The man looked at Strickland, and collapsed. "I will speak truth.
She bore fagots for a wood-cutter for a week."
"Oh, poor Diamond!" said Mrs. Strickland.
"And Beshaki was paid four annas for her hire three days ago by the wood-cutter's brother, who is the left-hand man of the jhampanis here," said Adam, in a loud and joyful voice. "We all knew. We all knew. I and all the servants."
Strickland was silent. His wife stared helplessly at the child - the soul called out of the Nowhere, that went its own way alone.
"Did no man help thee with the lies?" I asked of the groom.
"None, Protector of the Poor - not one."
"They grew, then?"
"As a tale grows in the telling. Alas! I am a very bad man," and he blinked his one eye dole-fully.
"Now four men are held at my station on thy account, and God knows how many more at Peshawur, besides the questions at Multan, and my izzat is lost, and the mare has been pack-pony to a wood-cutter. Son of devils, what canst thou do to make amends?"