Talbot Mundy

“ With you in charge of operations against Gopi Lall, would the police or anyone dare look for him in the house where you were? Would a woman of the race and caste of Yasmini—under your favor, sahib—consent to receive an European in her house on any terms or for any motive not dishonest? Think, sahib! Colonel sahib—think and hasten!”
“Dost Mohammed, we must have other evidence than this. She’s a woman—a defenseless woman. I can’t on mere hearsay invade her house and search it, and put her to shame and inconvenience. I can have the house watched, surrounded; I’ve plenty of troopers here for that. ”

“ It had twisted wire straps made fast to it; a man could have been bound in the chair with their aid so that he could not move. Beside the chair were braziers, heaped with charcoal; and by them pincers, and little rods of steel, and tiny awls, and lengths of wire, and needles—a complete assortment of instruments of torture!
“He would have lived three days, or more, under my hand!” hissed Yasmini between set teeth.
“But why? What had you got against the man?” Colonel Stapleton was more bewildered now than ever. ”

“ Oh, any man who is a man can wade into a scrap,
And any man who’s half a man can punch a fellow’s map,
Can swap hard punches toe to toe
And give the reason why;
But could you—said your orders so—
Go black a lady’s eye?
COLONEL STAPLETON sat before his tent, gasping in the stuffiness and trying to forget the spell that Yasmini had cast on him in common with every other man who came within the radius of her eyes. He lit a cigar, and swore at himself—gently, because unless the Colonel of a Regiment respects himself his men will not respect him—but comprehensively. ”

“ He noticed then that Boileau was panting too, that his mess jacket was blood soaked and torn in ribbons, and that there were bruises on his arms. He stepped up to Yasmini, and took her knife. She surrendered it quite readily.
“I can not fight two gentlemen!” she said, with the accent very strongly on the last word.
“Confound it, Boileau! This is a deuce of an unpleasant business! What did you say? Killed Gopi Lall? Where? How? Hold her! Hold that woman!”
“He need not hold me!” she answered scornfully. “I am helpless. I surrender.”
“Hold her wrists for the present!” commanded Stapleton. ”

“ If anybody’d told me that once—ever in my life—I would lay hands on a woman, even in self-defense, I would have thought him mad. And here I’ve actually fought a woman. I had thought, and I have said repeatedly, that there are no circumstances under which a soldier can not be a gentleman. I retract it. There is one. When engaged on police duty he runs a very serious risk! ”

“ Colonel Stapleton went back into his tent and picked up a copy of the Indian Penal Code. He turned over the pages hurriedly.
“I always did say,” he ground his teeth as he muttered, “that police work is no business for a gentleman. Orderly!” he called. “Send Captain Boileau sahib here to me.” ”

“ She seemed to want his lifeblood, and fought for it with the ferocity of a tiger-cat—although no animal that ever breathed would have shown half of her brain and courage. Her dancer’s muscles were as strong as his, and far more active ”