“This pig beside me,” said he, “he knows the secret, and will quickly inform if you threaten him. As for me, I hate the Feringhis, having been their prisoner. Set free my hands, and I myself will question this cur and make him confess. Ugh! the very sight of him makes me ill. Coward, liar, and traitor is he!”
“If thou dost hate him so,” asked a Mohammedan ressaidar, “why wert thou riding by his side as a friend? Thou canst not take us in so easily.”
“Because my own safety obliged me to call him friend. This fellow blew up the Aurungpore magazine—he says he did so. Of course we must believe him, though I myself saw him trembling like a leaf begging for mercy. By me was he saved from the debris, saved that I might have the better revenge; and first I humbugged him into giving me a chit, saying I was loyal—I, Pir Baksh, leader of the rebels in Aurungpore!”
The subadar related the whole of the miserable business.
“It is true,” said Tynan with quiet despair. “Save his life, for he is the blackest villain in Asia, and I had rather die alone than with him as comrade. Kill me and I shall be glad to get away from him.”
A native officer cut the bonds, and bade Pir Baksh get up.
“Get the key from the cub, then. If he gives it willingly his life shall be spared. If not, do as thou wilt.”
Pir Baksh smiled in pleasant anticipation, and humbly addressed his quondam officer.
“Will the protector of the poor deign to supply his slave with the explanation of that letter?”
Harry Tynan looked him straight between the eyes and said never a word. The poor lad had suffered much during the past three months, and again and again his own vileness had been laid bare to him. He had enough of good in his nature to shudder at the prospect. The lies he had told, the public whitewashing for his own ends of the villain Pir Baksh, the bribing of Dwarika Rai and the other Rajputs, all these had gone against the grain, but never had he seen his own meanness so clearly, until now that he knew that even this most contemptible scoundrel regarded him with far greater contempt.