“I cannot tell. I am but a Lepcha of Darjeeling, and yet the stuff——”
“Which thou hast stolen.”
“Nay, surely. Did I steal? I desired it so. The stuff—the stuff—what else should I have done with the stuff?” He twisted the velvet between his fingers.
“But the sin of maiming the cow—consider that.”
“That is true; but oh, Sahib, that man betrayed me, and I had no thought—but the heifer’s tail waved in the moonlight and I had my knife. What else should I have done? The tail came off ere I was aware. Sahib, thou knowest more than I.”
“That is true,” said I. “Stay within the door. I go to speak to the King.”
The population of the State were ranged on the hillsides. I went forth and spoke to the King.
“O King,” said I. “Touching this man there be two courses open to thy wisdom. Thou canst either hang him from a tree, he and his brood, till there remains no hair that is red within the land.”
“Nay,” said the King. “Why should I hurt the little children?”
They had poured out of the hut door and were making plump obeisance to everybody. Namgay Doola waited with his gun across his arm.