She ran in past him, ran past him again when he opened the second door,
and laughed at Ranjoor Singh. She seemed jubilant and very little
interested in the bombs that the German was at pains to explain to her.
She had to tell of five regiments on the way.
"The first will be here in two or three hours" she asserted; "your men,
Ranjoor Singh--your Jat Sikhs that are ever first to mutiny!"
She squealed delight as the Sikh's face flushed at the insult.
"What is the cocked pistol for?" she asked the German.
He told her, but she did not seem frightened in the least. She began to
sing, and her voice echoed strangely through the vault until she
herself seemed to grow hypnotized by it, and she began to sway, pushing
her basket away from her behind a bale near where the German sat.
"I will dance for you!" she said suddenly.
She arose and produced a little wind instrument from among her
clothing--a little bell-mouthed wooden thing, with a voice like Scots
bagpipes.
"Out of the way, Ranjoor Singh!" she ordered. "Sit yonder. I will dance
between you, so that the German sahib may watch both of us at once!"
So Ranjoor Singh went back twenty feet away, wondering at her mood and
wondering even more what trick she meant to play. He had reached the
conclusion, very reluctantly, that presently the German would fire that
pistol of his and end the careers of all three of them; so he was
thinking of the squadron on its way to France. In a way he was sorry
for Yasmini; but it was the squadron and Colonel Kirby that drew his
heart-strings.
Swaying to and fro, from the waist upward, Yasmini began to play her
little instrument. The echoing vault became a solid sea of throbbing
noise, and as she played she increased her speed of movement, until the
German sat and gaped. He had seen her dance on many more than one
occasion. So had Ranjoor Singh. Never had either of them, or any living
man, seen Yasmini dance as she did that night.
She was a storm. Her instrument was but an added touch of artistry to
heighten the suggestion. Prom a slow, rhythmic swing she went by gusts
and fits and starts to the wildest, utterly abandoned fury of a
hurricane, sweeping a wide circle with her gauzy dress; and at the
height of each elemental climax, in mid-whirl of some new amazing
figure, she would set her instrument to screaming, until the German
shouted "Bravo!" and Ranjoor Singh nodded grave approval.
"_Kreuz blitzen!_" swore the German suddenly, leaping to his feet and
staggering.
And Yasmini pounced on him. Ranjoor Singh could not see what had
happened, but he sprang to his feet and ran toward them. But before he
could reach them Yasmini had snatched the German's pistol and tossed it
to him, standing back from the writhing German, panting, with blazing
eyes, and looking too lovely to be human. She did not speak. She looked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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