It was too early to dress for dinner yet; too late to dress for games
of any kind. The servant was nonplussed. He stood in silence, awaiting
orders that under ordinary circumstances, or at an ordinary hour, would
have been unnecessary. But for a while no orders came. The only sound
in those extremely unmarried quarters was the steady drip of water into
a flat tin bath that the servant had put beneath a spot where the roof
leaked; the rain had ceased but the ceiling cloth still drooped and
drooled.
Suddenly Kirby threw himself backward into a long chair, and the
servant made ready for swift action.
"Present my compliments to Risaldar-Major Ranjoor Singh sahib, and ask
him to be good enough to see me here."
The servant saluted and was gone. Kirby relapsed again into the depth
of the chair, staring at the wall in front of him, letting his eye
travel from one to another of the accurately spaced-out pictures,
pieces of furniture and trophies that proclaimed him unmarried. There
was nothing whatever in his quarters to decoy him from his love. There
were polo sticks in a corner where a woman would have placed a standard
lamp, and where the flowers should have stood was a chest to hold
horse-medicines. There was a vague smell about the place of varnish,
polish and good leather.
The servant was back again, stiff at the salute, within five minutes.
"_Ne hai_."
"Not there? Not where? Not in his quarters? Then go and find him. Ask
where he is. Hurry!"
So, since the regiment was keyed to watchfulness, it took about five
minutes more before it was known that Ranjoor Singh was not in
barracks. The servant returned to report that he had been seen driving
toward the bazaar in a _tikka-gharri_.
Then entered Warrington, the adjutant, and the servant was dismissed at
once.
"Bad business," said Warrington, looking thoroughly cheerful.
"What now?"
"One of Squadron D's men murdered in the bazaar this afternoon. Body's
in the morgue in charge of the police. 'Nother man who was with him
apparently missing. No explanation, and the p'lice say there aren't any
clues."
He twisted at a little black mustache and began to hum.
"Know where Ranjoor Singh is by any chance?" asked Kirby.
"Give me three guesses--no, two. One--he's raising hell with all the
police in Delhi. Two--he's at the scene of the murder, doing detective
work on his own. I heard he'd driven away--and, anyhow, it's his
squadron. Man's probably his second cousin, twenty or thirty times
removed."
"Send somebody to find him!" ordered Kirby.
"Say you want to have a word with him?"
Kirby nodded, and Warrington swaggered out, humming to himself exactly
as he hoped to be humming when his last grim call should come, the
incarnation of efficiency, awake and very glad. A certain number of
seconds after he had gone two mounted troopers clattered out toward the
bazaar. Ten minutes later Warrington returned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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