign hills 
 of stone, wavering and dizzying over their heads. 
 
 Mrs. Mutrie gave frequent utterance to little exclama- 
 tions of wonder and applause, which began by being the 
 appropriate feminine response to great expressions of 
 Nature, and ended in an awed murmur. Her light 
 nature was controlled and subdued by the spectacle as 
 it might have been silenced by the presence of death : 
 she used her little arts and coquetries on Tarvin mecha- 
 nically and half-heartedly, until they were finally out of 
 the canon, when she gave a gasp of relief, and taking 
 petulant possession of him, made him return with her 
 to the chairs they had left in the drawing-room. Sheriff
 
 28 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 was still pouring the story of the advantages of Topaz 
 into the unattending ear of the president, whose eyes 
 were on the window-pane. Mutrie received her pat on 
 the back and her whispered confidence with the air of an 
 embarrassed ogre. She flounced into her former seat, 
 and commanded Tarvin to amuse her ; and Tarvin 
 willingly told her of a prospecting expedition he had 
 once made into the country above the canon. He 
 hadn't found what he was looking for, which was 
 silver, but he had found some rather uncommon 
 amethysts. 
 
 " Oh, you don't mean it ! You delightful man ! 
 Amethysts ! Real live ones? I didn't know they found 
 amethysts in Colorado." 
 
 A singular light kindled in her eyes, a light of passion 
 and longing. Tarvin fastened on the look instantly. 
 Was that her weak point? If it was — He was full 
 of learning about precious stones. Were they not part 
 of the natural resources of the country about Topaz? 
 He could talk precious stones with her until the cows 
 came home. But would that bring the Three C.'s to 
 Topaz? A wild notion of working complimentary bridal 
 resolutions and an appropriation for a diamond tiara 
 through the board of trade danced through his head, 
 and was dismissed. No public offerings of that kind 
 would help Topaz. This was a case for private diplo- 
 macy, for subtle and laborious delicacies, for quiet and 
 friendly manipulation, for the tact of finger-tips — a touch 
 here, a touch there, and then a grip — a case, in fine, for 
 Nicholas Tarvin, and for no one else on top of earth. 
 He saw himself bringing the Three C.'s splendidly, 
 royally, unexpectedly into Topaz, and fixing it there by 
 that same Tarvin's unaided strength ; he saw himself 
 the founder of the future of the town he loved. He ; 
 saw Rustler in the dust, and the owner of a certain 
 twenty-acre plot a millionaire.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 29 
 
 His fancy dwelt affectionately for a moment on the 
 twenty-acre plot ; the money with which he had bought 
 it had not come easily, and business in the last analysis 
 was always business. But the plot, and his plan of 
 selling a portion of it to the Three C.'s for a round- 
 house, when the railroad came, and disposing of the 
 rest as town lots by the front foot, were minor chords 
 in the larger harmony. His dream was of Topaz. If 
 promoters, in accord with the high plan of providence, 
 usually came in on the ground floor when their plans 
 went right, that was a fact strictly by the way. 
 
 He noticed now, as he glanced at Mrs. Mutrie's 
 hands, that she wore unusual rings. They were not 
 numerous, but the stones were superb. He ventured 
 to admire the huge solitaire she wore on her left hand, 
 and, as they fell into a talk about jewels, she drew it 
 off to let him see it. She said the diamond had a 
 history. Her father had bought it from an actor, a 
 tragedian who had met bad business at Omaha, after 
 playing to empty houses at Denver, Topeka, Kansas 
 City, and St. Jo. The money had paid the fares of the 
 company home to New York, a fact which connected 
 the stone with the only real good it had ever done its 
 various owners. The tragedian had won it from a 
 gambler who had killed his man in a quarrel over it ; 
 the man who had died for it had bought it at a low price 
 from the absconding clerk of a diamond merchant. 
 
 "It ought to have been smuggled out of the mines 
 by the man who found it at Kimberley, or somewhere, 
 and sold to an I.D.B.," she said, "to make the story 
 complete. Don't you think so, Mr. Tarvin ? " 
 
 She asked all her questions with an arch of the eye- 
 brow, and an engaging smile which required the affirma- 
 tive readily furnished by Tarvin. He would have assented 
 to an hypothesis denying virtue to the discoveries of 
 Galileo and Newton if Mrs. Mutrie had broached it just
 
 30 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 then. He sat tense and rigid, full of his notion, watch- 
 ing, waiting, like a dog on the scent. 
 
 " I look into it sometimes to see if I can't find a 
 picture of the crimes it has seen," she said. "They're 
 so nice and shivery, don't you think so, Mr. Tarvin, 
 particularly the murder? But what I like best about 
 it is the stone itself. It is a beauty, isn't it? Pa used 
 to say it was the handsomest he'd ever seen, and in a 
 hotel you see lots of good diamonds, you know." She 
 gazed a moment affectionately into the liquid depths 
 of the brilliant. " Oh, there's nothing like a beautiful 
 stone — nothing ! " she breathed. Her eyes kindled. 
 He heard for the first time in her voice the ring of 
 absolute sincerity and unconsciousness. "I could look 
 at a perfect jewel forever, and I don't much care 
 what it is, so it is perfect. Pa used to know how I 
 loved stones, and he was always trading them with 
 the people who came to the house. Drummers are 
 great fellows for jewellery, you know, but they don't 
 always know a good stone from a bad one. Pa used 
 to make some good trades," she said, pursing her pretty 
 lips meditatively; "but he would never take anything 
 but the best, and then he would trade that, if he could, 
 for something better. He would always give two or 
 three stones with the least flaw in them for one real 
 good one. He knew they were the only ones I cared 
 for. Oh, I do love them ! They're better than folks. 
 They're always there, and always just so beautiful ! " 
 
 " I think I know a necklace you'd like, if you care for 
 such things," said Tarvin quietly. 
 
 " Do you ? " she beamed. " Oh, where ? " 
 
 " A long way from here." 
 
 " Oh— -Tiffany's!" she exclaimed scornfully. " I know 
 you ! " she added, with resumed art of intonation. 
 
 "No. Further." 
 
 "Where?"
 
 THE NAULAHKA 31 
 
 "India." 
 
 She stared at him a moment interestedly. "Tell me 
 what it's like," she said. Her whole attitude and accent 
 were changed again. There was plainly one subject on 
 which she could be serious. " Is it really good?" 
 
 " It's the best," said Tarvin, and stopped. 
 
 " Well ! " she exclaimed. " Don't tantalise me. 
 What is it made of?" 
 
 " Oh, diamonds, pearls, rubies, opals, turquoises, ame- 
 thysts, sapphires — a rope of them. The rubies are as 
 lug as your fist ; the diamonds are the size of hens' eggs. 
 It's worth a king's ransom." 
 
 She caught her breath. Then after a long moment, 
 " Oh ! " she sighed ; and then, " Oh ! " she murmured 
 again, languorously, wonderingly, longingly. " And 
 where is it ? " she asked briskly, of a sudden. 
 
 "Round the neck of an idol in the province of 
 Rajputana. Do you want it?" he asked grimly. 
 
 She laughed. " Yes," she answered. 
 
 " I'll get it for you," said Tarvin simply. 
 
 " Yes, you will ! " pouted she. 
 
 " I will," repeated Tarvin. 
 
 She threw back her gay blonde head, and laughed 
 to the painted Cupids on the ceiling of the car. She 
 always threw back her head when she laughed; it 
 showed her throat.
 
 IV. 
 
 " Your patience, Sirs, the Devil took me up 
 To the burned mountain over Sicily, 
 (Fit place for me), and thence I saw my Earth — 
 Not all Earth's splendour, 'twas beyond my need ; 
 And that one spot I love — all Earth to me. 
 And her I love, my Heaven. What said I ? . . . 
 My love was safe from all the powers of Hell— 
 For you — e'en you — acquit her of my guilt. 
 But Sula, nestling by our sail-specked sea, 
 My city, child of mine, my heart, my home. 
 Mine and my pride — evil might visit there ! 
 It was for Sula and her naked ports, 
 Prey to the galleys of the Algerine ; 
 Our city Sula, that I drove my price — 
 For love of Sula and for love of her. 
 The twain were woven, gold on sackcloth, twined 
 Past any sundering — till God shall judge 
 The evil and the good." 
 
 — The Grand- Master 's Defence. 
 
 The president engaged rooms at the hotel beside the 
 railroad track at Topaz, and stayed over the next day. 
 Tarvin and Sheriff took possession of him, and showed 
 him the town, and what they called its "natural re- 
 sources." Tarvin caused the president to hold rein 
 when he had ridden with him to a point outside the 
 town, and discoursed, in the midst of the open plain, 
 and in the face of the snow-capped mountains, on the 
 reasonableness and necessity of making Topaz the end 
 of a division for the new railroad, and putting the 
 division superintendent, the workshops, and the round- 
 house here.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 33 
 
 In his heart he knew the president to be absolutely 
 opposed to bringing the railroad to Topaz at all ; but 
 he preferred to assume the minor point. It was much 
 easier, as a matter of fact, to show that Topaz ought to 
 be made a junction, and the end of a division, than 
 it was to show that it ought to be a station on the 
 Three C.'s. If it was anything it would have to be a 
 junction; the difficulty was to prove that it ought to be 
 anything. 
 
 Tarvin knew the whole Topaz situation forward and 
 back, as he might have known the multiplication table. 
 He was not president of the board of trade and the 
 head of a land and improvement company, organised 
 with a capital of a million on a cash basis of $2000, 
 for nothing. Tarvin's company included all the solid 
 men of the town ; it owned the open plain from Topaz 
 to the foot-hills, and had laid it out in streets, avenues, 
 and public parks. One could see the whole thing on 
 a map hung in the company's office on Connecticut 
 Avenue, which was furnished in oak, floored with mosaic, 
 carpeted with Turkish rugs, and draped with silk. There 
 one could buy town lots at any point within two miles 
 of the town ; there, in fact, Tarvin had some town lots 
 to sell. The habit of having them to sell had taught 
 him the worst and the best that could be said about the 
 place ; and he knew to an exactitude all that he could 
 make a given man believe about it. 
 
 He was aware, for example, that Rustler not only 
 had richer mines in its near neighbourhood than Topaz, 
 but that it tapped a mining country behind it of unex- 
 plored and fabulous wealth; and he knew that the 
 president knew it. He was equally familiar with other 
 facts — as, for example, that the mines about Topaz were 
 fairly good, though nothing remarkable in a region of 
 great mineral wealth ; and that, although the town lay in 
 a wide and well-irrigated valley, and in the midst of an 
 
 c
 
 34 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 excellent cattle country, these were limited advantages, 
 and easily matched elsewhere. In other words, the 
 natural resources of Topaz constituted no such claim 
 for it as a "great railroad centre" as he would have 
 liked any one to suppose who heard him talk. 
 
 But he was not talking to himself. His private word 
 to himself was that Topaz was created to be a railroad 
 town, and the way to create it was to make it a railroad 
 town. This proposition, which could not have been 
 squared to any system of logic, proceeded on the 
 soundest system of reasoning. As thus : Topaz was not 
 an existence at all ; Topaz was a hope. Very well ! 
 And when one wished to make such hopes realities in 
 the West, what did one do? Why, get some one else to 
 believe in them, of course. Topaz was valueless without 
 the Three C.'s. Then what was its value to the Three 
 C.'s? Obviously the value that the Three C.'s would 
 give it. 
 
 Tarvin's pledge to the president amounted to this : 
 that if he would give them the chance, they would be 
 worthy of it; and he contended that, in essence, that 
 was all that any town could say. The point for the 
 president to judge was which place would be most likely 
 to be worthy of such an opportunity — Topaz or Rustler 
 — and he claimed there could be no question about 
 that. When you came to size it up, he said, it was the 
 character of the inhabitants that counted. They were 
 dead at Rustler — dead and buried. Everybody knew 
 that : there was no trade, no industry, no life, no energy, 
 no money there. And look at Topaz ! The president 
 could see the character of her citizens at a glance as he 
 walked the streets. They were wide awake down here. 
 They meant business. They believed in their town, 
 and they were ready to put their money on her. The 
 president had only to say what he expected of them. 
 And then he broached to him his plan for getting one
 
 THE NAULAHKA 35 
 
 of the Denver smelters to establish a huge branch at 
 Topaz ; he said that he had an agreement with one 
 of them in his pocket, conditioned solely on the Three 
 C.'s coming their way. The company couldn't make 
 any such arrangement with Rustler; he knew that. 
 Rustler hadn't the flux, for one thing. The smelter 
 people had come up from Denver at the expense of 
 Topaz, and had proved Topaz's allegation that Rustler 
 couldn't find a proper flux for smelting its ore nearer 
 to her own borders than fifteen miles — in other words, 
 she couldn't find it this side of Topaz. 
 
 Tarvin went on to say that what Topaz wanted was 
 an outlet for her products to the Gulf of Mexico, and 
 the Three C.'s was the road to furnish it. The president 
 had, perhaps, listened to such statements before, for the 
 entire and crystalline impudence of this drew no retort 
 from his stolidity. He seemed to consider it as he 
 considered the other representations made to him, with- 
 out hearing it. A railroad president, weighing the ad- 
 vantages of rival towns, could not find it within his 
 conception of dignity to ask which of the natural pro- 
 ducts of Topaz sought relief through the Gulf. But if 
 Mutrie could have asked such a question, Tarvin would 
 have answered unblushingly, "Rustler's." He implied 
 this freely in the suggestion which he made immediately 
 in the form of a concession. Of course, he said, if the 
 road wanted to tap the mineral wealth of the country 
 behind Rustler it would be a simple matter to run a 
 branch road up there, and bring down the ore to be 
 smelted at Topaz. Rustler had a value to the road 
 as a mining centre; he didn't pretend to dispute that. 
 But a mineral road would bring down all the ore as 
 well as a main line, make the same traffic for the road, 
 and satisfy all proper claims of Rustler to consideration, 
 while leaving the junction where it belonged by virtue 
 of natural position.
 
 36 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 He boldly asked the president how he expected to 
 get up steam and speed for the climb over the Pass, if 
 he made Rustler the end of the division, and changed 
 engines there. The place was already in the mountains ; 
 as a practical railroad-man the president must know 
 that his engines could get no start from Rustler. The 
 heavy grade by which the railroad would have to get 
 out of the place, beginning in the town itself, prohibited 
 the idea of making it the end of a division. If his 
 engines, by good luck, weren't stalled on the grade, what 
 did he think of the annual expense involved in driving 
 heavy trains daily at a high mountain from the vantage- 
 ground of a steep slope? What the Three C.'s wanted 
 for the end of their division and their last stop before 
 the climb over the Pass was a place like Topaz, de- 
 signed for them by nature, built in the centre of a plain, 
 which the railroad could traverse at a level for five miles 
 before attacking the hills. 
 
 This point Tarvin made with the fervour and relief 
 born of dealing with one solid and irrefragable fact. It 
 was really his best argument, and he saw that it had 
 reached the president as the latter took up his reins 
 silently, and led the way back to town. But another 
 glance at Mutrie's face told him that he had failed 
 hopelessly in his main contention. The certainty of 
 this would have been heart-breaking if he had not ex- 
 pected to fail. Success lay elsewhere ; but before trying 
 that he had determined to use every other means. 
 
 Tarvin's eye rested lovingly on his town as they 
 turned their horses again toward the cluster of dwellings 
 scattered irregularly in the midst of the wide valley. 
 She might be sure that he would see her through. 
 
 Of course the Topaz of his affections melted in 
 and out of the Topaz of fact, by shadings and subtleties 
 which no measurement could record. The relation of 
 the real Topaz to Tarvin's Topaz, or to the Topaz of
 
 THE NAULAHKA 37 
 
 any good citizen of the place, was a matter which no 
 friendly observer could wish to press. In Tarvin's own 
 case it was impossible to say where actual belief stopped 
 and willingness to believe went on. What he knew was 
 that he did believe : and with him the best possible 
 reason for faith in Topaz would have been that it 
 needed to be believed in hard. The need would have 
 been only another reason for liking it. 
 
 To the ordered Eastern eye the city would have 
 seemed a raw, untidy, lonely collection of ragged wooden 
 buildings sprawling over a level plain. But this was only 
 another proof that one can see only what one brings to 
 the seeing. It was not so that Tarvin saw it ; and he 
 would not have thanked the Easterner who should have 
 taken refuge in praise of his snow-whitened hills, walling 
 the valley in a monstrous circle. The Easterner might 
 keep his idea that Topaz merely blotted a beautiful pic- 
 ture ; to Tarvin the picture was Topaz's scenery, and 
 the scenery only an incident of Topaz. It was one of 
 her natural advantages — her own, like her climate, her 
 altitude, and her board of trade. 
 
 He named the big mountains to the president as they 
 rode ; he showed him where their big irrigating ditch 
 led the water down out of the heights, and where it was 
 brought along under the shadow of the foothills before it 
 started across the plain toward Topaz; he told him the 
 number of patients in their hospital, decently subduing 
 his sense of their numerousness, as a testimony to the 
 prosperity of the town ; and as they rode into the 
 streets he pointed out the opera-house, the post-office, 
 the public school, and the court-house, with the modesty 
 a mother summons who shows her first-born. 
 
 It was at least as much to avoid thinking as to 
 exploit the merits of Topaz that he spared the pre- 
 sident nothing. Through all his advocacy another 
 voice had made itself heard, and now, in the sense of
 
 3§ THE NAULAHKA 
 
 momentary failure, the bitterness of another failure 
 caught him with a fresh twinge ; for since his return 
 he had seen Kate, and knew that nothing short of a 
 miracle would prevent her from starting for India 
 within three days. In contempt of the man who was 
 making this possible, and in anger and desperation, he 
 had spoken at last directly to Sheriff, appealing to 
 him by all he held most dear to stop this wickedness. 
 But there are limp rags which no buckram can stiffen ; 
 and Sheriff, willing as he was to oblige, could not take 
 strength into his fibre from the outside, though Tarvin 
 offered him all of his. His talk with Kate, supple- 
 mented by this barren interview with her father, had 
 given him a sickening sense of powerlessness from which 
 nothing but a large success in another direction could 
 rescue him. He thirsted for success, and it had done 
 him good to attack the president, even with the fore- 
 knowledge that he must fail with him. 
 
 He could forget Kate's existence while he fought 
 for Topaz, but he remembered it with a pang as he 
 parted from Mutrie. He had her promise to make 
 one of the party he was taking to the Hot Springs 
 that afternoon ; if it had not been for that he could 
 almost have found it in his heart to let Topaz take 
 care of herself for the remainder of the president's stay. 
 As it was, he looked forward to the visit to the Springs 
 as a last opening to hope. He meant to make a final 
 appeal ; he meant to have it out with Kate, for he could 
 not believe in defeat, and he could not think that she 
 would go. 
 
 The excursion to the Hot Springs was designed to 
 show the president and Mrs. Mutrie what a future 
 Topaz must have as a winter resort, if all other ad- 
 vantages failed her ; and they had agreed to go with 
 the party which Tarvin had hastily got together. "With 
 a view to a little quiet talk with Kate, he had invited
 
 THE NAULAHKA 39 
 
 three men besides Sheriff — Maxim, the postmaster ; 
 Heckler, the editor of the Topaz Telegram (both his 
 colleagues on the board of trade) ; and a pleasant 
 young Englishman, named Carmathan. He expected 
 them to do some of the talking to the president, and 
 to give him half an hour with Kate, without detriment 
 to Mutrie's impressions of Topaz. It had occurred to 
 him that the president might be ready by this time 
 for a fresh view of the town, and Heckler was the man 
 to give it to him. 
 
 Carmathan had come to Topaz two years before in 
 his capacity of colonising younger son, to engage in the 
 cattle business, equipped with a riding-crop, top-boots, 
 and $2000 in money. He had lost the money; but he 
 knew now that riding-crops were not used in punching 
 cattle, and he was at the moment using this knowledge, 
 together with other information gathered on the same 
 subject, in the calling of cow-boy on a neighbouring 
 range. He was getting $30 a month, and was accepting 
 his luck with the philosophy which comes to the adoptive 
 as well as to the native-born citizens of the West. Kate 
 liked him for the pride and pluck which did not allow 
 him the easy remedy of writing home, and for other 
 things : and for the first half of their ride to the Hot 
 Springs they rode side by side, while Tarvin made Mr. 
 and Mrs. Mutrie look up at the rocky heights between 
 which they began to pass. He showed them the mines 
 burrowing into the face of the rock far aloft, and 
 explained the geological formation with the purely 
 practical learning of a man who buys and sells mines. 
 The road, which ran alongside the track of the railroad 
 already going through Topaz, wandered back and forth 
 over it from time to time, as Tarvin said, at the exact 
 angle which the Three C.'s would be choosing later. 
 Once a train laboured past them, tugging up the heavy 
 grade that led to the town. The narrowing gorge was
 
 4 o THE NAULAHKA 
 
 the first closing in of the hills, which, after widening 
 again, gathered in the great cliffs of the canon twenty 
 miles below, to face each other across the chasm. The 
 sweep of pictured rock above their heads lifted itself 
 into strange, gnarled crags, or dipped suddenly and 
 swam on high in straining peaks ; but for the most 
 part it was sheer wall — blue and brown and purplish- 
 red umber, ochre, and the soft hues between. 
 
 Tarvin dropped back, and ranged his horse beside 
 Kate's. Carmathan, with whom he was in friendly 
 relation, gave place to him instantly, and rode forward 
 to join the others in advance. 
 
 She lifted her speaking eyes as he drew rein beside 
 her, and begged him silently to save them both the 
 continuance of a hopeless contest; but Tarvin's jaw was 
 set, and he would not have listened to an angel's voice. 
 
 " I tire you by talking of this thing, Kate. I know 
 it. But I've got to talk of it. I've got to save you." 
 
 "Don't try any more, Nick," she answered gently. 
 " Please don't. It's my salvation to go. It is the one 
 thing I want to do. It seems to me sometimes, when I 
 think of it, that it was perhaps the thing I was sent into 
 the world to do. We are all sent into the world to do 
 something, don't you think so, Nick, even if it's ever so 
 tiny and humble and no account? I've got to do it, 
 Nick. Make it easy for me." 
 
 "I'll be— hammered if I will! I'll make it hard. 
 That's what I'm here for. Every one else yields to that 
 vicious little will of yours. Your father and mother let 
 you do what you like. They don't begin to know what 
 you are running your precious head into. I can't replace 
 it. Can you ? That makes me positive. It also makes 
 me ugly." 
 
 Kate laughed. 
 
 "It does make you ugly, Nick. But I don't mind. 
 I think I like it that you should care. If I could stay
 
 THE NAULAHKA 41 
 
 at home for any one, I'd do it for you. Believe that, 
 won't you ? " 
 
 "Oh, I'll believe, and thank you into the bargain. 
 But what good will it do me ? I don't want belief. I 
 want you." 
 
 " I know, Nick. I know. But India wants me more 
 — or not me, but what I can do, and what women like 
 me can do. There's a cry from Macedonia, ' Come over 
 and help us ! ' While I hear that cry I can find no 
 pleasure in any other good. I could be your wife, Nick. 
 That's easy. But with that in my ears I should be in 
 torture every moment." 
 
 "That's rough on me," suggested Tarvin, glancing 
 ruefully at the cliffs above them. 
 
 " Oh no. It has nothing to do with you." 
 
 " Yes," returned he, shutting his lips, " that's just it." 
 
 She could not help smiling a little again at his face. 
 
 " I will never marry any one else, if it helps you any 
 to know that, Nick," she said, with a sudden tenderness 
 in her voice. 
 
 " But you won't marry me ? " 
 
 " No," she said quietly, firmly, simply. 
 
 He meditated this answer a moment in bitterness. 
 They were riding at a walk, and he let the reins drop 
 on his pony's neck as he said, " Ob, well. Don't matter 
 about me. It isn't all selfishness, dear. I do want you to 
 stay for my own sake, I want you for my very own, I 
 want you always beside me, I want you — want you; 
 but it isn't for that I ask you to stay. It's because I 
 can't think of you throwing yourself into the dangers 
 and horrors of that life alone, unprotected, a girl. I 
 can't think of it and sleep nights. I daren't think of it. 
 The thing's monstrous. It's hideous. It's absurd. 
 You won't do it ! " 
 
 " I must not think of myself," she answered in a 
 shaken voice. " I must think of them"
 
 42 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " But / must think of you. And you shan't brihe 
 me, you shan't tempt me, to think of any one else. You 
 take it all too hard. Dearest girl," he entreated, lower- 
 ing his voice, " are you in charge of the misery of the 
 earth ? There is misery elsewhere, too, and pain. Can 
 you stop it? You've got to live with the sound of the 
 suffering of millions in your ears all your life, whatever 
 you do. We're all in for that. We can't get away from 
 it. We pay that price for daring to be happy for one 
 little second." 
 
 " I know, I know. I'm not trying to save myself. 
 I'm not trying to stifle the sound." 
 
 " No, but you are trying to stop it, and you can't. 
 It's like trying to scoop up the ocean with a dipper. 
 You can't do it. But you can spoil your life in trying ; 
 and if you've got a scheme by which you can come back 
 and have a spoiled life over again, I know some one 
 who hasn't. O Kate, I don't ask anything for myself 
 — or, at least, I only ask everything — but do think of 
 that a moment sometimes when you are putting your 
 arms around the earth, and trying to lift it up in your 
 soft little hands — you are spoiling more lives than your 
 own. Great Scot, Kate, if you are looking for some 
 misery to set right, you needn't go off this road. Begin 
 on me." 
 
 She shook her head sadly. " I must begin where I 
 see my duty, Nick. I don't say that I shall make much 
 impression on the dreadful sum of human trouble, and 
 I don't say it is for everybody to do what I'm going to 
 try to do; but it's right for me. I know that, and 
 that's all any of us can know. Oh, to be sure that 
 people are a little better — if only a little better — because 
 you have lived," she exclaimed, the look of exaltation 
 coming into her eyes ; " to know that you have lessened 
 by the slightest bit the sorrow and suffering that must 
 go on all the same, would be good. Even you must feel
 
 THE NAULAHKA 43 
 
 that, Nick." she said, gently laying her hand on his arm 
 as they rode. 
 
 Tarvin compressed his lips. "Oh yes, I feel it," he 
 said desperately. 
 
 " But you feel something else. So do I." 
 
 " Then feel it more. Feel it enough to trust your- 
 self to me. I'll find a future for you. You shall 
 bless everybody with your goodness. Do you think I 
 should like you without it ? And you shall begin by 
 blessing me." 
 
 " I can't ! I can't ! " she cried in distress. 
 
 " You can't do anything else. You must come to me 
 at last. Do you think I could live if I didn't think 
 that? But I want to save you all that lies between. I 
 don't want you to be driven into my arms, little girl. I 
 want you to come — and come now." 
 
 For answer to this she only bowed her head on the 
 sleeve of her riding-habit, and began to cry softly. 
 Nick's fingers closed on the hand with which she ner- 
 vously clutched the pommel of her saddle. 
 
 " You can"t, dear ? " 
 
 The brown head was shaken vehemently. Tarvin 
 ground his teeth. 
 
 " All right ; don't mind." 
 
 He took her yielding hand into his, speaking gently, 
 as he would have spoken to a child in distress. In 
 the silent moment that lengthened between them Tarvin 
 gave it up — not Kate, not his love, not his changeless 
 resolve to have her for his own, but just the question of 
 her going to India. She could go if she liked. There 
 would be two of them. 
 
 When they reached the Hot Springs he took an imme- 
 diate opportunity to engage the willing Mrs. Mutrie in 
 talk, and to lead her aside, while Sheriff showed the 
 •president the water steaming out of the ground, the 
 baths, and the proposed site of a giant hotel. Kate,
 
 44 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 willing to hide her red eyes from Mrs. Mutrie's sharp 
 gaze, remained with her father. 
 
 When Tarvin had led the president's wife to the side 
 of the stream that went plunging down past the Springs 
 to find a tomb at last in the canon below, he stopped 
 short in the shelter of a clump of cottonwoods. 
 
 " Do you really want that necklace ? " he asked her 
 abruptly. 
 
 She laughed again, gurglingly, amusedly, this time, 
 with the little air of spectacle which she could not help 
 lending to all she did. 
 
 "Want it?" she repeated. "Of course I want it. I 
 want the moon, too." 
 
 Tarvin laid a silencing hand upon her arm. 
 
 " You shall have this," he said positively. 
 
 She ceased laughing, and grew almost pale at his 
 earnestness. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " she asked quickly. 
 
 " It would please you ? You would be glad of it ? " 
 he asked. " What would you do to get it ? " 
 
 " Go back to Omaha on my hands and knees," she 
 answered with equal earnestness. " Crawl to India." 
 
 "All right," returned Tarvin vigorously. "That 
 settles it. Listen ! I want the Three C.'s to come to 
 Topaz. You want this. Can we trade ? " 
 
 " But you can never " 
 
 "No matter; I'll attend to my part. Can you do 
 yours ? " 
 
 "You mean " she began. 
 
 "Yes," nodded her companion decisively; "I do. 
 Can you fix it ? " 
 
 Tarvin, fiercely repressed and controlled, stood before 
 her with clenched teeth, and hands that drove the nails 
 into his palms, awaiting her answer. 
 
 She tilted her fair head on one side with deprecation, 
 and regarded him out of the vanishing angle of one
 
 THE NAULAHKA 45 
 
 eye provocatively, with a lingering, tantalising look of 
 adequacy. 
 
 " I guess what I say to Jim goes," she said at last with 
 a dreamy smile. 
 
 " Then it's a bargain ? " 
 
 " Yes," she answered. 
 
 " Shake hands on it." 
 
 They joined hands. For a moment they stood con- 
 fronted, penetrating each other's eyes. 
 
 " You'll really get it for me ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "You won't go back on me?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 He pressed her hand so that she gave a little scream. 
 
 "Ouch! You hurt." 
 
 " All right," he said hoarsely, as he dropped her hand. 
 " It's a trade. I start for India to-morrow."
 
 V. 
 
 " Now, it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan 
 
 brown, 
 For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles, and he weareth the 
 
 Christian down ; 
 And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, with the name of 
 
 the late deceased, 
 And the epitaph drear : ' A fool lies here who tried to hustle the 
 
 East.'" 
 
 — Solo from Libretto of Nanlahka. 
 
 Tarvin stood on the platform of the station at Rawut 
 Tunction watching the dust cloud that followed the re- 
 treating Bombay mail. When it had disappeared, the 
 heated air above the stone ballast began its dance again, 
 and he turned blinking to India. 
 
 It was amazingly simple to come fourteen thousand 
 miles. He had lain still in a ship for a certain time, and 
 then had transferred himself to stretch at full length, in his 
 shirt-sleeves, on the leather-padded bunk of the train which 
 had brought him from Calcutta to Rawut Junction. The 
 journey was long only as it kept him from sight of Kate, 
 and kept him filled with thought of her. But was this 
 what he had come for — the yellow desolation of a Raj- 
 putana desert, and the pinched-off perspective of the 
 track ? Topaz was cosier when they had got the church, 
 the saloon, the school, and three houses up ; the loneli- 
 ness made him shiver. He saw that they did not mean 
 to do any more of it. It was a desolation which doubled 
 desolateness, because it was left for done. It was final, 
 
 intended, absolute. The grim solidity of the cut-stone 
 
 4 6
 
 THE NAULAHKA 47 
 
 station-house, the solid masonry of the empty platform, 
 the mathematical exactitude of the station name-board 
 looked for no future. No new railroad could help 
 Rawut Junction. It had no ambition. It belonged 
 to the Government. There was no green thing, no 
 curved line, no promise of life that produces, within 
 eyeshot of Rawut Junction. The mauve railroad-creeper 
 on the station had been allowed to die from lack of 
 attention. 
 
 Tarvin was saved from the more positive pangs of 
 home-sickness by a little healthy human rage. A single 
 man, fat, brown, clothed in white gauze, and wearing a 
 black velvet cap on his head, stepped out from the 
 building. This station-master and permanent popula- 
 tion of Rawut Junction accepted Tarvin as a feature of 
 the landscape : he did not look at him. Tarvin began 
 to sympathise with the South in the war of the rebellion. 
 
 " When does the next train leave for Rhatore ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " There is no train," returned the man, pausing with 
 precise deliberation between the words. He sent his 
 speech abroad with an air of detachment, irresponsibly, 
 like the phonograph. 
 
 " No train ? Where's your time-table? Where's your 
 railroad guide? Where's your Pathfinder? " 
 
 " No train at all of any kind whatever." 
 
 " Then what the devil are you here for ? " 
 
 " Sir, I am the station-master of this station, and it is 
 prohibited using profane language to employees of this 
 company." 
 
 " Oh, are you ? Is it ? Well, see here, my friend — 
 you station-master of the steep-edge of the jumping-off- 
 place, if you want to save your life you will tell me how 
 I get to Rhatore — quick ! " 
 
 The man was silent. 
 
 " Well, what do I do, anyway ? " shouted the West.
 
 48 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " What do I know ?" answered the East. 
 
 Tarvin stared at the brown being in white, beginning 
 at his patent leather shoes, surmounted by open-work 
 socks, out of which the calf of his leg bulged, and ending 
 with the velvet smoking-cap on his head. The passion- 
 less regard of the Oriental, borrowed from the purple 
 hills behind his station, made him wonder for one 
 profane, faithless, and spiritless moment whether Topaz 
 and Kate were worth all they were costing. 
 
 " Ticket, please," said the baboo. 
 
 The gloom darkened. This thing was here to take 
 tickets, and would do it though men loved, and fought, 
 and despaired and died at his feet. 
 
 " See here," cried Tarvin, " you shiny-toed fraud ; 
 
 you agate-eyed pillar of alabaster " But he did 
 
 not go on ; speech failed in a shout of rage and despair. 
 The desert swallowed all impartially ; and the baboo, 
 turning with awful quiet, drifted through the door of the 
 station-house, and locked it behind him. 
 
 Tarvin whistled persuasively at the door with uplifted 
 eyebrows, jingling an American quarter against a rupee 
 in his pocket. The window of the ticket-office opened 
 a little way, and the baboo showed an inch of impassive 
 face. 
 
 " Speaking now in offeshal capacity, your honour can 
 getting to Rhatore via country bullock-cart." 
 
 " Find me the bullock-cart," said Tarvin. 
 
 " Your honour granting commission on transaction ? " 
 
 "Cert !" It was the tone that conveyed the idea to 
 the head under the smoking-cap. 
 
 The window was dropped.' Afterward, but not too 
 immediately afterward, a long-drawn howl made itself 
 heard — the howl of a weary warlock invoking a dilatory 
 ghost. 
 
 " O Moti ! Moti ! O-oh ! " 
 
 " Ah there, Moti ! " murmured Tarvin, as he vaulted
 
 THE NAULAHKA 49 
 
 over the low stone wall, gripsack in hand, and stepped 
 out through the ticket wicket into Rajputana. His 
 habitual gaiety and confidence had returned with the 
 prospect of motion. 
 
 Between himself and a purple circle of hills lay fifteen 
 miles of profitless, rolling ground, jagged with laterite 
 rocks, and studded with unthrifty trees — all given up to 
 drought and dust, and all colourless as the sun-bleached 
 locks of a child of the prairies. Very far away to the 
 right the silver gleam of a salt lake showed, and a form 
 less blue haze of heavier forest. Sombre, desolate, 
 oppressive, withering under a brazen sun, it smote him 
 with its likeness to his own prairies, and with its home- 
 sick unlikeness. 
 
 Apparently out of a crack in the earth — in fact, as he 
 presently perceived, out of a spot where two waves of 
 plain folded in upon each other and contained a village — 
 came a pillar of dust, the heart of which was a bullock- 
 cart. The distant whine of the wheels sharpened, as 
 it drew near, to the full-bodied shriek that Tarvin knew 
 when they put the brakes suddenly on a freight coming 
 into Topaz on the down grade. But this was in no 
 sense a freight. The wheels were sections of tree butts 
 — square for the most part. Four unbarked poles 
 bounded the corners of a flat body ; the sides were 
 made of netted rope of cocoa-nut fibre. Two bullocks, 
 a little larger than Newfoundlands, smaller than Alder- 
 neys, drew a vehicle which might have contained the 
 half of a horse's load. 
 
 The cart drew up at the station, and the bullocks, 
 after contemplating Tarvin for a moment, lay down. 
 Tarvin seated himself on his gripsack, rested his shaggy 
 head in his hands, and expended himself in mirth. 
 
 "Sail in," he instructed the baboo; "make your 
 bargain. I'm in no hurry." 
 
 Then began a scene of declamation and riot, to which 
 
 D
 
 50 THE NAULAHKA. 
 
 a quarrel in a Leadville gambling saloon was a poor 
 matter. The impassiveness of the station-master de- 
 serted him like a wind-blown garment. He harangued, 
 gesticulated, and cursed; and the driver, naked except 
 for a blue loin cloth, was nothing behind him. They 
 pointed at Tarvin ; they seemed to be arguing over his 
 birth and ancestry ; for all he knew they were appraising 
 his weight. When they seemed to be on the brink of an 
 amicable solution, the question re-opened itself, and 
 they went back to the beginning, and reclassified him 
 and the journey. 
 
 Tarvin applauded both parties, sicking one on the 
 other impartially for the first ten minutes. Then he 
 besought them to stop, and when they would not he 
 discovered that it was hot, and swore at them. 
 
 The driver had for the moment exhausted himself, 
 when the baboo turned suddenly on Tarvin, and, clutch- 
 ing him by the arm, cried, almost shouting, " All arrange, 
 sir ! all arrange ! This man most uneducated man, sir. 
 You giving me the money, I arrange everything." 
 
 Swift as thought, the driver had caught his other arm,. 
 and was imploring him in a strange tongue not to listen 
 to his opponent. As Tarvin stepped back they followed 
 him with uplifted hands of entreaty and representation, 
 the station-master forgetting his English, and the driver 
 his respect for the white man. Tarvin, eluding them 
 both, pitched his gripsack into the bullock-cart, bounded 
 in himself, and shouted the one Indian word he knew. 
 It happened, fortunately, to be the word that moves all 
 India, " Challo /" which, being interpreted, is " Go on !" 
 
 So, leaving strife and desolation behind him, rode out 
 into the desert of Rajputana Nicholas Tarvin of Topaz 
 Colorado.
 
 VI. 
 
 " In the State of Kot-Kumharsen, where the wild dacoits abound, 
 And the Thakurs live in castles on the hills, 
 Where the bunnia and bunjara in alternate streaks are found, 
 
 And the Rajah cannot liquidate his bills ; 
 Where the agent Sahib Bahadur shoots the black-buck for his 
 larder, 
 From the tonga which he uses as macMn, 
 'Twas a white man from the west, came expressly to invest- 
 igate the natural wealth of Hindustan." 
 
 — Song from Libretto of Naulahka. 
 
 Under certain conditions four days can dwarf eternity. 
 Tarvin had found these circumstances in the bullock- 
 cart from which he crawled ninety-six hours after the 
 bullocks had got up from the dust at Rawut Junction. 
 They stretched behind him — those hours — in a mad- 
 dening, creaking, dusty, deliberate procession. In an hour 
 the bullock-cart went two and a half miles. Fortunes 
 had been made and lost in Topaz — happy Topaz ! — 
 while the cart ploughed its way across a red-hot river- 
 bed, shut in between two walls of belted sand. New- 
 cities might have risen in the West and fallen to ruins 
 older than Thebes while, after any of their meals by the 
 wayside, the driver droned over a water-pipe something 
 less wieldy than a Gatling-gun. In these waits and in 
 others — it seemed to him that the journey was chiefly 
 made up of waits — Tarvin saw himself distanced in the 
 race of life by every male citizen of the United States, 
 and groaned with the consciousness that he could never 
 overtake them, or make up this lost time. 
 
 5'
 
 52 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Great grey cranes with scarlet heads stalked through 
 the high grass of the swamps in the pockets of the hills. 
 The snipe and the quail hardly troubled themselves to 
 move from beneath the noses of the bullocks, and once 
 in the dawn, lying upon a glistening rock, he saw two 
 young panthers playing together like kittens. 
 
 A few miles from Rawut Junction his driver had 
 taken from underneath the cart a sword which he hung 
 around his neck, and sometimes used on the bullocks as 
 a goad. Tarvin saw that every man went armed in this 
 country, as in his own. But three feet of clumsy steel 
 struck him as a poor substitute for the delicate and 
 nimble revolver. 
 
 Once he stood up in the cart and hallooed, for he 
 thought he saw the white top of a prairie schooner. 
 But it was only a gigantic cotton-wain, drawn by six- 
 teen bullocks, dipping and plunging across the ridges. 
 Through all, the scorching Indian sun blazed down on 
 him, making him wonder how he had ever dared praise 
 the perpetual sunshine of Colorado. At dawn the rocks 
 glittered like diamonds, and at noonday the sands of the 
 rivers troubled his eyes with a million flashing sparks. 
 At eventide a cold, dry wind would spring up, and the 
 hills lying along the horizon took a hundred colours 
 under the light of the sunset. Then Tarvin realised the 
 meaning of " the glorious East," for the hills were turned 
 to heaps of ruby and amethyst, while between them the 
 mists in the valleys were opal. He lay in the bullock- 
 cart on his back and stared at the sky, dreaming of the 
 Naulahka, and wondering whether it would match the 
 scenery. 
 
 "The clouds know what I'm up to. It's a good 
 omen," he said to himself. 
 
 He cherished the definite and simple plan of buying 
 the Naulahka and paying for it in good money to be 
 raised at Topaz by bonding the town — not, of course,
 
 THE NAULAHKA 53 
 
 ostensibly for any such purpose. Topaz was good for 
 it, he believed, and if the Maharajah wanted too steep a 
 price when they came to talk business he would form a 
 syndicate. 
 
 As the cart swayed from side to side, bumping his head, 
 he wondered where Kate was. She might, under favour- 
 able conditions, be in Bombay by this time. That much 
 he knew from careful consideration of her route; but a girl 
 alone could not pass from hemisphere to hemisphere as 
 swiftly as an unfettered man, spurred by love of herself and 
 of Topaz. Perhaps she was resting for a little time with 
 the Zenana Mission at Bombay. He refused absolutely 
 to admit to himself that she had fallen ill by the way. 
 She was resting, receiving her orders, absorbing a few of 
 the wonders of the strange lands he had contemptuously 
 thrust behind him in his eastward flight ; but in a few 
 days at most she ought to be at Rhatore, whither the 
 bullock-cart was taking him. 
 
 He smiled and smacked his lips with pure enjoyment 
 as he thought of their meeting, and amused himself 
 with fancies about her fancies touching his present 
 whereabouts. 
 
 He had left Topaz for San Francisco by the night 
 train over the Pass a little more than twenty-four hours 
 after his conference with Mrs. Mutrie, saying good-bye 
 to no one, and telling nobody where he was going. Kate 
 perhaps wondered at the fervour of his " Good evening " 
 when he left her at her father's house on their return from 
 their ride to the Hot Springs. But she said nothing, and 
 Tarvin contrived by an effort to take himself off without 
 giving himself away. He had made a quiet sale of a 
 block of town lots the next day at a sacrifice, to furnish 
 himself with money for the voyage ; but this was too 
 much in the way of his ordinary business to excite com- 
 ment, and he was finally able to gaze down at the wink- 
 ing lights of Topaz in the valley from the rear platform
 
 54 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 of his train, as it climbed up over the Continental Divide, 
 with the certainty that the town he was going to India to 
 bless and boom was not " on to " his beneficent scheme. 
 To make sure that the right story went back to the town, 
 he told the conductor of the train, in strict confidence, 
 while he smoked his usual cigar with him, about a little 
 placer-mining scheme in Alaska which he was going 
 there to nurse for a while. 
 
 The conductor embarrassed him for a moment by ask- 
 ing what he was going to do about his election mean- 
 while ; but Tarvin was ready for him here too. He said 
 that he had that fixed. He had to let him into another 
 scheme to show him how it was fixed, but as he bound 
 him to secrecy again, this didn't matter. 
 
 He wondered now, however, whether that scheme 
 had worked, and whether Mrs. Mutrie would keep her 
 promise to cable the result of the election to him at 
 Rhatore. It was amusing to have to trust a woman to 
 let him know whether he was a member of the Colorado 
 legislature or not ; but she was the only living person 
 who knew his address, and as the idea had seemed to 
 please her, in common with their whole " charming con- 
 spiracy " (this was what she called it), Tarvin had been 
 content. 
 
 When he had become convinced that his eyes would 
 never again be blessed with the sight of a white man, 
 or his ears with the sound of intelligible speech, the cart 
 rolled through a gorge between two hills, and stopped 
 before the counterpart of the station at Rawut Junction. 
 It was a double cube of red sandstone, but — for this 
 Tarvin could have taken it in his arms — it was full of 
 white men. They were undressed excessively; they 
 were lying in the verandah in long chairs, and between 
 each chair was a well-worn bullock trunk. 
 
 Tarvin got himself out of the cart, unfolding his long 
 stiffened legs with difficulty, and unkinking his muscles
 
 THE NAULAHKA 55 
 
 one by one. He was a mask of dust — dust beyond 
 sand-storms or cyclones. It had obliterated the creases 
 of his clothing and turned his black American four- 
 button cutaway to a pearly white. It had done away 
 with the distinction between the hem of his trousers 
 and the top of his shoes. It dropped off him and rolled 
 up from him as he moved. His fervent "Thank God ! " 
 was extinguished in a dusty cough. He stepped into 
 the verandah, rubbing his smarting eyes. 
 
 "Good evening, gentlemen," he said. "Got any- 
 thing to drink?" 
 
 No one rose, but somebody shouted for the ser- 
 vant. A man dressed in thin Tussur silk, yellow and 
 ill-fitting as the shuck on a dried cob, and absolutely 
 colourless as to his face, nodded to him and asked 
 languidly — 
 
 " Who are you for ? " 
 
 "No? Have they got them here too?" said Tarvin 
 to himself, recognising in that brief question the universal 
 shibboleth of the commercial traveller. 
 
 He went down the long line and twisted each hand 
 in pure joy and thankfulness before he began to draw 
 comparisons between the East and the West, and to 
 ask himself if these idle, silent lotus-eaters could belong 
 to the profession with which he had swapped stories, 
 commodities, and political opinions this many a year 
 in smoking-cars and hotel offices. Certainly they were 
 debased and spiritless parodies of the alert, aggressive, 
 joyous, brazen animals whom he knew as the drummers 
 of the West. But perhaps — a twinge in his back re- 
 minded him — they had all reached this sink of deso- 
 lation via country bullock-cart. 
 
 He thrust his nose into twelve inches of whisky and 
 soda, and remained there till tiicre was no more ; then 
 dropped into a vacant chair and surveyed the group 
 again.
 
 56 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " Did some one ask who I was for ? I'm for myself, 
 I suppose, as much as any one — travelling for pleasure." 
 
 He had not time to enjoy the absurdity of this, for all 
 five men burst into a shout of laughter, like the laughter 
 of men who have long been estranged from mirth. 
 
 " Pleasure ! " cried one. " O Lord ! Pleasure ! 
 You've come to the wrong place." 
 
 " It's just as well you've come for pleasure. You'd 
 be dead before you did business," said another. 
 
 " You might as well try to get blood out of a stone. 
 I've been here over a fortnight." 
 
 " Great Scot ! What for ? " asked Tarvin. 
 
 "We've all been here over a week," ejrowled a 
 fourth. 
 
 " But what's your lay ? What's your racket ? " 
 
 "Guess you're an American, ain't you?" 
 
 "Yes; Topaz, Colorado." The statement had no 
 effect upon them. He might as well have spoken in 
 Greek. "But what's the trouble?" 
 
 " Why, the King married two wives yesterday. You 
 can hear the gongs going in the city now. He's trying to 
 equip a new regiment of cavalry for the service of the 
 Indian Government, and he's quarrelled with his Politi- 
 cal Resident. I've been living at Colonel Nolan's door 
 for three days. He says he can't do anything without 
 authority from the supreme Government. I've tried to 
 catch the King when he goes out pig-shooting. I write 
 every day to the Prime Minister, when I'm not riding 
 around the city on a camel ; and here's a bunch of 
 letters from the firm asking why I don't collect." 
 
 At the end of ten minutes Tarvin began to understand 
 that these washed-out representatives of half a dozen 
 firms in Calcutta and Bombay were hopelessly besieging 
 this place on their regular spring campaign to collect a 
 little on account from a king who ordered by the ton 
 and paid by the scruple. He had purchased guns,
 
 THE NAULAHKA 57 
 
 dressing-cases, mirrors, mantelpiece ornaments, crochet 
 work, the iridescent Christmas-tree glass balls, saddlery, 
 mail-phaetons, four-in-hands, scent-bottles, surgical in- 
 struments, chandeliers, and chinaware by the dozen, 
 gross, or score as his royal fancy prompted. When he 
 lost interest in his purchases he lost interest in paying 
 for them ; and as few things amused his jaded fancy 
 more than twenty minutes, it sometimes came to pass 
 that the mere purchase was sufficient, and the costly 
 packing-cases from Calcutta were never opened. The 
 ordered peace of the Indian Empire forbade him to 
 take up arms against his fellow sovereigns, the only 
 lasting delight that he or his ancestors had known for 
 thousands of years ; but there remained a certain modi- 
 fied interest of war in battling with bill-collectors. On 
 one side stood the Political Resident of the State, planted 
 there to teach him good government, and, above all, 
 economy ; on the other side — that is to say, at the palace 
 gates — might generally be found a commercial traveller, 
 divided between his contempt of an evasive debtor and 
 his English reverence for a king. Between these two 
 his Majesty went forth to take his pleasure in pig-sticking, 
 in racing, in the drilling of his army, in the ordering of 
 more unnecessaries, and in the fitful government of his 
 womankind, who knew considerably more of each com- 
 mercial traveller's claims than even the Prime Minister. 
 Behind these was the Government of India, explicitly 
 refusing to guarantee payment of the King's debts, and 
 from tune to time sending him, on a blue velvet cushion, 
 the jewelled insignia of an imperial order to sweeten the 
 remonstrances of the Political Resident. 
 
 "Well, I hope you make the King pay for it," said 
 Tarvin. 
 
 " How's that ? " 
 
 " Why, in my country, when a customer sillies about 
 like that, promising to meet a man one day at the hotel
 
 5S THE NAULAHKA 
 
 and not showing up, and then promising to meet him the 
 next day at the store and not paying, a drummer says to 
 himself, ' Oh, all right ! If you want to pay my board, 
 and my wine, liquor, and cigar bill, while I wait, don't 
 mind me. I'll mosey along somehow.' And after the 
 second day he charges up his poker losings to him." 
 
 " Ah, that's interesting. But how does he get those 
 items into his account ? " 
 
 " They go into the next bill of goods he sells him, of 
 course. He makes the prices right for that." 
 
 " Oh, we can make prices right enough. The diffi- 
 culty is to get your money." 
 
 " But I don't see how you fellows have the time to 
 monkey around here at this rate," urged Tarvin, mysti- 
 fied. " Where I come from a man makes his trip on 
 schedule time, and when he's a day behind he'll wire to 
 his customer in the town ahead to come down to the 
 station and meet him, and he'll sell him a bill of goods 
 while the train waits. He could sell him the earth 
 while one of your bullock-carts went a mile. And as 
 to getting your money, why don't you get out an attach- 
 ment on the old sinner ? In your places I'd attach the 
 whole country on him. I'd attach the palace, I'd attach 
 his crown. I'd get a judgment against him, and I'd 
 execute it too — personally, if necessary. I'd lock the 
 old fellow up and rule Rajputana for him, if I had to ; 
 but I'd have his money," 
 
 A compassionate smile ran around the group. " That's 
 because you don't know," said several at once. Then 
 they began to explain voluminously. There was no 
 languor about them now ; they all spoke together. 
 
 The men in the verandah, though they seemed idle, 
 were no fools, Tarvin perceived after a time. Lying 
 still as beggars at the gate of greatness was their method 
 of doing business. It wasted time, but in the end 
 some sort of payment was sure to be made, especially,
 
 THE NAULAHKA 59 
 
 explained the man in the yellow coat, if you could 
 interest the Prime Minister in your needs, and through 
 him wake the interests of the King's women. 
 
 A flicker of memory made Tarvin smile faintly, as he 
 thought of Mrs. Mutrie. 
 
 The man in the yellow coat went on, and Tarvin 
 learned that the head queen was a murderess, convicted 
 of poisoning her former husband. She had lain crouch- 
 ing in an iron cage awaiting execution when the King 
 first saw her, and the King had demanded whether 
 she would poison him if he married her, so the tale 
 ran. Assuredly, she replied, if he treated her as her 
 late husband had treated her. Thereupon the King had 
 married her, partly to please his fancy, mainly through 
 sheer delight in her brutal answer. 
 
 This gipsy without lineage held in less than a year 
 King and State under her feet — feet which women of 
 the household sang spitefully were roughened with travel 
 of shameful roads. She had borne the King one son, in 
 whom all her pride and ambition centred, and, after his 
 birth, she had applied herself with renewed energy to 
 the maintenance of mastery in the State. The supreme 
 Government, a thousand miles away, knew that she was 
 a force to be reckoned with, and had no love for her. 
 The white-haired, soft-spoken Political Resident, Colonel 
 Nolan, who lived in the pink house, a bow-shot from the 
 city gates, was often thwarted by her. Her latest victory 
 was peculiarly humiliating to him, for she had discovered 
 that a rock-hewn canal, designed to supply the city with 
 water in summer, would pass through an orange garden 
 under her window, and had used her influence with 
 the Maharajah against it. The Maharajah had there- 
 upon caused it to be taken around by another way 
 at an expense of a quarter of his year's revenue, and 
 in the teeth of the almost tearful remonstrance of the 
 Resident.
 
 60 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Sitabhai, the gipsy, behind her silken curtains, had 
 both heard and seen this interview between the rajah 
 and his Political, and had laughed. 
 
 Tarvin devoured all this eagerly. It fed his purpose ; 
 it was grist to his mill, even if it tumbled his whole plan 
 of attack topsy-turvy. It opened up a new world for 
 which he had no measures and standards, and in which 
 he must be frankly and constantly dependent on the 
 inspiration of the next moment. He couldn't know too 
 much of this world before taking his first step toward 
 the Naulahka, and he was willing to hear all these lazy 
 fellows would tell him. He began to feel as if he 
 should have to go back and learn his A B C's over 
 again. What pleased this strange being they called 
 King ? what appealed to him ? what tickled him ? above 
 all, what did he fear ? 
 
 He was thinking much and rapidly. 
 
 But he said, " No wonder your King is bankrupt if 
 he has such a court to look after." 
 
 " He's one of the richest princes in India," returned 
 the man in the yellow coat. " He doesn't know himself 
 what he has." 
 
 " Why doesn't he pay his debts, then, instead of keep- 
 ing you mooning about here ? " 
 
 " Because he's a native. He'd spend a hundred 
 thousand pounds on a marriage feast, and delay pay- 
 ment of a bill for two hundred rupees four years." 
 
 "You ought to cure him of that," insisted Tarvin. 
 " Send a sheriff after the crown jewels." 
 
 " You don't know Indian princes. They would pay a 
 bill before they would let the crown jewels go. They 
 are sacred. They are part of the government." 
 
 " Ah, I'd give something to see the Luck of the State !" 
 exclaimed a voice from one of the chairs, which Tarvin 
 afterward learned belonged to the agent of a Calcutta 
 firm of jewellers.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 61 
 
 " What's that ? " he asked, as casually as he knew how, 
 sipping his whisky and soda. 
 
 " The Naulahka. Don't you know ? " 
 
 Tarvin was saved the need of an answer by the man 
 in yellow. " Pshaw ! All that talk about the Naulahka 
 is invented by the priests." 
 
 " I don't think so," returned the jeweller's agent 
 judicially. "The King told me when I was last here 
 that he had once shown it to a viceroy. But he is the 
 only foreigner who has ever seen it. The King assured 
 me he didn't know where it was himself." 
 
 " Pooh ! Do you believe in carved emeralds two 
 inches square?" asked the other, turning to Tarvin. 
 
 " That's only the centre-piece," said the jeweller ; "and 
 I wouldn't mind wagering that it's a tallow-drop emerald. 
 It isn't that that staggers me. My wonder is how these 
 chaps, who don't care anything for water in a stone, 
 could have taken the trouble to get together half a dozen 
 perfect gems, much less fifty. They say that the necklace 
 was begun when William the Conqueror came over." 
 
 "That gives them a year or two," said Tarvin. "I 
 would undertake to get a little jewellery together myself 
 if you gave me eight centuries." 
 
 His face was turned a little away from them as he lay 
 back in his chair. His heart was going quickly. He 
 had been through mining-trades, land-speculations, and 
 cattle-deals in his time. He had known moments when 
 the turn of a hair, the wrinkle of an eyelid, meant ruin 
 to him. But they were not moments into which eight 
 centuries were gathered. 
 
 They looked at him with a remote pity in their eyes. 
 
 " Five absolutely perfect specimens of the nine precious 
 stones," began the jeweller ; " the ruby, emerald, sapphire, 
 diamond, opal, cat's-eye, turquoise, amethyst, and " 
 
 "Topaz?" asked Tarvin, with the air of a proprietor. 
 
 "No; black diamond — black as night."
 
 62 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " But how do you know all these things— how do you 
 get on to them ? " asked Tarvin curiously. 
 
 u Like everything else in a native state — common 
 talk, but difficult to prove. Nobody can as much as 
 guess where that necklace is." 
 
 "Probably under the foundations of some temple in 
 the city," said the yellow-coated man. 
 
 Tarvin, in spite of the careful guard he was keeping 
 over himself, could not help kindling at this. He saw 
 himself digging the city up. 
 
 " Where is this city ? " inquired he. 
 
 They pointed across the sun-glare, and showed him a 
 rock girt by a triple line of wall. It was exactly like one 
 of the many ruined cities that Tarvin had passed in the 
 bullock-cart. A rock of a dull and angry red sur- 
 mounted that rock. Up to the foot of the rock ran 
 the yeilow sands of the actual desert — the desert that 
 supports neither tree nor shrub, only the wild ass, and 
 somewhere in its heart, men say, the wild camel. 
 
 Tarvin stared through the palpitating haze of heat, 
 and saw that there was neither life nor motion about the 
 city. It was a little after noonday, and his Majesty's 
 subjects were asleep. This solid block of loneliness, 
 then, was the visible end of his journey — the Jericho he 
 had come from Topaz to attack. 
 
 And he reflected, " Now, if a man should come from 
 New York in a bullock-cart to whistle around the Sau- 
 guache Range, I wonder what sort of fool I'd call him ! " 
 
 He rose and stretched his dusty limbs. " What time 
 does it get cool enough to take in the town ? " he asked. 
 
 " Do what to the town ? Better be careful. You 
 might find yourself in difficulties with the Resident," 
 warned his friendly adviser. 
 
 Tarvin could not understand why a stroll through the 
 deadest town he had ever seen should be forbidden. 
 But he held his peace, inasmuch as he was in a strange
 
 THE NAULAHKA 6 
 
 j 
 
 country, where nothing, save a certain desire for com- 
 mand on the part of the women, was as he had known 
 it. He would take in the town thoroughly. Otherwise 
 he began to fear that its monumental sloth — there was 
 still no sign of life upon the walled rock — would swallow 
 him up, or turn him into a languid Calcutta drummer. 
 
 Something must be done at once before his wits were 
 numbed. He inquired the way to the telegraph-office, 
 half doubting, even though he saw the wires, the exist- 
 ence of a telegraph in Rhatore. 
 
 " By the way," one of the men called after him, " it's 
 worth remembering that any telegram you send here is 
 handed all round the court and shown to the King." 
 
 Tarvin thanked him, and thought this was worth re- 
 membering, as he trudged on through the sand toward 
 a desecrated Mohammedan mosque near the road to 
 the city which was doing duty as a telegraph-office. 
 
 A trooper of the State was lying fast asleep on the 
 threshold, his horse picketed to a long bamboo lance 
 driven into the ground. Other sign of life there was 
 none, save a few doves cooing sleepily in the darkness 
 under the arch. 
 
 Tarvin gazed about him dispiritedly for the blue and 
 white sign of the Western Union, or its analogue in 
 this queer land. He saw that the telegraph wires dis- 
 appeared through a hole in the dome of the mosque. 
 There were two or three low wooden doors under the 
 archway. He opened one at random, and stepped 
 upon a warm, hairy body, which sprang up with a grunt. 
 Tarvin had hardly time to draw back before a young 
 buffalo calf rushed out. Undisturbed, he opened another 
 door, disclosing a flight of steps eighteen inches wide. 
 Up these he travelled with difficulty, hoping to catch 
 the sound of the ticker. But the building was as silent 
 as the tomb it had once been. He opened another 
 door, and stumbled into a room, the domed ceiling of
 
 64 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 which was inlaid with fretted tracery in barbaric colours, 
 picked out with myriads of tiny fragments of mirrors. 
 The flood of colour and the glare of the snow-white 
 floor made him blink after the pitchy darkness of the 
 staircase. Still, the place was undoubtedly a telegraph- 
 office, for an antiquated instrument was clamped upon 
 a cheap dressing-table. The sunlight streamed through 
 the gash in the dome which had been made to admit 
 the telegraph wires, and which had not been repaired. 
 
 Tarvin stood in the sunlight and stared about him. 
 He took off the soft, wide-brimmed Western hat, which 
 he was finding too warm for this climate, and mopped 
 his forehead. As he stood in the sunlight, straight, 
 clean-limbed, and strong, one who lurked in this myste- 
 rious spot with designs upon him would have decided 
 that he did not look a wholesome person to attack. He 
 pulled at the long thin moustache which drooped at the 
 corners of his mouth in a curve shaped by the habit 
 of tugging at it in thought, and muttered picturesque 
 remarks in a tongue to which these walls had never 
 echoed. What chance was there of communicating with 
 the United States of America from this abyss of oblivion ? 
 Even the " damn " that came back to him from the 
 depths of the dome sounded foreign and inexpressive. 
 
 A sheeted figure lay on the floor. " It takes a dead 
 man to run this place ! " exclaimed Tarvin, discovering 
 the body. " Hallo, you ! Get up there ! " 
 
 The figure rose to its feet with grunts, cast away its 
 covering, and disclosed a very sleepy native in a com- 
 plete suit of dove-coloured satin. 
 
 " Ho ! " cried he. 
 
 " Yes," returned Tarvin imperturbably. 
 
 " You want to see me ? " 
 
 " No ; I want to send a telegram, if there's any electric 
 fluid in this old tomb." 
 
 Sir," said the native affably, "you have come to
 
 THE NAULAHKA 65 
 
 right shop. I am telegraph operator and postmaster- 
 general of this State." 
 
 He seated himself in the decayed chair, opened a 
 drawer of the table, and began to search for something. 
 
 "What you looking for, young man? Lost your 
 connection with Calcutta ? " 
 
 " Most gentlemen bring their own forms," he said, with 
 a distant note of reproach in his bland manner. " But 
 here is form. Have you got pencil ? " 
 
 " Oh, see here, don't let me strain this office. Hadn't 
 you better go and lie down again ? I'll tap the message 
 off myself. What's your signal for Calcutta ? " 
 
 " You, sir, not understanding this instrument." 
 
 " Don't I ? You ought to see me milk the wires at 
 election time." 
 
 " This instrument require most judeecious handling, 
 sir. You write message. I send. That is proper 
 division of labour. Ha ! ha ! " 
 
 Tarvin wrote his message, which ran thus : — 
 
 " Getting there. Remember Three C.'s. — Tarvin." 
 
 It was addressed to Mrs. Mutrie at the address she 
 had given him in Denver. 
 
 " Rush it ! " he said, as he handed it back over the 
 table to the smiling image. 
 
 " All right ; no fear. I am here for that," returned 
 the native, understanding in general terms from the 
 cabalistic word that his customer was in haste. 
 
 " Will the thing ever get there ? " drawled Tarvin, as he 
 leaned over the table and met the gaze of the satin- 
 clothed being with an air of good comradeship, which 
 invited him to let him into the fraud, if there was one. 
 
 " Oh yes ; to-morrow. Denver is in the United 
 States America," said the native, looking up at Tarvin 
 with childish glee in the sense of knowledge. 
 
 E
 
 66 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " Shake ! " exclaimed Tarvin, offering him a hairy fist. 
 " You've been well brought up." 
 
 He stayed half an hour fraternising with the man on 
 the foundation of this common ground of knowledge, 
 and saw him work the message off on his instrument, 
 his heart going out on that first click all the way home. 
 In the midst of the conversation the native suddenly 
 dived into the cluttered drawer of the dressing-table, and 
 drew forth a telegram covered with dust, which he offered 
 to Tarvin's scrutiny. 
 
 "You knowing any new Englishman coming to 
 Rhatore name Turpin ? " he asked. 
 
 Tarvin stared at the address a moment, and then tore 
 open the envelope to find, as he expected, that it was for 
 him. It was from Mrs. Mutrie, congratulating him on 
 his election to the Colorado legislature by a majority of 
 1 518 over Sheriff. 
 
 Tarvin uttered an abandoned howl of joy, executed a 
 war-dance on the white floor of the mosque, snatched 
 the astounded operator from behind his table, and 
 whirled him away into a mad waltz. Then, making 
 a low salaam to the now wholly bewildered native, he 
 rushed from the building, waving his cable in the air, and 
 went capering up the road. 
 
 When he was back at the rest-house again, he retired 
 to a bath to grapple seriously with the dust of the 
 desert, while the commercial travellers without discussed 
 his comings and goings. He plunged about luxuriously 
 in a gigantic bowl of earthenware ; while a brown-skinned 
 water-carrier sluiced the contents of a goat-skin over his 
 head. 
 
 A voice in the verandah, a little louder than the others, 
 said, " He's probably come prospecting for gold, or 
 boring for oil, and won't tell." 
 
 Tarvin winked a wet left eye.
 
 VII. 
 
 " There is pleasure in the wet, wet clay, 
 
 When the artist's hand is potting it ; 
 There is pleasure in the wet, wet lay, 
 
 When the poet's pad is blotting it ; 
 There is pleasure in the shine of your picture on the line 
 
 At the Royal Acade-my ; 
 But the pleasure felt in these is as chalk to Cheddar cheese, 
 When it comes to a well-made Lie : 
 To a quite unwreckable Lie, 
 To a most impeccable Lie, 
 To a water-tight, fireproof, angle-iron, sunk-hinge, time-lock, 
 steel-faced Lie ! 
 
 Not a private hansom Lie, 
 But a pair and brougham Lie, 
 Not a little place at Tooting, but a country-house with shooting, 
 And a ring-park, deer-park Lie." 
 
 -Op. 3. 
 
 A common rest-house in the desert is not overstocked 
 with furniture or carpets. One table, two chairs, a rack 
 on the door for clothing, and a list of charges, are suffi- 
 cient for each room ; and the traveller brings his own 
 bedding. Tarvin read the tariff with deep interest before 
 falling asleep that night, and discovered that this was 
 only in a distant sense a hotel, and that he was open to 
 the danger of being turned out at twelve hours' notice, 
 after he had inhabited his unhomely apartment for a 
 day and a night. 
 
 Before he went to bed he called for pen and ink, and 
 wrote a letter to Mrs. Mutrie on the note-paper of his 
 land and improvement company. Under the map of 
 
 Colorado, at the top, which confidently showed the 
 
 67
 
 68 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 railroad system of the State converging at Topaz, was the 
 legend, " N. Tarvin, Real Estate and Insurance Agent." 
 The tone of his letter was even more assured than the 
 map. 
 
 He dreamed that night that the Maharajah was swapping 
 the Naulahka with him for town lots. His Majesty backed 
 out just as they were concluding the deal, and demanded 
 that Tarvin should throw in his own favourite mine, the 
 " Lingering Lode," to boot. In his dream Tarvin had 
 kicked at this, and the Rajah had responded, " All right, 
 my boy ; no Three C.'s then," and Tarvin had yielded 
 the point, had hung the Naulahka about Mrs. Mutrie's 
 neck, and in the same breath had heard the speaker of 
 the Colorado legislature declaring that since the coming 
 of the Three C.'s he officially recognised Topaz as the 
 metropolis of the West. Then, perceiving that he him- 
 self was the speaker, Tarvin began to doubt the genuine- 
 ness of these remarks, and awoke, with aloes in his 
 mouth, to find the dawn spreading over Rhatore, and 
 beckoning him out to the conquests of reality. 
 
 He was confronted in the verandah by a grizzled, 
 bearded, booted native soldier on a camel, who handed 
 down to him a greasy little brown book, bearing the 
 legend, Please zvrite " seen." 
 
 Tarvin looked at this new development from the 
 heated landscape with interest, but not with an outward 
 ertect of surprise. He had already learned one secret 
 of the East — never to be surprised at anything. He 
 took the book and read, on a thumbed page, the an- 
 nouncement, " Divine services conducted on Sundays 
 in the drawing-room of the residency at 7.30 a.m. 
 Strangers are cordially invited to attend. (Signed) 
 L. R. Estes, American Presbyterian Mission." 
 
 " They don't get up early for nothing in this country," 
 mused Tarvin. " ' Church at 7.30 a.m.' When do they 
 have dinner? Well, what do I do about this?" he
 
 THE NAULAHKA 69 
 
 asked the man aloud. The trooper and camel looked 
 at him together, and grunted as they went away. It 
 was no concern of theirs. 
 
 Tarvin addressed a remark of confused purport to the 
 retreating figures. This was plainly not a country in 
 which business could be done at red heat. He hungered 
 for the moment when, with the necklace in his pocket 
 and Kate by his side, he should again set his face west- 
 ward. 
 
 The shortest way to that was to go over to call on 
 the missionary. He was an American, and could tell 
 him about the Naulahka if anybody could ; Tarvin had 
 also a shrewd suspicion that he could tell him some- 
 thing about Kate. 
 
 The missionary's home, which was just without the 
 city walls, was also of red sandstone, one storey high, 
 and as bare of vines or any living thing as the station 
 at Rawut Junction. But he presently found that there 
 were living beings inside the house, with warm hearts 
 and a welcome for him. Mrs. Estes turned out to be 
 that motherly and kindly woman, with the instinct for 
 housekeeping, who would make a home of a cave. She 
 had a round, smooth face, a soft skin, and quiet, happy 
 eyes. She may have been forty. Her still untinged 
 brown hair was brushed smoothly back ; her effect was 
 sedate and restful. 
 
 Their visitor had learned that they came from Bangor, 
 Maine, had founded a tie of brotherhood on the fact that 
 his father had been born on a farm down Portland way, 
 and had been invited to breakfast before he had been 
 ten minutes in the house. Tarvin's gift of sympathy 
 was irresistible. He was the kind of man to whom men 
 confide their heart-secrets, and the canker of their inmost 
 lives, in hotel smoking-rooms. He was the repository 
 of scores of tales of misery and error which he could 
 do nothing to help, and of a few which he could help,
 
 7 o THE NAULAHKA 
 
 and had helped. Before breakfast was ready he had 
 from Estes and his wife the whole picture of their 
 situation at Rhatore. They told him of their troubles 
 with the Maharajah and with the Maharajah's wives, 
 and of the exceeding unfruitfulness of their work ; and 
 then of their children, living in the exile of Indian 
 children, at home. They explained that they meant 
 Bangor; they were there with an aunt, receiving their 
 education at the hands of a public school. 
 
 "It's five years since we saw them," said Mrs. Estes, 
 as they sat down to breakfast. "Fred was only six 
 when he went, and Laura was eight. They are eleven 
 and thirteen now — only think ! We hope they haven't 
 forgotten us ; but how can they remember ? They are 
 only children." 
 
 And then she told him stories of the renewal of 
 filial ties in India, after such absences, that made his 
 blood run cold. 
 
 The breakfast woke a violent home-sickness in Tarvin. 
 After a month at sea, two days of the chance rail- 
 road meals between Calcutta and Rawut Junction, and 
 a night at the rest-house, he was prepared to value the 
 homely family meal, and the abundance of an American 
 breakfast. They began with a water-melon, which did 
 not help him to feel at home, because water-melons 
 were next to an unknown luxury at Topaz, and when 
 known, did not ripen in grocers' windows in the month 
 of April. But the oatmeal brought him home again, 
 and the steak and fried potatoes, the coffee and the hot 
 brown pop-overs, with their beguiling yellow interiors, 
 were reminders far too deep for tears. Mrs. Estes, 
 enjoying his enjoyment, said they must have out the can 
 of maple syrup, which had been sent them all the way 
 from Bangor ; and when the white-robed, silent-moving 
 servant in the red turban came in with the waffles, she 
 sent him for it. They were all very happy together over
 
 THE NAULAHKA 71 
 
 this, and said pleasant things about the American re- 
 public, while the punkah sang its droning song over 
 their heads. 
 
 Tarvin had a map of Colorado in his pocket, of course, 
 and when the talk, swinging to one part of the United 
 States and another, worked westward, he spread it 
 out on the breakfast-table, between the waffles and the 
 steak, and showed them the position of Topaz. He 
 explained to Estes how a new railroad, running north 
 and south, would make the town, and then he had to 
 say affectionately what a wonderful town it really was, 
 and to tell them about the buildings they had put up 
 in the last twelve months, and how they had picked 
 themselves up after the fire and gone to building the 
 next morning. The fire had brought $100,000 into 
 the town in insurance, he said. He exaggerated his 
 exaggerations in unconscious defiance of the hugeness 
 of the empty landscape lying outside the window. He 
 did not mean to let the East engulf him or Topaz. 
 
 " We've got a young lady coming to us, I think, from 
 your State," interrupted Mrs. Estes, to whom all Western 
 towns were alike. " Wasn't it Topaz, Lucien ? I'm 
 almost sure it was." 
 
 She rose and went to her work-basket for a letter, from 
 which he confirmed her statement. " Yes ; Topaz. A 
 Miss Sheriff. She comes to us from the Zenana Mission. 
 Perhaps you know her ? " 
 
 Tarvin's head bent over the map, which he was re- 
 folding. He answered shortly, " Yes ; I know her. 
 When is she likely to be here ? " 
 
 " Most any day now," said Mrs. Estes. 
 
 " It seems a pity," said Tarvin, " to bring a young 
 girl out here all alone, away from her friends — though 
 I'm sure you'll be friends to her," he added quickly, 
 seeking Mrs. Estes' eyes. 
 
 " We shall try to keep her from getting home-sick,"
 
 72 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 said Mrs. Estes, with the motherly note in her voice. 
 " There's Fred and Laura home in Bangor, you know," 
 she added after a pause. 
 
 " That will be good of you," said Tarvin, with more 
 feeling than the interests of the Zenana Mission de- 
 manded. 
 
 " May I ask what your business is here ? " inquired 
 the missionary, as he passed his cup to his wife to be 
 refilled. He had a rather formal habit of speech, and 
 his words came muffled from the depths of a dense jungle 
 of beard — iron-grey and unusually long. He had a 
 benevolently grim face, a precise but friendly manner, 
 and a good way of looking one in the eye which Tarvin 
 liked. He was a man of decided opinions, particularly 
 about the native races of India. 
 
 " Well, I'm prospecting," Tarvin said, in a leisurely 
 tone, glancing out of the window as if he expected to 
 see Kate start up out of the desert. 
 
 " Ah ! For gold ? " 
 
 " W-e-1-1, yes ; as much that as anything." 
 
 Estes invited him out upon the verandah to smoke a 
 cigar with him ; his wife brought her sewing and sat 
 with them ; and as they smoked Tarvin asked him his 
 questions about the Naulahka. Where was it? What 
 was it? he inquired boldly. But he found that the 
 missionary, though an American, was no wiser about it 
 than the lazy commercial travellers at the rest-house. 
 He knew that it existed, but knew no man who had 
 seen it save the Maharajah. Tarvin got at this through 
 much talk about other things which interested him less ; 
 but he began to see an idea in the gold-mining to which 
 the missionary persistently returned. Estes said he 
 meant to engage in placer-mining, of course ? 
 
 " Of course," assented Tarvin. 
 
 " But you won't find much gold in the Amet River] 
 I fancy. The natives have washed it spasmodically for
 
 THE NAULAHKA 73 
 
 hundreds of years. There is nothing to be found but 
 what little silt washes down from the quartz rocks of the 
 Gungra Hills. But you will be undertaking work on a 
 large scale, I judge ? " said the missionary, looking at 
 him curiously. 
 
 " Oh, on a large scale, of course." 
 
 Estes added that he supposed he had thought of the 
 political difficulties in his way. He would have to get 
 the consent of Colonel Nolan, and through him the 
 consent of the British Government, if he meant to do 
 anything serious in the State. In fact, he would have 
 to get Colonel Nolan's consent to stay in Rhatore 
 at all. 
 
 " Do you mean that I shall have to make it worth the 
 British Government's while to let me alone?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "All right; I'll do that too." 
 
 Mrs. Estes looked up quickly at her husband from 
 under her eyebrows. Woman-like, she was thinking. ,
 
 VIII. 
 
 "When a Lover hies abroad, 
 Looking for his Love, 
 Azrael smiling sheaths his sword, 
 
 Heaven smiles above. 
 Earth and Sea 
 His servants be, 
 And to lesser compass round, 
 That his Love be sooner found." 
 
 — Chorus from Libretto to Naulahka. 
 
 Tarvin learned a number of things within the next 
 week; and with what the West calls "adaptability," 
 put on, with the complete suit of white linen which 
 he donned the second day, an initiation into a whole 
 new system of manners, usages, and traditions. They 
 were not all agreeable, but they were all in a good 
 cause, and he took pains to see that his new knowledge 
 should not go for nothing, by securing an immediate 
 presentation to the only man in the State of whom it 
 was definitely assertable that he had seen the object of 
 his hopes. Estes willingly presented him to the Maha- 
 rajah. The missionary and he rode one morning up 
 the steep slopes of the rock on which stood the palace, 
 itself rock-hewn. Passing through a deep archway, they 
 entered a marble-flagged courtyard, and there found the 
 Maharajah, attended by one ragged and out-at-elbow 
 menial, discussing the points of a fox-terrier, which was 
 lying before him on the flags. 
 
 Tarvin, unversed in kings, had expected a certain 
 amount of state from one who did not pay his bills,
 
 THE NAULAHKA 73 
 
 and might be reasonably expected to cultivate reserve; 
 but he was not prepared for the slovenly informality 
 of a ruler in his everyday garb, released from the duty 
 of behaving with restraint in the presence of a viceroy, 
 nor for the picturesque mixture of dirt and decoration 
 about the court. The Maharajah proved a large and 
 amiable despot, brown and bush-bearded, arrayed in a 
 gold-sprigged, green velvet dressing-gown, who appeared 
 only too delighted to meet a man who had no connection 
 with the Government of India, and who never mentioned 
 the subject of money. 
 
 The disproportionate smallness of his hands and feet 
 showed that the ruler of Gokral Seetarun came of the 
 oldest blood in Rajputana ; his fathers had fought hard 
 and ridden far with sword-hilts and stirrups that would 
 hardly serve an English child. His face was bloated 
 and sodden, and the dull eyes stared wearily above deep, 
 rugged pouches. To Tarvin, accustomed to read the 
 motives of Western men in their faces, there seemed to 
 be neither fear nor desire in those eyes — only an everlast- 
 ing weariness. It was like looking at an extinct volcano 
 — a volcano that rumbled in good English. 
 
 Tarvin had a natural interest in dogs, and the keenest 
 possible desire to ingratiate himself with the ruler of the 
 State. As a king he considered him something of an 
 imposture, but as a brother dog-fancier, and the lord 
 of the Naulahka, he was to Tarvin more than a brother ; 
 that is to say, the brother of one's beloved. He spoke 
 eloquently and to the point. 
 
 " Come again," said the Maharajah, with a light of real 
 interest in his eyes, as Estes, a little scandalised, drew 
 off his guest. " Come again this evening after dinner. 
 You have come from new countries ? " 
 
 His Majesty, later, carried away by the evening draught 
 of opium, without which no Rajput can talk or think, 
 taught this irreverent stranger, who told him tales of
 
 76 THE NAULAIIKA 
 
 white men beyond the seas, the royal game of pachisi. 
 They played it far into the night, in the marble-flagged 
 courtyard, surrounded by green shutters from behind 
 which Tarvin could hear, without turning his head, the 
 whisper of watching women and the rustle of silken 
 robes. The palace, he saw, was all eyes. 
 
 Next morning, at dawn, he found the King waiting at 
 the head of the main street of his city for a certain 
 notorious wild boar to come home. The game laws of 
 Gokral Seetarun extended to the streets of walled towns, 
 and the wild pig rooted unconcerned at night in the 
 alley-ways. The pig came, and was dropped, at a 
 hundred yards, by his Majesty's new Express rifle. It 
 was a clean shot, and Tarvin applauded cordially. Had 
 his Majesty the King ever seen a flying coin hit by a 
 pistol bullet ? The weary eyes brightened with childish 
 delight. The King had not seen this feat, and had not 
 the coin. Tarvin flung an American quarter skyward, 
 and clipped it with his revolver as it fell. Thereupon 
 the King begged him to do it again, which Tarvin, 
 valuing his reputation, politely declined to do unless one 
 of the court officials would set the example. 
 
 The King was himself anxious to try, and Tarvin 
 threw the coin for him. The bullet whizzed unpleasantly 
 close to Tarvin's ear, but the quarter on the grass was 
 dented when he picked it up. The King liked Tarvin's 
 dent as well as if it had been his own, and Tarvin was 
 not the man to undeceive him. 
 
 The following morning the royal favour was com- 
 pletely withdrawn, and it was not until he had conferred 
 with the disconsolate drummers in the rest-house that 
 Tarvin learned that Sitabhai had been indulging one of 
 her queenly rages. On this he transferred himself and 
 his abundant capacity for interesting men off-hand to 
 Colonel Nolan, and made that weary white-haired man 
 laugh as he had not laughed since he had been a
 
 THE NAULAHKA 77 
 
 subaltern over an account of the King's revolver prac- 
 tice. Tarvin shared his luncheon, and discovered from 
 him in the course of the afternoon the true policy of the 
 Government of India in regard to the State of Gokral 
 Seetarun. The Government hoped to elevate it ; but 
 as the Maharajah would not pay for the means of civili- 
 sation, the progress was slow. Colonel Nolan's account 
 of the internal policy of the palace, given with official 
 caution, was absolutely different from the missionary's, 
 which again differed entirely from the profane account 
 of the men in the rest-house. 
 
 At twilight the Maharajah pursued Tarvin with a 
 mounted messenger, for the favour of the royal coun- 
 tenance was restored, and he required the presence of 
 the tall man who clipped coins in the air, told tales, and 
 played pachisi. There was more than pachisi upon the 
 board that night, and his Majesty the King grew pathetic, 
 and confided to Tarvin a long and particular account of 
 his own and the State's embarrassments, which presented 
 everything in a fourth new light. He concluded with 
 an incoherent appeal to the President of the United 
 States, on whose illimitable powers and far-reaching 
 authority Tarvin dwelt, with a patriotism extended for 
 the moment to embrace the nation to which Topaz 
 belonged. For many reasons he did not conceive that 
 this was an auspicious time to open negotiations for the 
 transfer of the Naulahka. The Maharajah would have 
 given away half his kingdom, and appealed to the Resi- 
 dent in the morning. 
 
 The next day, and many succeeding days, brought to 
 the door of the rest-house, where Tarvin was still staying, 
 a procession of rainbow-clad Orientals, ministers of the 
 court each one, who looked with contempt on the 
 waiting commercial travellers, and deferentially made 
 themselves known to Tarvin, whom they warned in 
 fluent and stilted English against trusting anybody
 
 7 8 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 except themselves. Each confidence wound up with, 
 " And I am your true friend, sir ; " and each man accused 
 his fellows to the stranger of every crime against the 
 State, or ill-will toward the Government of India, that 
 it had entered his own brain to conceive. 
 
 Tarvin could only faintly conjecture what all this 
 meant. It seemed to him no extraordinary mark of 
 court favour to play pachisi with the King, and the 
 mazes of Oriental diplomacy were dark to him. The 
 ministers were equally at a loss to understand him. 
 He had walked in upon them from out the sky-line, 
 utterly self-possessed, utterly fearless, and, so far as they 
 could see, utterly disinterested ; the greater reason, there- 
 fore, for suspecting that he was a veiled emissary of the 
 Government, whose plans they could not fathom. That 
 he was barbarously ignorant of everything pertaining to 
 the Government of India only confirmed their belief. 
 It was enough for them to know that he went to the 
 King in secret, was closeted with him for hours, and 
 possessed, for the time being, the royal ear. 
 
 These smooth-voiced, stately, mysterious strangers filled 
 Tarvin with weariness and disgust, and he took out his 
 revenge upon the commercial travellers, to whom he sold 
 stock in his land and improvement company between 
 their visits. The yellow-coated man, as his first friend 
 and adviser, he allowed to purchase a very few shares in 
 the " Lingering Lode," on the dead quiet. It was before 
 the days of the gold boom in Lower Bengal, and there 
 was still faith in the land. 
 
 These transactions took him back in fancy to Topaz, 
 and made him long for some word about the boys at 
 home, from whom he had absolutely cut himself off by 
 this secret expedition, in which he was playing, neces- 
 sarily alone, for the high stake common to them both. 
 He would have given all the rupees in his pocket at any 
 moment for a sight of the Topaz Telegram, or even for
 
 THE NAULAHKA 79 
 
 a look at a Denver daily. What was happening to his 
 mines — to the " Mollie K.," which was being worked on 
 a lease ; to the " Mascot," which was the subject of a 
 legal dispute ; to the " Lingering Lode," where they 
 had been on the point of striking it very rich when he 
 left ; and to his " Garfield " claim, which Fibby Winks 
 had jumped? What had become of the mines of all 
 his friends, of their cattle-ranches, of their deals ? What 
 in fine, had become of Colorado and of the United 
 States of America ? They might have legislated silver out 
 of existence at Washington, for all he knew, and turned 
 the republic into a monarchy at the old stand. 
 
 His single resource from these pangs was his visits to 
 the house of the missionary, where they talked Bangor, 
 Maine, in the United States. To that house he knew 
 that every day was bringing nearer the little girl he had 
 come half way round the world to keep in sight. 
 
 In the splendour of a yellow and violet morning, ten 
 days after his arrival, he was roused from his sleep by a 
 small, shrill voice in the verandah demanding the imme- 
 diate attendance of the new Englishman. The Maharaj 
 Kunwar, heir-apparent to the throne of Gokral Seetarun, 
 a wheat-coloured child, aged nine, had ordered his 
 miniature court, which was held quite distinct from his 
 father's, to equip his C-spring barouche, and to take him 
 to the rest-house. 
 
 Like his jaded father, the child required amusement. 
 All the women of the palace had told him that the 
 new Englishman made the King laugh. The Maharaj 
 Kunwar could speak English much better than his 
 father — French, too, for the matter of that — and he was 
 anxious to show off his accomplishments to a court 
 whose applause he had not yet commanded. 
 
 Tarvin obeyed the voice because it was a child's, and 
 came out to find an apparently empty barouche, and an 
 escort of ten gigantic troopers.
 
 So THE NAULAHKA 
 
 '• How do you do? Comment vous portez-vous I I am 
 the prince of this State. I am the Maharaj Kunwar. 
 Some day I shall be king. Come for a drive with me." 
 
 A tiny mittened hand was extended in greeting. The 
 mittens were of the crudest magenta wool, with green 
 stripes at the wrist ; but the child was robed in stiff gold 
 brocade from head to foot, and in his turban was set an 
 aigrette of diamonds six inches high, while emeralds in 
 a thick cluster fell over his eyebrow. Under all this 
 glitter the dark onyx eyes looked out, and they were 
 full of pride and of the loneliness of childhood. 
 
 Tarvin obediently took his seat in the barouche. He 
 was beginning to wonder whether he should ever wonder 
 at anything again. 
 
 " We will drive beyond the race-course on the railway 
 road," said the child. "Who are you?" he asked 
 softly laying his hand on Tarvin's wrist. 
 
 " Just a man, sonny." 
 
 The face looked very old under the turban, for those 
 born to absolute power, or those who have never known 
 a thwarted desire, and reared under the fiercest sun in 
 the world, age even more swiftly than the other children 
 of the East, who are self-possessed men when they should 
 be bashful babes. 
 
 " They say you come here to see things." 
 
 "That's true," said Tarvin. 
 
 " When I'm king I shall allow nobody to come here 
 — not even the viceroy." 
 
 " That leaves me out," remarked Tarvin, laughing. 
 
 " You shall come," returned the child, measuredly, 
 " if you make me laugh. Make me laugh now." 
 
 " Shall I, little fellow ? Well — there w : as once — I 
 wonder what would make a child 'laugh in this country. 
 I've never seen one do it yet. W-h-e-w !" Tarvin gave 
 a low, long-drawn whistle. "What's that over there, 
 my boy ? "
 
 THE NAULAHKA 81 
 
 A little puff of dust rose very far down the road. It 
 was made by swiftly moving wheels, consequently it had 
 nothing to do with the regular traffic of the State. 
 
 " That is what I came out to see," said the Maharaj 
 Kunwar. "She will make me well. My father, the 
 Maharajah, said so. I am not well now." He turned 
 imperiously to a favourite groom at the back of the 
 carriage. "Soor Singh" — he spoke in the vernacular 
 — " what is it when I become without sense ? I have 
 forgotten the English." The groom leaned forward. 
 
 " Heaven-born, I do not remember," he said. 
 
 " Now I remember," said the child suddenly. " Mrs. 
 Estes says it is fits. What are fits ? " 
 
 Tarvin put his hand tenderly on the child's shoulder, 
 but his eyes were following the dust-cloud. " Let us 
 hope she'll cure them, anyway, young 'un, whatever they 
 are. But who is she ? " 
 
 " I do not know the name, but she will make me well. 
 See ! My father has sent a carriage to meet her." 
 
 An empty barouche was drawn up by the side of the 
 road as the rickety, straining mail-cart drew nearer, 
 with frantic blasts upon a battered key-bugle. 
 
 " It's better than a bullock-cart, anyway," said Tarvin 
 to himself, standing up in the carriage, for he was be- 
 ginning to choke. 
 
 " Young man, don't you know who she is ? " he asked 
 huskily again. 
 
 "She was sent," said the Maharaj Kunwar. 
 
 " Her name's Kate," said Tarvin in his throat, " and 
 don't you forget it." Then to himself in a contented 
 whisper, "Kate!" 
 
 The child waved his hand to his escort, who, dividing, 
 lined either side of the road, with all the ragged bravery 
 of irregular cavalry. The mail-carriage halted, and 
 Kate, crumpled, dusty, dishevelled from her long 
 journey, and red-eyed from lack of sleep, drew back
 
 82 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 the shutters of the palanquin-like carriage, and stepped 
 dazed into the road. Her numbed limbs would have 
 doubled under her, but Tarvin, leaping from the 
 barouche, caught her to him, regardless of the escort 
 and of the calm-eyed child in the golden drapery, who 
 was shouting, " Kate ! Kate ! " 
 
 " Run along home, bub," said Tarvin. " Well, 
 Kate?" 
 
 But Kate had only her tears for him and a gasping 
 "You! You! You!"
 
 IX. 
 
 " We meet in an evil land, 
 
 That is near to the gates of Hell — 
 I wait for thy command, 
 To serve, to speed, or withstand ; 
 And thou sayest I do not well ! 
 
 Oh, love, the flowers so red 
 
 Be only blossoms of flame, 
 The earth is full of the dead, 
 The new-killed, restless dead, 
 There is danger beneath and overhead ; 
 And I guard at thy gates in fear 
 
 Of peril and jeopardy, 
 Of words thou canst not hear, 
 
 Of signs thou canst not see — 
 And thou sayest 't is ill that I came ? " 
 
 — In Shadowland. 
 
 Tears stood again in Kate's eyes as she uncoiled her 
 hair before the mirror in the room Mrs. Estes had pre- 
 pared against her coming — tears of vexation. It was an 
 old story with her that the world wants nothing done 
 for it, and visits with displeasure those who must prod 
 up its lazy content. But in landing at Bombay she had 
 supposed herself at the end of outside hindrances and 
 obstacles ; what was now to come would belong to the 
 wholesome difficulties of real work. And here was 
 Nick! 
 
 She had made the journey from Topaz in a long mood 
 of exaltation. She was launched ; it made her giddy and 
 
 happy, like the boy's first taste of the life of men. She 
 
 83
 
 b 
 
 84 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 was free at last. No one could stop her. Nothin 
 could keep her from the life to which she had pro- 
 mised herself. A little moment and she might stretch 
 forth her hand and lay it. fast upon her work. A few 
 days and she should stoop eye to eye above the pain 
 that had called to her across seas. In her dreams 
 piteous hands of women were raised in prayer to her, 
 and moist, sick palms were laid in hers. The steady 
 urge of the ship was too slow for her ; she counted the 
 throbs of the screw. Standing far in the prow, with 
 wind-blown hair, straining her eyes toward India, her 
 spirit went longingly forth toward those to whom she 
 was going ; and her life seemed to release itself from her, 
 and sped far, far over the waves, until it reached them 
 and gave itself to them. For a moment, as she set foot 
 on land, she trembled with a revulsion of feeling. She 
 drew near her work ; but was it for her ? This old 
 fear, which had gone doubtfully with her purpose from 
 the beginning, she put behind her with a stern refusal 
 to question there. She was for so much of her work as 
 heaven would let her do; and she went forward with 
 a new, strong, humble impulse of devotion filling and 
 uplifting her. 
 
 It was in this mood that she stepped out of the coach 
 at Rhatore into Tarvin's arms. 
 
 She did justice to the kindness that had brought him 
 over all these leagues, but she heartily wished that he 
 had not come. The existence of a man who loved her, 
 and for whom she could do nothing, was a sad and 
 troubling fact enough fourteen thousand miles away. 
 Face to face with it, alone in India, it enlarged itself 
 unbearably, and thrust itself between her and all her 
 hopes of bringing serious help to others. Love literally 
 did not seem to her the most important thing in the 
 world at that moment, and something else did ; but 
 that didn't make Nick's trouble unimportant, or pre-
 
 THE NAULAHKA 85 
 
 vent it, while she braided her hair, from getting in the 
 way of her thoughts. On the morrow she was to enter 
 upon the life which she meant should be a help to 
 those whom it could reach, and here she was thinking 
 of Nicholas Tarvin. 
 
 It was because she foresaw that she would keep on 
 thinking of him that she wished him away. He was 
 the tourist wandering about behind the devotee in the 
 cathedral at prayers ; he was the other thought. In his 
 person he represented and symbolised the life she had 
 left behind ; much worse, he represented a pain she 
 could not heal. It was not with the haunting figure 
 of love attendant that one carried out large purposes. 
 Nor was it with a divided mind that men conquered 
 cities. The intent with which she was aflame needed 
 all of her. She could not divide herself even with Nick. 
 And yet it was good of him to come, and like him. 
 She knew that he had not come merely in pursuit of 
 a selfish hope ; it was as he had said — he couldn't 
 sleep nights, knowing what might befall her. That was 
 really good of him. 
 
 Mrs. Estes had invited Tarvin to breakfast the day 
 before, when Kate was not expected, but Tarvin was 
 not the man to decline an invitation at the last moment 
 on that account, and he faced Kate across the breakfast- 
 table next morning with a smile which evoked an un- 
 willing smile from her. In spite of a sleepless night she 
 was looking very fresh and pretty in the white muslin 
 frock which had replaced her travelling dress, and when 
 he found himself alone with her after breakfast on the 
 verandah (Mrs. Estes having gone to look after the 
 morning affairs of a housekeeper, and Estes having 
 betaken himself to his mission-school, inside the city 
 walls), he began to make her his compliments upon 
 the cool white, unknown to the West. But Kate 
 stopped him.
 
 S6 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " Nick," she said, facing him, "will you do something 
 for me ? " 
 
 Seeing her much in earnest, Tarvin attempted 'the 
 parry humorous ; but she broke in — 
 
 " No ; it is something I want very much, Nick. Will 
 you do it for me ? " 
 
 " Is there anything I wouldn't do for you ? " he asked 
 seriously. 
 
 "I don't know ; this, perhaps. But you must do it." 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " Go away." 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 " But you must." 
 
 " Listen, Kate," said Tarvin, thrusting his hands deep 
 into the big pockets of his white coat ; " I can't. You 
 don't know the place you've come to. Ask me the 
 same question a week hence. I won't agree to go. 
 But I'll agree to talk it over with you then." 
 
 "I know now everything that counts," she answered. 
 '•' I want to do what I've come here for. I shan't be 
 able to do it if you stay. You understand, don't you, 
 Nick? Nothing can change that." 
 
 "Yes, it can. /can. I'll behave." 
 
 "You needn't tell me you'll be kind. I know it. 
 But even you can't be kind enough to help hindering 
 me. Believe that, now, Nick, and go. It isn't that I 
 want you to go, you know." 
 
 " Oh ! " observed Tarvin, with a smile. 
 
 " Well — you know what I mean," returned Kate, her 
 face unrelaxed. 
 
 "Yes; I know. But if I'm good it won't matter. I 
 know that too. You'll see," he said gently. "Awful 
 journey, isn't it?" 
 
 "You promised me not to take it." 
 
 "I didn't take it," returned Tarvin, smiling, and 
 spreading a seat for her in the hammock, while he took
 
 THE NAULAHKA 87 
 
 one of the deep verandah chairs himself. He crossed 
 his legs and fixed the white pith helmet he had lately 
 adopted on his knee. " I came round the other way on 
 purpose." 
 
 "What do you mean?" asked Kate, dropping tenta- 
 tively into the hammock. 
 
 " San Francisco and Yokohama, of course. You told 
 me not to follow you." 
 
 "Nick ! " She gathered into the single syllable the re- 
 proach and reproof, the liking and despair, with which the 
 least and the greatest of his audacities alike affected her. 
 
 Tarvin had nothing to say for once, and in the pause 
 that fell she had time to reassure herself of her abhor- 
 rence of his presence here, and time to still the impulse 
 of pride, which told her that it was good to be followed 
 over half the earth's girdle for love, and the impulse 
 of admiration for that fine devotion — time, above all — 
 for this was worst and most shameful — to scorn the 
 sense of loneliness and far-awayness that came rolling 
 in on her out of the desert like a cloud, and made the 
 protecting and home-like presence of the man she had 
 known in the other life seem for a moment sweet and 
 desirable. 
 
 " Come, Kate, you didn't expect me to stay at home, 
 and let you find your way out here to take the chances 
 of this old sand-heap, did you ? It would be a cold day 
 when I let you come to Gokral Seetarun all by your lone, 
 little girl — freezing cold, I've thought since I've been 
 here, and seen what sort of camp it is." 
 
 " Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" 
 
 " You didn't seem particularly interested in what I 
 did, when I last saw you." 
 
 " Nick ! I didn't want you to come here, and I had 
 to come myself." 
 
 "Well, you've come. I hope you'll like it," said he, 
 grimly.
 
 SS THE NAULAHKA 
 
 "Is it so bad?" she asked. ." Not that I shall 
 mind." 
 
 " Bad ! Do you remember Mastodon ? " 
 
 Mastodon was one of those Western towns which 
 have their future behind them— a city without an inhabi- 
 tant, abandoned and desolate. 
 
 "Take Mastodon for deadness, and fill it with ten 
 Leadvilles for wickedness — Leadville the first year— and 
 you've got a tenth of it" 
 
 He went on to offer her an exposition of the history, 
 politics, and society of Gokral Seetarun, from his own 
 point of view, dealing with the dead East from the stand- 
 point of the living West, and dealing with it vividly. It 
 was a burning theme, and it was a happiness to him to 
 have a listener who could understand his attitude, even 
 if she could not entirely sympathise with it. His tone 
 besought her to laugh at it with him a little, if only a 
 little, and Kate consented to laugh ; but she said it all 
 seemed to her more mournful than amusing. 
 
 Tarvin could agree to this readily enough, but he told 
 her that he laughed to avoid weeping. It made him 
 tired to see the fixedness, the apathy, and lifelessness 
 of this rich and populous world, which should be up 
 and stirring by rights — trading, organising, inventing, 
 building new towns, making the old ones keep up with 
 the procession, laying new railroads, going in for fresh 
 enterprises, and keeping things humming. 
 
 " They've got resources enough," he said. "It isn't 
 as if they had the excuse that the country's poor. It's 
 a good country. Move the population of a lively Colo- 
 rado town to Rhatore, set up a good local paper, organise 
 a board of trade, and let the world know what there is 
 here, and we'd have a boom in six months that would 
 shake the empire. But what's the use ? They're dead. 
 They're mummies. They're wooden images. There 
 isn't enough real, old-fashioned downright rustle and
 
 THE NAULAHKA 89 
 
 razzle-dazzle and ' git up and git ' in Gokral Seetarun to 
 run a milk-cart." 
 
 "Yes, yes," she murmured, half to herself, with illu- 
 mined eyes. " It's for that I've come." 
 
 " How's that ? " 
 
 " Because they are not like us," she answered, turning 
 her lustrous face on him. " If they were clever, if they 
 were wise, what could we do for them ? It is because 
 they are lost, stumbling, foolish creatures that they need 
 us." She heaved a deep sigh. " It is good to be 
 here." 
 
 " It's good to have you," said Tarvin. 
 
 She started. " Don't say such things any more, please, 
 Nick," she said. 
 
 " Oh, well ! " he groaned. 
 
 " But it's this way, Nick," she said earnestly, but 
 kindly. " I don't belong to such things any more — not 
 even to the possibility of ihem. Think of me as a nun. 
 Think of me as having renounced all such happiness, 
 and all other kinds of happiness but my work." 
 
 " H'm. May I smoke ? " At her nod he lighted a 
 cigar. " I'm glad I'm here for the ceremony." 
 
 " What ceremony ? " she asked. 
 
 " Seeing you take the veil. But you won't take it." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 He grumbled inarticulately over his cigar a moment. 
 Then he looked up. " Because I've got big wealth 
 that says you won't. I know you, I know Rhatore, and 
 I know " 
 
 "What? Who?" 
 
 " Myself," he said, looking up. 
 
 She clasped her hands in her lap. " Nick," she said, 
 leaning toward him, "you know I like you. I like you 
 too well to let you go on thinking — you talk of not 
 being able to sleep. How do you suppose I can sleep 
 with the thought always by me that you are laying up a
 
 90 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 pain and disappointment for yourself — one that I can't 
 help, unless I can help it by begging you to go away 
 now. I do beg it. Please go ! " 
 
 Tarvin pulled at his cigar musingly for some seconds. 
 " Dear girl, I'm not afraid." 
 
 She sighed, and turned her face away toward the 
 desert. "I wish you were," she said hopelessly. 
 
 " Fear is not for legislators," he retorted oracularly. 
 
 She turned back to him with a sudden motion. 
 " Legislators ! O Nick, are you ? " 
 
 "I'm afraid I am — by a majority of 15 18." He 
 handed her the cable-despatch. 
 
 " Poor father ! " 
 
 "Well, I don't know." 
 
 " Oh ! Well, I congratulate you, of course." 
 
 "Thanks." 
 
 " But I'm not sure it will be a good thing for you." 
 
 " Yes ; that's the way it had struck me. If I spend 
 my whole term out here, like as not my constituents 
 won't be in a mood to advance my political career when 
 I get back." 
 
 " All the more reason " 
 
 " No ; the more reason for fixing the real thing first. 
 I can make myself solid in politics any time. But there 
 isn't but one time to make myself solid with you, Kate. 
 It's here. It's now." He rose and bent over her. 
 "Do you think I can postpone that, dear? I can 
 adjourn it from day to day, and I do cheerfully, and you 
 shan't hear any more of it until you're ready to. But 
 you like me, Kate. I know that. And I — well, I like 
 you. There isn't but one end to that sort of thing." 
 He took her hand. " Good-bye. I'll come and take 
 you for a look at the city to-morrow." 
 
 Kate gazed long after his retreating figure, and then 
 took herself into the house, where a warm t healthful 
 chat with Mrs. Estes, chiefly about the children at
 
 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 9i 
 
 Bangor, helped her to a sane view of the situation she 
 must face with the reappearance of Tarvin. She saw 
 that he meant to stay, and if she didn't mean to go, it 
 was for her to find the brave way of adjusting the fact to 
 her hopes. His perversity complicated an undertaking 
 which she had never expected to find simple in itself; 
 and it was finally only because she trusted all that he 
 said implicitly that she was able to stay herself upon his 
 promise to "behave." Liberally interpreted, this really 
 meant much from Tarvin ; perhaps it meant all that she 
 need ask. 
 
 When all was said, there remained the impulse to 
 flight; but she was ashamed to find, when he came in 
 the morning, that a formidable pang of home-sickness 
 drew her toward him, and made his definite and cheerful 
 presence a welcome sight. Mrs. Estes had been kind. 
 The two women had made friends, and found each 
 other's hearts with instant sympathy. But a home face 
 was different, and perhaps Nick's was even more different. 
 At all events, she willingly let him carry out his plan of 
 showing her the city. 
 
 In their walk about it Tarvin did not spare her the 
 advantage of his ten days' residence in Rhatore preceding 
 her coming ; he made himself her guide, and stood on 
 rocks overlooking things and spouted his second-hand his- 
 tory with an assurance that the oldest Political Resident 
 might have envied. He was interested in the problems 
 of the State, if not responsible for their solution. Was 
 be not a member of a governing body? His ceaseless 
 and fruitful curiosity about all new things had furnished 
 him, in ten days, with much learning about Rhatore 
 and Gokral Seetarun, enabling him to show to Kate, 
 with eyes scarcely less fresh than her own, the wonders 
 of the narrow, sand-choked streets, where the foot- 
 falls of camels and men alike fell dead. They lin- 
 gered by the royal menagerie of starved tigers, and
 
 92 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 the cages of the two tame hunting leopards, hooded 
 like hawks, that slept, and yawned, and scratched on 
 their two bedsteads by the main gate of the city ; 
 and he showed her the ponderous door of the great 
 gate itself, studded with foot-long spikes against the 
 attacks of that living battering-ram, the elephant. He 
 led her through the long lines of dark shops planted in 
 and among the ruins of palaces, whose builders had been 
 long since forgotten, and about the straggling barracks, 
 past knots of fantastically attired soldiers, who hung their 
 day's marketing from the muzzle of the Brown Bess or 
 flint-lock ; and then he showed her the mausoleum of the 
 kings of Gokral Seetarun, under the shadow of the great 
 temple where the children of the Sun and Moon went to 
 worship, and where the smooth, black stone bull glared 
 across the main square at the cheap bronze statue of 
 Colonel Nolan's predecessor — an offensively energetic 
 and very plain Yorkshireman. Lastly, they found beyond 
 the walls the clamouring caravansary of traders by the 
 gateway of the Three Gods, whence the caravans of camels 
 filed out with their burdens of glistening rock-salt for the 
 railroad, and where by day and by night cloaked and 
 jaw-bound riders of the desert, speaking a tongue that 
 none could understand, rode in from God knows what 
 fastness beyond the white hillocks of Jeysulmir. 
 
 As they went along, Tarvin asked her about Topaz. 
 How had she left it ? How was the dear old town look- 
 ing ? Kate said she had only left it three days after his 
 departure. 
 
 " Three days ! Three days is a long time in the life 
 of a growing town." 
 
 Kate smiled. " I didn't see any changes," she said. 
 
 " No ? Peters was talking about breaking ground for 
 his new brick saloon on G Street the day after I left ; 
 Parsons was getting in a new dynamo for the city's 
 electric light plant; they were just getting to work on
 
 THE NAULAHKA 93 
 
 the grading of Massachusetts Avenue, and they had 
 planted the first tree in my twenty-acre plot. Kearney, 
 the druggist, was putting in a plate-glass window, and 
 I shouldn't wonder if Maxim had got his new post- 
 office boxes from Meriden before you lefc. Didn't you 
 notice?" 
 
 Kate shook her head. " I was thinking of something 
 else just then." 
 
 " Pshaw ! I'd like to know. But no matter. I sup- 
 pose it is asking too much to expect a woman to play 
 her own hand, and keep the run of improvements in the 
 town," he mused. " Women aren't built that way. And 
 yet I used to run a political canvass and a business or 
 two, and something else in that town." He glanced 
 humorously at Kate, who lifted a warning hand. "For- 
 bidden subject ? All right. I will be good. But they 
 had to get up early in the morning to do anything to it 
 without letting me into it. What did your father and 
 mother say at the last ? " 
 
 " Don't speak of that," begged Kate. 
 
 " Well, I won't." 
 
 " I wake up at s night, and think of mother. It's 
 dreadful. At the lust I suppose I should have stayed 
 behind and shirked if some one had said the right word 
 — or the wrong one — as I got on board the train, and 
 waved my handkerchief to them." 
 
 " Good heaven ! Why didn't I stay ! " he groaned. 
 
 " You couldn't have said it, Nick," she told him quietly. 
 
 "You mean your father could. Of course he could, 
 and if he had happened to be some one else he would. 
 When I think of that I want to ! " 
 
 "Don't say anything against father, please," she said, 
 with a tightening of the lips. 
 
 " Oh, dear child ! " he murmured contritely, " I didn't 
 mean that. But I have to say something against some- 
 body. Give me somebody to curse, and I'll be quiet."
 
 94 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " Nick ! " 
 
 " Well, I'm not a block of wood," he growled. 
 
 " No ; you are only a very foolish man." 
 
 Tarvin smiled. "Now you're shouting." 
 
 She asked him about the Maharaj Kunwar, to change 
 the subject, and Tarvin told her that he was a little 
 brick. But he added that the society of Rhatore wasn't 
 all as good. 
 
 " You ought to see Sitabhai ! " 
 
 He went on to tell her about the Maharajah and the 
 people of the palace with whom she would come in con- 
 tact. They talked of the strange mingling of impassive- 
 ness and childishness in the people, which had already 
 impressed Kate, and spoke of their primitive passions 
 and simple ideas — simple as the massive strength of the 
 Orient is simple. 
 
 "They aren't what we should call cultured. They 
 don't know Ibsen a little bit, and they don't go in for 
 Tolstoi for sour apples," said Tarvin, who did not read 
 three newspapers a day at Topaz for nothing. " If they 
 really knew the modern young woman, I suppose her 
 life wouldn't be worth an hour's purchase. But they've 
 got some rattling good old-fashioned ideas, all the same 
 — the sort I used to hear once upon a time at my dear 
 old mother's knee, away back in the State of Maine. 
 Mother believed in marriage, you know; and that's 
 where she agreed with me and with the fine old-style 
 natives of India. The venerable, ramshackle, tumble- 
 down institution of matrimony is still in use here, you 
 know." 
 
 "But I never said I sympathised with Nora, Nick," 
 exclaimed Kate, leaping all the chasms of connection. 
 
 " Well, then, that's where you are solid with the Indian 
 Empire. The 'Doll's House' glanced right off this 
 blessed old-timey country. You wouldn't know where 
 it had been hit."
 
 THE NAULAHKA 95 
 
 " But I don't agree with all your ideas either," she felt 
 bound to add. 
 
 " I can think of one," retorted Tarvin, with a shrewd 
 smile. " But I'll convert you to my views there." 
 
 Kate stopped short in the street along which they were 
 walking. " I trusted you, Nick ! " she said reproachfully. 
 
 He stopped, and gazed ruefully at her for a moment. 
 " O Lord !" he groaned. "I trusted myself ! But I'm 
 always thinking of it. What can you expect? But I 
 tell you what, Kate, this shall be the end — last, final, 
 ultimate. I'm done. From this out I'm a reformed 
 man. I don't promise not to think, and I'll have to go 
 on feeling, just the same. But I'll be quiet. Shake on 
 it." He offered his hand, and Kate took it. 
 
 They walked on for some moments in silence until 
 Tarvin said mournfully, "You didn't see Heckler just 
 before you came away, did you ? " 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " No ; Jim and you never did get along much together. 
 But I wish I knew what he's thinking about me. Didn't 
 hear any rumour, any report, going around about what 
 had become of me, I suppose ? " 
 
 " They thought in town that you had gone to San 
 Francisco to see some of the Western directors of the 
 Colorado and California Central, I think. They thought 
 that because the conductor of your train brought back 
 word that you said you were going to Alaska, and they 
 didn't believe that. I wish you had a better reputation 
 for truth-telling at Topaz, Nick." 
 
 " So do I, Kate ; so do I," exclaimed Tarvin heartily. 
 " But if I had, how would I ever get the right thing be- 
 lieved ? That's just what I wanted them to think — that 
 I was looking after their interests. But where would I be 
 if I had sent that story back ? They would have had me 
 working a land-grab in Chili before night. That reminds 
 me — don't mention that I'm here in writing home, please.
 
 96 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Perhaps they'll figure that out, too, by the rule of con- 
 traries, if I give them the chance. But I don't want to 
 give them the chance." 
 
 " I'm not likely to mention it," said Kate, flushing. 
 
 A moment later she recurred to the subject of her 
 mother. In the yearning for home that came upon her 
 anew in the midst of all the strangeness through which 
 Tarvin was taking her, the thought of her mother, patient, 
 alone, looking for some word from her, hurt her as if for 
 the first time. The memory was for the moment intoler- 
 able to her; but when Tarvin asked her why she had 
 come at all if she felt that way, she answered with the 
 courage of better moments — " Why do men go to war ? " 
 
 Kate saw little of Tarvin during the next few days. 
 Mrs. Estes made her known at the palace, and she 
 had plenty to occupy her mind and heart. There 
 she stepped bewilderedly into a land where it was 
 always twilight — a labyrinth of passages, courtyards, 
 stairs, and hidden ways, all overflowing with veiled 
 women, who peered at her and laughed behind her 
 back, or childishly examined her dress, her helmet, 
 and her gloves. It seemed impossible that she should 
 ever know the smallest part of the vast warren, or 
 distinguish one pale face from another in the gloom, 
 as the women led her through long lines of lonely 
 chambers where the wind sighed alone under the glit- 
 tering ceilings, to hanging gardens two hundred feet 
 above the level of the ground, but still jealously guarded 
 by high walls, and down again by interminable stair- 
 ways, from the glare and the blue of the flat roofs to 
 silent subterranean chambers hewn against the heat 
 of the summer sixty feet into the heart of the living 
 rock. At every step she found women and children, 
 and yet more women and children. The palace was 
 reported to hold within its walls four thousand living, 
 and no man knew how many buried, dead.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 97 
 
 There were many women — how many she did not know 
 — worked upon by intrigues she could not comprehend, 
 who refused her ministrations absolutely. They were not 
 ill, they said, and the touch of the white woman meant 
 pollution. Others there were who thrust their children 
 before her and bade her bring colour and strength back 
 to these pale buds born in the darkness; and terrible, 
 fierce-eyed girls who leaped upon her out of the dark, 
 overwhelming her with passionate complaints that she 
 did not and dared not understand. Monstrous and 
 obscene pictures glared at her from the walls of the 
 little rooms, and the images of shameless gods mocked 
 her from their greasy niches above the doorways. The 
 heat and the smell of cooking, faint fumes of incense, 
 and the indescribable taint of overcrowded humanity, 
 caught her by the throat. But what she heard and what 
 she guessed sickened her more than any visible horror. 
 Plainly it was one thing to be stirred to generous action 
 by a vivid recital of the state of the women of India, 
 another to face the unutterable fact in the isolation of the 
 women's apartments of the palace of Rhatore. 
 
 Tarvin meanwhile was going about spying out the land 
 on a system which he had contrived for himself. It was 
 conducted on the principle of exhaustion of the possi- 
 bilities in the order of their importance — every movement 
 which he made having the directest, though not always 
 the most obvious, relation to the Naulahka. 
 
 He was free to come and go through the royal garden?, 
 where innumerable and very seldom paid gardeners fought 
 with water-skin and well-wheel against the destroying 
 heat of the desert. He was welcomed in the Mahara- 
 jah's stables, where eight hundred horses were littered 
 down nightly, and was allowed to watch them go out for 
 their morning exercise, four hundred at a time, in a whirl- 
 wind of dust. In the outer courts of the palace it was 
 open to him to come and go as he chose — to watch the 
 
 G
 
 9 8 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 toilets of the elephants when the Maharajah went out in 
 state, to laugh with the quarter-guard, and to unearth 
 dragon-headed, snake-throated pieces of artillery, invented 
 by native artificers, who, here in the East, had dreamed of 
 the mitrailleuse. But Kate could go where he was for- 
 bidden to venture. He knew the life of a white woman 
 to be as safe in Rhatore as in Topaz ; but on the first 
 day she disappeared, untroubled and unquestioning, 
 behind the darkness of the veiled door leading to the 
 apartments of the women of the palace, he found his 
 hand going instinctively to the butt of his revolver. 
 
 The Maharajah was an excellent friend, and no bad 
 hand at pachisi ; but as Tarvin sat opposite him, half an 
 hour later, he reflected that he should not recommend 
 the Maharajah^ life for insurance if anything happened 
 to his love while she remained in those mysterious 
 chambers from which the only sign that came to the 
 outer world was a ceaseless whispering and rustling. 
 When Kate came out, the little Maharaj Kunwar cling- 
 ing to her hand, her face was white and drawn, and her 
 eyes full of indignant tears. She had seen. 
 
 Tarvin hastened to her side, but she put him from her 
 with the imperious gesture that women know in deep 
 moments, and fled to Mrs. Estes. 
 
 Tarvin felt himself for the moment rudely thrust out 
 of her life. The Maharaj Kunwar found him that even- 
 ing pacing up and down the verandah of the rest-house, 
 almost sorry that he had not shot the Maharajah for 
 bringing that look into Kate's eyes. With deep-drawn 
 breath he thanked his God that he was there to watch 
 and defend, and, if need were, to carry off, at the last, 
 by force. With a shudder he fancied her here alone, 
 save for the distant care of Mrs. Estes. 
 
 " I have brought this for Kate," said the child, de- 
 scending from his carriage cautiously, with a parcel 
 that filled both his arms. " Come with me there."
 
 THE NAU LAURA 99 
 
 Nothing loth, Tarvin came, and they drove over to 
 the house of the missionary. 
 
 "All the people in my palace," said the child as they 
 went, "say that she's your Kate." 
 
 " I'm glad they know that much," muttered Tarvin to 
 himself savagely. " What's this you have got for her ? " he 
 asked the Maharaj aloud, laying his hand on the parcel. 
 
 " It is from my mother, the Queen — the real Queen, 
 you know, because I am the Prince. There is a message, 
 too, that I must not tell." He began to whisper, child- 
 like, to himself, to keep the message in mind. Kate 
 was in the verandah when they arrived, and her face 
 brightened a little at sight of the child. 
 
 " Tell my guard to stand back out of the garden. 
 Go, and wait in the road." 
 
 The carriage and troopers withdrew. The child, still 
 holding Tarvin's hand, held out the parcel to Kate. 
 
 " It is from my mother," he said. " You have seen 
 her. This man need not go. He is " — he hesitated a 
 little — " of your heart, is he not ? Your speech is his 
 speech." 
 
 Kate flushed, but did not attempt to set the child 
 right. What could she say ? 
 
 " And I am to tell this," he continued, " first before 
 everything, till you quite understand." He spoke hesi- 
 tatingly, translating out of his own vernacular as he went 
 on, and drawing himself to his full height, as he cleared 
 the cluster of emeralds from his brow. " My mother, 
 the Queen— the real Queen — says, ' I was three months 
 at this work. It is for you, because I have seen your 
 face. That which has been made may be unravelled 
 against our will, and a gipsy's hands are always picking. 
 For the love of the gods look to it that a gipsy unravels 
 nothing that I have made, for it is my life and soul to 
 me. Protect this work of mine that comes from me — a 
 cloth nine years upon the loom.' I know more English
 
 ioo THE NAULAHKA 
 
 than my mother," said the child, dropping into his ordi- 
 nary speech. 
 
 Kate opened the parcel, and unrolled a crude yellow 
 and black comforter, with a violent crimson fringe, 
 clumsily knitted. With such labours the queens of 
 Gokral Seetarun were wont to beguile their leisure. 
 
 " That is all," said the child. But he seemed unwill- 
 ing to go. There was a lump in Kate's throat, as she 
 handled the pitiful gift. Without warning the child, 
 never loosening for a moment his grip on Tarvin's hand, 
 began to repeat the message word by word, his little 
 fingers tightening on Tarvin's fist as he went on. 
 
 " Say I am very grateful indeed," said Kate, a little 
 puzzled, and not too sure of her voice. 
 
 " That was not the answer," said the child ; and he 
 looked appealingly at his tall friend, the new English- 
 man. 
 
 The idle talk of the commercial travellers in the 
 verandah of the rest-house flashed through Tarvin's 
 mind. He took a quick pace forward, and laid his 
 hand on Kate's shoulder, whispering huskily — 
 
 " Can't you see what it means ? It's the boy — the 
 cloth nine years on the loom." 
 
 " But what can I do?" cried Kate, bewildered. 
 
 " Look after him. Keep on looking after him. You 
 are quick enough in most things. Sitabhai wants his 
 life. See that she doesn't get it." 
 
 Kate began to understand a little. Everything was 
 possible in that awful palace, even child-murder. She 
 had already guessed the hate that lives between child- 
 less and mother queens. The Maharaj Kunwar stood 
 motionless in the twilight, twinkling in his jewelled 
 robes. 
 
 " Shall I say it again?" he asked. 
 
 " No, no, no, child ! No ! " she cried, flinging herself 
 on her knees before him, and snatching his little figure
 
 THE NAULAHKA 101 
 
 to her breast, with a sudden access of tenderness and 
 pity. " O Nick ! what shall we do in this horrible 
 country?" She began to cry. 
 
 " Ah ! " said the Maharaj, utterly unmoved, " I was 
 to go when I saw that you cried." He lifted up his 
 voice for the carriage and troopers, and departed, 
 leaving the shabby comforter on the floor. 
 
 Kate was sobbing in the half darkness. Neither Mrs. 
 Estes nor her husband was within just then. That little 
 " we " of hers went through Tarvin with a sweet and 
 tingling ecstasy. He stooped and took her in his arms, 
 and for that which followed Kate did not rebuke him. 
 
 " We'll pull through together, little girl," he whispered 
 to the shaken head on his shoulder.
 
 X. 
 
 " Ye know the Hundred Danger Time when gay with paint and 
 flowers, 
 Your household gods are bribed to help the bitter, helpless hours ; 
 Ye know the worn and rotten mat whereon your daughter lies, 
 Ye know the Sootak-xoom unclean, the cell wherein she dies. 
 
 Dies with the babble in her ear of midwife's muttered charm, 
 Dies, spite young life that strains to stay, the suckling on her arm — 
 Dies in the four-fold heated room, parched by the Birth-Fire's 
 
 breath — 
 Foredoomed, ye say, lest anguish lack, to haunt her home in death." 
 
 — A Song of the Women. 
 
 " Dear Friend, — That was very unkind of you, and you 
 have made my life harder. I know I was weak. The 
 child upset me. But I must do what I came for, and 
 I want you to strengthen me, Nick, not hinder me. 
 Don't come for a few days, please. I need all I am or 
 hope to be for the work I see opening here. I think I 
 can really do some good. Let me, please. Kate." 
 
 Tarvin read fifty different meanings into this letter, 
 received the following morning, and read them out again. 
 At the end of his conjectures he could be sure only of 
 one thing — that in spite of that moment's weakness, 
 Kate was fixed upon her path. He could not yet 
 prevail against her steadfast gentleness, and perhaps 
 it would be better not to try. Talks in the verandah, 
 and sentinel-like prowlings about her path when she 
 went to the palace, were pleasant enough, but he had 
 n ot come to Rhatore to tell her that he loved her.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 103 
 
 Topaz, in whose future the other half of his heart was 
 bound up, knew that secret long ago, and — Topaz 
 was waiting for the coming of the Three C.'s, even as 
 Nick was waiting on Kate's comings and goings. The 
 girl was unhappy, overstrained, and despairing, but 
 since — he thanked God always — he was at hand to 
 guard her from the absolute shock of evil fate, she 
 might well be left for the moment to Mrs. Estes' com- 
 fort and sympathy. 
 
 She had already accomplished something in the 
 guarded courts of the women's quarters, for the Maharaj 
 Kun war's mother had entrusted her only son's life to 
 her care (who could help loving and trusting Kate ?) ; but 
 for his own part, what had he done for Topaz beyond — 
 he looked toward the city — playing pachisi with the 
 Maharajah ? The low morning sun flung the shadow of 
 the rest-house before him. The commercial travellers 
 came out one by one, gazed at the walled bulk of 
 Rhatore, and cursed it. Tarvin mounted his horse, 
 of which much more hereafter, and ambled toward the 
 city to pay his respects to the Maharajah. It was 
 through him, if through any one, that he must possess 
 himself of the Naulahka; he had been anxiously studying 
 him, and shrewdly measuring the situation, and he now 
 believed that he had formed a plan through which he 
 might hope to make himself solid with the Maharajah — 
 a plan which, whether it brought him the Naulahka or 
 not, would at least allow him the privilege of staying at 
 Rhatore. This privilege certain broad hints of Colonel 
 Nolan's had seemed to Tarvin of late plainly to threaten, 
 and it had become clear to him that he must at once 
 acquire a practical and publishable object for his visit, if 
 he had to rip up the entire State to find it. To stay, he 
 must do something in particular. What he had found 
 to do was particular enough ; it should be done forth- 
 with, and it should bring him first the Naulahka, and
 
 104 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 then — if he was at all the man he took himself for — 
 Kate ! 
 
 As he approached the gates he saw Kate, in a brown 
 habit, riding with Mrs. Estes out of the missionary's 
 garden. 
 
 " You needn't be afraid, dear. I shan't bother you," 
 he said to himself, smiling at the dust-cloud rising behind 
 her, as he slackened his pace. " But I wonder what's 
 taking you out so early." 
 
 The misery within the palace wails which had sent 
 her half weeping to Mrs. Estes represented only a phase 
 of the work for which Kate had come. If the wretched- 
 ness was so great under the shadow of the throne, what 
 must the common folk endure ? Kate was on her way to 
 the hospital. 
 
 " There is only one native doctor at the hospital," 
 Mrs. Estes was saying, as they went along, " and, ol 
 course, he's only a native ; that is to say, he is idle." 
 
 " How can any one be idle here ? " her companion 
 cried, as the stored heat from under the city gates beat 
 across their temples. 
 
 " Every one grows idle so soon in Rhatore," returned 
 Mrs. Estes, with a little sigh, thinking of Lucien's high 
 hopes and strenuous endeavours, long since subdued to 
 a mild apathy. 
 
 Kate sat her horse with the assured seat of a 
 Western girl who has learned to ride and to walk at 
 the same time. Her well-borne little figure had advan- 
 tages on horseback. The glow of resolve lighting her 
 simply framed face at the moment lent it a spiritual 
 beauty ; and she was warmed by the consciousness that 
 she drew near her purpose and the goal of two years' 
 working and dreaming. As they rounded a curve in the 
 main street of the city, a crowd was seen waiting at 
 the foot of a flight of red sandstone steps rising to the 
 platform of a whitewashed house three storeys in height,
 
 THE NAULAHKA 105 
 
 on which appeared the sign, "State Dispensary." The 
 letters leaned against one another, and drooped down 
 over each side of the door. 
 
 A sense of the unreality of it all came over Kate as 
 she surveyed the crowd of women, clad in vermilion, 
 dull-red, indigo, saffron, blue, pink, and turquoise 
 garments of raw silk. Almost every woman held a 
 child on her hip, and a low wailing cry rose up as 
 Kate drew rein. The women clustered about her 
 stirrup, caught at her foot, and thrust their babies into 
 her arms. She took one little one to her breast, and 
 hushed it tenderly; it was burnt and dry with fever. 
 
 "Be careful," said Mrs. Estes ; "there is smallpox in 
 the hills behind us, and these people have no notion of 
 precautions." 
 
 Kate, listening to the cry of the women, did not 
 answer. A portly, white-bearded native, in a brown 
 camel's hair dressing-gown and patent leather boots, 
 came out of the dispensary, thrusting the women right 
 and left, and bowing profoundly. 
 
 "You are new lady doctor?" he siid. "Hospital 
 is quite ready for inspection. Stand back from the miss 
 sahib!" he shouted in the vernacular, as Kate slipped 
 to the ground, and the crowd closed about her. Mrs. 
 Estes remained in the saddle, watching the scene. 
 
 A woman of the desert, very tall, gold-coloured, and 
 scarlet-lipped, threw back her face-cloth, caught Kate 
 by the wrist, and made as if she would drag her away, 
 crying aloud fiercely in the vernacular. The trouble 
 in her eyes was not to be denied. Kate followed unre- 
 sisting, and, as the crowd parted, saw a camel kneeling 
 in the roadway. On its back a gaunt skeleton of a 
 man was muttering, and picking aimlessly at the nail- 
 studded saddle. The woman drew herself up to full 
 height, and, without a word, flung herself down upon 
 the ground, clasping Kate's feet. Kate stooped to raise
 
 io6 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 her, her underlip quivering, and the doctor from the 
 steps shouted cheerfully — 
 
 "Oh, that is all right. He is confirmed lunatic, her 
 husband. She is always bringing him here." 
 
 " Have you done nothing, then ? " cried Kate, turning 
 on him angrily. 
 
 " What can do ? She will not leave him here for 
 treatment so I may blister him." 
 
 " Blister him ! " murmured Kate to herself, appalled, 
 as she caught the woman's hands and held them firmly. 
 "Tell her that I say he must be left here," she said 
 aloud. The doctor conveyed the command. The 
 woman took a deep breath, and stared at Kate under 
 level brows for a full half minute. Then she carried 
 Kate's hand to the man's forehead, and sat down in the 
 dust, veiling her head. 
 
 Kate, dumb under these strange expressions of the 
 workings of the Eastern mind, stared at her for a moment, 
 with an impulse of the compassion which knows no race, 
 before she bent and kissed her quietly on the forehead. 
 
 " Carry this man up," she said, pointing ; and he was 
 carried up the steps and into the hospital, his wife 
 following like a dog. Once she turned and spoke to 
 her sisters below, and there went up a little chorus of 
 weeping and laughter. 
 
 "She says," said the doctor, beaming, "that she will 
 kill any one who is impolite to you. Also, she will be 
 the nurse of your son." 
 
 Kate paused to say a word to Mrs. Estes, who was 
 bound on an errand further into the city ; then she 
 mounted the steps with the doctor. 
 
 " Now, will you see the hospital ? " he asked. " But 
 first let me introduce. I am Lalla Dhunpat Rai, Licen- 
 tiate Medicine, from the Duff College. I was first native 
 my province that took that degree. That was twenty 
 years ago."
 
 THE NAULAHKA 107 
 
 Kate looked at him wonderingly. " Where have you 
 been since ? " she asked. 
 
 "Some time I stayed in my father's house. Then 
 I was clerk in medical stores in British India. But 
 his Highness have graciously given me this appoint- 
 ment, which I hold now." 
 
 Kate lifted her eyebrows. This, then, was to be her 
 colleague. They passed into the hospital together in 
 silence, Kate holding the skirt of her riding-habit clear 
 of the accumulated grime of the floor. 
 
 Six roughly made pallets, laced with hide and string, 
 stood in the filthy central courtyard of the house, and 
 on each cot a man, swathed in a white sheet, tossed 
 and moaned and jabbered. A woman entered with a 
 pot full of rancid native sweetmeats, and tried vainly 
 to make one of the men eat of her delicacies. In the 
 full glare of the sunlight stood a young man almost 
 absolutely unclothed, his hands clasped behind his head, 
 trying to outstare the sun. He began a chant, broke off, 
 and hurried from bed to bed, shouting to each words 
 that Kate could not understand. Then he returned to 
 his place in the centre, and took up his interrupted 
 song. 
 
 " He is confirmed lunatic, also," said the doctor. 
 " I have blistered and cupped him very severely, but 
 he will not go away. He is quite harmless, except 
 when he does not get his opium." 
 
 " Surely you don't allow the patients opium ! " ex- 
 claimed Kate. 
 
 " Of course I allow opium. Otherwise they would 
 die. All Rajputs eat opium." 
 
 "And you?" asked Kate, with horror. 
 
 "Once I did not — when I first came. But now " 
 
 He drew a smooth-worn tin tobacco-box from his waist, 
 and took from it what appeared to Kate a handful of 
 opium pills.
 
 io8 THE NAULAKHA 
 
 Despair was going over her in successive waves. 
 " Show me the women's ward," she said wearily. 
 
 " Oh, they are all upstairs and downstairs and round- 
 about," returned the doctor casually. 
 
 "And the maternity cases?" she asked. 
 
 " They are in casual ward." 
 
 " Who attends to them ? " 
 
 " They do not like me ; but there is very clever 
 woman from the outside — she comes in." 
 
 " Has she any training — any education?" 
 
 "She is much esteemed in her own village," said the 
 doctor. "She is here now, if you wish to see." 
 
 "Where?" demanded Kate. 
 
 Dhunpat Rai, somewhat uneasy in his mind, made 
 haste to lead the way up a narrow staircase to a closed 
 door, from behind which came the wail of a new life. 
 
 Kate flung the door open wrathfully. In that par- 
 ticular ward of the State Hospital were the clay and cow- 
 dung images of two gods, which the woman in charge 
 was besprinkling with marigold buds. Every window, 
 every orifice that might admit a breath of air, was closed, 
 and the birth-fire blazed fiercely in one corner, its fumes 
 nearly asphyxiating Kate as she entered. 
 
 What happened between Kate and the much-esteemed 
 woman will never be known. The girl did not emerge 
 for half an hour. But the woman came out much sooner, 
 dishevelled, and cackling feebly. 
 
 After this Kate was prepared for anything, even for 
 the neglected condition of the drugs in the dispensary 
 — the mortar was never cleaned, and every prescription 
 carried to the patient many more drugs than were written 
 for him— and for the foul, undrained, uncleaned, un- 
 lighted, and unventilated rooms which she entered one 
 after another hopelessly. The patients were allowed to 
 receive their friends as they would, and to take from 
 their hands whatever misguided kindness offered. When
 
 THE NAULAIIKA 109 
 
 death came, the mourners howled in chorus about the 
 cot, and bore the naked body through the courtyard, 
 amid the jeers of the lunatic, to carry to the city what 
 infection Heaven willed. 
 
 There was no isolation of infectious cases during the 
 progress of the disease, and children scourged with 
 ophthalmia played light-heartedly with the children of the 
 visitors or among diphtheria beds. At one point, and 
 one point only, the doctor was strong; he was highly 
 successful in dealing with the very common trouble en- 
 tered on the day-book as " loin bite." The woodcutters 
 and small traders who had occasion to travel through the 
 lonely roads of the State were not infrequently struck 
 down by tigers, and in these cases the doctor, discarding 
 the entire English pharmacopoeia, fell back on simples of 
 proved repute in the neighbouring villages, and wrought 
 wonders. None the less, it was necessary to convey to 
 him that in future there would be only one head of the 
 State Hospital, that her orders must be obeyed without 
 question, and that her name was Miss Kate Sheriff. 
 
 The doctor, reflecting that she attended on the women 
 of the court, offered no protest. He had been through 
 many such periods of reform and reorganisation, and 
 knew that his own inertia and a smooth tongue would 
 carry him through many more. He bowed and assented, 
 allowing Kate's reproaches to pass over his head, and 
 parrying all questions with the statement — ■ 
 
 "This hospital only allowed one hundred and fifty 
 rupees per mensem from State revenues. How can get 
 drugs all the way from Calcutta for that ? " 
 
 "/am paying for this order," said Kate, writing out a 
 list of needed drugs and appliances on the desk in the 
 bath-room, which was supposed to serve as an office; 
 "and I shall pay for whatever else I think necessary." 
 
 " Order going through me ofifeecially ? " suggested 
 Dhunpat Rai, with his head on one side.
 
 no THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Unwilling to raise unnecessary obstacles, Kate as- 
 sented. With those poor creatures lying in the rooms 
 about her unwatched, untended, at the mercy of this 
 creature, it was not a time to argue about commissions. 
 
 "Yes," she said decidedly; '"of course." And the 
 doctor, when he saw the size and scope of the order, 
 felt that he could endure much at her hands. 
 
 At the end of the three hours Kate came away, fainting 
 with weariness, want of food, and bitter heartache.
 
 XI. 
 
 "Who speaks to the King carries his life in his hand." 
 
 — Native Proverb. 
 
 Tarvin found the Maharajah, who had not yet taken 
 his morning allowance of opium, sunk in the deepest 
 depression. The man from Topaz gazed at him 
 shrewdly, filled with his purpose. 
 
 The Maharajah's first words helped him to declare it. 
 "What have you come here for?" he asked. 
 
 "To Rhatore?" inquired Tarvin, with a smile that 
 embraced the whole horizon. 
 
 "Yes; to Rhatore," grunted the Maharajah. "The 
 agent sahib says you do not belong to any government, 
 and that you have come here only to see things and 
 write lies about them. Why have you come ? " 
 
 "I have come to turn your river. There is gold in 
 it," he said steadily. 
 
 The Rajah answered him with brevity. "Go and 
 speak to the Government," he said sulkily. 
 
 " It's your river, I guess," returned Tarvin cheerfully. 
 
 " Mine ! Nothing in the State is mine. The shop- 
 keeper people are at my gates day and night. The 
 agent sahib won't let me collect taxes as my fathers 
 used to do. I have no army." 
 
 "That's perfectly true," assented Tarvin, under his 
 breath. " I'll run off with it some morning." 
 
 "And if I had," continued the Maharajah, "I have 
 no one to fight against. I am only an old wolf, with 
 all my teeth drawn. Go away ! "
 
 112 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 They were talking in the flagged courtyard immediately 
 outside that wing of the palace occupied by Sitabhai. 
 The Maharajah was sitting in a broken Windsor chair, 
 while his grooms brought up successive files of horses, 
 saddled and bridled, in the hope that one of the animals 
 might be chosen for his Majesty's ride. The stale, sick 
 air of the palace drifted across the marble flags before the 
 morning wind, and it was not a wholesome smell. 
 
 Tarvin, who had drawn rein in the courtyard without 
 dismounting, flung his right leg over the pony's withers, 
 and held his peace. He had seen something of the 
 effect of opium upon the Maharajah. A servant was 
 approaching with a small brass bowl full of opium and 
 water. The Maharajah swallowed the draught with 
 many wry faces, dashed the last brown drops from his 
 moustache and beard, and dropped back into the chair, 
 staring with vacant eyes. In a few minutes he sprang 
 to his feet, erect and smiling. 
 
 " Are you here, Sahib ? " said he. " You are here, or 
 I should not feel ready to laugh. Do you go riding this 
 morning ? " 
 
 " I'm your man." 
 
 " Then we will bring out the Foxhall colt. He will 
 throw you." 
 
 J 
 
 " Very good," said Tarvin leisurely. 
 
 " And I will ride my own Cutch mare. Let us get 
 away before the agent sahib comes," said the Maharajah. 
 
 The blast of a bugle was heard without the courtyard, 
 and a ciatter of wheels, as the grooms departed to saddle 
 the horses. 
 
 The Maharaj Kunwar ran up the steps and pattered 
 toward the Maharajah, his father, who picked him up 
 in his lap, and fondled him. 
 
 " What brings thee here, Lalji ? " asked the Maharajah. 
 Lalji, the Beloved, was the familiar name by which the 
 Prince was known within the palace.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 113 
 
 " I came to exercise my guard. Father, they are 
 giving me bad saddlery for my troopers from the State 
 arsenal. Jeysingh's saddle-peak is mended with string, 
 and Jeysingh is the best of my soldiers. Moreover, he 
 tells me nice tales," said the Maharaj Kunwar, speaking in 
 the vernacular, with a friendly little nod toward Tarvin. 
 
 " Hai ! Hai ! Thou art like all the rest," said the 
 King. "Always some fresh demand upon the State. 
 And what is it now ? " 
 
 The child joined his little hands together, and caught 
 his father fearlessly by his monstrous beard, which, in 
 the manner of a Rajput, was brushed up over his ears. 
 "Only ten little new saddles," said the child. "They 
 are in the bisr saddle-rooms. I have seen them. But the 
 keeper of the horses said that I was first to ask the King." 
 
 The Maharajah's face darkened, and he swore a great 
 oath by his gods. 
 
 " The King is a slave and a servant," he growled — 
 " the servant of the agent sahib and this woman-talking 
 English Raj ; but, by Indur ! the King's son is at least a 
 King's son. What right had Saroop Singh to stay thee 
 from anything that thou desiredst, Prince ? " 
 
 " I told him," said the Maharaj Kunwar, " that my 
 father would not be pleased. But I said no more, be- 
 cause I was not very well, and thou knowest " — the boy's 
 head drooped under the turban — " I am only a little 
 child. I may have the saddles ? " 
 
 Tarvin, to whom no w r ord of this conversation was 
 intelligible, sat at ease on his pony, smiling at his friend 
 the Maharaj. The interview had begun in the dead 
 dawn-silence of the courtyard— a silence so intense that 
 he could hear the doves cooing on a tower a hundred 
 and fifty feet above his head. But now all four sides 
 of the green-shuttered courtyard were alive, awake, and 
 intent about him. He could hear muffled breathings, 
 the rustle of draperies, and the faintest possible jarring 
 
 11
 
 U4 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 of shutters, cautiously opened from within. A heavy 
 smell of musk and jasmine came to his nostrils and 
 filled him with uneasiness, for he knew, without turning 
 his head or his eyes, that Sitabhai and her women were 
 watching all that went on. But neither the King nor 
 the Prince heeded. The Maharaj Kunwar was very 
 full of his English lessons, learned at Mrs. Estes' knee, 
 and the King was as interested as he. Lest Tarvin 
 should fail to understand, the Prince began to speak in 
 English again, but very slowly and distinctly, that his 
 father also might comprehend. 
 
 "And this is a new verse," he said, " which I learned 
 only yesterday." 
 
 "Is there any talk of their gods in it ? " asked the Maha- 
 rajah suspiciously. " Remember thou art a Rajput." 
 
 " No ; oh no ! " said the Prince. " It is only English, 
 and I learned it very quickly." 
 
 " Let me hear, little Pundit. Some day thou wilt 
 become a scribe, and go to the English colleges, and 
 wear a long black gown." 
 
 The child slipped quickly back into the vernacular. 
 '•' The flag of our State has five colours," he said. 
 " When I have fought for that, perhaps I will become 
 an Englishman." 
 
 " There is no leading of armies afield any more, little 
 one ; but say thy verses." 
 
 The subdued rustle of unseen hundreds grew more 
 intense. Tarvin leaned forward with his chin in his 
 hand, as the Prince slid down from his father's lap, put 
 his hands behind him, and began, without pauses or 
 expression — 
 
 "Tiger, tiger, burning bright 
 In the forests of the night, 
 What immortal hand or eye 
 Framed thy fearful symmetry ? 
 When thy heart began to beat 
 What dread hand made thy dread feet?"
 
 THE NAULAHKA 115 
 
 " There is more that I have forgotten," he went on, 
 " but the last line is — 
 
 ' Did he who made the lamb make thee ? ' 
 
 I learned it all very quickly." And he began to applaud 
 himself with both hands, while Tarvin followed suit. 
 
 " I do not understand ; but it is good to know English. 
 Thy friend here speaks such English as I never knew," 
 said the Maharajah in the vernacular. 
 
 " Ay," rejoined the Prince. " But he speaks with his 
 face and his hands alive — so ; and I laugh before I know 
 why. Now Colonel Nolan Sahib speaks like a buffalo, 
 with his mouth shut. I cannot tell whether he is angry 
 or pleased. But, father, what does Tarvin Sahib do 
 here?" 
 
 "We go for a ride together," returned the King. 
 " When we return, perhaps I will tell thee. What do 
 the men about thee say of him ? " 
 
 " They say he is a man of clean heart ; and he is 
 always kind to me." 
 
 " Has he said aught to thee of me ? " 
 
 " Never in language that I could understand. But I 
 do not doubt that he is a good man. See, he is laugh- 
 
 ing now 
 
 
 Tarvin, who had pricked up his ears at hearing his 
 own name, now resettled himself in the saddle, and 
 gathered up his reins, as a hint to the King that it was 
 time to be moving. 
 
 The grooms brought up a long, switch-tailed English 
 thoroughbred and a lean, mouse-coloured mate. The 
 Maharajah rose to his feet. 
 
 " Go back to Saroop Singh and get the saddles, 
 Prince," said he. 
 
 " What are you going to do to-day, little man ? " 
 asked Tarvin. 
 
 " I shall go and get new equipment," answered the
 
 n6 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 child, " and then I shall come to play with the prime 
 minister's son here." 
 
 Again, like the hiss of a hidden snake, the rustle 
 behind the shutters increased. Evidently some one 
 there understood the child's words. 
 
 "Shall you see Miss Kate to-day?" 
 
 " Not to-day. Tis holiday for me. I do not go to 
 Miss Estes to-day." 
 
 The King turned on Tarvin swiftly, and spoke under 
 his breath. 
 
 " Must he see that doctor lady every day ? All my 
 people lie to me, in the hope of winning my favour ; 
 even Colonel Nolan says that the child is very strong. 
 Speak the truth. He is my first son." 
 
 " He is not strong," answered Tarvin calmly. " Per- 
 haps it would be better to let him see Miss Sheriff this 
 morning. You don't lose anything by keeping your 
 weather eye open, you know." 
 
 "I do not understand," said the King; "but go to 
 the missionary's house to-day, my son." 
 
 "I am to come here and play," answered the Prince 
 petulantly. 
 
 " You don't know what Miss Sheriff's got for you to 
 play with," said Tarvin. 
 
 "What is it?" asked the Maharaj sharply. 
 
 "You've got a carriage and ten troopers," replied 
 Tarvin. "You've only got to go there and find out." 
 
 He drew a letter from his breast-pocket, glancing with 
 liking at the two-cent American stamp, and scribbled 
 a note to Kate on the envelope, which ran thus : — 
 
 "Keep the little fellow with you to-day. There's a 
 wicked look about things this morning. Find something 
 for him to do ; get up games for him ; do anything, but 
 keep him away from the palace. I got your note. All 
 right. I understand."
 
 THE NAULAHKA 117 
 
 He called the Maharaj to him, and handed him the 
 note. " Take this to Miss Kate, like a little man, and 
 say I sent you," he said. 
 
 " My son is not an orderly," said the King surlily. 
 
 (i Your son is not very well, and I'm the first to speak 
 the truth to you about him, it seems to me," said Tarvin. 
 "Gently on that colt's mouth — you." The Foxhall colt 
 was dancing between his grooms. 
 
 " You'll be thrown," said the Maharaj Kunwar, in an 
 ecstasy of delight. " He throws all his grooms." 
 
 At that moment a shutter in the courtyard clicked 
 distinctly three times in the silence. 
 
 One of the grooms passed to the off-side of the plung- 
 ing colt deftly. Tarvin put his foot into the stirrup to 
 spring up, when the saddle turned completely round. 
 Some one let go of the horse's head, and Tarvin had 
 just time to kick his foot free as the animal sprang 
 forward. 
 
 " I've seen slicker ways of killing a man than that," he 
 said quietly. " Bring my friend back," he added to one 
 of the grooms ; and when the Foxhall colt was under his 
 hands again he cinched him up as the beast had not 
 been girt since he had first felt the bit. ' ; Now," he said, 
 and leaped into the saddle, as the King clattered out of 
 the courtyard. 
 
 The colt reared on end, landed stiffly on his forefeet, 
 and lashed out. Tarvin, sitting him with the cow-boy 
 seat, said quietly to the child, who was still watching his 
 movements, " Run along, Maharaj. Don't hang around 
 here. Let me see you started for Miss Kate." 
 
 The boy obeyed, with a regretful glance at the pranc- 
 ing horse. Then the Foxhall colt devoted himself to 
 unseating his rider. He refused to quit the courtyard, 
 though Tarvin argued with him, first behind the saddle, 
 and then between the indignant ears. Accustomed to 
 grooms who slipped off at the first sign of rebellion, the
 
 n8 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Foxhall colt was wrathful. Without warning, he dashed 
 through the archway, wheeled on his haunches, and 
 bolted in pursuit of the Maharajah's mare. Once in the 
 open, sandy country, he felt that he had a field worthy 
 of his powers. Tarvin also saw his opportunity. The 
 Maharajah, known in his youth as a hard rider among 
 a nation of perhaps the hardest riders on earth, turned 
 in his saddle and watched the battle with interest. 
 
 "You ride like a Rajput," he shouted, as Tarvin flew 
 past him. "Breathe him on a straight course in the 
 open." 
 
 " Not till he's learned who's boss," replied Tarvin, and 
 he wrenched the colt around. 
 
 "Shabash! Shabashl Oh, well done! Well done!" 
 cried the Maharajah, as the colt answered the bit. 
 "Tarvin Sahib, I'll make you colonel of my regular 
 cavalry." 
 
 " Ten million irregular devils ! " said Tarvin impo- 
 litely. " Come back, you brute ! Back ! " 
 
 The horse's head was bowed on his lathering chest 
 under the pressure of the curb ; but before obeying he 
 planted his forefeet, and bucked as viciously as one of 
 Tarvin's own broncos. " Both feet down and chest 
 extended," he murmured gaily to himself, as the creature 
 see-sawed up and down. He was in his element, and 
 dreamed himself back in Topaz. 
 
 "Maro! Maro!" exclaimed the King. "Hit him 
 hard ! Hit him well ! " 
 
 " Oh, let him have his little picnic," said Tarvin 
 easily. " I like it." 
 
 When the colt was tired he was forced to back for ten 
 yards. " Now we'll go on," said Tarvin, and fell into a 
 trot by the side of the Maharajah. " That river of yours 
 is full of gold," he said, after a moment's silence, as if 
 continuing an uninterrupted conversation. 
 
 " When I was a young man," said the King, " I rode
 
 THE NAULAHKA 119 
 
 pig here. We chased them with the sword in the spring- 
 time. That was before the English came. Over there, 
 by that pile of rock, I broke my collar-bone." 
 
 " Full of gold, Maharajah Sahib. How do you pro- 
 pose to get it out ? " 
 
 Tarvin knew something already of the King's dis- 
 cursiveness ; he did not mean to give way to it. 
 
 "What do I know?" answered the King solemnly. 
 "Ask the agent sahib." 
 
 "But, look here, who does run this State, you or 
 Colonel Nolan ? " 
 
 "You know," returned the Maharajah. "You have 
 seen." He pointed north and south. " There," he 
 said, " is one railway line ; yonder is another. I am a 
 goat between two wolves." 
 
 " Well, anyway, the country between is your own. 
 Surely you can do what you like with that." 
 
 They had ridden some two or three miles beyond the 
 city, parallel with the course of the Amet River, their 
 horses sinking fetlock deep in the soft sand. The King 
 looked along the chain of shining pools, the white, 
 rush-tipped hillocks of the desert, and the far distant 
 line of low granite-topped hills, whence the Amet sprang. 
 It was not a prospect to delight the heart of a King. 
 
 " Yes ; I am lord of all this country," he said. " But 
 look you, one-fourth of my revenue is swallowed up 
 by those who collect it ; one-fourth those black-faced 
 camel-breeders in the sand there will not pay, and I 
 must not march troops against them ; one-fourth I my- 
 self, perhaps, receive ; but the people who should pay 
 the other fourth do not know to whom it should be 
 sent. Yes ; I am a very rich king." 
 
 "Well, any way you look at it, the river ought to 
 treble your income." 
 
 The Maharajah looked at Tarvin intently. 
 
 "What would the Government say?" he asked.
 
 120 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " I don't quite see where the Government comes in. 
 You can lay out orange-gardens and take canals around 
 them." (There was a deep-set twinkle of comprehen- 
 sion in his Majesty's eye.) " Working the river would 
 be much easier. You've tried placer-mining here, 
 haven't you ? " 
 
 "There was some washing in the bed of the river 
 one summer. My jails were too full of convicts, and I 
 feared rebellion. But there was nothing to see, except 
 those black dogs digging in the sand. That year I won 
 the Poonah cup with a bay pony." 
 
 Tarvin brought his hand down on his thigh with an 
 unguarded smack. What was the use of talking busi- 
 ness to this wearied man, who would pawn what the 
 opium had left to him of soul for something to see? 
 He shifted his ground instantly. 
 
 " Yes ; that sort of mining is nothing to look at. 
 What you want is a little dam up Gungra way." 
 
 "Near the hills?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " No man has ever dammed the Amet," said the King. 
 " It comes out of the ground, and sinks back into the 
 ground, and when the rain falls it is as big as the 
 Indus." 
 
 " We'll have the whole bed of it laid bare before the 
 rains begin — bare for twelve miles," said Tarvin, watch- 
 ing the effect on his companion. 
 
 " No man has dammed the Amet," was the stony 
 reply. 
 
 "No man has ever tried. Give me all the labour 
 I want, and /will dam the Amet." 
 
 " Where will the water go ? " inquired the King. 
 
 "I'll take it around another way, as you took the 
 canal around the orange garden, of course." 
 
 " Ah ! Then Colonel Nolan talked to me as if I were 
 a child."
 
 THE NAULAHKA 121 
 
 "You know why, Maharajah Sahib," said Tarvin 
 placidly. 
 
 The King was frozen for a moment by this audacity. 
 He knew that all the secrets of his domestic life were 
 common talk in the mouths of the city, for no man can 
 bridle three hundred women ; but he was not prepared 
 to find them so frankly hinted at by this irreverent 
 stranger, who was and was not an Englishman. 
 
 " Colonel Nolan will say nothing this time," continued 
 Tarvin. " Besides, it will help your people." 
 
 "Who are also his," said the King. 
 
 The opium was dying out of his brain, and his head 
 fell forward upon his chest. 
 
 "Then I shall begin to-morrow," said Tarvin. "It 
 will be something to see. I must find the best place to 
 dam the river, and I daresay you can lend me a few 
 hundred convicts." 
 
 "But why have you come here at all," asked the 
 King, "to dam my rivers, and turn my State upside 
 down?" 
 
 "Because it's good for you to laugh, Maharajah 
 Sahib. You know that as well as I do. I will play 
 pachisi with you every night until you are tired, and 
 I can speak the truth — a rare commodity in these 
 parts." 
 
 "Did you speak truth about the Maharaj Kunwar? 
 Is he indeed not well?" 
 
 "I have told you he isn't quite strong. But there's 
 nothing the matter with him that Miss Sheriff can't put 
 right." 
 
 "Is that the truth?" demanded the King. "Re- 
 member, he has my throne after me." 
 
 "If I know Miss Sheriff, he'll have that throne. 
 Don't you fret, Maharajah Sahib." 
 
 "You are great friend of hers?" pursued his com- 
 panion. "You both come from one country?"
 
 122 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " Yes," assented Tarvin ; " and one town." 
 
 "Tell me about that town," said the King curiously. 
 
 Tarvin, nothing loth, told him — told him at length, 
 in detail, and with his own touches of verisimilitude, 
 forgetting in the heat of admiration and affection that 
 the King could understand, at best, not more than one 
 word in ten of his vigorous Western colloquialisms. Half 
 way through his rhapsody the King interrupted. 
 
 " If it was so good, why did you not stay there ? " 
 
 " I came to see you," said Tarvin quickly. " I heard 
 about you there." 
 
 " Then it is true, what my poets sing to me, that my 
 fame is known in the four corners of the earth ? I will 
 fill Bussant Rao's mouth with gold if it is so." 
 
 "You can bet your life. Would you like me to go 
 away, though ? Say the word ! " Tarvin made as if to 
 check his horse. 
 
 The Maharajah remained sunk in deep thought, and 
 when he spoke it was slowly and distinctly, that Tarvin 
 might catch every word. " I hate all the English," he 
 said. "Their ways are not my ways, and they make 
 such trouble over the killing of a man here and there. 
 Your ways are not my ways; but you do not give 
 so much trouble, and you are a friend of the doctor 
 lady." 
 
 " Well, I hope I'm a friend of the Maharaj Kunwar's 
 too," said Tarvin. 
 
 "Are you a true friend to him?" asked the King, 
 eyeing him closely. 
 
 " That's all right. I'd like to see the man who tried 
 to lay a hand on the little one. He'd vanish, King ; he'd 
 disappear ; he wouldn't be. I'd mop up Gokral Seetarun 
 with him." 
 
 " I have seen you hit that rupee. Do it again." 
 
 Without thinking for a moment of the Foxhall colt, 
 Tarvin drew his revolver, tossed a coin into the air, and
 
 THE NAULAHKA 123 
 
 fired. The coin fell beside them — a fresh one this time 
 — marked squarely in the centre. The colt plunged 
 furiously, and the Cutch mare curveted. There was a 
 thunder of hoofs behind them. The escort, which, till 
 now, had waited respectfully a quarter of a mile behind, 
 were racing up at full speed, with levelled lances. The 
 King laughed a little contemptuously. 
 
 " They are thinking you have shot me," he said. " So 
 they will kill you, unless I stop them. Shall I stop 
 them?" 
 
 Tarvin thrust out his under jaw with a motion pecu- 
 liar to himself, wheeled the colt, and waited without 
 answering, his empty hands folded on the pommel of 
 his saddle. The troop swept down in an irregular mob, 
 each man crouching, lance in rest, over his saddle-bow, 
 and the captain of the troop flourishing a long, straight 
 Rajput sword. Tarvin felt rather than saw the lean, 
 venomous lance-heads converging on the breast of the 
 colt. The King drew off a few yards, and watched him 
 where he stood alone in the centre of the plain, waiting. 
 For that single moment, in which he faced death, Tarvin 
 thought to himself that he preferred any customer to a 
 Maharajah. 
 
 Suddenly his Highness shouted once, the lance-butts 
 fell as though they had been smitten down, and the 
 troop, opening out, whirled by on each side of Ta rvin 
 each man striving as nearly as might be to brush the 
 white man's boot. 
 
 The white man stared in front of him without turning 
 his head, and the King gave a little grunt of approval. 
 
 " Would you have done that for the Maharaj Kun- 
 war?" he asked, wheeling his mare in again beside 
 him, after a pause. 
 
 " No," said Tarvin placidly. " I should have begun 
 shooting long before." 
 
 " What ! Fifty men ? "
 
 124 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " No ; the captain." 
 
 The King shook in his saddle with laughter, and 
 held up his hand. The commandant of the troop 
 trotted up. 
 
 " Ohe, Pertab Singh-Ji, he says he would have shot 
 thee." Then, turning to Tarvin, smiling, "That is my 
 cousin." 
 
 The burly Rajput captain grinned from ear to ear, 
 and, to Tarvin's surprise, answered in perfect English — 
 " That would do for irregular cavalry — to kill the sub- 
 alterns, you understand — but we are drilled exclusively 
 on English model, and I have my commission from 
 the Queen. Now, in the German army " 
 
 Tarvin looked at him in blank amazement. 
 
 " But you are not connected with the military," said 
 Pertab Singh-Ji politely. " I have heard how you shot, 
 and I saw what you were doing. But you must please 
 excuse. When a shot is fired near his Highness it is 
 our order always to come up." 
 
 He saluted, and withdrew to his troop. 
 
 The sun was growing unpleasantly hot, and the King 
 and Tarvin trotted back, toward the city. 
 
 " How many convicts can you lend me ? " asked 
 Tarvin, as they went. 
 
 " All my jails full, if you want them," was the en- 
 thusiastic answer. " By God, sahib, I never saw any- 
 thing like that. I would give you anything." 
 
 Tarvin took off his hat, and mopped his forehead, 
 laughing. 
 
 " Very good, then. I'll ask for something that will 
 cost you nothing." 
 
 The Maharajah grunted doubtfully. People generally 
 demanded of him things he was not willing to part 
 with. 
 
 " That talk is new to me, Tarvin Sahib," said he. 
 
 " You'll see I'm in earnest when I say I only want to
 
 THE NAULAHKA 125 
 
 look at the Naulahka. I've seen all your State diamonds 
 and gold carriages, but I haven't seen that." 
 
 The Maharajah trotted fifty yards without replying. 
 Then— 
 
 " Do they speak of it where you come from ? " 
 " Of course. All Americans know that it's the biggest 
 thing in India. It's in all the guide-books," said Tarvin 
 brazenly. 
 
 " Do the books say where it is ? The English people 
 are so wise." The Maharajah stared straight in front of 
 him, and almost smiled. 
 
 " No; but they say you know, and I'd like to see it." 
 " You must understand, Tarvin Sahib" — the Maharajah 
 spoke meditatively — " that this is not a State jewel, but 
 the State jewel — the jewel of the State. It is a holy 
 thing. Even I do not keep it, and I cannot give you 
 any order to see it." 
 Tarvin's heart sank. 
 
 " But," the Maharajah continued, " if I say where it 
 is, you can go at your own risk, without Government 
 interfering. I have seen you are not afraid of risk, 
 and I am a very grateful man. Perhaps the priests will 
 show you ; perhaps they will not. Or perhaps you will 
 not find the priests at all. Oh, I forgot ; it is not in 
 that temple that I was thinking of. No ; it must be in 
 the Gye-Mukh — the Cow's Mouth. But there are no 
 priests there, and nobody goes. Of course it is in the 
 Cow's Mouth. I thought it was in this city," resumed 
 the Maharajah. He spoke as if he were talking of a 
 dropped horse-shoe or a mislaid turban. 
 
 " Oh, of course. The Cow's Mouth," repeated Tarvin, 
 as if this also were in the guide-books. 
 
 Chuckling with renewed animation, the King went on 
 — " By God, only a very brave man would go to the Gye- 
 Mukh ; such a brave man as yourself, Tarvin Sahib," 
 he added, giving his companion a shrewd look. " Ho,
 
 126 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 ho ! Pertab Singh- Ji would not go. No ; not with all his 
 troops that you conquered to-day." 
 
 " Keep your praise until I've earned it, Maharajah 
 Sahib," said Tarvin. "Wait until I've dammed that 
 river." He was silent for a while, as if digesting this 
 newest piece of information. 
 
 " Now, you have a city like this city, I suppose ? " said 
 the Maharajah interrogatively, pointing to Rhatore. 
 
 Tarvin had overcome, in a measure, his first feeling of 
 contempt for the State of Gokral Seetarun and the city 
 of Rhatore. He had begun to look upon them both, as 
 was his nature in the case of people and things with 
 which he dwelt, with a certain kindness. 
 
 " Topaz is going to be bigger," he explained. 
 
 " And when you are there what is your offeecial posi- 
 tion ? " asked the Maharajah. 
 
 Tarvin, without answering, drew from his breast-pocket 
 the cable from Mrs. Mutrie, and handed it in silence to 
 the King. Where an election was concerned even the 
 sympathy of an opium-soaked Rajput was not indifferent 
 to him. 
 
 " What does it mean ? " asked the King, and Tarvin 
 threw up his hands in despair. 
 
 He explained his connection with the government of 
 his State, making the Colorado legislature appear as 
 one of the parliaments of America. He owned up to 
 being the Hon. Nicholas Tarvin, if the Maharajah really 
 wanted to give him his full title. 
 
 "Such as the members of provincial councils that 
 come here?" suggested the Maharajah, remembering 
 the grey-headed men who visited him from time to 
 time, charged with authority only little less than that 
 of a viceroy. "But still you will not write letters to 
 that legislature about my government," queried he 
 suspiciously, recalling again over-curious emissaries from 
 the British Parliament over seas, who sat their horses
 
 THE NAULAHKA 127 
 
 like sacks, and talked interminably of good government 
 when he wished to go to bed. "And above all," he 
 added slowly, as they drew near to the palace, "you are 
 most true friend of the Maharaj Kunwar? And your 
 friend, the lady doctor, will make him well ? " 
 
 'That," said Tarvin, with a sudden inspiration, "is 
 what we are both here for ! "
 
 xn. 
 
 " This I saw when the rites were done, 
 And the lamps were dead and the Gods alone, 
 And the grey snake coiled on the altar stone — 
 Ere I fled from a Fear that I could not see, 
 And the Gods of the East made mouths at me." 
 
 — In Seonee. 
 
 When he left the King's side, Tarvin's first impulse was 
 to set the Foxhall colt into a gallop, and forthwith 
 depart in search of the Naulahka. He mechanically 
 drove his heels home, and shortened his rein under 
 the impulse of the thought ; but the colt's leap beneath 
 him recalled him to his senses, and he restrained him- 
 self and his mount with the same motion. 
 
 His familiarity with the people's grotesque nomen- 
 clature left him unimpressed by the Cow's Mouth as a 
 name for a spot, but he gave some wonder to the 
 question why the thing should be in the Cow's Mouth. 
 This was a matter to be laid before Estes. 
 
 "These heathen," he said to himself, "are just the 
 sort to hide it away in a salt-lick, or bury it in a hole 
 in the ground. Yes ; a hole is about their size. They 
 put the State diamonds in cracker-boxes tied up with 
 boot-laces. The Naulahka is probably hanging on a 
 tree." 
 
 As he trotted toward the missionary's house, he 
 looked at the hopeless landscape with new interest, for 
 any spur of the low hills, or any roof in the jumbled city, 
 
 mi^ht contain his treasure. 
 
 128
 
 THE NAULAHKA I2 g 
 
 Estes, who had outlived many curiosities, and knew 
 Rajputana as a prisoner knows the bricks of his cell, 
 turned on Tarvin, in reply to the latter's direct ques- 
 tion, a flood of information. There were mouths of all 
 kinds in India, from the Burning Mouth in the north, 
 where a jet of natural gas was worshipped by millions 
 as the incarnation of a divinity, to the Devil's Mouth 
 among some forgotten Buddhist ruins in the furthest 
 southern corner of Madras. 
 
 There was also a Cow's Mouth some hundreds of 
 miles away, in the courtyard of a temple at Benares, 
 much frequented by devotees; but as far as Rajputana 
 was concerned, there was only one Cow's Mouth, and 
 that was to be found in a dead city. 
 
 The missionary launched into a history of wars and 
 rapine, extending over hundreds of years, all centring 
 round one rock-walled city in the wilderness, which had 
 been the pride and the glory of the kings of Mewar. 
 Tarvin listened with patience as infinite as his weariness 
 — ancient history had no charm for the man who was 
 making his own town — while Estes enlarged upon the 
 past, and told stories of voluntary immolation on the 
 pyre in subterranean palaces by thousands of Rajput 
 women who, when the city fell before a Mohammedan, 
 and their kin had died in the last charge of defence, 
 thcaled the conquerors of all but the empty glory of 
 conquest. Estes had a taste for archaeology, and it 
 was a pleasure to him to speak of it to a fellow- 
 < ountryman. 
 
 By retracing the ninety-six miles to Rawut Junction, 
 Tarvin might make connection with a train that would 
 carry him sixty-seven miles westward to yet another 
 junction, where he would change and go south by rail 
 for a hundred and seven miles : and this would brin°- 
 him within four miles of this city, its marvellous nine- 
 storeyed tower of glory, which he was to note carefully, 
 
 I
 
 130 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 its stupendous walls and desolate palaces. The journey 
 would occupy at least two days. At this point Tarvin 
 suggested a map, and a glance at it showed him that 
 Estes proposed an elaborate circus round three sides 
 of a square, whereas a spider-like line ran more or less 
 directly from Rhatore to Gunnaur. 
 
 " This seems shorter," he said. 
 
 "It's only a country road, and you have had some 
 experience of roads in this State. Fifty-seven miles on 
 a kutcha road in this sun would be fatal," 
 
 Tarvin smiled to himself. He had no particular 
 dread of the sun, which, year by year, had stolen from 
 his companion something of his vitality. 
 
 "I think I'll ride, anyhow. It seems a waste to 
 travel half round India to get at a thing across the 
 road, though it is the custom of the country." 
 
 He asked the missionary what the Cow's Mouth 
 was like, and Estes explained archaeologically, architec- 
 turally, and philologically to such good purpose that 
 Tarvin understood that it was some sort of a hole in 
 the ground — an ancient, a remarkably ancient, hole of 
 peculiar sanctity, but nothing more than a hole. 
 
 Tarvin decided to start without an hour's delay. 
 The dam might wait until he returned. It was hardly 
 likely that the King's outburst of generosity would lead 
 him to throw open his jails on the morrow. Tarvin 
 debated for a while whether he should tell him of the 
 excursion he was proposing to himself, and then decided 
 that he would look at the necklace first, and open 
 negotiations later. This seemed to suit the customs 
 of the country. He returned to the rest-house with 
 Estes' map in his pocket to take stock of his stable. 
 Like other men of the West, he reckoned a horse a 
 necessity before all other necessities, and had purchased 
 one mechanically immediately after his arrival. It had 
 been a comfort to him to note all the tricks of all the
 
 THE NAULAHKa 131 
 
 men he had ever traded horses with faithfully repro- 
 duced in the lean, swarthy Cabuli trader, who had led 
 his kicking, plunging horse up to the verandah one idle 
 evening; and it had been a greater comfort to battle 
 with them as he had battled in the old days. The 
 result of the skirmish, fought out in broken English and 
 expressive American, was an unhandsome, doubtful- 
 tempered, mouse-coloured Kathiawar stallion, who had 
 been dismissed for vice from the service of his Majesty, 
 and who weakly believed that, having eaten pieces of the 
 troopers of the Deolee Irregular Horse, ease and idleness 
 awaited him. Tarvin had undeceived him leisurely, in 
 such moments as he most felt the need of doing some- 
 thing, and the Kathiawar, though never grateful, was at 
 least civil. He had been christened Fibby Winks in 
 recognition of ungentlemanly conduct and a resemblance 
 which Tarvin fancied he detected between the beast's 
 lean face and that of the man who had jumped his 
 claim. 
 
 Tarvin threw back the loin cloth as he came upon 
 Fibby drowsing in the afternoon sun behind the rest- 
 house. 
 
 " We're going for a little walk down town, Fibby," he 
 said. 
 
 The Kathiawar squealed and snapped. 
 
 "Yes; you always were a loafer, Fibby." 
 
 Fibby was saddled by his nervous native attendant, 
 while Tarvin took a blanket from his room and rolled 
 up into it an imaginative assortment of provisions. 
 Fibby was to find his rations where Heaven pleased. 
 Then he set out as light-heartedly as though he were 
 going for a canter round the city. It was now about 
 three in the afternoon. All Fibby's boundless reserves 
 of ill-temper and stubborn obstinacy Tarvin resolved 
 should be devoted, by the aid of his spurs, to covering 
 the fifty-seven miles to Gunnaur in the next ten hours, if
 
 132 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 the road were fair. If not, he should be allowed another 
 two hours. The return journey would not require spurs. 
 There was a moon that night, and Tarvin knew enough 
 of native roads in Gokral Seetarun, and rough trails else- 
 where, to be certain that he would not be confused by 
 cross-tracks. 
 
 It being borne into Fibby's mind that he was required 
 to advance, not in three directions at once, but in one, 
 he clicked his bit comfortably in his mouth, dropped his 
 head, and began to trot steadily. Then Tarvin pulled 
 him up, and addressed him tenderly. 
 
 " Fib, my boy, we're not out for exercise — you'll learn 
 that before sundown. Some galoot has been training 
 you to waste your time over the English trot. I'll be 
 discussing other points with you in the course of the 
 campaign; but we'll settle this now. We don't begin 
 with crime. Drop it, Fibby, and behave like a man- 
 horse." 
 
 Tarvin was obliged to make further remarks on the 
 same subject before Fibby returned to the easy native 
 lope, which is also a common Western pace, tiring neither 
 man nor beast. By this he began to understand that a 
 long journey was demanded of him, and, lowering his 
 tail, buckled down to it. 
 
 At first he moved in a cloud of sandy dust with the 
 cotton wains and the country carts that were creaking out 
 to the far distant railway at Gunnaur. As the sun began 
 to sink, his gaunt shadow danced like a goblin across 
 low-lying volcanic rock tufted with shrubs, and here and 
 there an aloe. 
 
 The carters unyoked their cattle on the roadside, and 
 prepared to eat their evening meal by the light of dull- 
 red fires. Fibby cocked one ear wistfully toward the 
 flames, but held on through the gathering shadows, and 
 Tarvin smelt the acrid juice of bruised camel-thorn 
 beneath his horse's hoofs. The moon rose in splendour
 
 THE NAULAHKA 133 
 
 behind him, and, following his lurching shadow, he over- 
 took a naked man who bore over his shoulder a stick 
 loaded with jingling bells, and fled panting and perspir- 
 ing from one who followed him armed with a naked 
 sword. This was the mail-carrier and his escort running 
 to Gunnaur. The jingling died away on the dead air, 
 and Fibby was ambling between interminable lines of 
 thorn bushes that threw mad arms to the stars, and cast 
 shadows as solid as themselves across the road. Some 
 beast of the night plunged through the thicket alongside, 
 and Fibby snorted in panic. Then a porcupine crossed 
 under his nose with a rustle of quills, and left an evil 
 stench to poison the stillness for a moment. A point of 
 light gleamed ahead, where a bullock-cart had broken 
 down, and the drivers were sleeping peacefully till day- 
 light should show the injury. Here Fibby stopped, 
 and Tarvin, through the magic of a rupee, representing 
 fortune to the rudely awakened sleepers, procured food 
 and a little water for him, eased the girths, and made as 
 much of him as he was disposed to permit. On starting 
 again, Fibby found his second wind, and with it there 
 woke the spirit of daring and adventure inherited from 
 his ancestors, who were accustomed to take their masters 
 thirty leagues in a day for the sacking of a town, to sleep 
 by a lance driven into the earth as a picket, and to return 
 whence they had come before the ashes of the houses 
 had lost heat. So Fibby lifted his tail valiantly, neighed, 
 and began to move. 
 
 The road descended for miles, crossing the dry beds 
 of many water-courses and once a broad' river, where 
 Fibby stopped for another drink, and would have lain 
 down to roll in a melon-bed but that his rider spurred 
 him on up the slope. The country grew more fertile at 
 every mile, and rolled in broader waves. Under the light 
 of the setting moon, the fields showed silver-white with 
 the opium-poppy, or dark with sugar-cane.
 
 l 3 4 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Poppy and sugar ceased together, as Fibby topped 
 a long, slow ascent, and with distended nostrils, snuffed 
 for the wind of the morning. He knew that the day 
 would bring him rest. Tarvin peered forward where the 
 white line of the road disappeared in the gloom of velvety 
 scrub. He commanded a vast level plain flanked by 
 hills of soft outline — a plain that in the dim light seemed 
 as level as the sea. Like the sea, too, it bore on its 
 breast a ship, like a gigantic monitor with a sharp bow, 
 cutting her way from north to south; such a ship as 
 man never yet has seen — two miles long, with three or 
 four hundred feet freeboard, lonely, silent, mastless, with- 
 out lights, a derelict of the earth. 
 
 "We are nearly there, Fib, my boy," said Tarvin, 
 drawing rein, and scanning the monstrous thing by the 
 starlight. " We'll get as close as we can, and then wait 
 for the daylight before going aboard." 
 
 They descended the slope, which was covered with 
 sharp stones and sleeping goats. Then the road turned 
 sharply to the left, and began to run parallel to the ship. 
 Tarvin urged Fibby into a more direct path, and the 
 good horse blundered piteously across the scrub-covered 
 ground, cut up and channelled by the rains into a net- 
 work of six-foot ravines and gulches. 
 
 Here he gave out with a despairing grunt. Tarvin 
 took pity on him, and, fastening him to a tree, bade 
 him think of his sins till breakfast-time, and dropped 
 from his back into a dry and dusty water-hole. Ten 
 steps further, and the scrub was all about him, whipping 
 him across the brows, hooking thorns into his jacket, 
 and looping roots in front of his knees as he pushed on 
 up an ever-steepening incline. 
 
 At last Tarvin was crawling on his hands and knees, 
 grimed from head to foot, and hardly to be distinguished 
 from the wild pigs that passed like slate-coloured shadows 
 through the tangle of the thickets on their way to their rest.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 135 
 
 Too absorbed to hear them grunt, he pulled and screwed 
 himself up the slope, tugging at the roots as though he 
 would rend the Naulahka from the bowels of the earth, 
 and swearing piously at every step. When he stopped to 
 wipe the sweat from his face, he found, more by touch 
 than by eye, that he knelt at the foot of a wall that ran 
 up into the stars. Fibby, from the tangle below, was 
 neighing dolefully. 
 
 " You're not hurt, Fibby," he gasped, spitting out 
 some fragments of dry grass; "you aren't on in this 
 scene. Nobody's asking you to fly to-night," he said, 
 looking hopelessly up at the wall again, and whistling 
 softly in response to an owl's hooting overhead. 
 
 He began to pick his way between the foot of the wall 
 and the scrub that grew up to it, pressing one hand 
 against the huge cut stones, and holding the other before 
 his face. A fig-seed had found foothold between two 
 of the gigantic slabs, and, undisturbed through the cen- 
 turies, had grown into an arrogant, gnarled tree, that 
 writhed between the fissures and heaved the stone- 
 work apart. Tarvin considered for a while whether he 
 could climb into the crook of the lowest branch, then 
 moved on a few steps, and found the wall rent from 
 top to bottom through the twenty feet of its thickness, 
 allowing passage for the head of an army. 
 
 " Like them, exactly like them ! " he mused. " I 
 might have expected it. To build a wall sixty feet 
 high, and put an eighty-foot hole in it ! The Naulahka 
 must be lying out on a bush, or a child's playing with 
 it, and — I can't get it ! " 
 
 He plunged through the gap, and found himself 
 amid scattered pillars, slabs of stone, broken lintels, 
 and tumbled tombs, and heard a low, thick hiss almost 
 under his riding-boots. No man born of woman needs 
 to be instructed in the voice of the serpent. 
 
 Tarvin jumped, and stayed still. Fibby's neigh came
 
 136 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 faintly now. The dawn- wind blew through the gap in 
 the wall, and Tarvin wiped his forehead with a deep 
 sigh of relief. He would do no more till the light came. 
 This was the hour to eat and drink ; also to stand very 
 still, because of that voice from the ground. 
 
 He pulled food and a flask from his pocket, and, 
 staring before him in every direction, ate hungrily. The 
 loom of the night lifted a little, and he could see 
 the outline of some great building a few yards away. 
 Beyond this were other shadows, faint as the visions 
 in a dream — the shadows of yet more temples and lines 
 of houses ; the wind, blowing among them, brought back 
 a rustle of tossing hedges. 
 
 The shadows grew more distinct : he could see that 
 he was standing with his face to some decayed tomb. 
 Then his jaw fell, for, without warning or presage, the 
 red dawn shot up behind him, and there leaped out 
 of the night the city of the dead. Tall-built, sharp- 
 domed palaces, flushing to the colour of blood, revealed 
 the horror of their emptiness, and glared at the day that 
 pierced them through and through. 
 
 The wind passed singing down the empty streets, and, 
 finding none to answer, returned, chasing before it a 
 muttering cloud of dust, which presently whirled itself 
 into a little cyclone-funnel, and laid down with a 
 sigh. 
 
 A screen of fretted marble lay on the dry grass, where 
 it had fallen from some window above, and a gecko 
 crawled over it to sun himself. Already the dawn flush 
 had passed. The hot light was everywhere, and a kite 
 had poised himself in the parched blue sky. The day, 
 new-born, might have been as old as the city. It seemed 
 to Tarvin that he and it were standing still to hear the 
 centuries race by on the wings of the purposeless dust. 
 
 As he took his first step into the streets, a peacock 
 stepped from the threshold of a lofty red house, and
 
 THE NAULAHKA 137 
 
 spread his tail in the splendour of the sun. Tarvin 
 halted, and with perfect gravity took off his hat to the 
 royal bird, where it blazed against the sculptures on the 
 wall, the sole living thing in sight. 
 
 The silence of the place and the insolent nakedness 
 of the empty ways lay on him like a dead weight. For a 
 long time he did not care to whistle, but rambled aimlessly 
 from one wall to another, looking at the gigantic reser- 
 voirs, dry and neglected, the hollow guard-houses that 
 studded the battlements, the time-riven arches that 
 spanned the streets, and, above all, the carven tower 
 with a shattered roof that sprang a hundred and fifty 
 feet into the air, for a sign to the country-side that the 
 royal city of Gunnaur was not dead, but would one day 
 hum with men. 
 
 It was from this tower, encrusted with figures in high 
 relief of beast and man, that Tarvin, after a heavy climb, 
 looked out on the vast sleeping land in the midst of 
 which the dead city lay. He saw the road by which he 
 had come in the night, dipping and reappearing again 
 over thirty miles of country, saw the white poppy-fields, 
 the dull-brown scrub, and the unending plain to the 
 northward, cut by the shining line of the rail. From his 
 eyrie he peered forth as a man peers from a crow's-nest 
 at sea ; for, once down there below in the city, all view 
 was cut off by the battlements that rose like bulwarks. 
 On the side nearest to the railroad, sloping causeways, 
 paved with stone, ran down to the plain under many 
 gates, as the gangway of a ship when it is let down, and 
 through the gaps in the walls — time and the trees had 
 torn their way to and fro — there was nothing to be seen 
 except the horizon, which might have been the deep sea. 
 
 He thought of Fibby waiting in the scrub for his 
 breakfast, and made haste to descend to the streets again. 
 Remembering the essentials of his talk with Estes as to 
 the position of the Cow's Mouth, he passed up a side
 
 13S THE NAULAHKA 
 
 lane, disturbing the squirrels and monkeys that had 
 taken up their quarters in the cool dark of the rows of 
 empty houses. The last house ended in a heap of ruins 
 among a tangle of mimosa and tall grass, through which 
 ran a narrow foot-track. 
 
 Tarvin marked the house as the first actual ruin he 
 had seen. His complaint against all the others, the 
 temples and the palaces, was that they were not ruined, 
 but dead — empty, swept, and garnished, with the seven 
 devils of loneliness in riotous possession. In time — in 
 a few thousand years perhaps — the city would crumble 
 away. He was distinctly glad that one house at least 
 had set the example. 
 
 The path dropped beneath his feet on a shelf of solid 
 rock that curved over like the edge of a waterfall. 
 Tarvin took only one step, and fell, for the rock was 
 worn into deep gutters, smoother than ice, by the 
 naked feet of millions who had trodden that way for 
 no man knew how many years. When he rose he 
 heard a malignant chuckle, half suppressed, which ended 
 in a choking cough, ceased, and broke out anew. 
 Tarvin registered an oath to find that scoffer when he 
 had found the necklace, and looked to his foothold 
 more carefully. At this point it seemed that the Cow's 
 Mouth must be some sort of disused quarry fringed to 
 the lips with rank vegetation. 
 
 All sight of what lay below him was blocked by 
 the thick foliage of trees that leaned forward, bowing 
 their heads together as night-watchers huddle over a 
 corpse. Once upon a time there had been rude steps 
 leading down the almost sheer descent, but the naked 
 feet had worn them to glassy knobs and lumps, and 
 blown dust had made a thin soil in their chinks. 
 Tarvin looked long and angrily, because the laugh came 
 from the bottom of this track, and then, digging his 
 heel into the mould, began to let himself down step by
 
 THE NAULAHKA 139 
 
 step, steadying himself by the tufts of grass. Before 
 he had realised it, he was out of reach of the sun, and 
 neck deep in tall grass. Still there was a sort of path- 
 way under his feet, down the almost perpendicular side. 
 He gripped the grass, and went on. The earth beneath 
 his elbows grew moist, and the rock where it cropped 
 out showed rotten with moisture and coated with moss. 
 The air grew cold and damp. Another plunge down- 
 ward revealed to him what the trees were guarding, as 
 he drew breath on a narrow stone ledge. They sprung 
 from the masonry round the sides of a square tank of 
 water so stagnant that it had corrupted past corruption, 
 and lay dull blue under the blackness of the trees. The 
 drought of summer had shrunk it, and a bank of dried 
 mud ran round its sides. The head of a sunken stone 
 pillar, carved with monstrous and obscene gods, reared 
 itself from the water like the head of a tortoise swim- 
 ming to land. The birds moved in the sunlit branches 
 of the trees far overhead. Little twigs and berries 
 dropped into the water, and the noise of their fall 
 echoed from side to side of the tank that received 
 no sunlight. 
 
 The chuckle that had so annoyed Tarvin broke out 
 again as he listened. This time it was behind him, and 
 wheeling sharply, he saw that it came from a thin stream 
 of water that spurted fitfully from the rudely carved head 
 of a cow, and dripped along a stone spout into the 
 heavy blue pool. Behind that spout the moss-grown 
 rock rose sheer. This, then, was the Cow's Mouth. 
 
 The tank lay at the bottom of a shaft, and the one 
 way down to it was that by which Tarvin had come — a 
 path that led from the sunlight to the chill and mould 
 of a vault. 
 
 "Well, this is kind of the King, anyhow," he said, 
 pacing the ledge cautiously, for it was almost as slippery 
 as the pathway on the rocks. " Now, what's the use of
 
 I4 o THE NAULAHKA 
 
 this?" he continued, returning. The ledge ran only 
 round one side of the tank, and, unless he trusted to the 
 mudbanks on the other three, there was no hope of 
 continuing his exploration further. The Cow's Mouth 
 chuckled again, as a fresh jet of water forced its way 
 through the formless jaws. 
 
 " Oh, dry up ! " he muttered impatiently, staring 
 through the half light that veiled all. 
 
 He dropped a piece of rock on the mud under the lip 
 of the ledge, then tested it with a cautious foot, found 
 that it bore, and decided to walk round the tank. As 
 there were more trees to the right of the ledge than to 
 the left, he stepped off on the mud from the right, holding 
 cautiously to the branches and the tufts of grass in case 
 of any false step. 
 
 When the tank was first made its rock walls had been 
 perfectly perpendicular, but time and weather and the 
 war of the tree roots had broken and scarred the stone 
 in a thousand places, giving a scant foothold here and 
 
 there. 
 
 Tarvin crept along the right side of the tank, resolved, 
 whatever might come, to go round it. The gloom 
 deepened as he came directly under the largest fig-tree, 
 throwing a thousand arms across the water, and but- 
 tressing the rock with snake-like roots as thick as a 
 man's body. Here, sitting on a bole, he rested and 
 looked at the ledge. The sun, shooting down the 
 path that he had trampled through the tall grass, threw 
 one patch of light on the discoloured marble of the 
 led°-e and on the blunt muzzle of the cow's head ; but 
 where Tarvin rested under the fig-tree there was dark- 
 ness, and an intolerable scent of musk. The blue 
 water was not inviting to watch ; he turned his face in- 
 ward to the rock and the trees, and looking up, caught 
 the emerald-green of a parrot's wing moving among 
 the upper branches. Never in his life had Tarvin
 
 THE NAULAHKA 141 
 
 so acutely desired the blessed sunshine. He was cold 
 and damp, and conscious that a gentle breeze was blow- 
 ing in his face from between the snaky tree roots. 
 
 It was the sense of space more than actual sight that 
 told him that there was a passage before him shrouded 
 by the roots on which he sat, and it was his racial in- 
 stinct of curiosity rather than any love of adventure 
 that led him to throw himself at the darkness, which 
 parted before and closed behind him. He could feel 
 that his feet were treading on cut stone overlaid with 
 a thin layer of dried mud, and, extending his arms, 
 found masonry on either side. Then he lighted a match, 
 and congratulated himself that his ignorance of cows' 
 mouths had not led him to bring a lantern with him. 
 The first match flickered in the draught and went out, 
 and before the flame had died he heard a sound in front 
 of him like the shivering backward draw of a wave on a 
 pebbly bench. The noise was not inspiriting, but Tarvin 
 pressed on for a few steps, looking back to see that the 
 dull glimmer of the outer day was still behind him, and 
 lighted another match, guarding it with his hands. At 
 his next step he shuddered from head to foot. His heel 
 had crashed through a skull on the ground. 
 
 The match showed him that he had quitted the pas- 
 sage, and was standing in a black space of unknown 
 dimensions. He fancied that he saw the outline of a 
 pillar, or rows of pillars, flickering drunkenly in the 
 gloom, and was all too sure that the ground beneath 
 him was strewn with bones. Then he became aware of 
 pale emerald eyes watching him fixedly, and perceived 
 that there was deep breathing in the place other 
 than his own. He flung the match down, the eyes 
 retreated, there was a wild rattle and crash in the 
 darkness, a howl that might have been bestial or 
 human, and Tarvin, panting between the tree roots, 
 swung himself to the left, and fled back over the
 
 i 4 2 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 mud-banks to the ledge, where he stood, his back to 
 the Cow's Mouth and his revolver in his hand. 
 
 In that moment of waiting for what might emerge 
 from the hole in the side of the tank, Tarvin tasted 
 all the agonies of pure physical terror. Then he noted 
 with the tail of his eye that a length of mud-bank to 
 his left — half the mud-bank, in fact — was moving slowly 
 into the water. It floated slowly across the tank, a 
 long welt of filth and slime. Nothing came out of 
 the hole between the fig-tree roots, but the mud-bank 
 grounded under the ledge almost at Tarvin's feet, and 
 opened horny eyelids, heavy with green slime. 
 
 The Western man is familiar with many strange things, 
 but the alligator does not come within the common 
 range of his experiences. A second time Tarvin moved 
 from point to point without being able to explain the 
 steps he took to that end. He found himself sitting 
 in the sunshine at the head of the slippery path that 
 led downwards. His hands were full of the wholesome 
 jungle grass and the clean dry dust. He could see the 
 dead city about him, and he felt that it was home. 
 
 The Cow's Mouth chuckled and choked out of sight 
 as it had chuckled since the making of the tank, and 
 that was at the making of time. A man, old, crippled, 
 and all but naked, came through the high grass leading 
 a little kid, and calling mechanically from time to time, 
 " Ao, Bhai ! Ao ! " " Come, brother ! Come ! " Tarvin 
 marvelled first at his appearance on earth at all, and 
 next that he could so unconcernedly descend the path 
 to the darkness and the horror below. He did not 
 know that the sacred crocodile of the Cow's Mouth was 
 waiting for his morning meal, as he had waited in the 
 days when Gunnaur was peopled, and its queens never 
 dreamed of death.
 
 XIII. 
 
 Beat off in our last fight were we ? 
 The greater need to seek the sea ; 
 For Fortune changeth as the moon 
 To caravel and picaroon. 
 Then, Eastward Ho ! or Westward Ho ! 
 Whichever wind may meetest blow. 
 Our quarry sails on either sea, 
 Fat prey for such bold lads as we. 
 And every sun-dried buccaneer 
 Must hand and reef and watch and steer, 
 And bear great wrath of sea and sky 
 Before the plate-ships wallow by. 
 Now, as our tall bow takes the foam, 
 Let no man turn his heart to home, 
 Save to desire land the more, 
 And larger warehouse for his store, 
 When treasure won from Santos Bay 
 Shall make our sea-washed village gay." 
 
 — Blackbeard. 
 
 Fibbv and Tarvin ate their breakfast together, half an 
 
 hour later, in the blotched shadows of the scrub below 
 
 the wall. The horse buried his nose into his provender, 
 
 and said nothing. The man was equally silent Once 
 
 or twice he rose to his feet, scanned the irregular line 
 
 of wall and bastion, and shook his head. He had no 
 
 desire to return there. As the sun grew fiercer he found 
 
 a resting-place in the heart of a circle of thorn, tucked 
 
 the saddle under his head, and lay down to sleep. Fibby, 
 
 rolling luxuriously, followed his master's example. The 
 
 two took their rest while the air quivered with heat and 
 
 143
 
 144 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 the hum of insects, and the browsing goats clicked and 
 pattered through the water-channels. 
 
 The shadow of the Tower of Glory lengthened, fell 
 across the walls, and ran far across the plain ; the kites 
 began to drop from the sky by twos and threes ; and 
 naked children, calling one to another, collected the 
 goats and drove them to the smoky villages before 
 Tarvin roused himself for the homeward journey. 
 
 He halted Fibby once for a last look at Gunnaur as 
 they reached the rising ground. The sunlight had left 
 the walls, and they ran black against the misty levels 
 and the turquoise-blue of the twilight. Fires twinkled 
 from a score of puts about the base of the city, but along 
 the ridge of the desolation itself there was no light. 
 
 "Mum's the word, Fibby," said Tarvin, picking up 
 his reins. "We don't think well of this picnic, and 
 we won't mention it at Rhatore." 
 
 He chirruped, and Fibby went home as swiftly as he 
 could lay hoof to stone, only once suggesting refresh- 
 ment. Tarvin said nothing till the end of the long ride, 
 when he heaved a deep sigh of relief as he dismounted 
 in the fresh sunlight of the morning. 
 
 Sitting in his room, it seemed to him a waste of a most 
 precious opportunity that he had not manufactured a 
 torch in Gunnaur and thoroughly explored the passage. 
 Lut the memory of the green eyes and the smell of musk 
 came back to him, and he shivered. The thing was 
 not to be done. Never again, for any consideration, 
 under the wholesome light of the sun, would he, who 
 feared nothing, set foot in the Cow's Mouth. 
 
 It was his pride that he knew when he had had 
 enough. He had had enough of the Cow's Mouth ; and 
 the only thing for which he still wished in connection with 
 it was to express his mind about it to the Maharajah. 
 Unhappily, this was impossible. That idle monarch, 
 who, he now saw plainly, had sent him there either in a
 
 THE NAULAHKA 145 
 
 mood of luxurious sportiveness or to throw him off the 
 scent of the necklace, remained the only man from 
 whom he could look for final victory. It was not to 
 the Maharajah that he could afford to say all that he 
 thought. 
 
 Fortunately the Maharajah was too much entertained 
 by the work which Tarvin immediately instituted on the 
 A met River to inquire particularly whether his young 
 friend had sought the Naulahka at the Gye Mukh. 
 Tarvin had sought an audience with the King the morn- 
 ing after his return from that black spot, and, with the 
 face of a man who had never known fear and who lacks 
 the measure of disappointments, gaily demanded the 
 fulfilment of the King's promise. Having failed in one 
 direction on a large scale, he laid the first brick on the 
 walls of a new structure without delay, as the people 
 of Topaz had begun to build their town anew the 
 morning after the fire. His experience at the Gye 
 Mukh only sharpened his determination, adding to it 
 a grim willingness to get even with the man who had 
 sent him there. 
 
 The Maharajah, who felt in especial need of amuse- 
 ment that morning, was very ready to make good his 
 promise, and ordered that the long man who played 
 pachisi should be granted all the men he could use. 
 With the energy of disgust, and with a hot memory of 
 the least assured and comfortable moments of his life 
 burning in his breast, Tarvin flung himself on the turning 
 of the river and the building of his dam. It was neces- 
 sary, it seemed, in the land upon which he had fallen, to 
 raise a dust to hide one's ends. He would raise a dust, 
 and it should be on the same scale as the catastrophe 
 which he had just encountered — thorough, business-like, 
 uncompromising. 
 
 He raised it, in fact, in a stupendous cloud. Since 
 the State was founded no one had seen anything like it. 
 
 K
 
 146 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 The Maharajah lent him all the convict labour of his 
 jails, and Tarvin marched the little host of leg-ironed 
 kaidies into camp at a point five miles beyond the city 
 walls, and solemnly drew up his plans for the futile 
 damming of the barren Amet. His early training as a 
 civil engineer helped him to lay out a reasonable plan 
 of operations, and to give a semblance of reality to his 
 work. His notion was to back up the river by means 
 of a dam at a point where it swept around a long curve, 
 and to send it straight across the plain by excavating a 
 deep bed for it. When this was completed the present 
 bed of the river would lie bare for several miles, and if 
 there were any gold there, as Tarvin said to himself, then 
 would be the time to pick it up. Meanwhile his opera- 
 tions vastly entertained the King, who rode out every 
 morning and watched him directing his small army for 
 an hour or more. The marchings and counter-marchings 
 of the mob of convicts with baskets, hoes, shovels, and 
 panier-laden donkeys, the prodigal blasting of rocks, and 
 the general bustle and confusion, drew the applause of 
 the King, for whom Tarvin always reserved his best 
 blasts. This struck him as only fair, as the King 
 was paying for the powder, and, indeed, for the entire 
 entertainment. 
 
 Among the unpleasant necessities of his position was 
 the need of giving daily to Colonel Nolan, to the King, 
 and to all the drummers at the rest-house, whenever they 
 might choose to ask him, his reasons for damming the 
 Amet. The great Indian Government itself also presently 
 demanded his reasons, in writing, for damming the Amet ; 
 Colonel Nolan's reasons, in writing, for allowing the Amet 
 to be dammed ; and the King's reasons for allowing any- 
 body but a duly authorised agent of the Government to 
 dam the Amet. This was accompanied by a request for 
 further information. To these inquiries Tarvin, for his 
 part, returned an evasive answer, and felt that he was
 
 THE NAULAHKA 147 
 
 qualifying himself for his political career at home. 
 Colonel Nolan explained officially to his superiors that 
 the convicts were employed in remunerative labour, and, 
 unofficially, that the Maharajah had been so phenome- 
 nally good for some time past (being kept amused by 
 this American stranger), that it would be a thousand 
 pities to interrupt the operations. Colonel Nolan was 
 impressed by the fact thatTarvin was the Hon. Nicholas 
 Tarvin, and a member of the legislature of one of the 
 United States. 
 
 The Government, knowing something of the irrepres- 
 sible race who stride booted into the council-halls of 
 kings, and demand concessions for oil-boring from 
 Arracan to the Peshin, said no more, but asked to be 
 supplied with information from time to time as to the 
 progress of the stranger's work. When Tarvin heard 
 this he sympathised with the Indian Government. He 
 understood this thirst for information ; he wanted some 
 himself as to the present whereabouts of the Naulahka ; 
 also touching the time it would take Kate to find out 
 that she wanted him more than the cure of any misery 
 whatever. 
 
 At least twice a week, in fancy, he gave up the 
 Naulahka definitely, returned to Topaz, and resumed the 
 business of a real estate and insurance agent. He drew 
 a long breath after each of these decisions, with the satis- 
 fying recollection that there was still one spot on the 
 earth's surface where a man might come directly at his 
 desires if he possessed the sand and the hustle ; where 
 he could walk a straight path to his ambition ; and where 
 he did not by preference turn five corners to reach an 
 object a block away. . 
 
 Sometimes, as he grilled patiently in the river bed 
 under the blighting rays of the Indian sun, he would 
 hcretically blaspheme the Naulahka, refusing to believe 
 in its existence, and persuading himself that it was as
 
 148 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 grotesque a lie as the King's parody of a civilised 
 government, or as Dhunpat Rai's helpful surgery. 
 Yet from a hundred sources he heard of the exist- 
 ence of that splendour, only never in reply to a direct 
 question. 
 
 Dhunpat Rai, in particular (once weak enough to 
 complain of the new lady doctor's "excessive zeal and 
 surplusage administration "), had given him an account 
 that made his mouth water. But Dhunpat Rai had not 
 seen the necklace since the crowning of the present King, 
 fifteen years before. The very convicts on the works, 
 squabbling over the distribution of food, spoke of millet 
 as being as costly as the Naulahka. Twice the Maharaj 
 Kunwar, babbling vaingloriously to his big friend of what 
 he would do when he came to the throne, concluded his 
 confidences with, " And then I shall wear the Naulahka 
 in my turban all day long." 
 
 But when Tarvin asked him where that precious neck- 
 lace lived, the Maharaj Kunwar shook his head, answer- 
 ing sweetly, " I do not know." 
 
 The infernal thing seemed to be a myth, a word, a 
 proverb — anything rather than the finest necklace in the 
 world. In the intervals of blasting and excavation he 
 would make futile attempts to come upon its track. He 
 took the city ward by ward, and explored every temple 
 in each ; he rode, under pretence of archasological study, 
 to the outlying forts and ruined palaces that lay beyond 
 the city in the desert, and roved restlessly through the 
 mausoleums that held the ashes of the dead kings of 
 Rhatore. He told himself a hundred times that he 
 knew each quest to be hopeless ; but he needed the 
 consolation of persistent search. And the search was 
 always vain. 
 
 Tarvin fought his impatience when he rode abroad 
 with the Maharajah. At the palace, which he visited at 
 least once a day under pretence of talking about the
 
 THE NAU LAURA 149 
 
 dam, he devoted himself more sedulously than ever 
 to pachisi. It pleased the Maharajah in those days 
 to remove himself from the white marble pavilion in 
 the orange garden, where he usually spent the spring 
 months, to Sitabhai's wing of the red-stone palace, and 
 to sit in the courtyard watching trained parrots firing 
 little cannons, and witnessing combats between fighting 
 quail or great grey apes dressed in imitation of English 
 officers. When Colonel Nolan appeared the apes were 
 hastily dismissed; but Tarvin was allowed to watch the 
 play throughout, when he was not engaged on the dam. 
 He was forced to writhe in inaction and in wonder about 
 his necklace, while these childish games went forward ; 
 but he constantly kept the corner of an eye upon the 
 movements of the Maharaj Kunwar. There, at least, his 
 wit could serve some one. 
 
 The Maharajah had given strict orders that the child 
 should obey all Kate's instructions. Even his heavy eyes 
 noted an improvement in the health of the little one, and 
 Tarvin was careful that he should know that the credit 
 belonged to Kate alone. With impish perversity the 
 young Prince, who had never received an order in his 
 life before, learned to find joy in disobedience, and 
 devoted his wits, his escort, and his barouche to gam- 
 bolling in the wing of the palace belonging to Sitabhai. 
 There he found grey-headed flatterers by the score, who 
 abased themselves before him, and told him what manner 
 of king he should be in the years to come. There also 
 were pretty dancing-girls, who sang him songs, and would 
 have corrupted his mind but that it was too young to 
 receive corruption. There were, besides, apes and pea- 
 cocks and jugglers — new ones every day — together with 
 dancers on the slack-rope, and wonderful packing-cases 
 from Calcutta, out of which he was allowed to choose 
 ivory-handled pistols and little gold-hiked swords with 
 seed-pearls set in a groove along the middle, and running
 
 150 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 musically up and down as he waved the blade round his 
 head. Finally, the sacrifice of a goat in an opal and 
 ivory temple in the heart of the women's quarters, which 
 he might watch, allured him that way. Against these 
 enticements Kate, moody, grave, distracted, her eyes full 
 of the miseries on which it was her daily lot to look, and 
 her heart torn with the curelessness of it all, could offer 
 only little childish games in the missionary's drawing- 
 room. The heir-apparent to the throne did not care 
 for leap-frog, which he deemed in the highest degree 
 undignified ; nor yet for puss-in-the-corner, which seemed 
 to him over-active ; nor for tennis, which he understood 
 was played by his brother princes, but which to him 
 appeared no part of a Rajput's education. Sometimes, 
 when he was tired (and on rare occasions when he 
 escaped to Sitabhai's wing it was observable that he 
 returned very tired indeed), he would listen long and 
 intently to the stories of battle and siege which Kate 
 read to him, and would scandalise her at the end of the 
 tale by announcing, with flashing eye — 
 
 " When I am king I will make my army do all those 
 things." 
 
 It was not in Kate's nature — she would have thought 
 it in the highest degree wrong — to refrain from some 
 little attempt at religious instruction. But here the 
 child retreated into the stolidity of the East, and only 
 said — 
 
 " All these things are very good for you, Kate, but all 
 my gods are very good for me ; and if my father knew, he 
 would be angry." 
 
 "And what do you worship?" asked Kate, pitying 
 the young pagan from the bottom of her heart. 
 
 " My sword and my horse," answered the Maharaj 
 Kunwar ; and he half drew the jewelled sabre that was 
 his inseparable companion, returning it with a resolute 
 clank that closed the discussion.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 151 
 
 But it was impossible, he discovered, to evade the 
 long man Tarvin as he evaded Kate. He resented 
 being called " bub," nor did he approve of " little man.'' 
 But Tarvin could drawl the word " Prince" with a quiet 
 deference that made the young Rajput almost suspect 
 himself the subject of a jest. And yet Tarvin Sahib 
 treated him as a man, and allowed him, under due 
 precautions, to handle his mighty " gun," which was not 
 a gun, but a pistol. And once, when the Prince had 
 coaxed the keeper of the horse into allowing him to 
 bestride an unmanageable mount, Tarvin, riding up, had 
 picked him out of the depths of the velvet saddle, set him 
 on his own saddle-bow, and, in the same cloud of dust, 
 shown him how, in his own country, they laid the reins 
 on one side or the other of the neck of their cattle- 
 ponies to guide them in pursuit of a steer broken from 
 the herd. 
 
 The trick of being lifted from his saddle, appealing to 
 the " circus " latent in the boy breast even of an Eastern 
 prince, struck the Maharaj as so amusing that he in- 
 sisted on exhibiting it before Kate ; and as Tarvin was a 
 necessary figure in the performance, he allured him into 
 helping him with it one day before the house of the 
 missionary. Mr. and Mrs. Estes came out upon the 
 verandah with Kate and watched the exhibition, and the 
 missionary pursued it with applause and requests for a 
 repetition, which, having been duly given, Mrs. Estes 
 asked Tarvin if he would not stay to dinner with them 
 since he was there. Tarvin glanced doubtfully at Kate 
 for permission, and, by a process of reasoning best known 
 to lovers, construed the veiling of her eyes and the turn- 
 ing of her head into assent. 
 
 After dinner, as they sat on the verandah in the star- 
 light, " Do you really mind?" he asked. 
 
 " What ? " asked she, lifting her sober eyes and letting 
 them fall upon him.
 
 152 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " My seeing you sometimes. I know you don't like 
 it ; but it will help me to look after you. You must see 
 by this time that you need looking after." 
 
 "Oh no." 
 
 "Thank you," said Tarvin, almost humbly. 
 
 " I mean I don't need looking after." 
 
 "But you don't dislike it?" 
 
 " It's good of you," she said impartially. 
 
 " Well, then, it will be bad of you not to like it." 
 
 Kate had to smile. " I guess I like it," she replied. 
 
 "And you will let me come once in a while? You 
 can't think what the rest-house is. Those drummers 
 will kill me yet. And the coolies at the dam are not in 
 my set." 
 
 " Well, since you're here. But you ought not to be 
 here. Do me a real kindness, and go away, Nick." 
 
 " Give me an easier one." 
 
 " But why are you here ? You can't show any rational 
 reason." 
 
 "Yes; that's what the British Government says. But 
 I brought my reason along." 
 
 He confessed his longing for something homely and 
 natural and American after a day's work under a heathen 
 and raging sun ; and when he put it in this light, Kate 
 responded on another side. She had been brought up 
 with a sense of responsibility for making young men 
 feel at home ; and he certainly felt at home when she 
 was able to produce, two or three evenings later, a Topaz 
 paper sent her by her father. Tarvin pounced on it, 
 and turned the flimsy four pages inside out, and then 
 back again. 
 
 He smacked his lips. "Oh, good, good, good! " he 
 murmured relishingly. " Don't the advertisements look 
 nice? What's the matter with Topaz?" cried he, hold- 
 ing the sheet from him at arm's length, and gazing raven- 
 ously up and down its columns. " Oh, she's all right."
 
 THE NAULAHKA 153 
 
 The cooing, musical sing-song in which he uttered this 
 consecrated phrase was worth going a long way to hear. 
 " Say, we're coming on, aren't we ? We're not lagging 
 nor loafing, nor fooling our time away, if we haven't got 
 the Three C.'s yet. We're keeping up with the procession. 
 Hi-yi ! look at the 'Rustler Rootlets' — just about a 
 stickful ! Why, the poor old worm-eaten town is going 
 sound, sound asleep in her old age, isn't she? Think of 
 taking a railroad there ! Listen to this : — 
 
 " ' Milo C. Lambert, the owner of "Lambert's Last 
 Ditch," has a car-load of good ore on the dump, but, 
 like all the rest of us, don't find it pays to ship without a 
 railroad line nearer than fifteen miles. Milo says Colo- 
 rado won't be good enough for him after he gets his ore 
 away.' 
 
 "I should think not. Come to Topaz, Milo! And 
 
 this : — 
 
 " 'When the Three C.'s comes into the city in the fall 
 we shan't be hearing this talk about hard times. Mean- 
 time it's an injustice to the town, which all honest 
 citizens should resent and do their best to put down, 
 to speak of Rustler as taking a back seat to any town of 
 its age in the State. As a matter of fact, Rustler was 
 never more prosperous. With mines which produced 
 last year ore valued at a total of $1,200,000, with six 
 churches of different denominations, with a young but 
 prosperous and growing academy which is destined to 
 take a front rank among American schools, with a record 
 of new buildings erected during the past year equal if 
 not superior to any town in the mountains, and with a 
 population of lively and determined business men, 
 Rustler bids fair in the coming year to be worthy oi 
 her name.'
 
 154 
 
 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 "Who said ' afraid ' ? We're not hurt. Hear us whistle. 
 But I'm sorry Heckler let that into his correspondence," 
 he added, with a momentary frown. "Some of our 
 Topaz citizens might miss the fun of it, and go over to 
 Rustler to wait for the Three C.'s. Coming in the fall, 
 is it? Oh, dear! Oh, dear, dear, dear! This is the 
 way they amuse themselves while they dangle their legs 
 over Big Chief Mountain and wait for it : — 
 
 i 
 " ' Our merchants have responded to the recent good 
 
 feeling which has pervaded the town since word came 
 
 that President Mutrie, on his return to Denver, was 
 
 favourably considering the claims of Rustler. Robbins 
 
 has his front windows prettily decorated and filled with 
 
 fancy articles. His store seems to be the most popular 
 
 for the youngsters who have a nickel or two to spend.' 
 
 " I should murmur ! Won't you like to see the Three 
 C.'s come sailing into Topaz one of these fine mornings, 
 little girl?" asked Tarvin suddenly, as he seated himself 
 on the sofa beside her, and opened out the paper so 
 that she could look over his shoulder. 
 
 " Would you like it, Nick ? " 
 
 " Would I ! " 
 
 "Then, of course, I should. But I think you will be 
 better off if it doesn't. It will make you too rich. See 
 father." 
 
 " Well, I'd put on the brakes if I found myself getting 
 real rich. I'll stop just after I've passed the Genteel 
 Poverty Station. Isn't it good to see the old heading 
 again — Heckler's name as large as life just under ' oldest 
 paper in Divide County,' and Heckler's fist sticking out 
 all over a rousing editorial on the prospects of the town? 
 Home-like, isn't it? He's got two columns of new 
 advertising; that shows what the town's doing. And look 
 at the good old ' ads.' from the Eastern agencies. How
 
 THE NAULAHKA 155 
 
 they take you back ! I never expected to thank Heaven 
 for a Castoria advertisement ; did you, Kate ? But I 
 swear it makes me feel good all over. I'll read the 
 patent inside if you say much." 
 
 Kate smiled. The paper gave her a little pang of 
 home-sickness too. She had her own feeling for Topaz ; 
 but what reached her through the Telegram's lively 
 pages was the picture of her mother sitting in her 
 kitchen in the long afternoons (she had sat in the 
 kitchen so long in the poor and wandering days of the 
 family that she did it now by preference), gazing sadly 
 out at white-topped Big Chief, and wondering what her 
 daughter was doing at that hour. Kate remembered 
 well that afternoon hour in the kitchen when the work 
 was done. She recalled from the section-house days the 
 superannuated rocker, once a parlour chair, which her 
 mother had hung with skins and told off for kitchen 
 service. Kate remembered with starting tears that her 
 mother had always wanted her to sit in it, and how- 
 good it had been to see from her own hassock next 
 the oven the little mother swallowed up in its deeps. 
 She heard the cat purring under the stove, and the 
 kettle singing ; the clock ticked in her ear, and the 
 cracks between the boards in the floor of the hastily 
 built section-house blew the cold prairie air against her 
 heels. 
 
 She gazed over Tarvin's shoulder at the two cuts of 
 Topaz which appeared in every issue of the Telegram 
 — the one representing the town in its first year, the 
 other the town of to-day — and a lump rose in her 
 throat. 
 
 "Quite a difference, isn't there?" said Tarvin, follow- 
 ing her eye. "Do you remember where your father's 
 tent used to stand, and the old section-house, just here 
 by the river ? " He pointed, and Kate nodded without 
 speaking. " Those were good days, weren't they ? Your
 
 i 5 6 THE NAULAIIKA 
 
 father wasn't as rich as he is now, and neither was I ; but 
 we were all mighty happy together." 
 
 Kate's thought drifted back to that time, and called 
 up other visions of her mother expending her slight 
 frame in many forms of hard work. The memory of the 
 little characteristic motion with which she would shield 
 with raised hand the worn young old face when she 
 would be broiling above an open fire, or frying doughnuts, 
 or lifting the stove lid, forced her to gulp down the tears. 
 The simple picture was too clear, even to the light of the 
 fire on the face, and the pink light shining through the 
 frail hand. 
 
 "Hello!" said Tarvin, casting his eye up and down 
 the columns, "they've had to put another team on to 
 keep the streets clean. We had one. Heckler don't 
 forget the climate either. And they are doing well at 
 the Mesa House. That's a good sign. The tourists 
 will all have to stop over at Topaz when the new line 
 comes through, and we have the right hotel. Some 
 towns might think we had a little tourist traffic now. 
 Here's Loomis dining fifty at the Mesa the other day 
 — through express. They've formed a new syndicate 
 to work the Hot Springs. Do you know, I shouldn't 
 wonder if they made a town down there. Heckler's 
 right. It will help Topaz. We don't mind a town 
 that near. It makes a suburb of it." 
 
 He marked his sense of the concession implied in 
 letting him stay that evening by going early; but he 
 did not go so early on the following evening, and as 
 he showed no inclination to broach forbidden subjects, 
 Kate found herself glad to have him there, and it 
 became a habit of his to drop in, in the evenings, 
 and to join the group that gathered, with open doors 
 and windows, about the family lamp. In the happi- 
 ness of seeing visible effects from her labours blossom- 
 ing under her eyes, Kate regarded his presence less
 
 THE N AULA UK A 157 
 
 and less. Sometimes she would let him draw her out 
 upon the verandah under the sumptuous Indian night 
 — nights when the heat-lightning played like a drawn 
 sword on the horizon, and the heavens hovered near 
 the earth, and the earth was very still. But commonly 
 they sat within, with the missionary and his wife, talking 
 of Topaz, of the hospital, of the Maharaj Kunwar, of 
 the dam, and sometimes of the Estes children at 
 Bangor. For the most part, however, when the talk 
 was among the group, it fell upon the infinitesimal 
 gossip of a sequestered life, to the irritation and misery 
 of Tarvin. 
 
 When the conversation lagged in these deeps he 
 would fetch up violently with a challenge to Estes 
 on the subject of the tariff or silver legislation, and 
 after that the talk was at least lively. Tarvin was, by 
 his training, largely a newspaper-educated man. But 
 he had also been taught at first hand by life itself, 
 and by the habit of making his own history ; and he 
 used the hairy fist of horse-sense in dealing with the 
 theories of newspaper politics and the systems of the 
 schools. 
 
 Argument had no allurements for him, however; it 
 was with Kate that he talked when he could, and 
 oftenest, of late, of the hospital, since her progress 
 there had begun to encourage her. She yielded at last 
 to his entreaties to be allowed to see this paragon, and 
 to look for himself upon the reforms she had wrought. 
 
 Matters had greatly improved since the days of the 
 lunatic and the " much-esteemed woman," but only Kate 
 knew how much remained to be done. The hospital 
 was at least clean and sweet if she inspected it every 
 day, and the people in their fashion were grateful for 
 kinder tending and more skilful treatment than they had 
 hitherto dreamed of. Upon each cure a rumour went 
 abroad through the country-side of a new power in the
 
 158 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 land, and other patients came ; or the convalescent her- 
 self would bring back a sister, a child, or a mother with 
 absolute faith in the power of the White Fairy to make all 
 whole. They could not know all the help that Kate brought 
 in the train of her quiet movements, but for what they knew 
 they blessed her as they lay. Her new energy swept 
 even Dhunpat Rai along the path of reform. He became 
 curious in the limewashing of stonework, the disinfecting 
 of wards, the proper airing of bed-linen, and even the 
 destruction by fire of the bedsteads, once his perquisite, 
 on which smallpox patients had died. Native-like, he 
 worked best for a woman with the knowledge that there 
 was an energetic white man in the background. Tarvin's 
 visit, and a few cheery words addressed to him by that 
 capable outsider, supplied him with this knowledge. 
 
 Tarvin could not understand the uncouth talk of the 
 out-patients, and did not visit the women's wards ; but 
 he saw enough to congratulate Kate unreservedly. She 
 smiled contentedly. Mrs. Estes was sympathetic, but in 
 no way enthusiastic; and it was good to be praised 
 by Nick, who had found so much to blame in her 
 project. 
 
 'It's clean and it's wholesome, little girl," he said, 
 peering and sniffing; "and you've done miracles with 
 these jellyfish. If you'd been on the opposition ticket 
 instead of your father I shouldn't be a member of the 
 legislature." 
 
 Kate never talked to him about that large part of 
 her work which lay among the women of the Maharajah's 
 palace. Little by little she learned her way about such 
 portions of the pile as she was permitted to traverse. 
 From the first she had understood that the palace was 
 ruled by one Queen, of whom the women spoke under 
 their breath, and whose lightest word, conveyed by 
 the mouth of a grinning child, set the packed mazes 
 humming. Once only had she seen this Queen, glim-
 
 THE NAULAHKA 159 
 
 mering like a tiger-beetle among a pile of kincob cushions 
 — a lithe, black-haired young girl, it seemed, with a voice 
 as soft as running water at night, and with eyes that had 
 no shadow of fear in them. She turned lazily, the jewels 
 clinking on ankle, arm, and bosom, and looked at Kate 
 for a long time without speaking. 
 
 " I have sent that I may see you," she said at last. 
 " You have come here across the water to help these 
 cattle ? " 
 
 Kate nodded, every instinct in her revolting at the 
 silver-tongued splendour at her feet. 
 
 " You are not married? " The Queen put her hands 
 behind her head and looked at the painted peacocks on 
 the ceiling. 
 
 Kate did not reply, but her heart was hot. 
 
 " Is there any sickness here ? " she asked at last sharply. 
 ' : I have much to do." 
 
 " There is none, unless it may be that you yourself are 
 sick. There are those who sicken without knowing it." 
 
 The eyes turned to meet Kate's, which were blazing 
 with indignation. This woman, lapped in idleness, had 
 struck at the life of the Maharaj Kunwar; and the 
 horror of it was that she was younger than herself. 
 
 " Achcha" said the Queen, still more slowly, watch- 
 ing her face. " If you hate me so, why do you not say 
 so ? You white people love truth." 
 
 Kate turned on her heel to leave the room. Sitabhai 
 called her back for an instant, and, moved by some royal 
 caprice, would have caressed her, but she fled indignant, 
 and was careful never again to venture into that wing 
 of the palace. None of the women there called for 
 her services, and not once but several times, when she 
 passed the mouth of the covered way that led to Sitab- 
 hai's apartments, she saw a little naked child flourish- 
 ing a jewelled knife, and shouting round the headless 
 carcass of a goat whose blood was flooding the white
 
 i Co THE NAULAHKA 
 
 marble. " That," said the women, " is the gipsy's son. 
 He learns to kill daily. A snake is a snake, and a gipsy 
 is a gipsy, till they are dead." 
 
 There was no slaughter of goats, singing of songs, or 
 twangling of musical instruments in the wing of the 
 palace that made itself specially Kate's own. Here 
 lived, forgotten by the Maharajah and mocked by 
 Sitabhai's maidens, the mother of the Maharaj Kunwar. 
 Sitabhai had taken from her — by the dark arts of the 
 gipsies, so the Queen's adherents said ; by her own beauty 
 and knowledge in love, they sang in the other wing of the 
 palace — all honour and consideration due to her as the 
 Queen Mother. There were scores of empty rooms 
 where once there had been scores of waiting-women, 
 and those who remained with the fallen Queen were 
 forlorn and ill-favoured. She herself was a middle-aged 
 woman, by Eastern standards ; that is to say, she had 
 passed twenty-five, and had never been more than 
 ordinarily comely. 
 
 Her eyes were dull with much weeping, and her mind 
 was full of superstitions — fears for every hour of the 
 night and the day, and vague terrors, bred of loneliness, 
 that made her tremble at the sound of a footfall. In 
 the years of her prosperity she had been accustomed 
 to perfume herself, put on her jewels, and with braided 
 hair await the Maharajah's coming. She would still 
 call for her jewels, attire herself as of old, and wait 
 amid the respectful silence of her attendants till the 
 long night gave way to the dawn, and the dawn showed 
 the furrows on her cheeks. Kate had seen one such 
 vigil, and perhaps showed in her eyes the wonder that 
 she could not repress, for the Queen Mother fawned 
 on her timidly after the jewels had been put away, and 
 begged her not to laugh. 
 
 "You do not understand, Miss Kate," she pleaded. 
 "There is one custom in your country and another
 
 THE NAULAHKA 161 
 
 in ours ; but still you are a woman, and you will 
 know.'' 
 
 "But you know that no one will come," Kate said 
 tenderly. 
 
 "Yes, I know; but — no, you are not a woman, only 
 a fairy that has come across the water to help me and 
 mine." 
 
 Here again Kate was baffled. Except in the message 
 sent by the Maharaj Kunwar, the Queen Mother never 
 referred to the danger that threatened her son's life. 
 Again and again Kate had tried to lead up to the 
 subject — to gain some hint, at least, of the nature of 
 the plot. 
 
 "I know nothing," the Queen would reply. "Here 
 behind the curtain no one knows anything. Miss Kate, 
 if my own women lay dead out there in the sun at 
 noon " — she pointed downwards through the tracery of 
 her window to the flagged path below — " I should know 
 nothing. Of what I said I know nothing; but surely it 
 is allowed " — she lowered her voice to a whisper — " oh, 
 surely it is allowed to a mother to bid another woman 
 look to her son. He is so old now that he thinks him- 
 self a man, and wanders far, and so young that he thinks 
 the world will do him no harm. Ahi ! And he is so 
 wise that he knows a thousand times more than I : 
 he speaks English like an Englishman. How can I 
 control him with my little learning and my very great 
 love? I say to you, Be good to my son. That I can 
 say aloud, and write it upon a wall, if need were. There 
 is no harm in that. But if I said more, look you, the 
 plaster between the stones beneath me would gape to 
 suck it in, and the wind would blow all my words across 
 to the villages. I am a stranger here — a Rajputni from 
 Kulu, a thousand thousand koss away. They bore me 
 here in a litter to be married — in the dark they bore 
 me for a month ; and except that some of my women 
 
 L
 
 i62 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 have told me, I should not know which way the home- 
 wind blows when it goes to Kulu. What can a strange 
 cow do in the byre ? May the gods witness." 
 
 " Ah, but tell me what you think ? " 
 
 " I think nothing," the Queen would answer sullenly. 
 " What have women to do with thinking ? They love 
 and they suffer. I have said all that I may say. Miss 
 Kate, some day you will bear a little son. As you have 
 been good to my son, so may the gods be good to yours 
 when that time comes, and you know how the heart is 
 full of love." 
 
 " If I am to protect him, I must know. You leave me 
 in the dark." 
 
 " And I also am in the dark — and the darkness is full 
 of danger." 
 
 Tarvin himself was much about the palace, not only 
 because he perceived that it was there he might most 
 hopefully keep his ear to the ground for news of the 
 Naulahka, but because it enabled him to observe Kate's 
 comings and goings, and with his hand ready for a rapid 
 movement to his pistol-pocket. 
 
 His gaze followed her at these times, as at others, with 
 the longing look of the lover ; but he said nothing, and 
 Kate was grateful to him. It was a time, as it seemed 
 to him, to play the part of the Tarvin who had carried 
 water for her long ago at the end of the section ; it was 
 a time to stand back, to watch, to guard, but not to 
 trouble her. 
 
 The Maharaj Kunwar came often under his eye, and 
 he was constantly inventing amusing things for him 
 to do remote from Sitabhai's courtyard; but the boy 
 would occasionally break away, and then it was Tarvin's 
 task to go after him and make sure that he came to no 
 harm. One afternoon when he had spent some time 
 in coaxing the child away, and had finally resorted to
 
 THE NAULAHKA 16 
 
 3 
 
 force, much to the child's disgust, a twelve-foot baulft. of 
 teakwood, as he was passing out under an arch in pro- 
 cess of repair, crashed down from the scaffolding just in 
 front of Fibby's nose. The horse retired into the court- 
 yard on his hind legs, and Tarvin heard the rustle of the 
 women behind the shutters. 
 
 He reflected on the incurable slackness of these 
 people, stopped to swear at the workmen crouched on 
 the scaffolding in the hollow of the arch, and went on. 
 They were no less careless about the dam — it was in the 
 blood, he supposed — for the headman of a coolie gang 
 who must have crossed the A met twenty times, showed 
 him a new ford across a particularly inviting channel, 
 which ended in a quicksand ; and when Tarvin had 
 flung himself clear, the gang spent half the day in haul- 
 ing Fibby out with ropes. They could not even build 
 a temporary bridge without leaving the boards loose, 
 so that a horse's hoof found its way between ; and the 
 gangs seemed to make a point of letting bullock-carts 
 run down the steep embankments into the small of Tar- 
 vin's back, when, at infrequent intervals, that happened 
 to be turned. 
 
 Tarvin was filled with great respect for the British 
 Government, which worked on these materials, and 
 began to understand the mild-faced melancholy and 
 decisive views of Lucien Estes about the native popula- 
 tion, as well as to sympathise more keenly than ever 
 with Kate. 
 
 This curious people were now, he learned with horror, 
 to fill the cup of their follies by marrying the young 
 Maharaj Kunwar to a three-year-old babe, brought from 
 the Kulu hills, at vast expense, to be his bride. He 
 sought out Kate at the missionary's, and found her 
 quivering with indignation. She had just heard. 
 
 " It's like them to waste a wedding where it isn't 
 wanted," said Tarvin soothingly. Since he saw Kate
 
 1 64 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 excited, it became his part to be calm. " Don't worry 
 your overworked head about it, Kate. You are trying 
 to do too much, and you are feeling too much. You 
 will break down before you know it, from sheer exhaustion 
 of the chord of sympathy." 
 
 "Oh no!" said Kate. "I feel quite strong enough 
 for anything that may come. I mustn't break down. 
 Think of this marriage coming on. The Maharaj will 
 need me more than ever. He has just told me that he 
 won't get any sleep for three days and three nights while 
 their priests are praying over him." 
 
 " Crazy ! Why, it's a quicker way of killing him 
 than Sitabhai's. Heavens ! I daren't think of it. Let's 
 talk of something else. Any papers from your father 
 lately? This kind of thing makes Topaz taste sort of 
 good." 
 
 She gave him a package received by the last post, 
 and he fell silent as he ran his eye hastily over a copy 
 of the Telegram six weeks old ; but he seemed to find 
 little comfort in it. His brows knitted. 
 
 " Pshaw ! " he exclaimed with irritation, " this won't 
 do!" 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " Heckler bluffing about the Three C.'s, and not 
 doing it well. That isn't like Jim. He talks about it 
 as a sure thing as hard as if he didn't believe in it, and 
 had a private tip from somewhere that it wasn't coming 
 after all. I've no doubt he has. But he needn't give it 
 away to Rustler like that. Let's look at the real estate 
 transfers. Ah ! that tells the story," he exclaimed ex- 
 citedly, as his eye rested on the record of the sale of a 
 parcel of lots on G Street. " Prices are going down — 
 away, 'way down. The boys are caving. They're giving 
 up the fight." He leaped up and marched about the 
 room nervously. " Heavens ! if I could only get word 
 to them ! "
 
 THE NAULAHKA 165 
 
 " Why — what, Nick ? What word do you want to send 
 them ? " 
 
 He pulled himself up instantly. 
 
 "To let them know that / believe in it," he said. 
 " To get them to hold on." 
 
 " But suppose the road doesn't come to Topaz after 
 all. How can you know, away off here in India?" 
 
 "Come to Topaz, little girl!" he shouted. "Come 
 to Topaz ! It's coming if I have to lay the rails ! " 
 
 But the news about the temper of the town vexed and 
 disconcerted him notwithstanding, and after he left Kate 
 that night he sent a cable to Heckler, through Mrs. 
 Mutrie, desiring her to forward the despatch from Denver, 
 as if that were the originating office of the message. 
 
 " H eckler, Topaz. — Take a brace, for God's sake. Got 
 
 chad cinch on Three C.'s. 7 rust me, and boom like 
 
 Tarvin."
 
 XIV. 
 
 " Because I sought it far from men, 
 In deserts and alone ; 
 I found it burning overhead, 
 The jewel of a throne. 
 
 Because I sought — I sought it so 
 
 And spent my days to find — 
 It blazed one moment ere it left 
 
 The blacker night behind." 
 
 — The Crystals of ' Iswara. 
 
 A city of tents had grown up in three days without 
 the walls of Rhatore — a city greened with far-brought 
 lawns of turf, and stuck about with hastily transplanted 
 orange-trees, wooden lamp-posts painted in gaudy 
 colours, and a cast-iron fountain of hideous design. 
 Many guests were expected at Rhatore to grace the mar- 
 riage of the Maharaj Kunwar — barons, princes, thakurs, 
 lords of waste fortresses and of hopeless crags of the 
 north and the south, fiefs from the fat, poppy-blazoned 
 plains of Mewar, and brother rajahs of the King. They 
 came accompanied by their escorts, horse and foot. 
 
 In a land where genealogies, to be respectable, must 
 run back without a break for eight hundred years, it is a 
 delicate matter not to offend ; and all were desperately 
 jealous of the place and precedence of their neighbours 
 in the camp. Lest the task should be too easy, the 
 household bards of the princes came with them, and 
 squabbled with the court officials of Gokral Seetarun. 
 Behind the tents stretched long lines of horse-pickets, 
 where the fat pink-and-blue-spotted stallions neighed 
 
 1 66
 
 THE NAULAHKA 167 
 
 and squealed at one another, under their heavy velvet 
 trappings, all day long ; and the ragged militia of twenty 
 tiny native states smoked and gambled among their 
 saddles, or quarrelled at the daily distribution of food 
 furnished by the generosity of the Maharajah. From 
 hundreds of miles about, vagrant and mendicant priests 
 of every denomination had flocked into the city, 
 and their salmon-coloured raiment, black blankets, or 
 ash-smeared nudity gave Tarvin many minutes of un- 
 trammelled entertainment as he watched them roaming 
 fearlessly from tent to tent, their red eyes rolling in their 
 heads, alternately threatening or fawning for gifts. The 
 rest-house, as Tarvin discovered, was crammed with 
 fresh contingents of commercial travellers. His High- 
 ness was not likely to pay at such a season, but fresh 
 orders would be plentiful. The city itself was brilliant 
 with coats of pink-and-white lime-wash, and the main 
 streets were obstructed with the bamboo scaffoldings of 
 fireworks. Every house-front was swept and newly 
 luted with clean mud, and the doorways were hung with 
 marigolds and strings of jasmine-buds. Through the 
 crowds tramped the sweating sweetmeat-dealers, vendors 
 of" hawks, dealers in cheap jewellery and glass brace- 
 lets and little English mirrors, while camels, loaded 
 with wedding gifts of far-off kings, ploughed through the 
 crowd, or the mace-bearers of the State cleared a path 
 with their silver staves for the passage of the Maha- 
 rajah's carriages. Forty barouches were in use, and, as 
 long as horse-flesh held out, or harness could be patched 
 with string, it did not beseem the dignity of the State to 
 provide less than four horses to each. As these horses 
 were untrained, and as the little native boys, out of 
 sheer lightness of heart, touched off squibs and crackers 
 at high noon, the streets were animated. 
 
 The hill on which the palace stood seemed to smoke 
 like a volcano, for the little dignitaries came without
 
 1 68 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 cessation, each expecting the salute of cannon due to 
 his rank. Between the roars of the ordnance, strains of 
 uncouth music would break from the red walls, and 
 presently some officer of the court would ride out of 
 one of the gates, followed by all his retinue, each man 
 gorgeous as a cock-pheasant in spring, his moustache 
 fresh oiled and curled fiercely over his ears ; or one of 
 the royal elephants, swathed in red velvet and bullion 
 from shoulder to ankle, would roll out under the weight 
 of his silver howdah, and trumpet till the streets were 
 cleared for his passage. Seventy elephants were fed 
 daily by the King — no mean charge, since each beast 
 consumed as much green fodder daily as he could carry 
 on his back, as well as thirty or forty pounds of flour. 
 Now and again one of the monsters, maddened by the 
 noise and confusion, and by the presence of strange rivals, 
 would be overtaken with paroxysms of blind fury. Then 
 he would be hastily stripped of his trappings, bound 
 with ropes and iron chains, hustled out of the city 
 between two of his fellows, and tied down half a mile 
 away by the banks of the Amet, to scream and rage till 
 the horses in the neighbouring camps broke their pickets 
 and stampeded wildly among the tents. Pertab Singh, 
 commandant of his Highness's body-guard, was in his 
 glory. Every hour of the day gave him excuse for 
 charging with his troop on mysterious but important 
 errands between the palace and the tents of the princes. 
 The formal interchange of visits alone occupied two 
 days. Each prince with his escort would solemnly drive 
 to the palace, and half an hour later the silver state 
 barouche and the Maharajah himself, jewelled from 
 head to heel, would return the visit, while the guns 
 gave word of the event to the city of houses and to 
 the city of tents. 
 
 When night fell on the camp there was no silence till 
 near the dawn, for strolling players, singers of songs, and
 
 THE NAULAHKA 169 
 
 tellers of stories, dancing girls, brawny Oudh wrestlers, 
 and camp followers beyond counting, wandered from 
 tent to tent making merry. When these had departed, 
 the temples in the city sent forth the hoarse cries of 
 conchs, and Kate, listening, seemed to hear in every 
 blast the wail of the little Maharaj Kunwar, who was 
 being prepared for his marriage by interminable prayers 
 and purifications. She saw as little of the boy as Tarvin 
 did of the King. In those days every request for an 
 audience was met with, " He is with his priests." Tarvin 
 cursed all the priests of Rhatore, and condemned to 
 every variety of perdition the hang-dog fakirs that 
 prowled about his path. 
 
 " I wish to goodness they'd come to a point with this 
 fool business," he said to himself. " I haven't got a 
 century to spend in Rhatore." 
 
 After nearly a week of uninterrupted clamour, blazing 
 sunshine, and moving crowds clad in garments, the colours 
 of which made Tarvin's eyes ache, there arrived, by the 
 same road that had borne Kate to the city, two car- 
 riages containing five Englishmen and three English- 
 women, who, later, walked about the city with lack-lustre 
 eyes, bored by the official duty which compelled them 
 to witness in the hot weather a crime which it was not 
 only beyond them to hinder, but to which they were 
 obliged to lend their official patronage. 
 
 The agent to the Governor-General — that is to say, 
 the official representative of the Viceroy in Rajputana — 
 had some time before represented to the Maharajah 
 that he might range himself in the way of progress and 
 enlightenment by ordering that his son should not be 
 given in marriage for another ten years. The Maha- 
 rajah, pleading the immemorial custom of his land 
 and the influence of the priests, gilded his refusal by 
 a generous donation to a woman's hospital in Calcutta 
 which was not in want of funds.
 
 170 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 For his own part, Tarvin could not comprehend how 
 any government could lend its countenance to this 
 wicked farce, calling itself a marriage, which was pre- 
 sently to be played out with the assistance of two 
 children. He was presently introduced to the agent 
 of the Governor-General, who was anxious to learn more 
 about the damming of the Amet. To be asked about 
 the damming of the Amet, when he was making no more 
 progress than at present with the Naulahka, seemed to 
 Tarvin, however, the last touch of insult, and he was 
 not communicative, asking the agent, instead, a number 
 of urgent questions about the approaching infamy 
 at the palace. The agent declaring the marriage to 
 be a political necessity, the destination suggested by 
 Tarvin for political necessities of this sort caused the 
 official to stiffen, and to look this wild American up 
 and down with startled curiosity. They parted on poor 
 terms. 
 
 With the rest of the party Tarvin was more at ease. 
 The agent's wife, a tall brunette, belonging to one 
 of those families which from the earliest days of the 
 East India Company have administered the fortunes of 
 India, solemnly inspected Kate's work at the hospital; 
 and being only a woman, and not an official, was at- 
 tracted, and showed that she was attracted, by the sad- 
 eyed little woman who did not talk about her work. 
 Therefore Tarvin devoted himself to the amusement 
 and entertainment of the agent's wife, and she pro- 
 nounced him an extraordinary person. "But, then, all 
 Americans are extraordinary, you know, though they're 
 so clever." 
 
 Not forgetting in the midst of this tumultuous pageant 
 that he was a citizen of Topaz, Tarvin told her about 
 that blessed city of the plain, away off there under the 
 Sauguache Range, where half his heart lay. He called 
 it "the magic city," implying that the dwellers of the
 
 THE NAULAHKA. 171 
 
 Western continent had agreed to call it so by general 
 consent. She was not bored ; she enjoyed it. Talk 
 of land and improvement companies, boards of trade, 
 town lots, and the Three C.'s was fresh to her, and it 
 became easy to lead up to what Tarvin actually had in 
 mind. What about the Naulahka ? Had she ever seen 
 it ? He asked these questions boldly. 
 
 No ; she knew nothing of the Naulahka. Her thoughts 
 were bounded by the thought of going home in the 
 spring. Home for her meant a little house near Sur- 
 biton, close to the Crystal Palace, where her three-year- 
 old boy was waiting for her; and the interests of the 
 other English men and women seemed equally remote 
 from Rajputana — not to mention the Naulahka. It was 
 only inferentially that Tarvin could gather that they had 
 spent the greater part of their working lives within the 
 limits of the country. They talked as gipsies might talk 
 by the roadside a little before the horses are put into 
 the caravan. The ways were hot, they implied, and 
 very dusty ; and they hoped one day to be able to rest. 
 The wedding was only one more weary incident on the 
 line of march, and they devoutly wished it over. One 
 of them even envied Tarvin for coming to the State 
 with his fresh eye and his lively belief in the possibility 
 of getting something out of the land beside a harvest of 
 regrets. 
 
 The last day of the marriage ceremonies began and 
 ended with more cannon, more fireworks, more clatter- 
 ing of hoofs, more trumpeting of elephants, and with 
 the clamour of bands trying to play " God Save the 
 Queen." The Maharaj Kunwar was to appear in the 
 evening (in an Indian state wedding the bride is neither 
 mentioned nor seen) at a banquet, where the agent of 
 the Governor-General would propose his health and that 
 of his father. The Maharaj was to make a speech in 
 his best English. A court scribe had already composed
 
 172 • THE NAULAHKA 
 
 a long oration to be used by his father. Tarvin was 
 beginning seriously to doubt whether he should ever see 
 the child alive again ; and, before the banquet, rode out 
 into the seething city to reconnoitre. It was twilight, 
 and the torches were flaring between the houses. Wild 
 outlanders from the desert, who had never seen a white 
 man before, caught his horse by the bridle, examined 
 him curiously, and with a grunt let him pass. The 
 many-coloured turbans showed under the flickering light 
 like the jewels of a broken necklace, and all the white 
 housetops were crowded with the veiled figures of 
 women. In half an hour the Maharaj Kunwar would 
 make his way from the royal temple to the banquet- 
 ing-tent at the head of a procession of caparisoned 
 elephants. 
 
 Tarvin forced his way inch by inch through the dense 
 crowd that waited at the foot of the temple steps. He 
 merely wished to satisfy himself that the child was well ; 
 he wanted to see him come from the temple. As he 
 looked about him he saw that he was the only white 
 man in the crowd, and pitied his jaded acquaintances, 
 who could find no pleasure in the wild scene under 
 his eyes. 
 
 The temple doors were closed, and the torchlight 
 flashed back from the ivory and silver with which 
 they were inlaid. Somewhere out of sight stood the 
 elephants, for Tarvin could hear their deep breathing 
 and an occasional squeal above the hum of the crowd. 
 Half a troop of cavalry, very worn and dusty with the 
 day's labours, were trying to clear an open space before 
 the temple, but they might as well have tried to divide 
 a rainbow. From the roofs of the houses the women 
 were throwing flowers, sweetmeats, and coloured rice 
 into the crowd, while small bards, not yet attached to 
 the house of any prince, chanted aloud in praise of the 
 Maharajah, the Maharaj Kunwar, the Viceroy, the agent
 
 THE NAULAHKA 173 
 
 of the Governor-General, Colonel Nolan, and any one 
 else who might possibly reward praise with pence. One 
 of these men, recognising Tarvin, struck up a chant in 
 his honour. He had come, said the song, from a far 
 country to dam an ungovernable river, and fill the 
 country-side with gold ; his step was like the step of a 
 dromedary in the spring ; his eye terrible as that of an 
 elephant ; and the graces of his person such that the 
 hearts of all the women of Rhatore turned to water when 
 he rode upon the public way. Lastly, he would reward 
 the singer of this poor song with untold generosity, and 
 his name and fame should endure in the land so long as 
 the flag of Gokral Seetarun had five colours, or as long 
 as the Naulahka adorned the throat of kings. 
 
 Then, with an ear-splitting shriek of conchs, the 
 temple doors opened inward, and the voices of the 
 crowd were hushed into a whisper of awe. Tarvin's 
 hands tightened on the reins of his horse, and he leaned 
 forward to stare. The opened doors of the temples 
 framed a square of utter darkness, and to the screeching 
 of the conchs was added a throbbing of innumerable 
 drums. A breath of incense, strong enough to make 
 him cough, drifted across the crowd, which were abso- 
 lutely silent now. 
 
 The next moment the Maharaj Kunwar, alone and 
 unattended, came out of the darkness, and stood in the 
 torchlight with his hands on the hilt of his sword. The 
 face beneath the turban, draped with loops of diamonds 
 under an emerald aigrette, was absolutely colourless. 
 There were purple circles about his eyes, and his mouth 
 was half open ; but the pity Tarvin felt for the child's 
 weariness was silenced by a sudden thrill and leap of his 
 heart, for on the gold cloth of the Maharaj Kunwar's 
 breast lay the Naulahka. 
 
 There was no need, this time, to ask any questions. 
 It was not he who saw it; its great deep eyes seemed to
 
 174 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 fall on him. It blazed with the dull red of the ruby, 
 the angry green of the emerald, the cold blue of the 
 sapphire, and the white, hot glory of the diamond. But 
 dulling all these glories was the superb radiance of one 
 gem that lay above the great carved emerald on the 
 central clasp. It was the black diamond — black as the 
 pitch of the infernal lake, and lighted from below with 
 the fires of hell. 
 
 The thing lay on the boy's shoulders, a yoke of flame. 
 It outshone the silent Indian stars above, turned the 
 tossing torches to smears of dull yellow, and sucked the 
 glitter from the cloth of gold on which it lay. 
 
 There was no time to think, to estimate, to appraise, 
 scarcely a moment even to realise, for the conchs 
 suddenly wailed again, the Maharaj stepped back into 
 the darkness, and the doors of the temple were shut.
 
 XV. 
 
 " From small-pox and the Evil Eye, a wasteful marriage-feast, 
 and the kindness of my co-wife, may the Gods protect my son." 
 
 — Hindu Proverb. 
 
 Tarvin made his way to the banquet with his face 
 aflame and his tongue dry between his teeth. He had 
 seen it. It existed. It was not a myth. And he would 
 have it ; he would take it back with him. Mrs. Mutrie 
 should hang it about the sculptured neck that looked so 
 well when she laughed ; and the Three C.'s should come 
 to Topaz. He would be the saviour of his town ; the 
 boys at home would take the horses out of his carriage 
 and drag him up Pennsylvania Avenue with their own 
 hands ; and town lots would sell next year in Topaz by 
 the running inch. 
 
 It was worth all the waiting, worth the damming of a 
 hundred rivers, worth a century of pachisi playing, and 
 a thousand miles of bullock-cart. As he drained a glass 
 to the health of the young Maharaj Kunwar at the 
 banquet that evening, he renewed his pledge to himself 
 to fight it out on this line if it took all summer. His 
 pride of success had lain low of late, and taken many 
 hurts ; but now that he had seen his prize he esteemed 
 it already within his grasp, as he had argued at Topaz 
 that Kate must be his because he loved her. 
 
 Next morning he woke with a confused notion that he 
 stood on the threshold of great deeds ; and then, in his 
 bath, he wondered whence he had plucked the certainty 
 
 and exultation of the night -before. He had, indeed, 
 
 175
 
 176 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 seen the Naulahka. But the temple doors had closed on 
 the vision. He found himself asking whether either 
 temple or necklace had been real, and in the midst of 
 his wonder and excitement was half way to the city 
 before he knew that he had left the rest-house. When 
 he came to himself, however, he knew well whither he 
 was going and what he was going for. If he had seen 
 the Naulahka, he meant to keep it in sight. It had 
 disappeared into the temple. To the temple, therefore, 
 he would go. 
 
 Fragments of burnt-out torches lay on the temple 
 steps among trampled flowers and spilt oil, and the 
 marigold garlands hung limp and wilted on the fat 
 shoulders of the black stone bulls that guarded the inner 
 court. Tarvin took off his white pith helmet (it was 
 very hot, though it was only two hours after dawn), 
 pushed back the scanty hair from his high forehead, 
 and surveyed the remnants of yesterday's feast. The 
 city was still asleep after its holiday. The doors of 
 the building were wide open, and he ascended the steps 
 and walked in, with none to hinder. 
 
 The formless, four-faced god Iswara, standing in the 
 centre of the temple, was smeared and discoloured with 
 stains of melted butter, and the black smoke of exhausted 
 incense. Tarvin looked at the figure curiously, half 
 expecting to find the Naulahka hung about one of its 
 four necks. Behind him, in the deeper gloom of the 
 temple, stood other divinities, many-handed and many- 
 headed, tossing their arms aloft, protruding their tongues, 
 and grinning at one another. The remains of many 
 sacrifices lay about them, and in the half light Tarvin 
 could see that the knees of one were dark with dried 
 blood. Overhead the dark roof ran up into a Hindu 
 dome, and there was a soft rustle and scratching of 
 nesting bats. 
 
 Tarvin, with his hat on the back of his head and
 
 THE N AULA UK A 177 
 
 his hands in his pockets, gazed at the image, looking 
 about him and whistling sofdy. He had been a month 
 in India, but he had not yet penetrated to the interior 
 of a temple. Standing there, he recognised with fresh 
 force how entirely the life, habits, and traditions of this 
 strange people alienated them from all that seemed 
 good and right to him ; and he was vaguely angered 
 to know that it was the servants of these horrors who 
 possessed a necklace which had power to change the 
 destiny of a Christian and civilised town like Topaz. 
 
 He knew that he would be expelled without ceremony 
 for profanation, if discovered, and made haste to finish 
 his investigations, with a half-formed belief that the 
 slovenliness of the race might have caused them to 
 leave the Naulahka about somewhere, as a woman 
 might leave her jewels on her dressing-table after a late 
 return from a ball the night before. He peered about 
 and under the gods, one by one, while the bats squeaked 
 above him. Then he returned to the central image 
 of Iswara, and in his former attitude regarded the 
 idol. 
 
 It occurred to him that, though he was on level ground, 
 most of his weight was resting on his toes, and he stepped 
 back to recover his balance. The slab of sandstone he 
 had just quitted rolled over slowly, as a porpoise rolls 
 in the still sea, revealing for an instant a black chasm 
 below. Then it shouldered up into its place again 
 without a sound, and Tarvin wiped the cold sweat from 
 his forehead. If he had found the Naulahka at that 
 instant he would have smashed it in pure rage. He went 
 out into the sunlight once more, devoting the country 
 where such things were possible to its own gods; he 
 could think of nothing worse. 
 
 A priest, sprung from an unguessable retreat, came 
 out of the temple immediately afterward, and smiled 
 upon him. 
 
 M
 
 178 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Tarvin, willing to renew his hold on the wholesome 
 world in which there were homes and women, betook 
 himself to the missionary's cottage, where he invited him- 
 self to breakfast. Mr. and Mrs. Estes had kept them- 
 selves strictly aloof from the marriage ceremony, but they 
 could enjoy Tarvin's account of it, delivered from the 
 Topaz point of view. Kate was unfeignedly glad to see 
 him. She was full of the discreditable desertion of 
 Dhunpat Rai and the hospital staff from their posts. 
 They had all gone to watch the wedding festivities, and 
 for three days had not appeared at the hospital. The 
 entire work of the place had devolved on herself and the 
 wild woman of the desert who was watching her husband's 
 cure. Kate was very tired, and her heart was troubled 
 with misgivings for the welfare of the little Prince, which 
 she communicated to Tarvin when he drew her out upon 
 the verandah after breakfast. 
 
 "I'm sure he wants absolute rest now," she said, 
 almost tearfully. " He came to me at the end of the 
 dinner last night — I was in the women's wing of the 
 palace — and cried for half an hour. Poor little baby ! 
 It's cruel." 
 
 " Oh, well, he'll be resting to-day. Don't worry." 
 
 " No ; to-day they take his bride back to her own 
 people again, and he has to drive out with the procession 
 or something — in this sun, too. It's very wicked. Doesn't 
 it ever make your head ache, Nick ? I sometimes think 
 of you sitting out on that dam of yours, and wonder how 
 you can bear it." 
 
 " I can bear a good deal for you, little girl," returned 
 Tarvin, looking down into her eyes. 
 
 " Why, how is that for me, Nick ? " 
 
 "You'll see if you live long enough," he assured her; 
 but he was not anxious to discuss his dam, and returned 
 to the safer subject of the Maharaj Kunwar. 
 
 Next day and the day after he rode aimlessly about
 
 TH-E NAULAHKA 179 
 
 in the neighbourhood of the temple, not caring to trust 
 himself within its walls again, but determined to keep his 
 eye upon the first and last spot where he had seen the 
 Naulahka. There was no chance at present of getting 
 speech with the only living person, save the King, whom 
 he definitely knew had touched the treasure. It was 
 maddening to await the reappearance of the Maharaj 
 Kunwar in his barouche, but he summoned what patience 
 he could. He hoped much from him ; but meanwhile 
 he often looked in at the hospital to see how Kate fared. 
 The traitor Dhunpat Rai and his helpers had returned ; 
 but the hospital was crowded with cases from the furthest 
 portions of the State — fractures caused by the King's 
 reckless barouches, and one or two cases, new in Kate's 
 experience, of men drugged, under the guise of friend- 
 ship, for the sake of the money they carried with them, 
 and left helpless in the public ways. 
 
 Tarvin, as he cast his shrewd eye about the perfectly 
 kept men's ward, humbly owned to himself that, after 
 all, she was doing better work in Rhatore than he. She 
 at least did not run a hospital to cover up deeper and 
 darker designs, and she had the inestimable advantage 
 over him of having her goal in sight. It was not 
 snatched from her after one maddening glimpse ; it was 
 not the charge of a mysterious priesthood, or of an im- 
 palpable State ; it was not hidden in treacherous temples, 
 nor hung round the necks of vanishing infants. 
 
 One morning, before the hour at which he usually set 
 out for the dam, Kate sent a note over to him at the 
 rest-house asking him to call at the hospital as soon 
 as possible. For one rapturous moment he dreamed of 
 impossible things. But smiling bitterly at his readiness 
 to hope, he lighted a cigar, and obeyed the order. 
 
 Kate met him on the steps, and led him into the 
 dispensary. 
 
 She laid an eager hand on his arm. " Do you know
 
 1S0 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 anything about the symptoms of hemp-poisoning?" she 
 asked him. 
 
 He caught her by both hands quickly, and stared 
 wildly into her face. "Why? Why? Has any one 
 been daring ?" 
 
 She laughed nervously. "No, no. It isn't me. It's 
 him." 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 "The Maharaj — the child. I'm certain of it now." 
 She went on to tell him how, that morning, the barouche, 
 the escort, and a pompous native had hurried up to the 
 missionary's door bearing the almost lifeless form of the 
 Maharaj Kunwar; how she had at first attributed the 
 attack, whatever it might be, to exhaustion consequent 
 upon the wedding festivities ; how the little one had 
 roused from his stupor, blue-lipped and hollow-eyed, and 
 had fallen from one convulsion into another, until she had 
 begun to despair ; and how, at the last, he had dropped 
 into a deep sleep of exhaustion, when she had left him 
 in the care of Mrs. Estes. She added that Mrs. Estes 
 had believed that the young prince was suffering from 
 a return of his usual malady; she had seen him in 
 paroxysms of this kind twice before Kate came. 
 
 "Now look at this," said Kate, taking down the 
 chart of her hospital cases, on which were recorded the 
 symptoms and progress of two cases of hemp-poisoning 
 that had come to her within the past week. 
 
 "These men," she said, "had been given sweetmeats 
 by a gang of travelling gipsies, and all their money was 
 taken from them before they woke up. Read for your- 
 self." 
 
 Tarvin read, biting his lips. At the end he looked 
 up at her sharply. 
 
 "Yes," he said, with an emphatic nod of his head — 
 "yes. Sitabhai?" 
 
 " Who else would dare ? " answered Kate passionately.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 1S1 
 
 " I know. I know. But how to stop her going on ! 
 how to bring it home to her ! " 
 
 "Tell the Maharajah," responded Kate decidedly. 
 
 Tarvin took her hand. "Good! I'll try it. But 
 there's no shadow of proof, you know." 
 
 " No matter. Remember the boy. Try. I must go 
 back to him now." 
 
 The two returned to the house of the missionary 
 together, saying very little on the way. Tarvin's indig- 
 nation that Kate should be mixed up in this miserable 
 business almost turned to anger at Kate herself, as he 
 rode beside her ; but his wrath was extinguished at 
 sight of the Maharaj Kunwar. The child lay on a bed 
 in an inner room at the missionary's, almost too weak to 
 turn his head. As Kate and Tarvin entered, Mrs. Estes 
 rose from giving him his medicine, said a word to Kate by 
 way of report, and returned to her own work. The child 
 was clothed only in a soft muslin coat ; but his sword 
 and jewelled belt lay across his feet. 
 
 "Salaam, Tarvin Sahib," he murmured. "I am very 
 sorry that I was ill." 
 
 Tarvin bent over him tenderly. " Don't try to talk, 
 little one." 
 
 " Nay ; I am well now," was the answer. " Soon we 
 will go riding together." 
 
 " Were you very sick, little man ? " 
 
 "I cannot tell. It is all dark to me. I was in the 
 palace laughing with some of the dance-girls. Then I fell. 
 And after that I remember no more till I came here." 
 
 He gulped down the cooling draught that Kate gave 
 him, and resettled himself on the pillows, while one wax- 
 yellow hand played with the hilt of his sword. Kate was 
 kneeling by his side, one arm under the pillow supporting 
 his head ; and it seemed to Tarvin that he had never 
 before done justice to the beauty latent in her good, plain, 
 strong features. The trim little figure took softer out-
 
 132 
 
 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 lines, the firm mouth quivered, the eyes were filled with 
 a light that Tarvin had never seen before. 
 
 " Come to the other side — so," said the child, beckon- 
 ing Tarvin in the native fashion, by folding all his tiny 
 fingers into his palms rapidly and repeatedly. Tarvin 
 knelt obediently on the other side of the couch. " Now 
 I am a king, and this is my court." 
 
 Kate laughed musically in her delight at seeing the 
 boy recovering strength. Tarvin slid his arm under the 
 pillow, found Kate's hand there, and held it. 
 
 The portiere at the door of the room dropped softly. 
 Mrs. Estes had stolen in for a moment, and imagined 
 that she saw enough to cause her to steal out again. 
 She had been thinking a great deal since the days when 
 Tarvin first introduced himself. 
 
 The child's eyes began to grow dull and heavy, and 
 Kate would have withdrawn her arm to give him another 
 draught. 
 
 "Nay; stay so," he said imperiously; and relapsing 
 into the vernacular, muttered thickly — " Those who serve 
 the King shall not lack their reward. They shall have 
 villages free of tax — three, five villages ; Sujjain, A met, 
 and Gungra. Let it be entered as a free gift when they 
 marry. They shall marry, and be about me always — 
 Miss Kate and Tarvin Sahib." 
 
 Tarvin did not understand why Kate's hand was with- 
 drawn swiftly. He did not know the vernacular as she 
 did. 
 
 " He is getting delirious again," said Kate, under her 
 breath. " Poor, poor little one ! " 
 
 Tarvin ground his teeth, and cursed Sitabhai between 
 them. Kate was wiping the damp forehead, and trying 
 to still the head as it was thrown restlessly from side to 
 side. Tarvin held the child's hands, which closed fiercely 
 on his own, as the boy was racked and convulsed by the 
 last effects of the hemp.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 183 
 
 For some minutes he fought and writhed, calling upon 
 the names of many gods, striving to reach his sword, 
 and ordering imaginary regiments to hang those white 
 dogs to the beams of the palace gate, and to smoke them 
 to death. 
 
 Then the crisis passed, and he began to talk to him- 
 self and to call for his mother. 
 
 The vision of a little grave dug in the open plain 
 sloping to the river, where they had laid out the Topaz 
 cemetery, rose before Tarvin's memory. They were lower- 
 ing Heckler's first baby into it, in its pine coffin ; and 
 Kate, standing by the grave-side, was writing the child's 
 name on the finger's length of smoothed pine which was 
 to be its only headstone. 
 
 " Nay, nay, nay ! " wailed the Maharaj Kunwar.. " I 
 am speaking the truth ; and oh, I was so tired at that 
 pagal dance in the temple, and I only crossed the court- 
 yard. ... It was a new girl from Lucknow ; she sang 
 the song of ' The Green Pulse of Mundore.' . . . Yes ; 
 but only some almond curd. I was hungry, too. A 
 little white almond curd, mother. Why should I not 
 eat when I feel inclined ? Am I a sweeper's son, or a 
 prince ? Pick me up ! pick me up ! It is very hot 
 inside my head. . . . Louder. I do not understand. 
 Will they take me over to Kate? She will make all 
 well. What was the message ? " The child began to 
 wring his hands despairingly. " The message ! The 
 message ! I have forgotten the message. No one in 
 the State speaks English as I speak English. But I 
 have forgotten the message. 
 
 " ' Tiger, tiger, burning bright 
 In the forests of the night, 
 What immortal hand or eye 
 Framed thy fearful symmetry ? ' 
 
 Yes, mother; till she cries. I am to say the whole of
 
 184 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 it till she cries. I will not forget. I did not forget 
 the first message. By the great god Har ! I have for- 
 gotten this message." And he began to cry. 
 
 Kate, who had watched so long by bedsides of pain, 
 was calm and strong ; she soothed the child, speaking 
 to him in a low, quieting voice, administering a sedative 
 draught, doing the right thing, as Tarvin saw, surely and 
 steadily, undisturbed. It was he who was shaken by 
 the agony that he could not alleviate. 
 
 The Maharaj Kunwar drew a long, sobbing breath, 
 and contracted his eyebrows. 
 
 " Mahadeo kijai!" he shouted. " It has come back. 
 A gipsy has done this. A gipsy has done this. And I 
 was to say it until she cried." 
 
 Kate half rose, with an awful look at Tarvin. He 
 returned it, and, nodding, strode from the room, clashing 
 the tears from his eyes.
 
 XVI. 
 
 '* ] I carl of my heart, is il meet or wise 
 To warn a King of his enemies? 
 We know what Heaven or Hell may bring, 
 But no man knowelh the mind of the King." 
 
 — The Ballad of the King's Jest. 
 
 i: Want to see the Maharajah." 
 
 " He cannot be seen." 
 
 " I shall wait until he comes." 
 
 " He will not be seen all day." 
 
 "Then I shall wait all day." 
 
 Tarvin settled himself comfortably in his saddle, and 
 drew up in the centre of the courtyard, where he was 
 wont to confer with the Maharajah. 
 
 The pigeons were asleep in the sunlight, and the little 
 fountain was talking to itself, as a pigeon coos before 
 settling to its nest. The white marble nagging glared 
 like hot iron, and waves of heat flooded him from the 
 green-shaded walls. The guardian of the gate tucked 
 himself up in his sheet again and slept. And with him 
 slept, as it seemed, the whole world in a welter of 
 silence as intense as the heat. Tarvin's horse champed 
 his bit, and the echoes of the ringing iron tinkled 
 from side to side of the courtyard. The man himself 
 whipped a silk handkerchief round his neck as some 
 slight protection against the peeling sunbeams, and, 
 scorning the shade of the archway, waited in the open 
 that the Maharajah might see there was an urgency in 
 
 his visit. 
 
 ■
 
 1 86 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 In a few minutes there crept out of the stillness a 
 sound like the far-off rustle of wind across a wheat- 
 field on a still autumn day. It came from behind the 
 green shutters, and with its coming Tarvin mechanically 
 straightened himself in the saddle. It grew, died down 
 again, and at last remained fixed in a continuous mur- 
 mur, for which the ear strained uneasily — such a murmur 
 as heralds the advance of a loud racing tide in a night- 
 mare, when the dreamer cannot flee nor declare his 
 terror in any voice but a whisper. After the rustle 
 came the smell of jasmine and musk that Tarvin knew 
 well. 
 
 The palace wing had wakened from its afternoon 
 siesta, and was looking at him with a hundred eyes. 
 He felt the glances that he could not see, and they 
 filled him with wrath as he sat immovable, while the 
 horse swished at the flies. Somebody behind the 
 shutters yawned a polite little yawn. Tarvin chose to 
 regard it as an insult, and resolved to stay where he 
 was till he or the horse dropped. The shadow of the 
 afternoon sun crept across the courtyard inch by inch, 
 and wrapped him at last in stifling shade. 
 
 There was a muffled hum — quite distinct from the 
 rustle — of voices within the palace. A little ivory inlaid 
 door opened, and the Maharajah rolled into the court- 
 yard. He was in the ugliest muslin undress, and his 
 little saffron-coloured Rajput turban was set awry on 
 his head, so that the emerald plume tilted drunkenly. 
 His eyes were red with opium, and he walked as a 
 bear walks when he is overtaken by the dawn in the 
 poppy-field, where he has gorged his fill through the 
 night watches. 
 
 Tarvin's face darkened at the sight, and the Maha- 
 rajah, catching the look, bade his attendants stand back 
 out of earshot. 
 
 "Have you been waiting long, Tarvin Sahib?" he
 
 THE NAULAHKA 1S7 
 
 asked huskily, with an air of great good- will. "You 
 know I see no man at this afternoon hour, and — and 
 they did not bring me the news." 
 
 " I can wait," said Tarvin composedly. 
 
 The King seated himself in the broken Windsor 
 chair, which was splitting in the heat, and eyed Tarvin 
 suspiciously. 
 
 "Have they given you enough convicts from the 
 jails ? Why are you not on the dam, then, instead of 
 breaking my rest ? By God ! is a King to have no peace 
 because of you and such as you ? " 
 
 Tarvin let this outburst go by without comment. 
 
 " I have come to you about the Maharaj Kunwar," he 
 said quietly. 
 
 " What of him ? " said the Maharajah quickly. " I — 
 I — have not seen him for some days." 
 
 "Why?" asked Tarvin bluntly. 
 
 " Affairs of state and urgent political necessity," mur- 
 mured the King, evading Tarvin's wrathful eyes. " Why 
 should I be troubled by these things, when I know that 
 no harm has come to the boy ? " 
 
 "No harm!" 
 
 " How could harm arrive ? " The voice dropped into 
 an almost conciliatory whine. " You yourself, Tarvin 
 Sahib, promised to be his true friend. That was on the 
 day you rode so well, and stood so well against my body- 
 guard. Never have I seen such riding, and therefore 
 why should I be troubled ? Let us drink." 
 
 He beckoned to his attendants. One of them came 
 forward with a long silver tumbler concealed beneath 
 his flowing garments, and poured into it an allowance 
 of liqueur brandy that made Tarvin, used to potent 
 drinks, open his eyes. The second man produced a 
 bottle of champagne, opened it with a skill born of long 
 practice, and filled up the tumbler with the creaming 
 wine.
 
 iSS THE NAULAHKA 
 
 The Maharajah drank deep, and wiped the foam from 
 his beard, saying apologetically — "Such things are not 
 for political agents to see ; but you, Sahib, are true 
 friend of the State. Therefore I let you see. Shall 
 they mix you one like this ? " 
 
 " Thanks. I didn't come here to drink. I came to 
 tell you that the Maharaj has been very ill." 
 
 " I was told there was a little fever," said the King, 
 leaning back in his chair. "But he is with Miss 
 Sheriff, and she will make all well. Just a little fever, 
 Tarvin Sahib. Drink with me." 
 
 " A little hell ! Can you understand what I am 
 saying ? The little chap has been half poisoned." 
 
 " Then it was the English medicines," said the Maha- 
 rajah, with a bland smile. "Once they made me very 
 sick, and I went back to the native hakims. You are 
 always making funny talks, Tarvin Sahib." 
 
 With a mighty effort Tarvin choked down his rage, 
 and tapped his foot with his riding-whip, speaking very 
 clearly and distinctly— " I haven't come here to make 
 funny talk to-day. The little chap is with Miss Sheriff 
 now. He was driven over there ; and somebodv in 
 the palace has been trying to poison him with hemp." 
 
 " Bhang ! " said the Maharajah stupidly. 
 
 " I don't know what you call the mess, but he has been 
 poisoned. But for Miss Sheriff he would have died— 
 your first son would have died. He has been poisoned 
 —do you hear, Maharajah Sahib ?— and by some one in 
 the palace." 
 
 " He has eaten something bad, and it has made him 
 sick," said the King surlily. " Little boys eat anything. 
 By God ! no man would dare to lay a finger on my 
 son." 
 
 "What would you do to prevent it?" 
 The Maharajah half rose to his feet, and his red eyes 
 filled with fury. " I would tie him to the forefoot of my
 
 THE NAULAHKA 1S9 
 
 bigeest elephant, and kill him through an afternoon ! " 
 Then he relapsed, foaming, into the vernacular, and 
 poured out a list of the hideous tortures that were within 
 his will but not in his power to inflict. " I would do all 
 these things to any man who touched him," he con- 
 cluded. 
 
 Tarvin smiled incredulously. 
 
 " I know what you think," stormed the King, maddened 
 by the liquor and the opium. " You think that because 
 there is an English government I can make trials only by 
 law, and all that nonsense. Stuff! What do I care for 
 the law that is in books? Will the walls of my palace 
 tell anything that I do?" 
 
 "They won't. If they did, they might let you know 
 that it is a woman inside the palace who is at the bottom 
 of this." 
 
 The Maharajah's face turned grey under its brown. 
 Then he burst forth anew, almost huskily — "Am I a 
 king or a potter that I must have the affairs of my 
 zenana dragged into the sunlight by any white dog 
 that chooses to howl at me? Go out, or the guard 
 will drive you out like a jackal." 
 
 "That's all right," said Tarvin calmly. "But what 
 has it to do with the Prince, Maharajah Sahib ? Come 
 over to Mr. Estes's and I'll show you. You've had some 
 experience of drugs, I suppose. You can decide for 
 yourself. The boy has been poisoned." 
 
 "It was an accursed day for my State when I first 
 allowed the missionaries to come, and a worse day 
 when I did not drive you out." 
 
 " Not in the least. I'm here to look after the Maharaj 
 Kunwar, and I'm going to do it. You prefer leaving 
 him to be killed by your women." 
 
 "Tarvin Sahib, do you know what you say?" 
 
 "Shouldn't be saying it if I didn't. I have all the 
 proof in my hands."
 
 igo THE NAULAHKA 
 
 "But when there is a poisoning there are no proofs 
 of any kind, least of all when a woman poisons ! One 
 does justice on suspicion, and by the English law it is 
 a most illiberal policy to kill on suspicion. Tarvin 
 Sahib, the English have taken away from me everything 
 that a Rajput desires, and I and the others are rolling 
 in idleness like horses that never go to exercise. But 
 at least I am master there ! " 
 
 He waved a hand toward the green shutters, and 
 spoke in a lower key, dropping back into his chair, and 
 closing his eyes. 
 
 Tarvin looked at him despairingly. 
 
 "No one man would dare — no man would dare," 
 murmured the Maharajah more faintly. "And as for 
 the other thing that you spoke of, it is not in your 
 power. By God ! I am a Rajput and a king. I do 
 not talk of the life behind the curtain." 
 
 Then Tarvin took his courage in both hands and 
 spoke. 
 
 " I don't want you to talk," he said ; " I merely want 
 to warn you against Sitabhai. She's poisoning the 
 Prince." 
 
 The Maharajah shuddered. That a European should 
 mention the name of his queen was in itself sufficient 
 insult, and one beyond all his experience. But that a 
 European should cry aloud in the open courtyard a 
 charge such as Tarvin had just made surpassed imagina- 
 tion. The Maharajah had just come from Sitabhai, who 
 had lulled him to rest with songs and endearments 
 sacred to him alone ; and here was this lean outlander 
 assailing her with vile charges. But for the drugs he 
 would, in the extremity of his rage, have fallen upon 
 Tarvin, who was saying, " I can prove it quite enough 
 to satisfy Colonel Nolan." 
 
 The Maharajah stared at Tarvin with shiny eyes, and 
 Tarvin thought for a moment that he was going to fall
 
 THE NAULAHKA 191 
 
 in a fit ; but it was the drink and the opium reasserting 
 their power upon him. He mumbled angrily. The 
 head fell forward, the words ceased, and he sat in his 
 chair breathing heavily, as senseless as a log. 
 
 Tarvin gathered up his reins, and watched the sodden 
 monarch for a long time in silence, as the rustle behind 
 the shutters rose and fell. Then he turned to go, and 
 rode out through the arch, thinking. 
 
 Something sprang out of the darkness where the guard 
 slept, and where the King's fighting apes were tethered ; 
 and the horse reared as a grey ape, its chain broken at 
 the waist-band, flung itself on the pommel of the saddle, 
 chattering. Tarvin felt and smelt the beast. It thrust 
 one paw into the horse's mane, and with the other en- 
 circled his own throat. Instinctively he reached back, 
 and before the teeth under the grimy blue gums had 
 time to close he had fired twice, pressing the muzzle of 
 the pistol into the hide. The creature rolled off to 
 the ground, moaning like a human being, and the 
 smoke of the two shots drifted back through the hollow 
 of the arch and dissolved in the open courtyard.
 
 XVII. 
 
 " Strangers drawn from the ends of the earth, jewelled and plumed 
 
 were we ; 
 I was the Lord of the Inca Race, and she was the Queen of the 
 
 Sea. 
 Under the stars beyond our stars where the reinless meteors glow, 
 1 lotly we stormed Valhalla, a million years ago. 
 
 Dust of the stars was under our feet, glitter of stars above — 
 Wrecks of our wrath dropped reeling down as we fought and we 
 
 spurned and we strove ; 
 Worlds upon worlds we tossed aside, and scattered them to 
 
 and fro, 
 The night that we stormed Valhalla, a million years ago. 
 
 She with the star I had marked for my own — I with my set 
 
 desire — - 
 Lost in the loom of the Night of Nights, 'wildered by worlds 
 
 afire — 
 Met in a war 'twixt love and hate where the reinless meteors 
 
 glow, 
 Hewing our way to Valhalla, a million years ago." 
 
 — The Sack of the Gods. 
 
 In summer the nights of the desert are hotter than the 
 days, for when the sun goes down earth, masonry, and 
 marble give forth their stored heat, and the low clouds, 
 promising rain and never bringing it, allow nothing to 
 escape. 
 
 Tarvin was lying at rest in the verandah of the rest- 
 house, smoking a cheroot and wondering how far he had 
 bettered the case of the Maharaj Kunwar by appealing 
 to the Maharajah. His reflections were not disturbed ; 
 
 the last of the commercial travellers had gone back to 
 
 192
 
 THE NAULAHKA 193 
 
 Calcutta and Bombay, grumbling up to the final moment 
 of their stay, and the rest-house was all his own. Sur- 
 veying his kingdom, he meditated, between the puffs of 
 his cheroot, on the desperate and apparently hopeless 
 condition of things. They had got to the precise point 
 where he liked them. When a situation looked as this 
 one did, only Nicholas Tarvin could put it through and 
 come out on top. Kate was obdurate ; the Naulahka 
 was damnably coy ; the Maharajah was ready to turn 
 him out of the State. Sitabhai had heard him denounce 
 her. His life was likely to come to a sudden and myste- 
 rious end, without so much as the satisfaction of knowing 
 that Heckler and the boys would avenge him ; and if it 
 went on, it looked as though it would have to go on 
 without Kate, and without the gift of new life to Topaz 
 — in other words, without being worth the trouble of 
 living. 
 
 The moonlight, shining on the city beyond the sands, 
 threw fantastic shadows on temple spires and the watch- 
 towers along the walls. A dog in search of food snuffed 
 dolefully about Tarvin's chair, and withdrew to howl at 
 him at a distance. It was a singularly melancholy howl. 
 Tarvin smoked till the moon went down in the thick 
 darkness of an Indian night. She had scarcely set when 
 he was aware of something blacker than the night be- 
 tween him and the horizon. 
 
 "Is it you, Tarvin Sahib?" the voice inquired in 
 broken English. 
 
 Tarvin sprang to his feet before replying. He was 
 beginning to be a little suspicious of fresh apparitions. 
 His hand went to his hip pocket. Any horror, he 
 argued, might jump out at him from the darkness 
 in a country managed on the plan of a Kiralfy trick 
 spectacle. 
 
 " Nay ; do not be afraid," said the voice. " It is I — 
 Juggut Singh." 
 
 N
 
 i 9 4 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Tarvin pulled thoughtfully at his cigar. " The State 
 is full of Singhs," he said. " Which ? " 
 
 " I, Juggut Singh, of the household of the Maha- 
 rajah." 
 
 " H'm. Does the King want to see me ? " 
 
 The figure advanced a pace nearer. 
 
 " No, Sahib ; the Queen." 
 
 " Which?" repeated Tarvin. 
 
 The figure was in the verandah at his side, almost 
 whispering in his ear. " There is only one who would 
 dare to leave the palace. It is the Gipsy." 
 
 Tarvin snapped his fingers blissfully and soundlessly 
 in the dark, and made a little click of triumph with his 
 tongue. " Pleasant calling hours the lady keeps," he 
 said. 
 
 " This is no place for speaking, Sahib. I was to say, 
 ' Come, unless you are afraid of the dark.' " 
 
 " Oh, were you? Well, now, look here, Juggut; let's 
 talk this thing out. I'd like to see your friend Sitabhai. 
 W T here are you keeping her ? Where do you want me 
 to go ? " 
 
 "I was to say, 'Come with me.' Are you afraid?" 
 The man spoke this time at his own prompting. 
 
 " Oh, I'm afraid fast enough," said Tarvin, blowing a 
 cloud of smoke from him. " It isn't that." 
 
 " There are horses — very swift horses. It is the 
 Queen's order. Come with me." 
 
 Tarvin smoked on, unhurrying ; and when he finally 
 picked himself out of the chair it was muscle by muscle. 
 He drew his revolver from his pocket, turned the 
 chambers slowly one after another to the vague light, 
 under Juggut Singh's watchful eye, and returned it to 
 his pocket again, giving his companion a wink as he 
 did so. 
 
 "Well, come on, Juggut," he said, and they passed 
 behind the rest-house to a spot where two horses, their
 
 THE NAULAHKA 195 
 
 heads enveloped in cloaks to prevent them from neigh- 
 ing, were waiting at their pickets. The man mounted 
 one, and Tarvin took the other silently, satisfying himself 
 before getting into the saddle that the girths were not 
 loose this time. They left the city road at a walking 
 pace by a cart-track leading to the hills. 
 
 "Now," said Juggut Singh, after they had gone a 
 quarter of a mile in this fashion, and were alone under 
 the stars, " we can ride." 
 
 He bowed forward, struck his stirrups home, and 
 began lashing his animal furiously. Nothing short of 
 the fear of death would have made the pampered eunuch 
 of the palace ride at this pace. Tarvin watched him roll 
 in the saddle, chuckled a little, and followed. 
 
 "You wouldn't make much of a cow-puncher, Juggut, 
 would you ? " 
 
 " Ride ! " gasped Juggut Singh. " For the cleft 
 between the two hills — ride ! " 
 
 The dry sand flew behind their horses' hoofs, and the 
 hot winds whistled about their ears as they headed up 
 the easy slope toward the hills, three miles from the 
 palace. In the old days, before the introduction of 
 telegraphs, the opium speculators of the desert were 
 wont to telegraph the rise and fall in the price of the 
 drug from little beacon-towers on the hills. It was to- 
 ward one of these disused stations that Juggut Singh was 
 straining. The horses fell into a walk as the slope grew 
 steeper, and the outline of the squat-domed tower began 
 to show clear against the sky. A few moments later 
 Tarvin heard the hoofs of their horses ring on solid 
 marble, and saw that he was riding near the edge of a 
 great reservoir, full of water to the lip. 
 
 Eastward, a few twinkling lights in the open plain 
 showed the position of Rhatore, and took him back to 
 the night when he had said good-bye to Topaz from the 
 rear platform of a Pullman. Night-fowl called to one
 
 i 9 6 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 another from the weeds at the far end of the tank, and a 
 great fish leaped at the reflection of a star. 
 
 " The watch-tower is at the further end of the dam," 
 said Juggut Singh. " The Gipsy is there." 
 
 " Will they never have done with that name?" uttered 
 an incomparably sweet voice out of the darkness. ' It 
 is well that I am of a gentle temper, or the fish would 
 know more of thee, Juggut Singh." 
 
 Tarvin checked his horse with a jerk, for almost under 
 his bridle stood a figure enveloped from head to foot in 
 a mist of pale yellow gauze. It had started up from 
 behind the red tomb of a once famous Rajput cavalier 
 who was supposed by the country side to gallop nightly 
 round the dam he had built. This was one of the reasons 
 why the Dungar Talao was not visited after nightfall. 
 
 " Come down, Tarvin Sahib," said the voice mockingly 
 in English. " I, at least, am not a grey ape. Juggut 
 Singh, go wait with the horses below the watch-tower." 
 " Yes, Juggut ; and don't go to sleep," enjoined Tarvin 
 
 « we might want you." He alighted, and stood before 
 
 the veiled form of Sitabhai. 
 
 " Shekand," she said, after a little pause, putting out a 
 hand that was smaller even than Kate's. " Ah, Sahib, 
 I knew that you would come. I knew that you were 
 not afraid." 
 
 She held his hand as she spoke, and pressed it 
 tenderly. Tarvin buried the tiny hand deep in his 
 engulfing paw, and, pressing it in a grip that made her 
 give an involuntary cry, shook it with a hearty motion. 
 
 " Happy to make your acquaintance," he said, as she 
 murmured under her breath, "By Indur, he has a 
 
 hold ! " 
 
 "And I am pleased to see you, too," she answered 
 aloud. Tarvin noted the music of the voice. He 
 wondered what the face behind the veil might look 
 like.
 
 THE NAULAIIKA 197 
 
 She sat down composedly on the slab of the tomb, 
 motioning him to a seat beside her. 
 
 "All white men like straight talk," she said, speaking 
 slowly, and with uncertain mastery of English pro- 
 nunciation. "Tell me, Tarvin Sahib, how much you 
 know." 
 
 She withdrew her veil as she spoke, and turned her 
 face toward him. Tarvin saw that she was beautiful. 
 The perception thrust itself insensibly between him and 
 his other perceptions about her. 
 
 " You don't want me to give myself away, do you, 
 Queen?" 
 
 " I do not understand. But I know you do not talk 
 like the other white men," she said sweetly. 
 
 " Well, then, you don't expect me to tell you the 
 truth?" 
 
 "No," she replied. "Else you would tell me why 
 you are here. Why do you give me so much trouble ? " 
 
 " Do I trouble you ? " 
 
 Sitabhai laughed, throwing back her head, and clasp- 
 ing her hands behind her neck. Tarvin watched her 
 curiously in the starlight. All his senses were alert ; he 
 was keenly on his guard, and he cast a wary eye about 
 and behind him from time to time. But he could see 
 nothing but the dull glimmer of the water that lapped at 
 the foot of the marble steps, and hear nothing save the 
 cry of the night-owls. 
 
 "O Tarvin Sahib," she said. "You know! After 
 the first time I was sorry." 
 
 "Which time was that?" inquired Tarvin vaguely. 
 
 "Of course it was when the saddle turned. And 
 then when the timber fell from the archway I thought at 
 least that I had maimed your horse. Was he hurt ? " 
 
 " No," said Tarvin, stupefied by her engaging frank- 
 ness. 
 
 " Surely you knew," she said almost reproachfully.
 
 1 9 8 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 He shook his head. " No, Sitabhai, my dear," he 
 said slowly and impressively. " I wasn't on to you, and 
 it's my eternal shame. But I'm beginning to sabe. 
 You worked the little business at the dam, too, I sup- 
 pose, and the bridge and the bullock-carts. And I 
 thought it was their infernal clumsiness ! Well, I'll 
 
 be " He whistled melodiously, and the sound 
 
 was answered by the hoarse croak of a crane across 
 the reeds. 
 
 The Queen leaped to her feet, thrusting her hand into 
 her bosom. "A signal!" Then, sinking back upon 
 the slab of the tomb, " But you have brought no one 
 with you. I know you are not afraid to go alone." 
 
 "Oh, I'm not trying to do you up, young lady," he 
 answered. " I'm too busy admiring your picturesque 
 and systematic deviltry. So you're at the bottom of all 
 my troubles? That quicksand trick was a pretty one. 
 Do you often work it ? " 
 
 " Oh, on the dam ! " exclaimed the Queen, waving her 
 hands lightly. " I only gave them orders to do what 
 they could. But they are very clumsy people — only 
 coolie people. They told me what they had done, and 
 I was angry." 
 
 " Kill any one ?" 
 
 "No; why should I?" 
 
 " Well, if it comes to that, why should you be so hot 
 on killing me?" inquired Tarvin dryly. 
 
 " I do not like any white men to stay here, and I 
 knew that you had come to stay." Tarvin smiled at the 
 unconscious Americanism. "Besides," she went on, 
 "the Maharajah was fond of you, and I had never 
 killed a white man. Then, too, I like you." 
 
 " Oh ! " responded Tarvin expressively. 
 
 "By Malang Shah, and you never knew ! " She was 
 swearing by the god of her own clan — the god of the 
 gipsies.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 199 
 
 "Well, don't rub it in," said Tarvin. 
 
 " And you killed my big pet ape," she went on. " He 
 used to salaam to me in the mornings like Luchman 
 Rao, the prime minister. Tarvin Sahib, I have known 
 many Englishmen. I have danced on the slack-rope 
 before the mess-tents of the officers on the line of 
 march, and taken my little begging gourd up to the 
 big bearded colonel when I was no higher than his 
 knee." She lowered her hand to within a foot of the 
 ground. "And when I grew older," she continued, 
 " I thought that I knew the hearts of all men. But, 
 by Making Shah, Tarvin Sahib. I never saw a man like 
 unto you ! Nay," she went on almost beseechingly, "do 
 not say that you did not know. There is a love song in 
 my tongue, ' I have not slept between moon and moon 
 because of you ; ' and indeed for me that song is quite 
 true. Sometimes I think that I did not quite wish to 
 see you die. But it would be better that you were 
 dead. I, and I alone, command this State. And now, 
 after that which you have told the King " 
 
 "Yes? You heard, then?" 
 
 She nodded. "After that I cannot see that there is 
 any other way — unless you go away." 
 
 " I'm not going," said Tarvin. 
 
 " That is good," said the Queen, with a little laugh. 
 "And so I shall not miss seeing you in the courtyard 
 day by day. I thought the sun would have killed you 
 when you waited for the Maharajah. Be grateful to me, 
 Tarvin Sahib, for I made the Maharajah come out. And 
 you did me an ill turn." 
 
 " My dear young lady," said Tarvin earnestly, " if 
 you'd pull in your wicked little fangs, no one wants 
 to hurt you. But I can't let you beat me about the 
 Maharaj Kunwar. I'm here to see that the young man 
 stays with us. Keep off the grass, and I'll drop it." 
 
 "Again I do not understand," said the Queen, be-
 
 soo THE NAULAHKA 
 
 wildered. " But what is the life of a little child to you 
 who are a stranger here ? " 
 
 "What is it to me? Why, it's fair-play ; it's the life of 
 a little child. What more do you want? Is nothing 
 sacred to you ? " 
 
 " I also have a son," returned the Queen, " and he 
 is not weak. Nay, Tarvin Sahib, the child always was 
 sickly from his birth. How can he govern men ? My 
 
 son will be a Rajput ; and in the time to come But 
 
 that is no concern of the white men. Let this little one 
 go back to the gods ! " 
 
 "Not if I know it," responded Tarvin decisively. 
 
 "Otherwise," swept on the Queen, "he will live infirm 
 and miserable for ninety years. I know the bastard 
 Kulu stock that he comes from. Yes ; I have sung at 
 the gate of his mother's palace when she and I were 
 children — I in the dust, and she in her marriage-litter. 
 To-day she is in the dust. Tarvin Sahib" — her voice 
 melted appealingly — " I shall never bear another son ; 
 but I may at least mould the State from behind the 
 curtain, as many queens have done. I am not a palace- 
 bred woman. Those "—she pointed scornfully toward 
 the lights of Rhatore — " have never seen the wheat 
 wave, or heard the wind blow, or sat in a saddle, or 
 talked face to face with men in the streets. They call 
 me the gipsy, and they cower under their robes like fat 
 slugs when I choose to lift my hand to the Maharajah's 
 beard. Their bards sing of their ancestry for twelve hun- 
 dred years. They are noble, forsooth ! By Indur and 
 Allah — yea, and the God of your missionaries too — their 
 children and the British Government shall remember me 
 for twice twelve hundred years. AM, Tarvin Sahib, you 
 do not know how wise my little son is. I do not let him 
 go to the missionary's. All that he shall need afterward 
 — and indeed it is no little thing to govern this State — 
 he shall learn from me ; for I have seen the world, and
 
 THE NAULAHKA 201 
 
 I know. And until you came all was going so softly, so 
 softly, to its end ! The little one would have died — 
 yes ; and there would have been no more trouble. And 
 never man nor woman in the palace would have breathed 
 to the King one word of what you cried aloud before the 
 sun in the courtyard. Now, suspicion will never cease 
 in the King's mind, and I do not know — I do not 
 
 know " She bent forward earnestly. "Tarvin Sahib, 
 
 if I have spoken one word of truth this night, tell me 
 how much is known to you." 
 
 Tarvin preserved absolute silence. She stole one 
 hand pleadingly on his knee. " And none would have 
 suspected. When the ladies of the Viceroy came last 
 year, I gave out of my own treasures twenty-five thou- 
 sand rupees to the nursing hospital, and the lady sahib 
 kissed me on both cheeks, and I talked English, and 
 showed them how I spent my time knitting — I who knit 
 and unknit the hearts of men." 
 
 This time Tarvin did not whistle ; he merely smiled 
 and murmured sympathetically. The large and masterly 
 range of her wickedness, and the coolness with which she 
 addressed herself to it, gave her a sort of distinction. 
 More than this, he respected her for the personal achieve- 
 ment which of all feats most nearly appeals to the breast 
 of the men of the West — she had done him up. It 
 was true her plans had failed ; but she had played them 
 all on him without his knowledge. He almost revered 
 her for it. 
 
 " Now you begin to understand," said Sitabhai ; 
 "there is something more to think of. Do you mean to 
 go to Colonel Nolan, Sahib, with all your story about 
 me ? " 
 
 " Unless you keep your hands off the Maharaj Kunwar 
 — yes," said Tarvin, not allowing his feelings to interfere 
 with business. 
 
 "That is very foolish," said the Queen; "because
 
 202 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Colonel Nolan will give much trouble to the King, and 
 the King will turn the palace into confusion, and every 
 one of my handmaids, except a few, will give witness 
 against me; and I perhaps shall come to be much 
 suspected. Then you would think, Tarvin Sahib, that 
 you had prevented me. But you cannot stay here for 
 ever. You cannot stay here until I die. And so socn 
 as you are gone " She snapped her fingers. 
 
 "You won't get the chance," said Tarvin unshakenly. 
 " I'll fix that. What do you take me for ? " 
 
 The Queen bit the back of her forefinger irresolutely. 
 There was no saying what this man, who strode un- 
 harmed through her machinations, might or might not 
 be able to do. Had she been dealing with one of her 
 own race she would have played threat against threat. 
 But the perfectly composed and loose-knit figure by her 
 side, watching every movement, chin in hand, ready, 
 alert, confident, was an unknown quantity that baffled 
 and distressed her. 
 
 There was a sound of a discreet cough, and Juggut 
 Singh waddled toward them, bowing abjectly, to whisper 
 something to the Queen; She laughed scornfully, and 
 motioned him back to his post. 
 
 " He says the night is passing," she explained, " and 
 it is death for him and for me to be without the 
 palace." 
 
 " Don't let me keep you," said Tarvin, rising. " I 
 think we understand each other." He looked into her 
 eyes. "Hands off !" 
 
 "Then I may not do what I please?" she said, "and 
 you will go to Colonel Nolan to-morrow?" 
 
 "That depends," said Tarvin, shutting his lips. He 
 thrust his hand into his pockets as he stood looking 
 down at her. 
 
 "Seat yourself again a moment, Tarvin Sahib," said 
 Sitabhai, patting the slab of the tomb invitingly with her
 
 THE NAULAHKA 203 
 
 little palm. Tarvin obeyed. "Now, if I let no more 
 timber fall, and keep the grey apes tied fast " 
 
 "And dry up the quicksands in the Amet River," 
 pursued Tarvin grimly. " I see. My dear little spitfire, 
 you are at liberty to do what you like. Don't let me 
 interfere with your amusements." 
 
 " I was wrong. I should have known that nothing 
 would make you afraid," said she, eyeing him thought- 
 fully out of the corner of her eye ; " and, excepting you, 
 Tarvin Sahib, there is no man that I fear. If you were 
 a king as I a queen, we would hold Hindustan between 
 our two hands." 
 
 She clasped his locked fist as she spoke, and Tarvin, 
 remembering that sudden motion to her bosom when he 
 had whistled, laid his own hand quickly above hers, and 
 held them fast. 
 
 " Is there nothing, Tarvin Sahib, that would make 
 you leave me in peace? What is it you care for? You 
 did not come here to keep the Maharaj Kunwar alive." 
 
 " How do you know I didn't ? " 
 
 "You are very wise," she said, with a little laugh, 
 " but it is not good to pretend to be too wise. Shall I 
 tell you why you came ? " 
 
 "Well, why did I ? Speak up." 
 
 "You came here, as you came to the temple of Iswara, 
 to find that which you will never find, unless" — she 
 leaned toward him — " I help you. Was it very cold in 
 the Cow's Mouth, Tarvin Sahib?" 
 
 Tarvin drew back, frowning, but not betraying himself 
 further. 
 
 "I was afraid that the snakes would have killed you 
 there ? " 
 
 " Were you?" 
 
 "Yes," she said softly. "And I was afraid, too, that 
 you might not have stepped swiftly enough for the turn- 
 ing stone in the temple."
 
 20 4 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Tarvin glanced at her. " No ? " 
 
 " Yes. Ah ! I knew what was in your mind, even 
 before you spoke to the King— when the body-guard 
 charged." 
 
 "See here, young woman, do you run a private in- 
 quiry agency?" 
 
 She laughed. "There is a song in the palace now 
 about your bravery. But the boldest thing was to speak 
 to the King about the Naulahka. He told me all you 
 said. But he — even he did not dream that any feringhi 
 could dare to covet it. And I was so a;ood — I did not 
 tell him. But I knew men like you are not made for 
 little things. Tarvin Sahib," she said, leaning close, 
 releasing her hand and laying it softly on his shoulder, 
 "you and I are kin indeed! For it is more easy to 
 govern this State — ay, and from this State to recapture 
 all Hindustan from these white dogs, the English — than 
 to do what you have dreamed of. And yet a stout heart 
 makes all things easy. Was it for yourself, Tarvin Sahib, 
 that you wanted the Naulahka, or for another — even as 
 I desire Gokral Seetarun for my son ? We are not little 
 people. It is for another, is it not?" 
 
 "Look here," said Tarvin reverently, as he took her 
 hand from his shoulder and held it firmlv in his clutch 
 again, "are there many of you in India?" 
 
 " But one. I am like yourself — alone." Her chin 
 drooped against his shoulder, and she looked up at him 
 out of her eyes as dark as the lake. The scarlet mouth 
 and the quivering nostrils were so close to his own that 
 the fragrant breath swept his cheek. 
 
 " Are you making states, Tarvin Sahib, like me ? No ; 
 surely it is a woman. Your government is decreed for 
 you, and you do what it orders. I turned the canal 
 which the Government said should run through my 
 orange-garden, even as I will bend the King to my will, 
 even as I will kill the boy, even as I will myself rule in
 
 THE NAULAHKA 205 
 
 Gokral Seetarun through my child. But you, Tarvin 
 Sahib — you wish only a woman! Is it not so? And 
 she is too little to bear the weight of the Luck of the 
 State. She grows paler day by day." She felt the man 
 quiver, but he said nothing. 
 
 From the tangle of scrub and brushwood at the far 
 end of the lake broke forth a hoarse barking cough 
 that filled the hills with desolation as water brims a cup. 
 Tarvin leaped to his feet. For the first time he heard 
 the angry complaint of the tiger going home to his lair 
 after a fruitless night of ranging. 
 
 " It is nothing," said the Queen, without stirring. " It 
 is only the tiger of the Dungar Talao. I have heard 
 them howling many times when I was a gipsy, and even 
 if he came you would shoot him, would you not, as you 
 shot the ape? " 
 
 She nestled close to him, and, as he sank beside her 
 on the stone again, his arm slipped unconsciously about 
 her waist. 
 
 The shadow of the beast drifted across an open space 
 by the lake-shore as noiselessly as thistle-down draws 
 through the air of summer, and Tarvin's arm tightened 
 in its resting-place — tightened on a bossed girdle that 
 struck cold on his palm through many folds of muslin. 
 
 " So little and so frail — how could she wear it ? " re- 
 sumed the Queen. 
 
 She turned a little in his embrace, and Tarvin's arm 
 brushed against one, and another, and then another, 
 strand of the girdle, studded like the first with irregular 
 bosses, till under his elbow he felt a great square 
 stone. 
 
 He started, and tightened his hold about her waist, 
 with paling lips. 
 
 "But we two," the Queen went on, in a low voice, 
 regarding him dreamily, "could make the kingdom fight 
 like the water-buffaloes in spring. Would you be my
 
 206 THE NAULAHKA *' 
 
 prime minister, Tarvin Sahib, and advise me through 
 the curtain?" 
 
 " I don't know whether I could trust you," said Tarvin 
 briefly. 
 
 " I do not know whether I could trust myself," re- 
 sponded the Queen ; " for after a time it might be that I 
 should be servant who have always been queen. I have 
 come near to casting my heart under the hoofs of your 
 horse — not once, but many times." She put her arms 
 around his neck and joined them there, gazing into his 
 eyes, and drawing his head down to hers. " Is it a little 
 thing," she cooed, "if I ask you to be my king? In 
 the old days, before the English came, Englishmen 
 of no birth stole the hearts of begums, and led their 
 armies. They were kings in all but the name. "We do 
 not know when the old days may return, and we might 
 lead our armies together." 
 
 " All right. Keep the place open for me. I might 
 come back and apply for it one of these days when 
 I've worked a scheme or two at home." 
 
 "Then you are going away — you will leave us soon? " 
 
 " I'll leave you when I've got what I want, my dear," 
 he answered, pressing her closer. 
 
 She bit her lip. " I might have known," she said 
 softly. " I, too, have never turned aside from anything 
 I desired. Well, and what is it ? " 
 
 The mouth drooped a little at the corners, as the head 
 fell on his shoulder. Glancing down, he saw the ruby- 
 jewelled jade handle of a little knife at her breast. 
 
 He disengaged himself from her arms with a quick 
 movement, and rose to his feet. She was very lovely as 
 she stretched her arms appealingly out to him in the half 
 light ; but he was there for other things. 
 
 Tarvin looked at her between the eyes, and her glance 
 fell. 
 
 "I'll take what you have around your waist, please."
 
 THE NAULAHKA 207 
 
 " I might have known that the white man thinks only 
 of money ! " she cried scornfully. 
 
 She unclasped a silver belt from her waist and threw 
 it from her, clinking, upon the marble. 
 
 Tarvin did not give it a glance. 
 
 "You know me better than that," he said quietly. 
 " Come, hold up your hands. Your game is played." 
 
 "I do not understand," she said. "Shall I give you 
 some rupees ? " she asked scornfully. " Be quick, Juggut 
 Singh is bringing the horses." 
 
 "Oh, I'll be quick enough. Give me the Naulahka." 
 
 "TheNaulahka?" 
 
 "The same. I'm tired of tipsy bridges and ungirt 
 horses and uneasy arches and dizzy quicksands. I want 
 the necklace." 
 
 " And I may have the boy ? " 
 
 "No ; neither boy nor necklace. 
 
 " And will you go to Colonel Nolan in the morning ? " 
 
 "The morning is here now. You'd better be quick." 
 
 "Will you go to Colonel Nolan," she repeated, rising 
 and facing him. 
 
 " Yes ; if you don't give me the necklace." 
 
 "And if I do?" 
 
 "No. Is it a trade?" It was his question to Mrs. 
 Mutrie. 
 
 The Queen looked desperately at the day-star that was 
 beginning to pale in the East. Even her power over 
 the King could not save her from death if the day dis- 
 covered her beyond the palace walls. 
 
 The man spoke as one who held her life in the hollow 
 of his hand ; and she knew he was right. If he had proof 
 he would not scruple to bring it before the Maharajah ; 
 
 and if the Maharajah believed Sitabhai could feel 
 
 the sword at her throat. She would be no founder of a 
 dynasty, but a nameless disappearance in the palace. 
 Mercifully, the King had not been in a state to under-
 
 20S THE NAULAIIKA 
 
 stand the charges Tarvin had brought against her in 
 the courtyard. But she lay open now to anything this 
 reckless and determined stranger might choose to do 
 against her. At the least he could bring upon her the 
 formless suspicion of an Indian court, worse than death 
 to her plans, and the removal of Maharaj Kunwar 
 beyond her power, through the interposition of Colonel 
 
 Nolan ; and at the worst But she did not pursue 
 
 this train of thought. 
 
 She cursed the miserable weakness of liking for him 
 which had prevented her from killing him just now as 
 he lay in her arms. She had meant to kill him from the 
 first moment of their interview ; she had let herself toy 
 too long with the fascination of being dominated by a 
 will stronger than her own, but there was still time. 
 
 "And if I do not give you the Naulahka?" she 
 asked. 
 
 " I guess you know best about that." 
 
 As her eye wandered out on the plain she saw that 
 the stars no longer had fire in them ; the black water of 
 the reservoir paled and grew grey, and the wild fowl 
 were waking in the reeds. The dawn was upon her, as 
 merciless as the man. Juggut Singh was leading up the 
 horses, motioning to her in an agony of impatience and 
 terror. The sky was against her ; and there was no 
 help on earth. 
 
 She put her hands behind her. Tarvin heard the 
 snap of a clasp, and the Naulahka lay about her feet in 
 ripples of flame. 
 
 Without looking at him or the necklace, she moved 
 toward the horses. Tarvin stooped swiftly and possessed 
 himself of the treasure. Juggut Singh had released his 
 horse. Tarvin strode forward and caught at the bridle, 
 cramming the necklace into his breast-pocket. 
 
 He bent to make sure of his girth. The Queen, 
 standing behind her horse, waited an instant to mount.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 209 
 
 " Good-bye, Tarvin Sahib ; and remember die gipsy," 
 she said, flinging her arm out over the horse's withers. 
 "Heh/ n 
 
 A flicker of light passed his eye. The jade handle 
 of the Queen's knife quivered in the saddle-flap, half 
 an inch above his right shoulder. His horse plunged 
 forward at the Queen's stallion, with a snort of pain. 
 
 " Kill him, Juggut Singh !" gasped the Queen, point- 
 ing to Tarvin, as the eunuch scrambled into his saddle. 
 "Kill him!" 
 
 Tarvin caught her tender wrist in his fast grip. "Easy 
 there, girl! Easy!" She returned his gaze, baffled. 
 " Let me put you up," he said. 
 
 He put his arms about her and swung her into the 
 saddle. 
 
 " Now give us a kiss," he said, as she looked down 
 at him. 
 
 She stooped. " No, you don't ! Give me your hands." 
 He prisoned both wrists, and kissed her full upon the 
 mouth. Then he smote the horse resoundingly upon 
 the flank, and the animal blundered down the path and 
 leaped out into the plain. 
 
 He watched the Queen and Juggut Singh disapjn ar 
 in a cloud of dust and flying stones, and turned with a 
 deep sigh of relief to the lake. Drawing the Naulahka 
 from its resting-place, and laying it fondly out upon his 
 hands, he fed his eyes upon it. 
 
 The stones kindled with the glow of the dawn, and 
 mocked the shifting colours of the hill. The shining 
 ropes of gems put to shame the red glare that shot up 
 from behind the reeds, as they had dulled the glare of 
 the torches on the night of the little Prince's wedding. 
 The tender green of the reeds themselves, the intense 
 blue of the lake, the beryl of the flashing kingfishers, 
 and the blinding ripples spreading under the first rays of 
 the sun, as a bevy of coots flapped the water from their 
 
 o
 
 210 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 wings — the necklace abashed them all. Only the black 
 diamond took no joy from the joy of the morning, but lay 
 among its glorious fellows as sombre and red-hearted as 
 the troublous night out of which Tarvin had snatched it. 
 
 Tarvin ran the stones through his hands one by one, 
 and there were forty-five of them — each stone perfect 
 and flawless of its kind : nipped, lest any of its beauty 
 should be hidden, by a tiny gold clasp, each stone swing- 
 ing all but free from the strand of soft gold on which it 
 was strung, and each stone worth a king's ransom or a 
 queen's good name. 
 
 It was a good moment for Tarvin. His life gathered 
 into it. Topaz was safe ! 
 
 The wild duck were stringing to and fro across the lake, 
 and the cranes called to one another, stalking through 
 reeds almost as tall as their scarlet heads. From some 
 temple hidden among the hills a lone priest chanted 
 sonorously as he made the morning sacrifice to his 
 god, and from the city in the plain came the boom of 
 the first ward-drums, telling that the gates were open 
 and the day was born. 
 
 Tarvin lifted his head from the necklace. The jade- 
 handled knife was lying at his feet. He picked up the 
 delicate weapon and threw it into the lake. 
 
 " And now for Kate," he said.
 
 XVIII. 
 
 " Now we are come to our Kingdom, 
 And the State is thus and thus : 
 Our legions wait at the palace gate — 
 Little it profits us, 
 
 Now we are come to our Kingdom. 
 
 Now we are come to our Kingdom, 
 
 The crown is ours to take — 
 With a naked sword at the council board, 
 
 And under the throne of the snake, 
 
 Now we are come to our Kingdom. 
 
 Now we are come to our Kingdom, 
 
 But my love's eyelids fall, 
 All that I wrought for, all that I fought for, 
 Delight her nothing at all. 
 My crown is withered leaves, 
 For she sits in the dust and grieves, 
 
 Now we are come to our Kingdom" 
 
 — King Anthony. 
 
 The palace on its red rock seemed to be still asleep 
 as he cantered across the empty plain. A man on a 
 camel rode out of one of the city gates at right angles to 
 his course, and Tarvin noted with interest how swiftly a 
 long-legged camel of the desert can move. Familiar 
 as he had now become with the ostrich-necked beasts, 
 he could not help associating them with Barnum's Circus 
 and boyhood memories. The man drew near and 
 crossed in front of him. Then, in the stillness of the 
 morning, Tarvin heard the dry click of a voice he under- 
 stood. It was the sound made by bringing up the car- 
 tridge of a repeating rifle. Mechanically he slipped from
 
 212 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 the saddle, and was on the other side of the horse as the 
 rifle spoke, and a puff of blue smoke drifted up and hung 
 motionless above the camel. 
 
 " I might have known she'd get in her work early," he 
 muttered, peering over his horse's withers. " I can't 
 drop him at this distance with a revolver. What's the 
 fool waiting for ? " 
 
 Then he perceived that, with characteristic native in- 
 aptitude, the man had contrived to jam his lever, and 
 was beating it furiously on the forepart of the saddle. 
 He remounted hastily, and galloped up, revolver in hand, 
 to cover the blanched visage of juggut Singh. 
 
 " You 1 Why, Juggut, old man, this isn't kind of 
 you." 
 
 " It was an order," said Juggut, quivering with appre- 
 hension. " It was no fault of mine. I — I do not under- 
 stand these things." 
 
 " I should smile. Let me show you." He took the 
 rifle from the trembling hand. " The cartridge is jammed, 
 my friend ; it don't shoot as well that way. It only needs 
 a little knack — so ! You ought to learn it, Juggut." He 
 jerked the empty shell over his shoulder. 
 
 " What will you do to me ? " cried the eunuch. " She 
 would have killed me if I had not come." 
 
 "Don't you believe it, Juggut. She's a Jumbo at 
 theory, but weak in practice. Go on ahead, please." 
 
 They started back toward the city, Juggut leading the 
 way on his camel, looking back apprehensively every 
 minute. Tarvin smiled at him dryly but reassuringly, 
 balancing on his hip the captured rifle. He observed 
 that it was a very good rifle if properly used. 
 
 At the entrance to Sitabhai's wing of the palace, 
 Juggut Singh dismounted and slunk into the courtyard, 
 the livid image of fear and shame. Tarvin clattered 
 after him, and as the eunuch was about to disappear 
 through a door, called him back.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 213 
 
 "You have forgotten your gun, Juggut," he said. 
 " Don't be afraid of it." Juggut was putting up a doubt- 
 ful hand to take it from him. " It won't hurt anybody 
 this trip. Take yourself back to the lady, and tell her 
 you are returned, with thanks." 
 
 No sound came to his ear from behind the green 
 shutters as he rode away, leaving Juggut staring after 
 him. Nothing fell unon him from out of the arch,- and 
 the apes were tied securely. Sitabhai's next move was 
 evidently yet to be played. 
 
 His own next move he had already reckoned with. 
 It was a case for bolting. 
 
 He rode to the mosque outside the city, routed out 
 his old friend in dove-coloured satin, and made him send 
 this message : — 
 
 " Mrs. Mutrie, Denver. — Necklace is yours. Get 
 throat ready and lay that track into Topaz. — Tarvin." 
 
 Then he turned his horse's head toward Kate. He 
 buttoned his coat tightly across his chest, and patted the 
 resting-place of the Naulahka fondly, as he strode up the 
 path to the missionary's verandah, when he had tethered 
 Fibby outside. His high good humour with himself 
 and the world spoke through his eyes as he greeted Mrs. 
 Estes at the door. 
 
 "You have been hearing something pleasant," she 
 said. " Won't you come in ? " 
 
 " Well, either the pleasantest, or next to the pleasantest; 
 I'm not sure which," he answered with a smile, as he 
 followed her into the familiar sitting-room. " I'd like 
 to tell you all about it, Mrs. Estes. I feel almightily 
 like telling somebody. But it isn't a healthy story for 
 this neighbourhood." He glanced about him. "Id 
 hire the town-crier and a few musical instruments and 
 advertise it, if I had my way ; and we'd all have a little 
 Fourth of July celebration and a bonfire, and I'd read
 
 214 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 the Declaration of Independence over the natives with 
 a relish. But it won't do. There is a story I'd like to 
 tell you, though," he added, with a sudden thought. 
 "You know why I come here so much, don't you, Mrs. 
 Estes — I mean outside of your kindness to me, and my 
 liking you all so much, and our always having such good 
 times together? You know, don't you?" 
 
 Mrs. Estes smiled. " I suppose I do," she said. 
 
 " Well ; that's right ! That's right. I thought you 
 did. Then, I hope you're my friend ! " 
 
 " If you mean that I wish you well, I do. But you 
 can understand that I feel responsible for Miss Sheriff. 
 I have sometimes thought I ought to let her mother 
 know." 
 
 " Oh, her mother knows ! She's full of it. You might 
 say she liked it. The trouble'isn't there, you know, Mrs. 
 Estes." 
 
 "No. She's a singular girl; very strong, very sweet. 
 I've grown to love her dearly. She has wonderful courage. 
 But I should like it better for her if she would give it up, 
 and all that goes with it. She would be better married," 
 she said meditatively. 
 
 Tarvin gazed at her admiringly. " How wise you are, 
 Mrs. Estes ! How wise you are ! " he murmured. "If 
 I've told her that once I've told her a dozen times. 
 Don't you think, also, that it would be better if she were 
 married at once — right away, without too much loss of 
 time?" 
 
 His companion looked at him to see if he was in 
 earnest. Tarvin was sometimes a little perplexing to 
 her. " I think if you are clever you will leave it to 
 the course of events," she replied, after a moment. 
 " I have watched her work here, hoping that she 
 might succeed where every one else has failed. But I 
 know in my heart that she won't. There's too much 
 against her. She's working against thousands of years
 
 THE NAULAHKA 215 
 
 of traditions, and training, and habits of life. Sooner ot 
 later they are certain to defeat her ; and then, whatever 
 her courage, she must give in. I've thought sometimes 
 lately that she might have trouble very soon. There's 
 a good deal of dissatisfaction at the hospital. Lucien 
 hears some stories that make me anxious." 
 
 "Anxious! I should say so. That's the worst of it. 
 It isn't only that she won't come to me, Mrs. Estes — ■ 
 that vou can understand — but she is running her head 
 meanwhile into all sorts of impossible dangers. I 
 haven't time to wait until she sees that point. I haven't 
 time to wait until she sees any point at all but that 
 this present moment, now and here, would be a good 
 moment in which to marry Nicholas Tarvin. I've got 
 to get out of Rhatore. That's the long and the short 
 of it, Mrs. Estes. Don't ask me why. It's necessary. 
 And I must take Kate with me. Help me if you love 
 her." 
 
 To this appeal Mrs. Estes made the handsomest 
 response in her power, by saying that she would go up 
 and tell her that he wished to see her. This seemed to 
 take some time; and Tarvin waited patiently, with a 
 smile on his lips. He did not doubt that Kate would 
 yield. In the glow of another success it was not possible 
 to him to suppose that she would not come around now. 
 Had he not the Naulahka? She went with it; she was 
 indissolubly connected with it. Yet he was willing to 
 impress into his service all the help he could get, and he 
 was glad to believe that Mrs. Estes was talking to her. 
 
 It was an added prophecy of success when he found 
 from a copy of a recent issue of the Topaz Telegram^ 
 which he picked up while he waited, that the " Lingering 
 Lode" had justified his expectations. The people he 
 had left in charge had struck a true fissure vein, and 
 were taking out $500 a week. He crushed the paper 
 into his pocket, restraining an inclination to dance;
 
 21 6 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 it was perhaps safest, on reflection, to postpone that 
 exercise until he had seen Kate. The little consratu- 
 latory whistle that he struck up instead, he had to sober 
 a moment later into a smile as Kate opened the door 
 and came in to him. There could be no two ways about 
 it with her now. His smile, do what he would, almost 
 said as much. 
 
 A single glance at her face showed him, however, that 
 the affair struck her less simply. He forgave her ; she 
 could not know the source of his inner certitude. He 
 even took time to like the grey house-dress, trimmed 
 with black velvet, that she was wearing in place of the 
 white which had become habitual to her. 
 
 " I'm glad you've dropped white for a moment," he 
 said, as he rose to shake hands with her. "It's a sign. 
 It represents a general abandonment and desertion of 
 this blessed country ; and that's just the mood I want 
 to find you in. I want you to drop it, chuck it, throw 
 it up." He held her brown little hand in the swarthy 
 fist he pushed out from his own white sleeve, and looked 
 down into her eyes attentively. 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " India — the whole business. I want you to come 
 with me ? " He spoke gently. 
 
 She looked up, and he saw in the quivering lines 
 about her mouth signs of the contest on this theme she 
 had passed through before coming down to him. 
 
 "You are eoing? I'm so glad." She hesitated a 
 moment. "You know why?" she added, with what he 
 saw was an intention of kindness. 
 
 Tarvin laughed as he seated himself. " I like that. 
 Yes; I'm going," he said. "But I'm not going alone. 
 You're in the plan," he assured her, with a nod. 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "No; don't say that, Kate. You mustn't. It's 
 serious this time."
 
 THE NAULAHKA 217 
 
 "Hasn't it always been?" she sank into a chair. 
 " It's always been serious enough for me — that I couldn't 
 do what you wish, I mean. Not doing it — that is doing 
 something else ; the one thing I want to do — is the most 
 serious thing in the world to me. Nothing has happened 
 to change me, Nick. I would tell you in a moment if 
 it had. How is it different for either of us ? " 
 
 " Lots of ways. But that I've got to leave Rhatore 
 for a sample. You don't think I'd leave you behind 
 I hope." 
 
 She studied the hands she had folded in her lap for a 
 moment. Then she looked up and faced him with her 
 open gaze. 
 
 "Nick," she said, "let me try to explain as clearly as 
 I can how all this seems to me. You can correct me 
 if I'm wrong." 
 
 " Oh, you're sure to be wrong ! " he cried ; but he 
 leaned forward. 
 
 " Well, let me try. You ask me to marry you? " 
 
 "I do," answered Tarvin solemnly, "(jive me a 
 chance of saying that before a clergyman, and you'll 
 see." 
 
 " I am grateful, Nick. It's a gift — the highest, the 
 best, and I'm grateful. But what is it you really want ? 
 Shall you mind my asking that, Nick? You want me 
 to round out your life ; you want me to complete your 
 other ambitions. Isn't that so ? Tell me honestly, 
 Nick ; isn't that so?" 
 
 " No ! " roared Tarvin. 
 
 "Ah, but it is! Marriage is that way. It is riiiht. 
 Marriage means that — to be absorbed into another's life : 
 to live your own, not as your own but another's. It is 
 a good life. It's a woman's life. I can like it ; I can 
 believe in it. But I can't see myself in it. A woman 
 gives the whole of herself in marriage — in all happy 
 marriages. I haven't the whole of myself to give. It
 
 2:S THE NAULAHKA 
 
 belongs to something else. And I couldn't offer you 
 a part ; it is all the best men give to women, but from 
 a woman it would do no man any good." 
 
 " You mean that you have the choice between giving 
 up your work and giving up me, and that the last is 
 easiest." 
 
 " I don't say that ; but suppose I did, would it be 
 so strange ? Be honest, Nick. Suppose I asked you to 
 give up the centre and meaning of your life ? Suppose 
 I asked you to give up your work ? And suppose I 
 offered in exchange — marriage ! No, no ! " She shook 
 her head. " Marriage is good ; but what man would 
 pay that price for it ? " 
 
 " My dearest girl, isn't that just the opportunity of 
 women ? " 
 
 " The opportunity of the happy women — yes ; but it 
 isn't given to every one to see marriage like that. Even 
 for women there is more than one kind of devotion." 
 
 '•' Oh, look here, Kate ! A man isn't an Orphan 
 Asylum or a Home for the Friendless. You take him 
 too seriously. You talk as if you had to make him 
 your leading charity, and give up everything to the busi- 
 ness. Of course you have to pretend something of the 
 kind at the start, but in practice you only have to eat 
 a few dinners, attend a semi-annual board meeting, and 
 a strawberry festival or two to keep the thing going. 
 It's just a general agreement to drink your coffee with 
 a man in the morning, and be somewhere around, not 
 too far from the fire, in not too ugly a dress, when he 
 comes home in the evening. Come ! It's an easy con- 
 tract. Try me, Kate, and you'll see how simple I'll 
 make it for you. I know about the other things. I 
 understand well enough that you would never care for 
 a life which didn't allow you to make a lot of people 
 happy besides your husband. I recognise that. I begin 
 with it. And I say, that's just what I want. You have
 
 THE NAULAHKA 219 
 
 a talent for making folks happy. Well, I secure you on a 
 special agreement to make me happy, and after you've 
 attended to that, I want you to sail in and make the 
 whole world bloom with your kindness. And you'll do 
 it, too. Confound it, Kate. weUl do it ! No one knows 
 how good two people could he if they formed a syndi- 
 cate and made a business of it. It hasn't been tried. Try 
 it with me ! O Kate, I love you, I need you, and if 
 you'll let me, I'll make a life for you ! " 
 
 " I know, Nick, you would be kind. You would do 
 all that a man can do. But it isn't the man who makes 
 marriages happy or possible ; it's the woman, and it must 
 be. I should either do my part and shirk the other, 
 and then I should be miserable ; or I should shirk you 
 and be more miserable. Either way such happiness is 
 not for me." 
 
 Tarvin's hand found the Naulahka within his breast, 
 and clutched it tight. Strength seemed to go out of it 
 into him — strength to restrain himself from losing all by 
 a dozen savage words. 
 
 " Kate, my girl," he said quietly, " we haven't time to 
 conjure dangers. We have to face a real one. You are 
 not safe here. I can't leave you in this place, and I've 
 got to go. That is why I ask you to marry me at once." 
 
 " But I fear nothing. Who would harm me ? " 
 
 " Sitabhai," he answered grimly. " But what difference 
 does it make ? I tell you, you are not safe. Be sure 
 that I know." 
 
 " And you ? " 
 
 "Oh, I don't count." 
 
 " The truth, Nick ! " she demanded. 
 
 " Well, I always said that there was nothing like the 
 climate of Topaz." 
 
 " You mean you are in danger — great danger, perhaps." 
 
 " Sitabhai isn't going round hunting for ways to save 
 my precious life, that's a fact." He smiled at her.
 
 220 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " Then you must go away at once ; you mustn't lose 
 an hour. O Nick, you won't wait ! " 
 
 "That's what I say. I can do without Rhatore ; but 
 I can't do without you. You must come." 
 
 " Do you mean that if I don't you will stay ? " she 
 asked desperately. 
 
 " No ; that would be a threat. I mean I'll wait for 
 you." His eyes laughed at her. 
 
 " Nick, is this because of what I asked you to do ? " 
 she demanded suddenly. 
 
 "You didn't ask me," he defended. 
 
 " Then it is, and I am much to blame." 
 
 "What, because I spoke to the King? My dear girl, 
 that isn't more than the introductory walk-around of this 
 circus. Don't run away with any question of responsi- 
 bility. The only thing you are responsible for at this 
 moment is to run with me — flee, vamoose, get out ! 
 Your life isn't worth an hour's purchase here. I'm con- 
 vinced of that. And mine isn't worth a minute's." 
 
 "You see what a situation you put me in," she said 
 accusingly. 
 
 " I don't put you in it ; but I offer you a simple 
 solution." 
 
 "Yourself!" 
 
 " Well, yes ; I said it was simple. I don't claim it's 
 brilliant. Almost any one could do more for you ; and 
 there are millions of better men, but there isn't one who 
 could love you better. O Kate, Kate," he cried, rising, 
 " trust yourself to my love, and I'll back myself against 
 the world to make you happy." 
 
 " No, no," she exclaimed eagerly ; " you must go 
 away." 
 
 He shook his head. " I can't leave you. Ask that of 
 some one else. Do you suppose a man who loves you 
 can abandon you in this desert wilderness to take your 
 chances ? Do you suppose any man could do that ?
 
 THE NAULAHKA 221 
 
 Kate, my darling, come with me. You torment me, 
 you kill me, by forcing me to allow you a sinqle moment 
 out of my sight. I tell you, you are in imminent, deadly 
 peril. You won't stay, knowing that. Surely you won't 
 sacrifice your life for these creatures." 
 
 " Yes," she cried, rising, with the uplifted look on her 
 face. "Yes ! If it is good to live for them, it is good 
 to die for them. I do not believe my life is necessary ; 
 but if it is necessary, that too ! " 
 
 Tarvin gazed at her, baffled, disheartened, at a loss. 
 "And you won't come?" 
 
 "I can't. Good-bye, Nick. It's the end." 
 
 He took her hand. " Good afternoon," he responded. 
 " It's end enough tor to-day." 
 
 She pursued him anxiously with her eye as he turned 
 away; suddenly she started after him, "But you will 
 go ? " 
 
 " Go ! No ! No ! " he shouted. " I'll stay now if I 
 have to organise a standing army, declare myself king, 
 and hold the rest-house as the seat of government. 
 Go/" 
 
 She put forth a detaining, despairing hand, but he 
 was gone. 
 
 Kate returned to the little Maharaj Kunwar, who had 
 been allowed to lighten his convalescence by bringing 
 down from the palace a number of his toys and pets. 
 She sat down by the side of the bed, and cried tor a 
 long time silently. 
 
 ''What is it, Miss Kate?" asked the Prince, after he 
 had watched her tor some minutes, wondering. 'In- 
 deed, I am quite well now, so there is nothing to cry 
 for. When I go back to the paiace I will tell my father 
 all that you have done for me, and he will give you a 
 village. We Rajputs do not forget." 
 
 "It's not that, Lalji," she said, stooping over him, 
 drying her tear-stained eyes.
 
 222 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 "Then my father will give you two villages. No one 
 must cry when I am getting well, for I am a king's son. 
 Where is Moti? I want him to sit upon a chair." 
 
 Kate rose obediently, and began to call for the 
 Maharaj Kunwar's latest pet — a little grey monkey, 
 with a gold collar, who wandered at liberty through the 
 house and garden, and at night did his best to win a 
 place for himself by the young Prince's side. He 
 answered the call from the boughs of a tree in the 
 garden, where he was arguing with the wild parrots, 
 and entered the room, crooning softly in the monkey 
 tongue. 
 
 " Come here, little Hanuman," said the Prince, raising 
 one hand. The monkey bounded to his side. "I 
 have heard of a king," said the Prince, playing with 
 his golden collar, "who spent three lakhs in marrying 
 two monkeys. Moti, wouldst thou like a wife? No, 
 no — a gold collar is enough for thee. We will spend 
 our three lakhs in marrying Miss Kate to Tarvin Sahib, 
 when we get well, and thou shalt dance at the wedding." 
 He was speaking in the vernacular, but Kate understood 
 too well the coupling of her name with Tarvin's. 
 
 " Don't, Lalji, don't ! " 
 
 " Why not, Kate ? Why, even I am married." 
 
 " Yes, yes. But it is different. Kate would rather 
 you didn't, Lalji." 
 
 "Very well," answered the Maharaj, with a pout. 
 "Now I am only a little child. When I am well I will 
 be a king again, and no one can refuse my gifts. Listen. 
 Those are my father's trumpets. He is coming to 
 see me." 
 
 A bugle call sounded in the distance. There was a 
 clattering of horses' feet, and a little later the Maharajah's 
 carriage and escort thundered up to the door of the 
 missionary's house. Kate looked anxiously to see if 
 the noise irritated her young charge; but his eyes
 
 THE NAULAHKA %r- 
 
 brightened, his nostrils quivered, and he whispered, as 
 his hand tightened on the hilt of the sword always by 
 his side — 
 
 " That is very good ! My father has brought all his 
 
 sowars." 
 
 Before Kate could rise, Mr. Estes had ushered the 
 Maharajah into the room, which was dwarfed by his 
 bulk and by the bravery of his presence. He had been 
 assisting at a review of his body-guard, and came there- 
 fore in his full uniform as commander-in-chief of the 
 army of the State, which was no mean affair. The 
 Maharaj Kunwar ran his eyes delightedly up and down 
 the august figure of his father, beginning with the polished 
 gold-spurred jack-boots, and ascending to the snowy- 
 white doeskin breeches, the tunic blazing with gold, and 
 the diamonds of the Order of the Star of India, ending 
 with the saffron turban and its nodding emerald aigrette. 
 The King drew off his gauntlets and shook hands 
 cordially with Kate. After an orgy it was noticeable 
 that his Highness became more civilised. 
 
 "And is the child well?" he asked. "They told 
 me that it was a little fever, and I, too, have had some 
 fever." 
 
 " The Prince's trouble was much worse than that, I 
 am afraid, Maharajah Sahib," said Kate. 
 
 "Ah, little one," said the King, bending over his son 
 very tenderly, and speaking in the vernacular, " this is 
 the fault of eating too much." 
 
 "Nay, father, I did not eat, and I am quite well." 
 
 Kate stood at the head of the bed stroking the boy's 
 hair. 
 
 " How many troops paraded this morning?" 
 
 " Both squadrons, my General," answered the father, 
 his eye lighting with pride. "Thou art all a Rajput, 
 my son." 
 
 "And my escort — where were they?"
 
 224 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " With Pertab Singh's troop. They led the charge at 
 the end of the fight." 
 
 " By the Sacred Horse," said the Maharaj Kunwar, 
 " they shall lead in true fight one day. Shall they not, 
 ray father? Thou on the right flank, and I on the 
 left." 
 
 " Even so. But to do these things, a prince must 
 not be ill, and he must learn many things." 
 
 " I know," returned the Prince reflectively. " My 
 father, I have lain here some nights, thinking. Am I 
 a little child?" He looked at Kate a minute, and 
 whispered, " I would speak to my father. Let no one 
 come in." 
 
 Kate left the room quickly, with a backward smile at 
 the boy, and the King seated himself by the bed. 
 
 "No, I am not a little child," said the Prince. "In 
 five years I shall be a man, and many men will obey 
 me. But how shall I know the right or the wrong in 
 giving an order." 
 
 " It is necessary to learn many things," repeated the 
 Maharajah vaguely. 
 
 " Yes, I have thought of that lying here in the dark," 
 said the Prince. " And it is in my mind that these 
 things are not all learned within the walls of the palace, 
 or from women. My father, let me go away to learn 
 how to be a prince ! " 
 
 " But whither wouldst thou go ? Surely my kingdom 
 is thy home, beloved." 
 
 " I know, I know," returned the boy. " And I will 
 come back again, but do not let me be a laughing-stock 
 to the other princes. At the wedding the Rawut of 
 Bunnaul mocked me because my school-books were not 
 as many as his. And he is only the son of an ennobled 
 lord. He is without ancestry. But he has been up and 
 down Kajputana as far as Delhi and Agra, ay, and Abu ; 
 and he is in the upper class of the Princes' School at
 
 THE NAULAIIKA 225 
 
 Ajmir. Father, all the sons of the kings go there. They 
 do not play with the women ; they ride with men. And 
 the air and the water are good at Ajmir. And 1 should 
 like to go ! " 
 
 The face of the Maharajah grew troubled, for the boy 
 was very dear to him. 
 
 "But an evil might befall thee, Lalji. Think again." 
 
 " I have thought," responded the Prince. "What evil 
 can come to me under the charge of the Englishman 
 there? The Rawut of Bunnaul told me that I should 
 have my own rooms, my own servants, and my own 
 stables, like the other princes — and that I should be 
 much considered there." 
 
 "Yes," said the King soothingly. "We be children 
 of the sun — thou and I, my Prince." 
 
 "Then it concerns me to be as learned and as strong 
 and as valiant as the best of my race. Father, I am 
 sick of running about the rooms of the women, of 
 listening to my mother, and to the singing of the dance 
 girls ; and they are always pressing their kisses on me. 
 Let me go to Ajmir. Let me go to the Princes' School. 
 And in a year, even in a year — so says the Rawut of 
 Bunnaul — I shall be fit to lead my escort, as a King 
 should lead them. Is it a promise, my father ? " 
 
 "When thou art well," answered the Maharajah, "we 
 will speak of it again — not as a father to a child, but as 
 a man to a man." 
 
 The Maharaj Kunwar's eyes grew bright with pleasure. 
 "That is good," he said — "as a man to a man." 
 
 The Maharajah fondled him in his arms for a few 
 minutes, and told him the small news of the palace — 
 such things as would interest a little boy. Then he said 
 laughing, " Have I your leave to go ? " 
 
 "Oh! my father." The Prince buried his head in 
 his father's beard and threw his arms around him. The 
 Maharajah disengaged himself gently, and as gently
 
 226 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 went out into the verandah. Before Kate returned he 
 had disappeared in a cloud of dust and a flourish of 
 trumpets. As he was going, a messenger came to the 
 house bearing a grass-woven basket, piled high with 
 shaddock, banana, and pomegranate — emerald, gold, 
 and copper, which he laid at Kate's feet, saying, " It is 
 a present from the Queen." 
 
 The little Prince within heard the voice, and cried 
 joyfully, "Kate, my mother has sent you those. Are 
 they big fruits ? Oh, give me a pomegranate," he begged 
 as she came back into his room. " I have tasted none 
 since last winter." 
 
 Kate set the basket on the table, and the Prince's 
 mood changed. He wanted pomegranate sherbet, and 
 Kate must mix the sugar and the milk and the syrup 
 and the plump red seeds. Kate left the room for an 
 instant to get a glass, and it occurred to Moti, who had 
 been foiled in an attempt to appropriate the Prince's 
 emeralds, and had hidden under the bed, to steal forth 
 and seize upon a ripe banana. Knowing well that the 
 Maharaj Kunwar could not move, Moti paid no attention 
 to his voice, but settled himself deliberately on his 
 haunches, chose his banana, stripped off the skin with 
 his little black fingers, grinned at the Prince, and began 
 to eat. 
 
 "Very well, Moti," said the Maharaj Kunwar, in the 
 vernacular; "Kate says you are not a god, but only a 
 little grey monkey, and I think so too. When she comes 
 back you will be beaten, Hanuman." 
 
 Moti had half eaten the banana when Kate returned, 
 but he did not try to escape. She cuffed the marauder 
 lightly, and he fell over on his side. 
 
 "Why, Lalji, what's the matter with Moti?" she 
 asked, regarding the monkey curiously. 
 
 " He has been stealing, and now I suppose he is 
 playing dead man. Hit him I "
 
 THE NAULAHKA 227 
 
 Kate bent over the limp little body ; but there was no 
 need to chastise Moti. He was dead. 
 
 She turned pale, and, rising, took the basket of fruit 
 quickly to her nostrils, and sniffed delicately at it. A 
 faint, sweet, cloying odour rose from the brilliant pile. 
 It was overpowering. She set the basket down, putting 
 her hand to her head. The odour dizzied her. 
 
 "Well," said the Prince, who could not see his dead 
 pet, "I want my sherbet." 
 
 "The fruit is not quite good, I'm afraid, Lalji," she 
 said, with an effort. As she spoke she tossed into the 
 garden, through the open window, the uneaten fragment 
 of the banana that Moti had clasped so closely to his 
 wicked little breast. 
 
 A parrot swooped down on the morsel instantly from 
 the trees, and took it back to his perch in the branches. 
 It was done before Kate, still unsteadied, could make a 
 motion to stop it, and a moment later a little ball of 
 green feathers fell from the covert of leaves, and the 
 parrot also lay dead on the ground. 
 
 " No, the fruit is not good," she said mechanically, 
 her eyes wide with terror, and her face blanched. Her 
 thoughts leaped to Tarvin. Ah, the warnings and the 
 entreaties that she had put from her ! He had said she 
 was not safe. Was he not right? The awful subtlety 
 of the danger in which she stood was a thing to shake 
 a stronger woman than she. From where would it come 
 next? Out of what covert might it not leap? The 
 very air might be poisoned. She scarcely dared to 
 
 breathe. 
 
 The audacity of the attack daunted her as much as 
 its design. If this might be done in open day, under 
 cover of friendship, immediately after the visit of the 
 King, what might not the gipsy in the palace dare next ? 
 She and the Maharaj Kunwar were under the same roof ; 
 if Tarvin was right in supposing that Sitabhai could
 
 228 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 wish her harm, the fruit was evidently intended for them 
 both. She shuddered to think how she herself might 
 have given the fruit to the Maharaj innocently. 
 
 The Prince turned in his bed and regarded Kate. 
 "You are not well?" he asked, with grave politeness. 
 "Then do not trouble about the sherbet. Give me 
 Moti to play with." 
 
 "O Lalji! Lalji!" cried Kate, tottering to the bed. 
 She dropped beside the boy, cast her arms defendingly 
 about him, and burst into tears. 
 
 "You have cried twice," said the Prince, watching 
 her heaving shoulders curiously. " I shall tell Tarvin 
 Sahib." 
 
 The word smote Kate's heart, and filled her with a 
 bitter and fruitless longing. Oh, for a moment of the 
 sure and saving strength she had just rejected ! Where 
 was he ? she asked herself reproachfully. What had 
 happened to the man she had sent from her to take the 
 chances of life and death in this awful land ? 
 
 At that hour Tarvin was sitting in his room at the 
 rest-house, with both doors open to the stifling wind of 
 the desert, that he might command all approaches clearly, 
 his revolver on the table in front of him, and the Naulahka 
 in his pocket, yearning to be gone, and loathing this 
 conquest that did not include Kate.
 
 XIX. 
 
 '• We be the Gods of the East- 
 Older than all- 
 Masters of mourning and feast, 
 How shall we fall ? 
 
 Will they gape to the husks that ye proffer, 
 
 Or yearn to your song ? 
 And we, have we nothing to offer 
 Who ruled them so long 
 In the fume of the incense, the clash of the cymbal, the blare 
 of the conch and the gong ? 
 
 Over the strife of the schools, 
 
 Low the day burns — 
 Back with the kine from the pools, 
 Each one returns, 
 To the life that he knows where the altar-flame glows 
 And the tulsi is trimmed in the urns." 
 
 — In Sconce. 
 
 The evening and the long night gave Kate ample time 
 for self-examination after she had locked up the 
 treacherous fruit, and consoled the Maharaj, through 
 her tears, for the mysterious death of Moti. One thing 
 only seemed absolutely clear to her, when she rose red- 
 eyed and unrefreshed the next morning : her work was 
 with the women so long as life remained, and the sole 
 refuge for her present trouble was in the portion of that 
 work which lay nearest to her hand. Meanwhile the man 
 who loved her remained in Gokral Seetarun, in deadly 
 peril of his life, that he might be within call of her; and 
 she could not call him, for to summon him was to yield, 
 
 and she dared not. 
 
 229
 
 230 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 She took her way to the hospital. The dread for him 
 that had assailed her yesterday had become a horror 
 that would not let her think. 
 
 The woman of the desert was waiting as usual at the 
 foot of the steps, her hands clasped over her knee, and 
 her face veiled. Behind her was Dhunpat Rai, who 
 should have been among the wards; and she could see 
 that the courtyard was filled with people- — strangers and 
 visitors, who, by her new regulations, were allowed to 
 come only once a week. This was not their visiting day, 
 and Kate, strained and worn by all that she had passed 
 through since the day before, felt an angry impulse in 
 her heart go out against them, and spoke wrathfully. 
 
 "What is the meaning of this, Dhunpat Rai?" she 
 demanded, alighting. 
 
 "There is commotion of popular bigotry within," said 
 Dhunpat Rai. " It is nothing. I have seen it before. 
 Only do not go in." 
 
 She put him aside without a word, and was about to 
 enter when she met one of her patients, a man in the 
 last stage of typhoid fever, being borne out by half a 
 dozen clamouring friends, who shouted at her menacingly. 
 The woman of the desert was at her side in an instant, 
 raising her hand, in the brown hollow of which lay a 
 long, broad-bladed knife. 
 
 " Be still, dogs ! " she shouted, in their own tongue. 
 " Dare not to lay hands on this peri, who has done all 
 for you ! " 
 
 " She is killing our people," shouted a villager. 
 
 " Maybe," said the woman, with a flashing smile ; "but 
 I know who will be lying here dead if you do not suffer 
 her to pass. Are you Rajputs, or Bhils from the hills, 
 hunters of fish, and diggers after grubs, that you run like 
 cattle because a lying priest from nowhere troubles your 
 heads of mud ? Is she killing your people ? How long 
 can you keep that man alive with your charms and your
 
 THE NAULAHKA 231 
 
 muntrasV she demanded, pointing to the stricken form 
 on the stretcher. "Out — go out! Is this hospital your 
 own village to defile ? Have you paid one penny for the 
 roof above you or the drugs in your bellies? Get hence 
 before I spit upon you ! " She brushed them aside with 
 a regal gesture. 
 
 " It is best not to go in," said Dhunpat Rai in Kate's 
 ear. "There is local holy man in the courtyard, and 
 he is agitating their minds. Also, I myself feel much 
 indisposed.'"' 
 
 " But what does all this mean ? " demanded Kate again. 
 
 For the hospital was in the hands of a hurrying crowd, 
 who were strapping up bedding and cooking-pots, lamps 
 and linen, calling to one another up and down the stair- 
 cases in subdued voices, and bringing the sick from the 
 upper wards as ants bring eggs out of a broken hill, six 
 or eight to each man — some holding bunches of marigold 
 flowers in their hands, and pausing to mutter prayers at 
 each step, others peering fearfully into the dispensary, 
 and yet others drawing water from the well and pouring 
 it out around the beds. 
 
 In the centre of the courtyard, as naked as the lunatic 
 who had once lived there, sat an ash-smeared, long- 
 haired, eagle-taloned, half-mad, wandering native priest, 
 and waved above his head his buckhorn staff, sharp as 
 a lance at one end, while he chanted in a loud mono- 
 tonous voice some song that drove the men and women 
 to work more quickly. 
 
 As Kate faced him, white with wrath, her eyes blazing, 
 the song turned to a yelp of fierce hatred. 
 
 She dashed among the women swiftly — her own 
 women, whom she thought had grown to love her. But 
 their relatives were about them, and Kate was thrust 
 back by a bare-shouldered, loud-voiced dweller of the 
 out-villages in the heart of the desert. 
 
 The man had no intention of doing her harm, but the
 
 232 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 woman of the desert slashed him across the face with her 
 knife, and he withdrew howling. 
 
 " Let me speak to them," said Kate, and the woman 
 beside her quelled the clamour of the crowd with up- 
 lifted hands. Only the priest continued his song. Kate 
 strode toward him, her little figure erect and quivering, 
 crying in the vernacular, " Be silent thou, or I will find 
 means to close thy mouth ! " 
 
 The man was hushed, and Kate, returning to her 
 women, stood amongst them, and began to speak impas- 
 sionedly. 
 
 " Oh, my women, what have I done ? " she cried, 
 still in the vernacular. "If there is any fault here, who 
 should right it but your friend? Surely you can speak 
 to me day or night." She threw out her arms. " Listen, 
 my sisters ! Have you gone mad, that you wish to go 
 abroad now, half-cured, sick, or dying? You are free 
 to go at any hour. Only, for your own sake, and for 
 the sake of your children, do not go before I have 
 cured you, if God so please. It is summer in the desert 
 now, and many of you have come from many koss 
 distant." 
 
 " She speaks truth ! She speaks truth," said a voice 
 in the crowd. 
 
 "Ay, I do speak truth. And I have dealt fairly by 
 ye. Surely it is upon your heads to tell me the cause of 
 this flight, and not to run away like mice. My sisters, 
 ye are weak and ill, and thy friends do not know what 
 is best for thee. But I know." 
 
 " Arre ! But what can we do ? " cried a feeble voice. 
 " It is no fault of ours. I, at least, would fain die in 
 peace, but the priest says " 
 
 Then the clamour broke out afresh. " There are 
 charms written upon the plasters " 
 
 "Why should we become Christians against our will? 
 The wise woman that was sent away asks it."
 
 THE NAULAHKA 233 
 
 "What are the meanings of the red marks on the 
 plasters ? " 
 
 " Why should we have strange devil-marks stamped 
 upon our bodies? And they burn, too, like the fires 
 of hell." 
 
 " The priest came yesterday — that holy man yonder — ■ 
 and he said it had been revealed to him, sitting among 
 the hills, that this devil's plan was on foot to make us 
 lose our religion " 
 
 " And to send us out of the hospital with marks upon 
 our bodies — ay, and all the babies we should bear in 
 the hospital should have tails like camels, and ears like 
 mules. The wise woman says so ; the priest says so." 
 
 " Hush ! hush ! " cried Kate, in the face of these 
 various words. " What plasters ? What child's talk is 
 this of plasters and devils? Not one child, but many 
 have been born here, and all were comely. Ye know 
 it ! This is the word of the worthless woman, whom I 
 sent away because she was torturing you." 
 
 " Nay, but the priest said " 
 
 " What care I for the priest ? Has he nursed you ? 
 Has he watched by you of nights ? Has he sat by 
 your bedside, and smoothed your pillow, and held your 
 hand in pain ? Has he taken your children from you and 
 put them to sleep, when he needed an hour's rest ? " 
 
 " He is a holy man. He has worked miracles. We 
 dare not face the anger of the gods." 
 
 One woman, bolder than the rest, shouted, "Look at 
 this ;" and held before Kate's face one of the prepared 
 mustard leaves lately ordered from Calcutta, which bore 
 upon the back, in red ink, the maker's name and trade- 
 mark. 
 
 "What is this devil's thing?" demanded the woman 
 fiercely. 
 
 The woman of the desert caught her by the shoulder, 
 and forced her to her knees.
 
 234 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " Be still, woman without a nose ! " she cried, her 
 voice vibrating with passion. " She is not of thy clay, 
 and thy touch would defile her. Remember thine own 
 dunghill, and speak softly." 
 
 Kate picked up the plaster, smiling. 
 
 " And who savs there is devil's work in this?" she 
 demanded. 
 
 " The holy man, the priest. Surely he should know ! " 
 
 " Nay, ye should know," said Kate patiently. She 
 understood now, and could pity. "Ye have worn it. 
 Did it work ye any harm, Pithira?" She pointed 
 directly toward her. "Thou hast thanked me not 
 once but many times for giving thee relief through this 
 charm. If it was the devil's work, why did it not con- 
 sume thee?'' 
 
 "Indeed it burnt very much indeed," responded the 
 woman, with a nervous laugh. 
 
 Kate could not help laughing. " That is true. I can- 
 not make my drugs pleasant. But ye know that they do 
 good. What do these people, your friends — villagers, 
 camel-drivers, goat-herds — know of English drugs? Are 
 they so wise among their hills, or is the priest so wise, 
 that they can judge for thee here, fifty miles away from 
 them ? Do not listen. Oh, do not listen ! Tell them 
 that ye will stay with me, and I will make thee well. I 
 can do no more. It was for that I came. I heard of 
 your misery ten thousand miles away, and it burnt 
 into my heart. Would I have come so far to work you 
 harm ? Go back to your beds, my sisters, and bid these 
 foolish people depart." 
 
 There was a murmur among the women, as if of assent 
 and doubt. For a moment the decision swayed one way 
 and the other. 
 
 Then the man whose face had been slashed shouted, 
 "What is the use of talking? Let us take our wives 
 and sisters away ! We do not wish to have sons like
 
 THE NAULAHKA 235 
 
 devils. Give us your voice, O father ! " he cried to the 
 priest. 
 
 The holy man drew himself up, and swept away Kate's 
 appeal with a torrent of abuse, imprecation, and threats 
 of damnation ; and the crowd began to slip past Kate 
 by twos and threes, half carrying and half forcing their 
 kinsfolk with them. 
 
 Kate called on the women by name, beseeching them 
 to stay — reasoning, arguing, expostulating. But to no 
 purpose. Many of them were in tears ; but the answer 
 from all was the same. They were sorry, but they were 
 only poor women, and they feared the wrath of their 
 husbands. 
 
 Minute after minute the wards were depopulated of 
 their occupants, as the priest resumed his song, and 
 began to dance frenziedly in the courtyard. The stream 
 of colours broke out down the steps into the street, and 
 Kate saw the last of her carefully swathed women borne 
 out into the pitiless sun-glare — only the woman of the 
 desert remaining by her side. 
 
 Kate looked on with stony eyes. Her hospital was 
 empty.
 
 XX. 
 
 " Our sister sayeth such and such, 
 And we must bow to her behests ; 
 Our sister toileth overmuch, 
 
 Our little maid that hath no breasts. 
 
 A field unfilled, a web unwove, 
 
 A bud withheld from sun or bee, 
 An alien in the courts of Love, 
 
 And priestess of his shrine is she. 
 
 We love her, but we laugh the while, 
 
 We laugh, but sobs are mixed with laughter ; 
 
 Our sister hath no time to smile, 
 
 She knows not what must follow after. 
 
 Wind of the South, arise and blow, 
 
 From beds of spice thy locks shake free ; 
 
 Breathe on her heart that she may know, 
 Breathe on her eyes that she may see. 
 
 Alas ! we vex her with our mirth, 
 
 And maze her with most tender scorn, 
 
 Who stands beside the gates of Birth, 
 Herself a child — a child unborn ! 
 
 Our sister sayeth such and such, 
 
 And we must bow to her behests ; 
 Our sister toileth overmuch, 
 
 Our little maid that hath no breasts. " 
 
 — From Libretto of Naulahka. 
 
 " Has the miss sahib any orders," asked Dhunpat 
 
 Rai, with Oriental calmness, as Kate turned toward the 
 
 woman of the desert, staying herself against her massive 
 
 shoulder. 
 
 236
 
 THE NAULAHKA 237 
 
 Kate simply shook her head with closed lips. 
 
 " It is very sad," said Dhunpat Rai thoughtfully, 
 as though the matter were one in which he had no 
 interest; "but it is on account of religious bigotry and 
 intolerance which is prevalent mania in these parts. 
 Once — twice before I have seen the same thing. 
 About powders, sometimes; and once they said that the 
 graduated glasses were holy vessels, and zinc ointment 
 was cow-fat. But I have never seen all the hospital dis- 
 embark simultaneously. I do not think they will come 
 back ; but my appointment is State appointment," he 
 said, with a bland smile, " and so I shall draw my offeeshal 
 income as before." 
 
 Kate stared at him. " Do you mean that they will 
 never come back?" she asked falteringly. 
 
 " Oh ves — in time — one or two ; two or three of the 
 men when they are hurt by tigers, or have ophthalmia ; 
 but the women — no. Their husbands will never allow. 
 Ask that woman ! " 
 
 Kate bent a piteous look of inquiry upon the woman 
 of the desert, who, stooping down, took up a little sand, 
 let it trickle through her fingers, brushed her palms 
 together, and shook her head. Kate watched these 
 movements despairingly. 
 
 " You see it is all up — no good," said Dhunpat Rai, 
 not unkindly, but unable to conceal a certain expression 
 of satisfaction in a defeat which the wise had already pre- 
 dicted. " And now what will your honour do ? Shall 
 1 lock up dispensary, or will you audit drug accounts 
 now?" 
 
 Kate waved him off feebly. " Xo, no ! Not now. I 
 must think. I must have time. I will send you word. 
 Come, dear one," she added in the vernacular to the 
 woman of the desert, and hand in hand thev went out 
 from the hospital together. 
 
 The sturdy Rajput woman caught her up like a child
 
 2^8 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 ■j 
 
 when they were outside, and set her upon her horse, and 
 tramped doggedly alongside, as they set off together 
 toward the house of the missionary. 
 
 "And whither wilt thou go?" asked Kate, in the 
 woman's own tongue. 
 
 " I was the first of them all," answered the patient 
 being at her side; "it is fitting therefore that I should be 
 the last. Where thou goest I will go — and afterward 
 what will fall will fall." 
 
 Kate leaned down and took the woman's hand in 
 hers with a grateful pressure. 
 
 At the missionary's gate she had to call up her courage 
 not to break down. She had told Mrs. Estes so much 
 of her hopes for the future, had dwelt so lovingly on 
 all that she meant to teach these helpless creatures, had 
 so constantly conferred with her about the help she had 
 fancied herself to be daily bringing to them, that to own 
 that her work had fallen to this ruin was unspeakably 
 bitter. The thought of Tarvin she fought back. It 
 went too deep. 
 
 But, fortunately, Mrs. Estes seemed not to be at 
 home, and a messenger from the Queen Mother awaited 
 Kate to demand her presence at the palace with the 
 Maharaj Kunwar. 
 
 The woman of the desert laid a restraining hand on 
 her arm, but Kate shook it off. 
 
 " No, no, no ! I must go. I must do something," 
 she exclaimed almost fiercely, "since there is still some 
 one who will let me. I must have work. It is my 
 only refuge, kind one. Go you on to the palace." 
 
 The woman yielded silently, and trudged on up the 
 dusty road, while Kate sped into the house and to the 
 room where the young Prince lay. 
 
 '• Lalji," she said, bending over him, " do you feel well 
 enough to be lifted into the carriage and taken over to 
 see your mother?"
 
 THE NAULAHKA 239 
 
 " I would rather see my father," responded the boy 
 from the sofa, to which he had been transferred as a 
 reward for the improvement he had made since yes- 
 terday. "I wish to speak to my father upon a most 
 important thing." 
 
 "But your mother hasn't seen you for so long, dear." 
 
 "Very well; I will go." 
 
 '• Then I will tell them to get the carriage ready." 
 
 Kate turned to leave the room. 
 
 " No, please ; I will have my own. Who is without 
 there?" 
 
 "Heaven-bom, it is 1," answered the deep voice of a 
 trooper. 
 
 " Achchal Ride swiftly, and tell them to send down 
 my barouche and escort. If it is not here in ten minutes, 
 tell Sirop Singh that I will cut his pay and blacken his 
 face before all my men. This day I go abroad again." 
 
 " May the mercy of God be upon the heaven-born for 
 ten thousand years," responded the voice from without, 
 as the trooper heaved himself into the saddle and clat- 
 tered away. 
 
 By the time that the Prince was ready, a lumbering 
 equipage, stuffed with many cushions, waited at the 
 door. Kate and Mrs. Estes half-helped and half-carried 
 the child into it, though he strove to stand on his feet in 
 the verandah and acknowledge the salute of his escort 
 as befitted a man. 
 
 " Alii I I am very weak," he said, with a little laugh, 
 as they drove to the palace. "Certainly it seems to 
 myself that I shall never get well in Khatore." 
 
 Kate put her arm about him and drew him closer to 
 her. 
 
 " Kate," he continued, " if I ask anvthino; of my 
 father, will you say that that thing is good for me?'' 
 
 Kate, whose thoughts were still bitter and far away, 
 patted his shoulder vaguely as she lifted her tear-stained
 
 2 4 o THE NAULAHKA 
 
 eyes toward the red height on which the palace stood. 
 " How can I tell, Lalji?" She smiled down into his 
 upturned face. 
 
 "But it is a most wise thins:." 
 
 "Is it ? " asked she fondly. 
 
 "Yes; I have thought it out by myself. I am myself 
 a Raj Kumar, and I would go to the Raj Kumar College, 
 where they train the sons of princes to become kings. 
 That is only at Ajmir; but I must go and learn, and 
 fight, and ride with the other princes of Rajputana, and 
 then I shall be altogether a man. I am going to the 
 Raj Kumar College at Ajmir, that I may learn about 
 the world. But you shall see how it is wise. The 
 world looks very big since I have been ill. Kate, how 
 big is the world which you have seen across the Black 
 Water ? Where is Tarvin Sahib ? I have wished to see 
 him too. Is Tarvin Sahib angry with me or with you ? " 
 
 He plied her with a hundred questions till they halted 
 before one of the gates in the flank of the palace that led 
 to his mother's wing. The woman of the desert rose 
 from the ground beside it, and held out her arms. 
 
 " I heard the message come," she said to Kate, " and 
 I knew what was required. Give me the child to carry 
 in. Nay, my Prince, there is no cause for fear. I am 
 of good blood." 
 
 " Women of good blood walk veiled, and do not speak 
 in the streets," said the child doubtfully. 
 
 "One law for thee and thine, and another for me and 
 mine," the woman answered, with a laugh. "We who 
 earn our bread by toil cannot go veiled, but our fathers 
 lived before us for many hundred years, even as did thine, 
 heaven-born. Come then, the white fairy cannot carry 
 thee so tenderly as I can." 
 
 She put her arms about him, and held him to her 
 breast as easily as though he had been a three-year-old 
 child. He leaned back luxuriously, and waved a wasted
 
 THE NAULAHKA 241 
 
 hand; the grim gate grated on its hinges as it swung 
 back, and they entered together — the woman, the child, 
 and the girl. 
 
 There was no lavish display of ornament in that part 
 of the palace. The gaudy tilework on the walls had 
 flaked and crumbled away in many places, the shutters 
 lacked paint and hung awry, and there was litter and 
 refuse in the courtyard behind the gates. A queen who 
 has lost the King's favour loses much else as well in 
 material comforts. 
 
 A door opened and a voice called. The three plunged 
 into half darkness, and traversed a long, upward-sloping 
 passage, floored with shining white stucco as smooth as 
 marble, which communicated with the Queen's apart- 
 ments. The Maharaj Kunwar's mother lived by prefer- 
 ence in one long, low room that faced to the north-east, 
 that she might press her face against the marble tracery 
 and dream of her home across the sands, eis;ht hundred 
 miles away, among the Kulu hills. The hum of the 
 crowded palace could not be heard there, and the 
 footsteps of her few waiting-women alone broke the 
 silence. 
 
 The woman of the desert, with the Prince hugged 
 more closely to her breast, moved through the labyrinth 
 of empty rooms, narrow staircases, and roofed courtyards 
 with the air of a caged panther. Kate and the Prince 
 were familiar with the dark and the tortuousness, the 
 silence and the sullen mystery. To the one it was part 
 and parcel of the horrors amid which she had elected to 
 move ; to the other it was his daily life. 
 
 At last the journey ended. Kate lifted a heavy curtain, 
 as the Prince called for his mother; and the Queen, 
 rising from a pile of white cushions by the window, 
 cried passionately — 
 
 "Is it well with the child?" 
 
 The Prince struggled to the floor from the woman's 
 
 Q
 
 242 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 arms, and the Queen hung sobbing over him, calling 
 him a thousand endearing names, and fondling him 
 from head to foot. The child's reserve melted — he 
 had striven for a moment to carry himself as a man of 
 the Rajput race : that is to say, as one shocked beyond 
 expression at any public display of emotion — and he 
 laughed and wept in his mother's arms. The woman of 
 the desert drew her hand across her eyes, muttering to 
 herself, and Kate turned to look out of the window. 
 
 "How shall I give you thanks?" said the Queen at 
 last. " Oh, my son — my little son — child of my heart, 
 the gods and she have made thee well again. But who 
 is that \onder?" 
 
 Her eyes fell for the first time on the woman of the 
 desert, where the latter stood by the doorway draped in 
 dull-red. 
 
 "She carried me here from the carriage," said the 
 Prince, "saying that she was a Rajput of good blood." 
 
 " I am of Chohan blood — a Rajput and a mother of 
 Rajputs," said the woman simply, still standing. "The 
 white fairy worked a miracle upon my man. He was 
 sick in the head and did not know me. It is true that 
 he died, but before the passing of the breath he knew me 
 and called me by my name." 
 
 " And she carried thee ! " said the Queen, with a 
 shiver, drawing the Prince closer to her, for, like all 
 Indian women, she counted the touch and glance of a 
 widow things of evil omen. 
 
 The woman fell at the Queen's feet. " Forgive me, 
 forgive me," she cried. " I had borne three little ones, 
 and the gods took them all and my man at the last. It 
 was good — it was so good — to hold a child in my arms 
 again. Thou canst forgive," she wailed; "thou art so 
 rich in thy son, and I am only a widow." 
 
 " And I a widow in life," said the Queen, under her 
 breath. " Of a truth, I should forgive. Rise thou."
 
 THE NAULAHKA 243 
 
 The woman lay still where she had fallen, clutching at 
 the Queen's naked feet. 
 
 " Rise, then, my sister," the Queen whispered. 
 
 "We of the fields," murmured the woman of the 
 desert, " we do not know how to speak to the great 
 people. If my words are rough, does the Queen forgive 
 me ? " 
 
 " Indeed I forgive. Thy speech is softer than that of the 
 hill women of Kulu, but some of the words are new." 
 
 " I am of the desert — a herder of camels, a milker of 
 goats. What should I know of the speech of courts ? 
 Let the white fairy speak for me." 
 
 Kate listened with an alien ear. Now that she had 
 discharged her duty, her freed mind went back to 
 Tarvin's danger and the shame and overthrow of an 
 hour ago. She saw the women in her hospital slipping 
 away one by one, her work unravelled, and all hope of 
 good brought to wreck ; and she saw Tarvin dying 
 atrocious deaths, and, as she felt, by her hand. 
 
 " What is it ? " she asked wearily, as the woman 
 plucked at her skirt. Then to the Queen, "This is a 
 woman who alone of all those whom I tried to benefit 
 remained at my side to-day, Queen." 
 
 "There has been a talk in the palace," said the 
 Queen, her arm round the Prince's neck, "a talk that 
 trouble had come to your hospital, sahiba." 
 
 "There is no hospital now," Kate answered grimly. 
 
 " You promised to take me there, Kate, some day," 
 the Prince said in English. 
 
 "The women were fools," said the woman of the 
 desert quietly, from her place on the ground. " A 
 mad priest told them a lie — that there was a charm 
 among the drugs " 
 
 •' Deliver us from all evil spirits and exorcisms," the 
 Queen murmured. 
 
 " A charm among her drugs that she handles with her
 
 244 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 own hands, and so forsooth, sahiba, they must run out 
 shrieking that their children will be misborn apes and 
 their chicken-souls given to the devils. Aho ! They will 
 know in a week, not one or two, but many, whither 
 their souls go : for they will die — the corn and the corn 
 in the ear together." 
 
 Kate shivered. She knew too well that the woman 
 spoke the truth. 
 
 "But the drugs!" began the Queen. "Who knows 
 what powers there may be in the drugs ? " she laughed 
 nervously, glancing at Kate. 
 
 "Dekho! Look at her," said the woman, with quiet 
 scorn. " She is a girl and naught else. What could 
 she do to the Gates of Life ? " 
 
 " She has made my son whole, therefore she is my 
 sister," said the Queen. 
 
 " She caused my man to speak to me before the death 
 hour; therefore I am her servant as well as thine, 
 sahiba," said the other. 
 
 The Prince looked up in his mother's face curiously. 
 " She calls thee 'thou,'" he said, as though the woman 
 did not exist. " That is not seemly between a villager 
 and a queen, thee and thou ! " 
 
 " We be both women, little son. Stay still in my 
 arms. Oh, it is good to feel thee here again, worthless 
 
 one." 
 
 "The heaven-born looks as frail as dried maize," said 
 the woman quickly. 
 
 " A dried monkey, rather," returned the Queen, 
 dropping her lips on the child's head. Both mothers 
 spoke aloud and with emphasis, that the gods, jealous 
 of human happiness, might hear and take for truth the 
 disparagement that veils deepest love. 
 
 " A/w, my little monkey is dead," said the Prince, 
 moving restlessly. " I need another one. Let me go 
 into the palace and find another monkey."
 
 THE NAULAHKA 245 
 
 " He must not wander into the palace from this 
 chamber," said the Queen passionately, turning to Kate. 
 " Thou art all too weak, beloved. O miss sahib, he 
 must not go." She knew by experience that it was 
 fruitless to cross her son's will. 
 
 " It is my order," said the Prince, without turning his 
 head. " I will go." 
 
 " Stay with us, beloved," said Kate. She was won- 
 dering whether the hospital could be dragged together 
 again, after three months, and whether it was possible 
 she might have overrated the danger to Nick. 
 
 " I go," said the Prince, breaking from his mother's 
 arms. " I am tired of this talk." 
 
 "Does the Queen give leave?" asked the woman 
 of the desert under her breath. The Queen nodded, 
 and the Prince found himself caught between two 
 brown arms, against whose strength it was impossible 
 to struggle. 
 
 " Let me go, widow ! " he shouted furiously. 
 
 " It is not good for a Rajput to make light of a 
 mother of Rajputs, my king," was the unmoved answer. 
 " If the young steer does not obey the cow, he learns 
 obedience from the yoke. The heaven-born is not 
 strong. He will fall among those passages and stairs. 
 He will stay here. When the rage has left his body he 
 will be weaker than before. Even now " — the large 
 bright eyes bent themselves on the face of the child — ■ 
 " even now," the calm voice continued, "the rage is going. 
 One moment more, heaven-born, and thou wilt be a 
 prince no longer, but only a little, little child, such as I 
 have borne. Ahi, such as I shall never bear again." 
 
 With the last words the Prince's head nodded forward 
 on her shoulder. The gust of passion had spent itself, 
 leaving him, as she had foreseen, weak to sleep. 
 
 " Shame — oh, shame ! " he muttered thickly. " Indeed 
 I do not wish to go. Let me sleep."
 
 246 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 She began to pat him on the shoulder, till the Queen 
 put forward hungry arms, and took back her own again, 
 and laying the child on a cushion at her side, she spread 
 the skirt of her long muslin robe over him, and looked 
 long at her treasure. The woman crouched down on 
 the floor. Kate sat on a cushion, and listened to the 
 ticking of the cheap American clock in a niche in the 
 wall. The voice of a woman singing a song came muffled 
 and faint through many walls. The dry wind of noon 
 sighed through the fretted screens of the window, and 
 she could hear the horses of the escort swishing their 
 tails and champing their bits in the courtyard a hundred 
 feet below. She listened, thinking ever of Tarvin in 
 growing terror. The Queen leaned over her son more 
 closely, her eyes humid with mother love. 
 
 " He is asleep," she said at last. " What was the talk 
 about his monkey, miss sahib ? " 
 
 " It died," Kate said, and spurred herself to the lie. 
 " I think it had eaten bad fruit in the garden." 
 
 " In the garden ? " said the Queen quickly. 
 
 "Yes, in the garden." 
 
 The woman of the desert turned her eyes from 
 one woman to the other. These were matters too 
 high for her, and she began timidly to rub the Queen's 
 feet. 
 
 "Monkeys often die," she observed. "I have seen 
 as it were a pestilence among the monkey folk over there 
 at Banswarra." 
 
 "In what fashion did it die?" insisted the Queen. 
 
 " I — I do not know," Kate stammered, and there was 
 another long silence as the hot afternoon wore on. 
 
 "Miss Kate, what do you think about my son?" 
 whispered the Queen. " Is he well, or is he not well ? " 
 
 " He is not very well. In time he will grow stronger, 
 but it would be better if he could go away for a while." 
 
 The Queen bowed her head quietly. "I have
 
 THE NAULAHKA 247 
 
 thought of that also many times sitting here alone ; and 
 it was the tearing out of my own heart from my breast. 
 Yes, it would be well if he were to go away. But" — 
 she stretched out her hands despairingly towards the 
 sunshine — "what do I know of the world where he will 
 go, and how can I be sure that he will be safe? Here 
 — even here "... She checked herself suddenly. 
 u Since you have com. j , Miss Kate, my heart has known 
 a little comfort, but I do not know when you will go 
 away again." 
 
 " I cannot guard the child against every evil," Kate 
 replied, covering her face with her hands; "but send 
 him away from this place as swiftly as may be. In God's 
 name let him go away," 
 
 "Such hail Such hail It is the truth, the truth!" 
 The Queen turned from Kate to the woman at her feet. 
 
 "Thou hast borne three?" she said. 
 
 "Yea, three, and one other that never drew breath. 
 They were all men-children," said the woman of the 
 desert. 
 
 "And the gods took them?" 
 
 "Of small-pox one, and fever the two others." 
 
 " Art thou certain that it was the gods ? " 
 
 " I was with them always till the end." 
 
 " Thy man, then, was all thine own ? " 
 
 "We were only two, he and I. Among our villages 
 the men are poor, and one wife suffices." 
 
 "Arret Thev are rich anions; the villages. Listen 
 now. If a co-wife had sought the lives of those 
 three of thine " 
 
 " I would have killed her. What else ? " The woman's 
 nostrils dilated and her hand went swiftly to her bosom. 
 
 " And if in place of thiee there had been one only, 
 the delight of thy eyes, and thou hadst known that thou 
 shouldst never bear another, and the co-wife working in 
 darkness had sought for that life ? What then ? "
 
 248 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " I would have slain her — but with no easy death. 
 At her man's side and in his arms I would have slain 
 her. If she died before my vengeance arrived I would 
 seek for her in hell." 
 
 " Thou canst go out in the sunshine and walk in the 
 streets and no man turns his head," said the Queen 
 bitterly. " Thy hands are free and thy face is un- 
 covered. What if thou wert a slave anion? slaves, 
 a stranger among stranger people, and" — the voice 
 dropped — -"dispossessed of the favour of thy lord?" 
 
 The woman, stooping, kissed the pale feet under 
 her hands. 
 
 " Then I would not wear myself with strife, but, re- 
 membering that a man-child may grow into a king, would 
 send that child away beyond the power of the co-wife." 
 
 " Is it so easy to cut away the hand ? " said the Queen, 
 sobbing. 
 
 " Better the hand than the heart, sahiba. Who could 
 guard such a child in this place ?" 
 
 The Queen pointed to Kate. " She came from far off, 
 and she has once already brought him back from death." 
 
 '• Her drugs are good and her skill is great, but — thou 
 knowest she is but a maiden, who has known neither 
 gain nor loss. It may be that I am luckless, and that 
 my eyes are evil — thus did not my man say last autumn 
 — but it may be. Yet I know the pain at the breast 
 and the yearning over the child new-born — as thou hast 
 known it." 
 
 " As I have known it." 
 
 " My house is empty and I am a widow and childless, 
 and never again shall a man call me to wed." 
 
 "As I am — as I am." 
 
 " Nay, the little one is left, whatever else may go ; 
 and the little one must be well guarded. If there is 
 any jealousy against the child it were not well to keep 
 him in this hotbed. Let him go out."
 
 THE NAULAHKA 249 
 
 "But whither? Miss Kate, dost thou know? The 
 world is all dark to us who sit behind the curtain." 
 
 " I know that the child of his own motion desires to 
 go to the Princes' School in Ajmir. He has told me 
 that much," said Kate, who had lost no word of the 
 conversation from her place on the cushion, bowed for- 
 ward with her chin supported in her hands. " It will be 
 only for a year or two." 
 
 The Queen laughed a little through her tears. " Only 
 a year or two, Miss Kate. Dost thou know how long is 
 one night when he is not here ? " 
 
 "And he can return at call; but no cry will bring 
 back mine own. Only a year or two. The world is 
 dark also to those who do not sit behind the curtain, 
 sahiba. It is no fault of hers. How should she know ? " 
 said the woman of the desert under her breath to the 
 Queen. 
 
 Against her will, Kate began to feel annoyed at this 
 persistent exclusion of herself from the talk, and the 
 assumption that she, with her own great trouble upon 
 her, whose work was pre-eminently to deal with sorrow, 
 must have no place in this double grief. 
 
 " How should I not know?" said Kate impetuously. 
 " Do I not know pain ? Is it not my life ? " 
 
 "Not yet," said the Queen quietly. "Neither pain 
 nor joy. Miss Kate, thou art very wise, and I am only 
 a woman who has never stirred beyond the palace walls. 
 But I am wiser than thou, for I know that which thou 
 dost not know, though thou hast given back my son to 
 me, and to this woman her husband's speech. How 
 shall I repay thee all I owe? " 
 
 '•Let her hear truth," said the woman under her 
 breath. " We be all three women here, sahiba — dead 
 leaf, flowering tree, and the blossom unopened." 
 
 The Queen caught Kate's hands and gently pulled 
 her forward till her head fell on the Queen's knees.
 
 250 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Wearied with the emotions of the morning, unutterably 
 tired in body and spirit, the girl had no desire to lift it. 
 The small hands put her hair back from her forehead, 
 and the full dark eyes, worn with much weeping, looked 
 into her own. The woman of the desert flung an arm 
 round her waist. 
 
 " Listen, my sister," began the Queen, with an infinite 
 tenderness. '"There is a proverb among my own people, 
 in the mountains of the north, that a rat found a piece 
 of turmeric, and opened a druggist's shop. Even so 
 with the pain that thou dost know and heal, beloved. 
 Thou ait not angry? Nay, thou must not take offence. 
 Forget that thou art white, and I black, and remember 
 only that we three be sisters. Little sister, with us 
 women 'tis thus, and no other way. From all, except 
 such as have borne a child, the world is hid. I make 
 my prayers trembling to such and such a god, who 
 thou sayest is black stone, and I tremble at the gusts of 
 the night because I believe that the devils ride by my 
 windows at such hours; and I sit here in the dark knit- 
 ting wool and preparing sweetmeats that come back 
 untasted from my lord's table. And thou coming from 
 ten thousand leagues away, very wise and fearing nothing, 
 hast taught me, oh, ten thousand things. Yet thou art 
 the child, and I am still the mother, and what I know 
 thou canst not know, and the wells of my happiness thou 
 canst not fathom, nor the bitter waters of my sorrow till 
 thou hast tasted sorrow and grief alike. I have told thee 
 of the child — all and more than all thou sayest? Little 
 sister, I have told thee less than the beginning of my love 
 for him, because I knew that thou couldst not understand. 
 I have told thee my sorrows — all and more than all, 
 thou sayest, when I laid my head against thy breast ? 
 How could I tell thee all? Thou art a maiden, and 
 the heart in thy bosom, beneath my heart, betrayed in its 
 very beat that it did not understand. Nay, that woman
 
 THE NAULAHKA 251 
 
 there, coming from without, knows more of me than thee ? 
 And they taught thee in a school, thou hast told me, 
 all manner of healing, and there is no disease in life 
 that thou dost not understand ? Little sister, how couldst 
 thou understand life that hast never given it? Hast 
 thou ever felt the tug of the child at the breast? Nay, 
 what need to blush ? Hast thou ? I know thou hast 
 not. Though I heard thy speech for the first time, and 
 looking from the window saw thee walking, I should 
 know. And the others — my sisters in the world— know 
 also. But they do not all speak to thee as I do. When 
 the life quickens under the breast, they, waking in the 
 night, hear all the earth walking to that measure. 
 Why should they tell thee? To-day the hospital has 
 broken from under thee. Is it not so? And the 
 women went out one by one? And what didst thou 
 say to them ? " 
 
 The woman of the desert, answering for her, spoke. 
 "She said, ' Come back, and I will make ye well.'" 
 
 "And by what oath did she affirm her words?" 
 
 "There was no oath," said the woman of the desert ; 
 "she stood in the gate and called." 
 
 "And upon what should a maiden call to bring 
 wavering women back again? The toil that she has 
 borne for their sake? They cannot see it. But of the 
 pains that a woman has shared with them, a woman 
 knows. There was no child in thy arms. The mother 
 look was not in thy eyes. By what magic, then, wouldst 
 thou speak to women ? There was a charm among the 
 drugs, they said, and their children would be misshapen. 
 "What didst thou know of the springs of life and death to 
 teach them otherwise? It is written in the books of thy 
 school, I know, that such things cannot be. but we 
 women do not read books. It is not from them that 
 we learn of life. How should such an one prevail, unless 
 the gods help her — and the gods are very far away.
 
 252 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Thou hast given thy life to the helping of women. 
 Little sister, when wilt thou also be a woman ? " 
 
 The voice ceased. Kate's head was buried deep in 
 the Queen's lap. She let it lie there without stirring. 
 
 "Ay!" said the woman of the desert. "The mark 
 of coverture has been taken from my head, my glass 
 bangles are broken on my arm, and I am unlucky to 
 meet when a man sets forth on a journey. Till I die I 
 must be alone, earning my bread alone, and thinking 
 of the dead. But though I knew that it was to come 
 again, at the end of one year instead of ten, I would 
 still thank the gods that have given me love and a child. 
 Will the miss sahib take this in payment for all she did 
 for my man? ' A wandering priest, a childless woman, 
 and a stone in the water are of one blood.' So says the 
 talk of our people. What will the miss sahib do now ? 
 The Queen has spoken the truth. The gods and thy 
 own wisdom, which is past the wisdom of a maid, have 
 helped thee so far, as I, who was with thee always, have 
 seen. The gods have warned thee that their help is 
 at an end. "What remains ? Is this work for such as 
 thou ? Is it not as the Queen says ? She, sitting here 
 alone, and seeing nothing, has seen that which I, moving 
 with thee among the sick day by day, have seen and 
 known. little sister, is it not so ? " 
 
 Kate lifted her head slowly from the Queen's knee, 
 and rose. 
 
 " Take the child, and let us go," she said hoarsely. 
 
 The merciful darkness of the room hid her face. 
 
 " Nay," said the Queen, " this woman shall take him. 
 Go thou back alone." 
 
 Kate vanished.
 
 xx r. 
 
 "The Law whereby my lady moves 
 Was never Law to me, 
 But 'tis enough that she approves 
 'Whatever Law it be. 
 
 " For in that Law, and by that Law, 
 My constant course I'll steer ; 
 Not that I heed or deem it dread, 
 But that she holds it dear. 
 
 i: Tho' Asia sent for my content 
 1 fer richest argosies, 
 Those would I spurn, and bid return, 
 If that should give her ease. 
 
 " With equal heart I'd watch depart 
 Each spliced sail from sight, 
 Sans bitterness, desiring less 
 Great gear than her delight. 
 
 " Yet such am I, yea such am I — 
 Sore bond and freest free, — 
 The Law that sways my lady's ways 
 Is mystery to me ! " 
 
 To sit still, and to keep sitting still, is the first lesson 
 that the young jockey must learn. Tarvin was learning 
 it in bitterness of spirit. For the sake of his town, for 
 the sake of his love, and, above all, for the sake of his 
 love's life, he must go. The town was waiting, his 
 horse was saddled at the door, but his love would not 
 come. He must sit still. 
 
 The burning desert wind blew through the open 
 verandah as remorselessly as Sitabhai's hate. Looking
 
 254 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 out, he saw nothing but the city asleep in the sun- 
 shine and the wheeling kites above it. Yet when even- 
 ing fell, and a man might be able by bold riding to 
 escape to the railway, certain shrouded figures would 
 creep from the wails and take up their position within 
 easy gunshot of the rest-house. One squatted at each 
 point of the compass, and between them, all night long, 
 came and went a man on horseback. Tarvin could hear 
 the steady beat of the hoofs as he went his rounds, and 
 the sound did not give him fresh hope. But for Kate — 
 but for Kate, he repeated to himself, he would have been 
 long since beyond reach of horse or bullet. The hours 
 were very slow, and as he sat and watched the shadows 
 grow and shorten it seemed to him, as it had seemed so 
 often before, that this and no other was the moment that 
 Topaz would choose to throw her chances from her. 
 
 He had lost already, he counted, eight and forty 
 precious hours, and, so far as he could see, the re- 
 mainder of the year might be spent in an equally 
 unprofitable fashion. 
 
 Meantime Kate lay exposed to every imaginable 
 danger. Sitabhai was sure to assume that he had 
 wrested the necklace from her for the sake of the "frail 
 white girl;" she had said as much on the dam. It was 
 for Kate's sake, in a measure; but Tarvin reflected bitterly 
 that an Oriental had no sense of proportion, and, like 
 the snake, strikes first at that which is nearest. And 
 Kate? How in the world was he to explain the case 
 to her? He had told her of danger about her path as 
 well as his own, and she had decided to face that danger. 
 For her courage and devotion he loved her; but her 
 obstinacy made him grit his teeth. Tnere was but one 
 grimly comical element in the terrible jumble. What 
 would the King say to Sitabhai when he discovered that 
 she had lost the Luck of the State? In what manner 
 would she veil that loss; and, above all, into what sort
 
 THE NAULAHKA 255 
 
 of royal rage would she fall ? Tarvin shook his head 
 meditatively. " It's quite bad enough for me," he said, 
 "just about as bad as it can possibly be made; but I 
 have a wandering suspicion that it may be unwholesome 
 for Juggut. Yes ! 1 can spare time to be very sorry 
 for Juggut. My fat friend, you should have held straight 
 that first time, outside the city walls ! " 
 
 He rose and looked out into the sunlight, wondering 
 which of the scattered vagrants by the roadside might 
 be an emissary from the palace. A man lay apparently 
 asleep by the side of his camel near the road that ran to 
 the city. Tarvin stepped out casually from the verandah, 
 and saw, as soon as he was fairly in the open, that the 
 sleeper roiled round to the other side of his beast. He 
 strolled forward a few paces. The sunlight glinted above 
 the back of the camel on something that shone like silver. 
 Tarvin marched straight toward the glitter, his pistol in 
 his hand. The man, when he came up to him, was buried 
 in innocent slumber. Under the fold of his garment 
 peered the muzzle of a new and very clean rifle. 
 
 "Looks as if Sitabhai was calling out the militia, and 
 supplying them with outfits from her private armoury. 
 Juggut's gun was new, too," said Tarvin, standing over 
 the sleeper. " But this man knows more about guns 
 than Juggut. Hi !" He stooped down and stirred the 
 man up with the muzzle of his revolver. "I'm afraid I 
 must trouble you for that gun. And tell the lady to drop 
 it, will you ? It won't pay." 
 
 The man understood the unspoken eloquence of the 
 pistol, and nothing more. Me gave up his gun sullenly 
 enough, and moved away, lashing his camel spitefully. 
 
 " Now, I wonder how many more of her army I shall 
 have to disarm," said Tarvin, retracing his steps, the cap- 
 tured gun over his shoulder. "I wonder— no, 1 won't 
 believe that she would dare to do anything to Kate! 
 She knows enough of me to be sure that I'd blow her
 
 256 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 and her old palace into to-morrow. If she's half the 
 woman she pretends to be, she'll reckon with me before 
 she goes much further." 
 
 In vain he attempted to force himself into this belief. 
 Sitabhai had shown him what sort of thing her mercy 
 might be, and Kate might have tasted it ere this. To 
 go to her now — to be maimed or crippled at the least 
 if he went to her now — was impossible. Yet, he decided 
 that he would go. He returned hastily to Fibby, whom 
 he had left not three minutes before flickim? flies off in 
 the sunshine at the back of the rest-house. But Fibby 
 lay on his side groaning piteously, hamstrung and dying. 
 
 Tarvin could hear his groom industriously polishing 
 a bit round the corner, and when the man came up in 
 response to his call he flung himself down by the side 
 of the horse, howling with grief. 
 
 "An enemy hath done this, an enemy hath done 
 this ! " he clamoured. " My beautiful brown horse that 
 never did harm except when he kicked through fulness 
 of meat ! Where shall I rind a new service if I let my 
 charge die thus ? " 
 
 "I wish I knew! I wish I knew!" said Tarvin, 
 puzzled, and almost despairing. " There'd be a bullet 
 through one black head, if I were just a little surer. 
 Get up, you ! Fibby, old man, I forgive you all your 
 sins. You were a good old boy, and— here's luck." 
 
 The blue smoke enveloped Fibby's head for an instant, 
 the head fell like a hammer, and the good horse was out 
 of his pain. The groom, rising, rent the air with grief, 
 till Tarvin kicked him out of the pickets and bade him 
 begone. Then it was noticeable that his cries ceased 
 suddenly, and, as he retreated into his mud-house to tie 
 up his effects, he smiled and dug up some silver from a 
 hole under his bedstead. 
 
 Tarvin, dismounted, looked east, west, north, south 
 for help, as Sitabhai had looked on the dam. A wander-
 
 THE NAULAHKA 257 
 
 ing gang of gipsies with their lean bullocks and yelping 
 clogs turned an angle of the city wall, and rested like 
 a flock of unclean birds by the city gate. The sight in 
 itself was not unusual, but city regulations forbade camp- 
 ing within a quarter of a mile of the walls. 
 
 " Some of the lady's poor relatives, I suppose. They 
 have blocked the way through the gate pretty well. 
 Now, if I were to make a bolt of it to the missionary's 
 they'd have me, wouldn't they?" muttered Tarvin to him- 
 self. " On the whole, I've seen prettier professions than 
 trading with Eastern queens. They don't seem to under- 
 stand the rules of the game." 
 
 At that moment a cloud of dust whirled through the 
 gipsy camp, as the escort of the Maharaj Kunwar, clear- 
 ing the way for the barouche, scattered the dark band to 
 the left and right. Tarvin wondered what this might 
 portend. The escort halted with the customary rattle 
 of accoutrements at the rest-house door, the barouche 
 behind them. A single trooper, two hundred yards 
 or more in the rear, lifted his voice in a deferential 
 shout as he pursued the carriage. He was answered 
 by a chuckle from the escort, and two shrill screams of 
 delight from the occupants of the barouche. 
 
 A child whom Tarvin had never before seen stood 
 upright in the back of the carriage, and hurled a torrent 
 of abuse in the vernacular at the outpaced trooper. 
 Again the escort laughed. 
 
 "Tarvin Sahib! Tarvin Sahib!" piped the Maharaj 
 Kunwar. " Come and look at us." 
 
 For a moment Tarvin fancied this a fresh device of 
 the enemy ; but, reassured by the sight of his old and 
 trusted ally, the Maharaj, he stepped forward. 
 
 "Prince," he said, as he took his hand, "you ought 
 not to be out." 
 
 "Oh, it is all right," said the young man hastily, 
 thoucrh his little pale face belied it. "I gave the order
 
 258 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 and we came. Miss Kate gives me orders ; but she 
 took me over to the palace, and there I give orders. 
 This is Umr Singh — my brother, the little Prince ; but 
 / shall be King." 
 
 The second child raised his eyes slowly and looked 
 full at Tarvin. The eyes and the low broad forehead 
 were those of Sitabhai, and the mouth closed firmly over 
 the little pearl-like teeth, as his mother's mouth had 
 closed in the conflict on the Dungar Talao. 
 
 " He is from the other side of the palace," answered 
 the Maharaj, still in English. " From the other side, 
 where I must not go. But when I was in the palace I 
 went to him — ha, ha, Tarvin Sahib — and he was killing 
 a goat. Look ! His hands are all red now." 
 
 Umr Singh opened a tiny palm at a word from the 
 Maharaj in the vernacular, and flung it outward at 
 Tarvin. It was dark with dried blood, and a bearded 
 whisper ran among the escort. The commandant 
 turned in his saddle, and, nodding at Tarvin, muttered, 
 " Sitabhai." Tarvin caught the word, and it was suffi- 
 cient for him. Providence had sent him help out of a 
 clear sky. He framed a plan instantly. 
 
 "But how did you come here, you young imps?" he 
 demanded. 
 
 " Oh, there are only women in the palace yonder, and 
 I am a Rajput and a man. He cannot speak any 
 English at all," he added, pointing to his companion ; 
 "but when we have played together I have told him 
 about you, Tarvin Sahib, and about the day you picked 
 me out of my saddle, and he wished to come too, to 
 see all the things you show me, so I gave the order 
 very quietly, and we came out of the little door to- 
 gether. And so we are here ! Salaam, baba" he said 
 patronisingly to the child at his side, and the child, 
 slowly and gravely, raised his hand to his forehead, still 
 gazing with fixed, incurious eyes on the stranger. Then
 
 THE NAULAHKA 259 
 
 he whispered something that made the Maharaj Kunwar 
 laugh. "He says," said the Maharaj Kunwar, "that 
 you are not so big as he thought. His mother told him 
 that you were stronger than any man, but some of these 
 troopers are bigger than you." 
 
 " Well, what do you want me to do ? " asked Tarvin. 
 "Show him your gun, and how you shoot rupees, and 
 what you do that makes horses quiet when they kick, 
 and all those things." 
 
 "All right," said Tarvin. "But I can't show them 
 here. Come over to Mr. Estes with me." 
 
 " I do not like to go there. My monkey is dead. 
 And I do not think Kate would like to see us. She is 
 always crying now-. She took me up to the palace 
 yesterday, and this morning I went to her again ; but 
 she would not see me." 
 
 Tarvin could have hugged the child for the blessed 
 assurance that Kate at least still lived. " Isn't she at 
 the hospital, then ? " he asked thickly. 
 
 "Oh, the hospital has all gone phut. There are no 
 women now. They all ran away." 
 
 " No ! " cried Tarvin. " Say that again, little man. 
 What for?" 
 
 " Devils," said the Maharaj Kunwar briefly. " What 
 do I know? It was some women's talk. Show him how 
 you ride, Tarvin Sahib." 
 
 Again Umr Singh whispered to his companion, and 
 put one leg over the side of the barouche. " He says he 
 will ride in front of you, as I told him I did," interpreted 
 the Prince. "Gurdit Singh, dismount ! " 
 
 A trooper flung himself out of the saddle on the 
 word, and stood to attention at the horse's head. 
 Tarvin, smiling to himself at the perfection of his oppor- 
 tunity, said nothing, but leapt into the saddle, picked 
 Umr Singh out of his barouche, and placed him care- 
 fully before him.
 
 2 6o THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " Sitabhai would be rather restless if she could see me," 
 he murmured to himself, as he tucked his arm round 
 the lithe little figure. " I don't think there will be any 
 Juggutting while I carry this young man in front of me." 
 
 As the escort opened to allow Tarvin to take his 
 place at their head, a wandering priest, who had been 
 watching the episode from a little distance, turned and 
 shouted with all the strength of his lungs across the 
 plain, in the direction of the city. The cry was taken 
 up by unseen voices, passed on to the city walls, and 
 died away on the sands beyond. 
 
 Umr Singh smiled, as the horse began to trot, and 
 ur CT ed Tarvin to go faster. This the Maharaj forbade. 
 He wished to see the sight comiortably from his seat 
 in the barouche. As he passed the gipsy camp, men 
 and women threw themselves down on the sands, crying, 
 "Jai! Jungle da badshah j'ai/" and the faces of the 
 troopers darkened. 
 
 "That means," cried the Maharaj Kunwar, "Victory 
 to the King of the Desert. I have no money to give 
 them. Have you, Tarvin Sahib?" 
 
 In his joy at being now safely on his way to Kate, 
 Tarvin could have flung everything he possessed to the 
 crow d — almost the Naulahka itself. He emptied a hand- 
 ful of copper and small silver among them, and the cry 
 rose again, but bitter laughter was mingled with it, and 
 the gipsy folk called to each other, mocking. The 
 Maharaj Kunwar's face turned scarlet. He leaned for- 
 ward listening for an instant, and then shouted, "By 
 Indur, it is for him ! Scatter their tents ! " At a wave 
 of his hand the escort, wheeling, plunged through the 
 camp in line, driving the light ash of the fires up in 
 clouds, slashing the donkeys with the flat of their swords 
 until they stampeded, and carrying away the frail brown 
 tents on the butts of their reversed lances. 
 
 Tarvin looked on contentedly at the dispersal of the
 
 THE NAULAHKA 261 
 
 group, which he knew would have stopped him if he had 
 been alone. 
 
 Umr Singh bit his lip. Then, turning to the Maharaj 
 Kunwar, he smiled, and put forward from his belt the 
 hilt of his sword in sign of fealty. 
 
 " It is just, my brother," he said in the vernacular. 
 " But I " — here he raised his voice a little — " would not 
 drive the gipsy folk too far. They always return." 
 
 "Ay," cried a voice from the huddled crowd, watching 
 the wreck of the camp, significantly, "gipsies always 
 return, my King." 
 
 " So does a dog," said the Maharaj, between his teeth. 
 " Both are kicked. Drive on." 
 
 And a pillar of dust came to Estes's house, Tarvin 
 riding in safety in the midst of it. 
 
 Telling the boys to play until he came out, he swept 
 into the house, taking the steps two at a time, and dis- 
 covered Kate in a dark corner of the parlour with a bit 
 of sewing in her hand. As she looked up he saw that 
 she was crying. 
 
 "Nick!" she exclaimed voicelessly. "Nick I" He 
 had stopped hesitating on the threshold ; she dropped 
 her work, and rose breathless. " You have come back ! 
 It is you ! You are alive ! " 
 
 Tarvin smiled, and held out his arms. "Come and 
 see ! " She took a step forward. 
 
 " Oh, I was afraid " 
 
 " Come ! " 
 
 She went doubtfully toward him. He caught her fast, 
 and held her in his arms. 
 
 For a long minute she let her head lie on his breast. 
 Then she looked up. " This isn't what I meant," she 
 protested. 
 
 " Oh, don't try to improve on it ! " Tarvin said 
 hastily. 
 
 " She tried to poison me. I was sure when I heard
 
 262 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 nothing that she must have killed you. I fancied hor- 
 rible things." 
 
 " Poor child ! And your hospital has gone wrong ! 
 You have been having a hard time. But we will change all 
 that. We must leave as soon as you can get ready. I've 
 nipped her claws for a moment ; I'm holding a hostage. 
 But we can't keep that up for ever. We must get away." 
 
 " We ! " she repeated feebly. 
 
 " Well, do you want to go alone ?" 
 
 She smiled as she released herself. " I want you to." 
 
 " And you ? " 
 
 " I'm not worth thinking of. I have failed. Every- 
 thing I meant to do has fallen about me in a heap. I 
 feel burnt out, Nick — burnt out ! " 
 
 " All right ! We'll put in new works and launch you 
 on a fresh system. That's what I want. There shall be 
 nothing to remind you that you ever saw Rhatore, dear." 
 
 " It was a mistake," she said. 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Everything. My coming. My thinking I could do 
 it. It's not a girl's work. It's my work, perhaps ; but it's 
 not for me. I have given it up, Nick. Take me home." 
 
 Tarvin gave an unbecoming shout of joy, and folded 
 her in his arms again. He told her that they must be 
 married at once, and start that night, if she could manage 
 it; and Kate, dreading what might befall him, assented 
 doubtfully. She spoke of preparations ; but Tarvin said 
 that they would prepare after they had done it. They 
 could buy things at Bombay — stacks of things. He was 
 sweeping her forward with the onrush of his extempore 
 plans, when she said suddenly, " But what of the dam, 
 Nick? You can't leave that." 
 
 " Shucks ! " exclaimed Tarvin heartily. " You don't 
 suppose there's any gold in the old river, do you?" 
 
 She recoiled quickly from his arms, staring at him in 
 accusation and reproach.
 
 THE NAULAHKA 263 
 
 " Do you mean that you have always known that there 
 was no gold there ? " she asked. 
 
 Tarvin pulled himself together quickly ; but not so 
 quickly that she did not catch the confession in his eye. 
 
 " I see you have," she said coldly. 
 
 Tarvin measured the crisis which had suddenly de- 
 scended on him out of the clouds ; he achieved an in- 
 stantaneous change of front, and met her smiling. 
 
 " Certainly," he said ; " I have been working it as a 
 blind." 
 
 " A blind ? " she repeated. " To cover what ? " 
 
 " You." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " she inquired, with a look in 
 her eyes which made him uncomfortable. 
 
 " The Indian Government allows no one to remain 
 in the State without a definite purpose. I couldn't tell 
 Colonel Nolan that I had come courting you, could I?" 
 
 " I don't know. But you could have avoided taking 
 the Maharajah's money to carry out this — this plan. An 
 honest man would have avoided that." 
 
 "Oh, look here!" exclaimed Tarvin. 
 
 " How could you cheat the King into thinking that 
 there was a reason for your work, how could you let him 
 give you the labour of a thousand men, how could you 
 take his money ? O Nick ! " 
 
 He gazed at her for a vacant and hopeless minute. 
 " Why, Kate," he exclaimed, "do you know you are talk- 
 ing of the most stupendous joke the Indian empire has 
 witnessed since the birth of time ? " 
 
 This was pretty good, but it was not good enough. 
 He plunged for a stronger hold as she answered, with a 
 perilous little note of breakdown in her voice, " You 
 make it worse." 
 
 " "Well, your sense of humour never was your strongest 
 point, you know, Kate." He took the seat next her, 
 leaned over and took her hand, as he went on. " Doesn't
 
 264 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 it strike you as rather amusing, though, after all, to rip 
 up half a state to be near a very small little girl — a very 
 sweet, very extra lovely little girl, but still a rather tiny 
 little girl in proportion to the size of the Amet valley ? 
 Come — doesn't it ? " 
 
 " Is that all you have to say ? " asked she. Tarvin 
 turned pale. He knew the tone of finality he heard in 
 her voice ; it went with a certain look of scorn when she 
 spoke of any form of moral baseness that moved her. He 
 recognised his condemnation in it and shuddered. In the 
 moment that passed, while he still kept silence, he recog- 
 nised this for the crisis of his life. Then he took strong 
 hold of himself, and said quietly, easily, unscrupulously — 
 
 "Why, you don't suppose that I'm not going to ask 
 the Maharajah for his bill, do you ? " 
 
 She gasped a little. Her acquaintance with Tarvin 
 did not help her to follow his dizzying changes of front. 
 His bird's skill to make his level flight, his reeling dips 
 and circling returns upon himself, all seem part of a single 
 impulse, must ever remain confusing to her. But she 
 rightly believed in his central intention to do the square 
 thing, if he could find out what it was ; and her belief in 
 his general strength helped her not to see at this moment 
 that he was deriving his sense of the square thing from 
 herself. She could not know, and probably could not 
 have imagined, how little his own sense of the square 
 thing had to do with any system of morality, and how 
 entirely he must always define morality as what pleased 
 Kate. Other women liked confections ; she preferred 
 morality, and he meant she should have it, if he had to 
 turn pirate to get it for her. 
 
 "You didn't think I wasn't paying for the show?" he 
 pursued bravely ; but in his heart he was saying, " She 
 loathes it. She hates it. Why didn't I think ; why didn't 
 I think? " He added aloud, "I had my fun, and now 
 I've got you. You're both cheap at the price, and I'm
 
 THE NAULAHKA 265 
 
 going to step up and pay it like a little man. You must 
 know that." 
 
 His smile met no answering smile. He mopped his 
 forehead and stared anxiously at her. All the easiness 
 in the world couldn't make him sure what she would 
 say next. She said nothing, and he had to go on 
 desperately, with a cold fear gathering about his heart. 
 "Why, it's just like me, isn't it, Kate, to work a scheme 
 on the old Rajah ? It's like a man who owns a mine 
 that's turning out $2000 a month, to rig a game out in 
 this desert country to do a confiding Indian Prince 
 out of a few thousand rupees?" He advanced this 
 recently inspired conception of his conduct with an air 
 of immemorial familiarity, born of desperation. 
 
 "What mine?" she asked, with dry lips. 
 
 "The 'Lingering Lode,' of course. You've heard me 
 speak of it ? " 
 
 " Yes, but I didn't know " 
 
 " That it was doing that ? Well, it is — right along. 
 Want to see the assay ? " 
 
 " No," she answered. " No. But that makes you 
 
 Why, but, Nick, that makes you " 
 
 "A rich man? Moderately, while the lead holds out. 
 Too rich for petty larceny, I guess." 
 
 He was joking for his life. The heart-sickening 
 seriousness of his unseriousness was making a hole in his 
 head ; the tension was too much for him. In the mad 
 fear of that moment his perceptions doubled their fine- 
 ness. Something went through him as he said " larceny." 
 Then his heart stopped. A sure, awful, luminous percep- 
 tion leaped upon him, and he knew himseif for lost. 
 
 If she hated this, what would she say to the other ? 
 Innocent, successful, triumphant, even gay it seemed to 
 him ; but what to her? He turned sick. 
 
 Kate or the Naulahka. He must choose. The 
 Naulahka or Kate?
 
 266 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 " Don't make light of it," she was saying. " You 
 would be just as honest if you couldn't afford it, Nick. 
 Ah," she went on, laying her hand on his lightly, in 
 mute petition for having even seemed to doubt him, 
 " I know you, Nick ! You like to make the better seem 
 the worse reason ; you like to pretend to be wicked. 
 But who is so honest ? O Nick ! I knew you had to be 
 true. If you weren't, everything else would be wrong." 
 
 He took her in his arms. "Would it, little girl?" he 
 asked, looking down at her. " We must keep the other 
 things right, then, at any expense." 
 
 He heaved a deep sigh as he stooped and kissed her. 
 
 " Have you such a thing as a box?" he asked, after a 
 long pause. 
 
 " Any sort of box? " asked Kate bewilderedly. 
 
 " No — well, it ought to be the finest box in the world, 
 but I suppose one of those big grape boxes will do. It 
 isn't every day that one sends presents to a queen." 
 
 Kate handed him a large chip box in which long green 
 grapes from Kabul had been packed. Discoloured cotton 
 wool lay at the bottom. 
 
 " That was sold at the door the other day," she said. 
 " Is it big enough ?" 
 
 Tarvin turned away without answering, emptied some- 
 thing that clicked like a shower of pebbles upon the 
 wool, and sighed deeply. Topaz was in that box. The 
 voice of the Maharaj Kunwar lifted itself from the next 
 room. 
 
 " Tarvin Sahib — Kate, we have eaten all the fruit, 
 and now we want to do something else." 
 
 " One moment, little man," said Tarvin. With his 
 back still toward Kate, he drew his hand caressingly, for 
 the last time, over the blazing heap at the bottom of the 
 box, fondling the stones one by one. The great green 
 emerald pierced him, he thought, with a reproachful 
 gaze. A mist crept into his eyes : the diamond was too
 
 THE NAULAHKA 267 
 
 bright. He shut the hd down upon the box hastily, 
 and put it into Kate's hands with a decisive gesture ; 
 he made her hold it while he tied it in silence. Then, 
 in a voice not his, he asked her to take the box to 
 Sitabhai with his compliments. " No," he continued, 
 seeing the alarm in her eyes. " She won't — she daren't 
 hurt you now. Her child's coming along with us ; and 
 I'll go with you, of course, as far as I can. Glory be, 
 it's the last journey that you'll ever undertake in this 
 infernal land. The last but one, that's to say. We 
 live at high pressure in Rhatore — too high pressure for 
 me. Be quick, if you love me." 
 
 Kate hastened to put on her helmet, while Tarvin 
 amused the two princes by allowing them to inspect 
 his revolver, and promising at some more fitting season 
 to shoot as many coins as they should demand. The 
 lounging escort at the door was suddenly scattered by a 
 trooper from without, who flung his horse desperately 
 through their ranks, shouting, " A letter for Tarvin 
 Sahib ! " 
 
 Tarvin stepped into the verandah, took a crumpled 
 half sheet of paper from the outstretched hand, and read 
 these words, traced painfully and laboriously in an un- 
 formed round hand :— 
 
 " Dear Mr. Tarvin, — Give me the boy and keep 
 the other thing. Your affectionate Friend." 
 
 Tarvin chuckled and thrust the note into his waistcoat 
 pocket. " There is no answer," he said — and to him- 
 self : "You're a thoughtful girl, Sitabhai, but I'm afraid 
 you're just a little too thoughtful. That boy's wanted 
 for the next half hour. Are you ready, Kate ? " 
 
 The princes lamented loudly when they were told that 
 Tarvin was riding over to the palace at once, and that, 
 if they hoped for further entertainment, they must both 
 go with him. " We will go into the great Durbar Hall,"
 
 268 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 said the Maharaj Kunwar consolingly to his companion 
 at last, "and make all the music-boxes play together." 
 
 " I want to see that man shoot," said Umr Singh. 
 " I want to see him shoot something dead. I do not 
 wish to go to the palace." 
 
 " You'll ride on my horse," said Tarvin, when the 
 answer had been interpreted, " and I'll make him gallop 
 all the way. Say, Prince, how fast do you think your 
 carriage can go ? " 
 
 " As fast as Miss Kate dares." 
 
 Kate stepped in, and the cavalcade galloped to the 
 palace, Tarvin riding always a little in front with Umr 
 Singh clapping his hands on the saddle bow. 
 
 " We must pull up at Sitabhai's wing, dear," Tarvin 
 cried. " You won't be afraid to walk in under the arch 
 with me?" 
 
 " I trust you, Nick," she answered simply, getting out 
 of the carriage. 
 
 " Then go in to the woman's wing. Give the box into 
 Sitabhai's hands, and tell her that I sent it back. You'll 
 find she knows my name." 
 
 The horse trampled under the archway, Kate at its side, 
 and Tarvin holding Umr Singh very much in evidence. 
 The courtyard was empty, but as they came out into the 
 sunshine by the central fountain the rustle and whisper 
 behind the shutters rose, as the tiger-grass rustles when 
 the wind blows through it. 
 
 " One minute, dear," said Tarvin, halting, "if you can 
 bear this sun on your head." 
 
 A door opened and a eunuch came out, beckoning 
 silently to Kate. She followed him and disappeared, 
 the door closing behind her. Tarvin's heart rose into 
 his mouth, and unconsciously he clasped Umr Singh so 
 closely to his breast that the child cried out. 
 
 The whisper rose, and it seemed to Tarvin as if some 
 one were sobbing behind the shutters. Then followed a
 
 THE NAULAHKA 269 
 
 peal of low, soft laughter, and the muscles at the corner 
 of Tarvin's mouth relaxed. Umr Singh began to struggle 
 
 O O CO 
 
 in his arms. 
 
 " Not yet, young man. You must wait until — ah ! 
 thank God." 
 
 Kate reappeared, her little figure framed against the 
 darkness of the doorway. Behind her came the eunuch, 
 crawling fearfully to Tarvin's side. Tarvin smiled 
 affably, and dropped the amazed young prince into his 
 arms. Umr Singh was borne away kicking, and ere 
 they left the courtyard Tarvin heard the dry roar of an 
 angry child, followed by an unmistakable yelp of pain. 
 Tarvin smiled. 
 
 " They spank young princes in Rajputana. That's 
 one step on the path to progress. What did she say, 
 Kate?" 
 
 " She said I was to be sure and tell you that she 
 knew you were not afraid. ' Tell Tarvin Sahib that I 
 knew he was not afraid.' " 
 
 " Where's Umr Singh ? " asked the Maharaj Kunwar 
 from the barouche. 
 
 " He's gone to his mother. I'm afraid I can't amuse 
 you just now, little man. I've forty thousand things to 
 do, and no time to do them in. Tell me where your 
 father is." 
 
 " I do not know. There has been trouble and crying 
 in the palace. The women are always crying, and that 
 makes my father angry. I shall stay at Mr. Estes', and 
 play with Kate." 
 
 "Yes. Let him stay," said Kate quickly. "Nick, 
 do you think I ought to leave him ? " 
 
 " That's another of the things I must fix," said Tarvin. 
 " But first I must find the Maharajah, if I have to dig up 
 Rhatore for him. What's that, little one ? " 
 
 A trooper whispered to the young Prince. 
 
 " This man says that he is there," said the Maharaj
 
 270 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 Kunwar. " He has been there since two days. I also 
 have wished to see him." 
 
 "Very good. Drive home, Kate. I'll wait here." 
 
 He re-entered the archway, and reined up. Again 
 the whisper behind the shutter rose ; and a man from a 
 doorway demanded his business. 
 
 " I must see the Maharajah," said Tarvin. 
 
 " Wait," said the man. And Tarvin waited for a full 
 five minutes, using his time for concentrated thought. 
 
 Then the Maharajah emerged, and amiability sat on 
 every hair of his newly-oiled moustache. 
 
 For some mysterious reason Sitabhai had withdrawn 
 the light of her countenance from him for two days, and 
 had sat raging in her own apartments. Now the mood 
 had passed, and the gipsy would see him again. There- 
 fore the Maharajah's heart was glad within him ; and 
 wisely, as befitted the husband of many wives, he did not 
 inquire too closely into the reasons that had led to the 
 change. 
 
 " Ah, Tarvin Sahib," said he, " I have not seen you 
 for long. What is the news from the dam? Is there 
 anything to see ? " 
 
 "Maharajah Sahib, that's what I've come to talk 
 about. There is nothing to see, and I think that there 
 is no gold to be got at." 
 
 " That is bad," said the King lightly. 
 
 " But there is a good deal to be seen, if you care to 
 come along. I don't want to waste your money any 
 more, now I'm sure of the fact ; but I don't see the use 
 of saving all the powder on the dam. There must be 
 five hundred pounds of it." 
 
 " I do not understand," said the Maharajah, whose 
 mind w r as occupied with other things. 
 
 " Do you want to see the biggest explosion that you've 
 ever seen in your life. Do you want to hear the earth 
 shake, and see the rocks fly ? "
 
 THE NAULAHKA 271 
 
 The Maharajah's face brightened. 
 
 "Will it be seen from the palace?" he said; "from 
 the top of the palace ? " 
 
 " Oh yes. But the best place to watch it will be 
 from the side of the river. I shall put the river back at 
 five o'clock. It's three o'clock now. Will you be there, 
 Maharajah Sahib?" 
 
 " I will be there. It will be a big tamasha. Five 
 hundred pounds of powder ! The earth will be rent 
 in two." 
 
 "I should remark. And after that, Maharajah Sahib, 
 I am going to be married ; and then I am going away. 
 Will you come to the wedding ? " 
 
 The Maharajah shaded his eyes from the sun-glare, 
 and peered up at Tarvin under his turban. 
 
 "By God, Tarvin Sahib," said he, "you are a quick 
 man. So you will marry the doctor-lady, and then you 
 will go away? I will come to the wedding. I and 
 Pertab Singh." 
 
 The next two hours in the life of Nicholas Tarvin will 
 never be adequately chronicled. There was a fierce 
 need upon him to move mountains and shift the poles 
 of the earth ; there was a strong horse beneath him, and 
 in his heart the knowledge that he had lost the Naulahka 
 and gained Kate. When he appeared, a meteor amid 
 the coolies on the dam, they understood, and a word 
 was spoken that great things were toward. The gang 
 foreman turned to his shouts, and learned that the order 
 of the day was destruction — the one thing that the 
 Oriental fully comprehends. 
 
 They dismantled the powder-shed with outcries and 
 fierce yells, hauled the bullock-carts from the crown of 
 the dam, and dropped the derrick after them, and tore 
 down the mat and grass coolie lines. Then, Tarvin 
 urging them always, they buried the powder-casks in the
 
 272 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 crown of the half-built dam, piled the wrapped charges 
 upon them, and shovelled fresh sand atop of all. 
 
 It was a hasty onslaught, but the powder was at least 
 all in one place ; and it should be none of Tarvin's 
 fault if the noise and smoke at least did not delight 
 the Maharajah. 
 
 A little before five he came with his escort, and 
 Tarvin, touching fire to a many times lengthened fuse, 
 bade all men run back. The fire ate slowly the crown 
 of the dam. Then with a dull roar the dam opened out 
 its heart in a sheet of white flame, and the masses of 
 flying earth darkened the smoke above. 
 
 The ruin closed on itself for an instant ere the waters 
 of the Amet plunged forward into the gap, made a boiling 
 rapid, and then spread themselves lazily along their 
 accustomed levels. 
 
 The rain of things descending pitted the earth of the 
 banks and threw the water in sheets and spurts. Then 
 only the smoke and the blackened flanks of the dam, 
 crumbling each minute as the river sucked them down, 
 remained to tell of the work that had been. 
 
 " And now, Maharajah Sahib, what do I owe you ? " 
 said Tarvin, after he had satisfied himself that none of 
 the more reckless coolies had been killed. 
 
 "That was very fine," said the Maharajah. "I never 
 saw that before. It is a pity that it cannot come again." 
 
 "What do I owe you?" repeated Tarvin. 
 
 " For that ? Oh, they were my people. They ate a 
 little grain, and many were from my jails. The powder 
 was from the arsenal. What is the use to talk of paying ? 
 Am I a bufinia that I can tell what there is to pay ? It 
 was a fine tamasha. By God, there is no dam left at all." 
 
 "You might let me put it right." 
 
 "Tarvin Sahib, if you waited one year, or perhaps 
 two years, you would get a bill ; and besides, if anything 
 was paid, the men who pay the convicts would take it all,
 
 THE NAULAHKA 273 
 
 and I should not be richer. They were my people, and 
 the grain was cheap, and they have seen the tamasha. 
 Enough. It is not good to talk of payment. Let us 
 return to the city. By God, Tarvin Sahib, you are a 
 quick man. Now there will be no one to play pachisi 
 with me or to make me laugh. And the Maharaj Kunwar 
 will be sorry also. But it is good that a man should 
 marry. Yes, it is good. Why do you go, Tarvin Sahib ? 
 Is it an order of the Government ? " 
 
 " Yes ; the American Government. I am wanted 
 there to help govern my State." 
 
 " No telegram has come for you," said the King 
 simply. " But you are so quick." 
 
 Tarvin laughed lightly, wheeled his horse, and was gone, 
 leaving the King interested but unmoved. He had finally 
 learned to accept Tarvin and his ways as a natural pheno- 
 menon beyond control. As he drew rein instinctively 
 opposite the missionary's door and looked for an instant 
 at the city, the sense of the otherness of things daily 
 seen that heralds swift coming change smote the mind of 
 the American, and he shivered. " It was a bad dream — 
 a very bad dream," he muttered, " and the worst of it is 
 not one of the boys in Topaz would ever believe half 
 of it." Then the eyes that swept the arid landscape 
 twinkled with many reminiscences " Tarvin, my boy, 
 you've played with a kingdom, and for results it lays 
 over monkeying with the buzz-saw. You were left when 
 you sized this State up for a played-out hole in the 
 ground ; badly left. If you have been romping around 
 six months after something you hadn't the sabe to hold 
 when you'd got you've learned that much. . . . Topaz ! 
 Poor old Topaz ! " Again his eyes ran round the tawny 
 horizon, and he laughed aloud. The little town under 
 the shadow of Big Chief, ten thousand miles away and 
 all ignorant of the mighty machinery that had moved on 
 its behalf, would have resented that laugh ; for Tarvin, 
 
 s
 
 274 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 fresh from events that had shaken Rhatore to its heart, 
 was almost patronising the child of his ambition. 
 
 He brought his hand down on his thigh with a 
 smack, and turned his horse toward the telegraph-office. 
 " How in the name of all that's good and holy," said he, 
 " am I to clear up this business with the Mutrie ? Even 
 a copy of the Naulahka in glass would make her mouth 
 water." The horse cantered on steadily, and Tarvin 
 dismissed the matter with a generous sweep of his free 
 hand. If I can stand it she can. But I '11 prepare her 
 by electricity." 
 
 The dove-coloured telegraph-operator and Postmaster- 
 General of the State remembers even to-day how the 
 Englishman who was not an Englishman, and, therefore, 
 doubly incomprehensible, climbed for the last time up 
 the narrow stairs, sat down in the broken chair, and 
 demanded absolute silence ; how, at the end of fifteen 
 minutes' portentous meditation and fingering of a thin 
 moustache, he sighed heavily as is the custom of English- 
 men when they have eaten that which disagrees with 
 them, waved the operator aside, called up the next office, 
 and clicked off a message with a haughty and high-stepping 
 action of the hands. How he lingered long and lovingly 
 over the last click, applied his ear to the instrument as 
 though it could answer, and turning with a large sweet 
 smile said — " Finis, Babu. Make a note of that," and 
 swept forth chanting the war-cry of his State : 
 
 It is not wealth nor rank nor state, 
 
 But get-up-and-git that makes men great. 
 
 The bullock-cart creaked down the road to Rawut 
 Junction in the first flush of a purple evening, and the 
 low ranges of the Aravullis showed as many coloured 
 cloud banks against the turquoise sky-line. Behind it 
 the red rock of Rhatore burned angrily on the yellow
 
 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 275 
 
 floors of the desert, speckled with the shadows of the 
 browsing camels. Overhead the crane and the wild duck 
 were flocking back to their beds in the reeds, and grey 
 monkeys, family by family, sat on the roadside, their arms 
 round one another's necks. The evening star came up 
 from behind a jagged peak of rock and brushwood, so 
 that its reflection might swim undisturbed at the bottom 
 of an almost dried reservoir, buttressed with time-yellowed 
 marble and flanked with silver plume-grass. Between 
 the star and the earth wheeled huge fox-headed bats 
 and night-jars hawking for the feather-winged moths. 
 The buffaloes had left their water-holes, and the cattle 
 were lying down for the night. Then villagers in far-away 
 huts began to sing, and the hillsides were studded with 
 home lights. The bullocks grunted as the driver twisted 
 their tails, and the high grass by the roadside brushed 
 with the wash of a wave of the open beach against the 
 slow-turning tires. 
 
 The first breath of a cold weather night made Kate 
 wrap her rugs about her more closely. Tarvin was 
 sitting at the back of the cart, swinging his legs and 
 staring at Rhatore before the bends of the road should 
 hide it. The .realisation of defeat, remorse, and the 
 torture of an over well-trained conscience were yet to 
 come to Kate. In that hour, luxuriously disposed upon 
 many cushions, she realised nothing more than a woman's 
 complete contentment with the fact that there was a man 
 in the world to do things for her, though she had not yet 
 learned to lose her interest in how they were done. 
 
 The reiterated and passionate farewells of the women 
 in the palace, and the cyclonic sweep of a wedding at 
 which Nick had refused to efface himself as a bride- 
 groom should, but had flung all their world forward on 
 the torrent of his own vitality, had worn her out. 
 The yearning of homesickness — she had seen it in 
 Mrs. Estes's wet eyes at the missionary's house an hour
 
 276 THE NAULAHKA 
 
 before — lay strong upon her, and she would fain have 
 remembered her plunge into the world's evil as a dream 
 of the night, but — 
 
 " Nick," she said, softly. 
 
 " What is it, little woman ? " 
 
 " Oh, nothing ; I was thinking. Nick, what did you 
 do about the Maharaj Kunwar ? " 
 
 " He's fixed, or I'm mistaken. Don't worry your head 
 about that. After I'd explained a thing or two to old 
 man Nolan he seemed to think well of inviting that 
 young man to board with him until he starts for the 
 Mayo College. Tumble?" 
 
 " His poor mother ! If only I could have — " 
 
 "But you couldn't, little woman. Hi ! Look quick, 
 Kate ! There she goes ! The last of Rhatore." 
 
 A string of coloured lights, high up on the hanging 
 gardens of the palace, was being blotted out behind the 
 velvet blackness of a hill shoulder. Tarvin leaped to his 
 feet, caught the sight of the cart, and bowed profoundly 
 after the Oriental manner. 
 
 The lights disappeared one by one, even as the glories 
 of a necklace had slidden into a Cabuli grape-box, till 
 there remained only the flare from a window on a top- 
 most bastion — a point of light as red and as remote as 
 the blaze of the Black Diamond. That passed too, and 
 the soft darkness rose out of the earth fold upon fold 
 wrapping the man and the woman. 
 
 "After all," said Tarvin, addressing the new-lighted 
 firmament, "that was distinctly a side issue." 
 
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 THE PROFLIGATE : A Play in Four Acts. With Portrait 
 of I lie Author, after J. Mordecai. (Vol. II.) 
 
 fall Mall Gazette. — " Will be welcomed by all who have the true interests 
 of the stage at heart." 
 
 THE CABINET MINISTER: A Farce in Four Acts. 
 (Vol. III.) 
 Observer. — " It is as amusing to read as it was when played." 
 
 THE HOBBY HORSE: A Comedy in Three Acts. 
 (Vol. IV.) 
 
 LADY BOUNTIFUL. A Play in Four Acts. (Vol. V.) 
 
 To be followed by The Magistrate, Dandj Dick, The Schoolmistress. The Weaker 
 Sex, Lords and Commons, The Squire, and Sweet Lavender.
 
 MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST. 
 
 THE WORKS OF HEINRICH HEINE. 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 CHARLES GODFREY LELAND, M.A., F.R.L.S. 
 
 (hans breitmann). 
 
 Crown 8vo, Cloth, 5s. per volume. 
 
 Volume I. FLORENTINE NIGHTS, SCHNABELE- 
 WOPSKI, THE RABBI OF BACHARACH, and 
 SHAKESPEARE'S MAIDENS AND WOMEN. 
 
 Times. — "We can recommend no better medium for making acquaintance 
 at first hand with * the German Aristophanes ' than the works of Heinnch 
 Heine, translated by Charles Godfrey Leland. Mr. Leland manages pretty 
 successfully to preserve the easy grace of the original." 
 
 Volumes II. and III. PICTURES OF TRAVEL, 1823- 
 
 1828. In Two Volumes. 
 
 Daily Chronicle. — "Mr. Leland's translation of 'The Pictures of Travel 
 is one of the acknowledged literary feats of the age. As a traveller Heine is 
 delicious beyond description, and a volume which includes the magnificent 
 Lucca series, the North Sea, the memorable Hartz wanderings, must needs 
 possess an everlasting charm." 
 
 Volumes V. and VI. GERMANY. In Two Volumes. 
 
 Daily Telegraph — "Mr. Leland has done his translation in able and 
 scholarly fashion." 
 
 Volume IV. THE BOOK OF SONGS. [In the Press. 
 
 *»* Large Paper Edition, limited to 100 Numbered Copies. Particulars on 
 
 application. 
 
 THE POSTHUMOUS WORKS OF THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 
 
 Edited, with Introduction and Notes from the Author's 
 Original MSS., by 
 
 ALEXANDER H. JAPP, LL.D., F.R.S.E., &c. 
 
 Crown 8 co, Cloth, 6a. 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 SUSPIKIA DE PROFUNDIS. 
 
 WITH OTHER ESSAYS. 
 
 Times. — " Here we have De Quincey at his best. Will be welcome to 
 lovers of De Quincey and good literature." 
 
 VOLUME II. 
 
 CONVERSATION AND COLERIDGE. 
 
 WITH OTHER ESSAYS. 
 
 [In preparation.
 
 MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST. 
 In One Volume, 4to, Illustrated. 
 
 THE GREAT WAR 
 
 OF 1892. 
 
 A FORECAST. 
 
 By REAR-ADMIRAL COLOMB 
 COL. MAURICE, R.A. 
 
 MAJOR HENDERSON, Staff College 
 CAPTAIN MAUDE 
 
 ARCHIBALD FORBES 
 CHARLES LOWE 
 
 D. CHRISTIE MURRAY 
 
 F. SCUDAMORE, and 
 SIR CHARLES DILKE 
 
 Tn this narrative, which is reprinted from the pases of Black and White. 
 an a: tempt is made to forecast the course of events preliminary and incidental 
 to the Great War which, in the opinion of military and political experts, will 
 probably occur in the immediate future. 
 
 The writers, who are well-known authorities on international politics and 
 strategy, have striven to derive the conflict from its most likely source, to 
 conceive the most probable campaigns and acts of policy, and generally to give 
 to their work the verisimilitude and actuality of real warfare. The work has 
 been profusely illustrated from sketches by Mr. Frederic Villiers, the well- 
 known war artist. [Nearly ready. 
 
 THE OLD MAIDS' CLUB. By I. ZANGWILL, Author of 
 "The Bachelors' Club." Illustrated by P. H. Townsend. ' Crown 8vo, 
 cloth, 3$. 6d. 
 
 WOMAN— THROUGH A MANS EYEGLASS. By 
 
 Malcolm C. Salaman. With Illustrations by Dudley Hakdy. Crown 
 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Daily Graphic. — "A most amusing book." 
 
 Daily Telegraph. — " Written with brightness and elegance, and with 
 touches of both caustic satire and kindly humour." 
 
 Daily Chronicle. — " It is the very thing for a punt cushion or a garden 
 hammock." 
 
 ADDRESSES. By Henry Irving. Small crown Svo. 
 
 With Portrait. [/« the Press. 
 
 STRAY MEMORIES. By Ellen Terry. 4to, Illustrated. 
 
 [In preparation. 
 
 GIRLS AND WOMEN. By E. Chester. Pott Svo, cloth, 
 
 2s. 6d., or gilt extra, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Literary World. — " We ghidly commend this delightful little work to the 
 thoughtful girls of our own country. We hope that many parents and daughters 
 will read and ponder over the little volume." 
 
 THE JEW AT HOME. Impressions of a Summer and 
 Autumn Spent with Him. By Joseph Pknnell. With Illustrations by 
 the Author. [/*» the 1'ress.
 
 MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST. 
 
 Ube (Breat 3£fcucator3, 
 
 A new series, by writers of wide educational experience, on the leading 
 movers in educational thought from the earliest time to the present day, will 
 be issued under the general title of " The Great Educators." 
 
 Much has been written of the great philosophical systems, and of the lives 
 of great thinkers and founders of schools of philosophical. -.peculation, yet nothing 
 has so far been done to give a picture of what is at least cf equal importance, 
 the educational effects of these systems in the special periodical ethics of the 
 world. It is not surprising that these ethics, as applied to education, should 
 change with religions, with philosophical systems, even with periodical revo- 
 lutions, and historical development. But it is surprising that no one has thought 
 the subject sufficiently important to fix from time to time the point of view 
 obtaining as to these educational ethics. 
 
 It is now proposed, in a limited number of volumes, devoted more to the 
 systems and to the teachings of the greatest educators of the world than to their 
 lives, to show the different points of view, from which races and times and 
 climatic influences have determined the education of mankind. The volumes 
 will therefore range from Aristotle to Dr. Arnold of Rugby. 
 
 Each subject will form a complete volume of about 300 pages, crown 8vo, 5s. 
 
 Now ready. 
 
 ARISTOTLE, and the Ancient Educational Ideals. By 
 Thomas Davidson, M.A., LL.D. 
 
 LOYOLA, and the Educational System of the Jesuits. By 
 Rev. Thomas Hughes, S.J. 
 
 In preparation. 
 
 ALCUIN, and the Rise of the Christian Schools. By 
 Professor Andrew F. West, Ph.D. 
 
 ABELARD, and the Origin and Early History of Uni- 
 versities. By Jules Gabriel Compayre, Professor in the Faculty of 
 Toulouse. 
 
 ROUSSEAU; or, Education according to Nature. 
 HERBART; or, Modern German Education. 
 PESTALOZZI ; or, the Friend and Student of Children. 
 FROEBEL. By H. Courthope Bowen, M.A. 
 
 HORACE MANN, and Public Education in the United 
 
 States. By Nicholas Murray Butler, Ph.D. 
 
 BELL, LANCASTER, and ARNOLD ; or, the English 
 Education of To-Day. By J. G. Fitch, LL.D., Her Majesty's In- 
 spector of Schools. 
 
 Others in preparation.
 
 UC SOUTHERN 
 
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