The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1914-08-28


understand the enormity Of your
crime"
"Crime?" with elevated eyebrows.
'"Yes. You have abducted me-
NO. You came of your own free
will"
The white men Of my race will not
pause to argue over any such subtlety,
Marry you? | do not like your color.
A dull red settled under Umballas
skin.
Il merely wish to warn you" she
went on, that my blood will be upon
your head. And woe to you if it is'
There are white men who will not
await the coming Of the British raJ'
"Ah. yes; some brave, hardy Amerl-
can; Bruce Sahib, for instance. Alas,
he is In the straits settlements! Seven
days"
Il am not afraid to die"
But there are many kinds of death. =
and with this sinister reflection ne
stepped aside.
The multitude seeing Kathlyn com
ing down from the dais, still surround
ed by her Gordon Of troopers began
reluctantly to dispense. Bread and
the circus!"-the mobs will cry 1t
down the ages; they will always pause
to witness bloodshed, from safe dis
lance, you may be sure. There was a
deal of rioting in the bazaars that
night, and many a measure Of bhang |
and toddy kept the fires burning. ORR
entail politics is like the winds OF the
equinox: 1t blows from all directions
The natives were taxed upon every
conceivable subject, not dissimilar to
the old days in Urdu, where a man
paid so much for the privilege OF
squeezing the man under him. Mutlny
was afoot, rebellion, but it had not yet
found head. The natives wanted
change, something to gossip about dur
ing the hot, lazy afternoons, over their
hookahs and coffee. To them reform
meant change only, not the alienation
| of some of their heavy burdens, The
talk of freeing slaves was but talk,
slaves were lucrative investments;
man would be fool to free them. An
old man, with a skin white like this
new queens and hair like spun wool,
dressed in a long black cloak and
broad-brimmed hat, had started the
agitation of liberating the slaves. More
than that, he carried no idol OF his
God, never bathed in the CHATS, or
took flowers to the temples, and seemed
always silently communing with the
simple iron cross suspended from his
neck. But he had died during the last
visitation of the plague.
They had wearied of their tolerant
king, who had died mysterously; they
were now Wearied of the council and
Umballa in. other words, they knew
not what they wanted being People.
: Who was this fair-skinned woman
who stood so straight before Umbal-
, las eye? Whence had she come? To
be ruled by woman who appeared to
be tongue tied! Well, there were worse
things than woman who could not
talk. Thus they gabbled in the ba-
zaars, round braziers and dung fires.
{ And some talked of the murder The
proud Ramabai had been hailed to
prison; his bankers gold had not
J saved him. o, this street rat Umballa
generally got what he wanted, Ra-
mabai's wife was one of the beauties
| of Hind
J Through the narrow, evil smelling
v streets of the bazaars man hurried
I that night, glancing behind frequently
j. to see if by any mischance some one
t followed. He stopped at the house OF
! Lal Singh, the shoemaker, whom he
e found browsing over his water pipe.
!, is it well?" said the newcomer, in
e toning.
t 1T is WE'LL" answered Lal Singh
e dropping the mouthpiece of his pipe
/ He had spoken mechanically. When
: he saw who his visitor was his eyes
v frightened. "Ahmed?'
v "Hush!" with gesture toward the
r ceiling.
s she is out merrymaking, like thS
!. rest of her kind. The old saying: if {
n man waits, the woman comes to him
$ am alone. There is news?"
There is journey. Across Hind tt
n Simla."
! THE hour has arrived?"
v "At least the excuse. Give these tt
\. one in authority with the British raj
v whose bread we eat" Ahmed silt
4. across the table very small scroll
il "The memsahib is my masters daugh
d ter. She must be spirited away tt
e. safety"
ar "Ah!" Lal Singh rubbed his ia
10 hands. $50 the time nears when W
II shall wiring the vultures neck Al,
It is good. Umballa, the toad, who swell
rs and swells as the days go by. SHY
1t has guarded him we'll The king pick
,e him out of the gutter for pretty bi
10 of impudence, sends him afar to I'm
#. balla, where he learns to speak Eng
a fish. where he learns to wear shoe
~ that button and stiff linen bands roun
% the neck. He has gone on, gone on
nj The higher up, the harder the fall"