Page:Achmed Abdullah--Wings.djvu/53

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WINGS
37

The senses and organs, the thinking faculty, as well as the faculty of judgment, are said to be its seat. It—enveloping the discriminative faculty with these—deludes the lord of the body! Thus I spoke to him, often, gently!"

"And he? Martab Singh?"

"Would laugh in his beard. He would say that, if Vishnu was his kinsman, so was Indra—and Indra was the god of travel. And so—"

"He traveled? He went to England?"

"No!"

"No?" echoed Thorneycroft. He felt his hair rise as if drawn by a shivery wind. His thought swirled back, and he remembered how the maharaja had entered the salon of the Duchess of Shropshire, how he had bowed over the withered old hand, how Sir James Spottiswoode, of the India Office, had vouched for him, how—

"No?" he said again, stupidly.

"No, by Shiva!" came the swarm's hushed voice. "He did not travel. He did not leave the sacred soil of India. He is—in here!" At the same time opening the door, drawing Thorneycroft inside, and shutting the door behind him.