Hester had succumbed once to the temptation, and had bought a trifle; but since that occasion she had resisted Yacoob's appeals, promising that when she required such things she would not fail to buy from him. Veeraswamy had therefore been duly dispatched to Triplicane, the Mussulman quarter, where he said he knew Yacoob dwelt. On the way, however, he happened to encounter Ismail, another hawker, accompanied by a couple of coolies carrying his bales, which betokened him rather a superior gentleman of the trade. Here was an opportunity which Veeraswamy could not resist. Announcing to the Mussulman that he had been commissioned by Rayner Dorai to fetch a hawker, he intimated to Ismail that in return for a little _backsheesh_ he might be the fortunate man. The hawker was a muscular-looking, sleek, well-fed man of pale olive complexion and cheeks, which showed ruddy under the brown skin. From bushy over-hanging eyebrows peered out a pair of bold, cunning eyes, and his square chin was adorned by a dense black beard which he was wagging now in gratified approval as he selected a four-anna piece from his money-bag and held it out to the Hindu. "Son of a pig, wouldst thou insult me with only that?" flashed Veeraswamy. "I go on to Triplicane to look for another." "Halt, pariah dog, dost thou know that not one pie need touch thy greedy palm? I go to the Rayner compound, I display my treasures, mem-sahib buys," returned Ismail, spreading out his hands dramatically. "For one rupee only will I sell my honour," replied Veeraswamy, raising his first finger. "Wallah, one rupee? 'Twill need too much buying by the mem-sahib to recoup that! Here then, I give eight annas, greedy one!" "Not one pie less than one rupee," said the butler, setting his head on one side, and planting himself on the path that led to Clive's Road. "Take then, thou pariah dog, and a bright new coin too," said Ismail, opening his palm to part with the rupee which he had ready, knowing from the first that it would be exacted as the butler's commission. "You will find the mem-sahib in the verandah, also mem-sahib Fellowes. They sit with pot full of gold awaiting Ismail's coming," announced Veeraswamy with a grin, as he prepared to push on his way to Triplicane. "Where, son of a pig, where off to now? Dost thou not return with me to the mem-sahibs?" cried Ismail, with a scowl as he watched him. "I come, I follow quickly! I go only to get some ghee for my curry from the village near by." Shaking his head, Ismail already debited his rupee as a bad debt, and went on his way along the red laterite road followed by the patient coolies, who ploughed their way through the red dust like beasts of burden under their heavy load, with no covering for their brown skin save their loin cloths and big turbans.