Hunsa filled a pocket of his brocaded Jacket, but he was looking for the Akbar Lamp, the ruby. He lifted out a tray and ran his grimy hands through the maze of gold and silver wrought ornaments below. His fingers touched, at the very bottom, a bag of leather. He tore it open, and a blaze of blood-red light glinted at him evilly where a ruby caught the flame of the torch that Sookdee had thrown to the earth floor as he fled.
With a snarl of gloating he rolled the ruby in a fold of his turban, locked the box, and darted after Sookdee.
He all but fell over the seven dead bodies of the merchant and his men as he raced to where a group was standing beyond. And there three more bodies lay upon the ground, and beside them, held, were two horses.
"It is Ajeet Singh," Sookdee said pointing to where the Chief lay with his head in the lap of a decoit. "These two native soldiers of the English came riding in with swiftness, for behind them raced Ajeet who must have seen them pass."
"And here," another added, "as the riders checked at sight of the dead, Ajeet pulled one from his horse and killed him, but the other, with a pistol, shot Ajeet and he is dead."
"The Chief is not dead," said the one who held his head in his lap; "he is but shot in the shoulder, and I have stopped the blood with my hand."
"And we have killed the other soldier," another said, "for, having seen the bodies, we could not let him live."
From Sookdee's hand dangled a coat of one of the dead.
"This that is a leather purse," he said, "contains letters; the red thing on them I have looked upon before--it is the seal of the Englay. It was here in the coat of that one who is a sergeant--the other being a soldier."
He put the leather case within the bosom of his shirt, adding: "This may even be of value to the Dewan. Beyond that, there was little of loot upon these dogs of the Englay--eight rupees. The coats and the turbans we will burn."
Hunsa stooped down and slipped the sandals from the feet of the one Sookdee had pointed out as the officer.
"The footwear is of little value, but we will take the brass cooking pots of the merchant," Sookdee said, eyeing this performance; there was suspicion in his eyes lighted from the flare of their camp fires.