บทที่ บทที่ 21 · Chapter XXI

. Chapter XXI

Dismissing his regrets, as inappropriate to the matter in hand, he

accomplished the last section of the day by riding off to his new

allies. He was glad that he had broken with the club, for he would

have picked up scraps of gossip there, and reported them down in

the city, and he was glad to be denied this opportunity. He would

miss his billiards, and occasional tennis, and cracks with McBryde,

but really that was all, so light did he travel. At the entrance

of the bazaars, a tiger made his horse shy—a youth dressed up as

a tiger, the body striped brown and yellow, a mask over the face.

Mohurram was working up. The city beat a good many drums, but

seemed good-tempered. He was invited to inspect a small tazia—a

flimsy and frivolous erection, more like a crinoline than the tomb

of the grandson of the Prophet, done to death at Kerbela. Excited

children were pasting coloured paper over its ribs. The rest of

the evening he spent with the Nawab Bahadur, Hamidullah, Mahmoud

Ali, and others of the confederacy. The campaign was also working

up. A telegram had been sent to the famous Amritrao, and his

acceptance received. Application for bail was to be renewed—it

could not well be withheld now that Miss Quested was out of danger.

The conference was serious and sensible, but marred by a group of

itinerant musicians, who were allowed to play in the compound. Each

held a large earthenware jar, containing pebbles, and jerked it up

and down in time to a doleful chant. Distracted by the noise, he

suggested their dismissal, but the Nawab Bahadur vetoed it; he said

that musicians, who had walked many miles, might bring good luck.

Late at night, he had an inclination to tell Professor Godbole of

the tactical and moral error he had made in being rude to Heaslop,

and to hear what he would say. But the old fellow had gone to bed,

and slipped off unmolested to his new job in a day or two: he

always did possess the knack of slipping off.