Page:Harold Lamb--The House of the Falcon.djvu/54

 tour with Monsey on the lagoon of Srinagar—Catherine Rand dispatched a house boy for the major, requisitioning her three words of Hindustani for the occasion.

"The burra sahib, you stupids! Ghee!" And the boy, notwithstanding her request for clarified butter (ghee), read the mind of the mem-sahib with the intuition peculiar to Orientals and brought Fraser-Carnie posthaste.

The major questioned his servants briefly and turned to Rawul Singh, speaking in Kashmiri.

"So, the hillman, blind in one eye, has been seen near the bungalow again even while you were seeking him in the bazaar." The orderly bent his head.

"Then, sahib, I have blundered. Yet, who can separate one sheaf of grain from many, or one drop of water from a stream? It is in my mind that he is a caravaneer of an upland caravan that has been seen within a few days near Gilghit. More I know not"

"Then give over the search to the native police, and whenever I am not with the young mem-sahib do you accompany her. Her safety I give you as a duty. This is understood?"

Rawul Singh salaamed. Hereafter, should any harm fall to the lot of Edith Rand, the Garhwali, corporal in the Siwalik Rifles, would be as a man without honor.

That night after Edith had retired to her room she could hear the orderly pacing the veranda. She did not go to sleep at once. Her aunt had kept her up late discussing the matter of the missing medicine chest.

The memory of the native with the scar stooping over the kit of John Donovan was strong upon her.