Page:The Phantom 'Rickshaw - Kipling (1890).djvu/104

 the Station Master's khitmatgar and half my month's pay. Then she turned up at Dadur Junction in tow of a half-caste and had the impidence to say I was her husband—all among the drivers in the running-shed!'

We've done with that,' says Dravot. 'These women are whiter than you or me, and a Queen I will have for the winter months.'

For the last time o' asking, Dan, do not,' I says. 'It'll only bring us harm. The Bible says that Kings aint to waste their strength on women, especially when they've got a new raw Kingdom to work over.'

For the last time of answering I will,' said Dravot, and he went away through the pine trees looking like a big red devil. The low sun hit his crown and beard on one side, and the two blazed like hot coals.

But getting a wife was not as easy as Dan thought. He put it before the Council, and there was no answer till Billy Fish said that he'd better ask the girls. Dravot damned them all round. 'What's wrong with me?' he shouts, standing by the idol Imbra. 'Am I a dog or am I not enough of a man for your wenches. Haven't I put the shadow of my hand over this country? Who stopped the last Afghan raid?' It was me really, but Dravot was too angry to remember. 'Who bought your guns? Who repaired the bridges? Who's the Grand Master of the sign cut in the stone?' and he thumped his hand on the block that he used to sit on in Lodge and at Council which opened like Lodge always. Billy Fish said nothing and no more did the others.

Keep your hair on, Dan,' said I; 'and ask the girls. That's how it's done at home, and these people are quite English.'

The marriage of the King is a matter of State,' says Dan, in a white-hot rage, for he could feel, I hope, that he was going against his better mind. He walked out of the Council-room, and the others sat still, looking at the ground.

Billy Fish,' says I to the chief of Bashkai, 'what's the difficulty here? A straight answer to a true friend.'