ng out
from beneath the curtain had questioned a man or woman. At last, as
they were stopped by a wall of people watching the antics of some
strolling players upon a platform, Bootea spoke to a stout woman who
was pressed against the opening into the cart by the mob.

"_Lucker khan Bhaina, Bowree_," the Gulab said in a low voice, and the
woman's eyes took on a startled look for it was a decoit password, and
the Bowrees were a clan of decoits akin to the Bagrees. From the woman
Bootea learned where she could find a good resting place with the
family of a shop-keeper. There was no doubt about it, the Bowree woman
assured her, for the _tonga_ would impress him, and he was one who
profited from the loot of decoits.

The Gulab was given a place to sleep in the shopkeeper's house that
extended back from his little shop. The driver was ordered to return
in the morning to the Pindari camp. Barlow was for keeping the
_tonga_, hoping that perhaps Bootea would change her mind and go on to
Chunda, but the girl was firm in her determination to end it all at
Mandhatta.

Before Barlow left her to seek some camping place in hut or serai, and
food for himself and horse, the girl said: "If the Sahib will delay his
going to-morrow for a little, Bootea will proceed early to the shrine
to see the Swami--then she will return here, for she would want to see
his face once more before the ending."

"I'll wait, Gulab," he acquiesced; "I'll be here at the tenth hour."
He felt even then an unaccountable chill of their parting, for, many
being about, he could not take her in his arms to kiss her; but their
eyes spoke, and the girl's were luminous, and sweet with a look of
hunger, of pathetic longing, of sublime trust.

As Barlow turned away leading his horse, he muttered over and over,
"Gad! it's incomprehensible that a Sahib should feel this over a--yes,
a native woman; it's damnable!"

He reviled himself, declaring that it was harder on the Gulab than on
him--and he was actually suffering. It would be better if he swung to
the saddle and fled from the misery that prolongation but intensified.
And the girl's brave resignation in giving him up was wonderful, was so
like her.

Then the sight of Mahratta _sowars_, who, it being Sindhia's territory,
were a guard to watch the pilgrim throng, flashed him back to a sense
of duty, his own mission. But it had not suffered because of Bootea;
it had benefitted through her; but for her the wri