Winnie gurgled her delight, but her sister searched her father's eyes.
She did not quite like the way he said those words. His voice lacked
its usual heartiness and spontaneity.
"Where did you get this medal, father?" she asked.
[Illustration: Where did you get this medal?] "That's what I started out to tell you."
"Were you afraid we might wish to wear it or have it made over?"
laughed Winnie, who never went below the surface of things.
"No. The truth is, I had almost forgotten it. But the preparations
for India recalled it to mind. It represents a royal title conferred
on me by the king of Allaha. You have never been to India, Kit.
Allaha is the name we hunters give that border kingdom. Some day
England will gobble it up; only waiting for a good excuse."
"What big thing did you do?" demanded Kathlyn, her eyes still filled
with scrutiny.
"What makes you think it was big?" jestingly.
"Because," she answered seriously, "you never do anything but big
things. As the lion is among beasts, you are among men."
"Good lord!" The colonel reached embarrassedly for his pipe, lighted
it, puffed a few minutes, then laid it down. "India is full of strange
tongues and strange kingdoms and principalities. Most of them are
dominated by the British Raj, some are only protected, while others do
about as they please. This state"--touching the order--"does about as
it did since the days of the first white rover who touched the shores
of Hind. It is small, but that signifies nothing; for you can brew a
mighty poison in a small pot. Well, I happened to save the old king's
life."
"I knew it would be something like that," said Kathlyn. "Go on. Tell
it all."
The colonel had recourse to his pipe again. He smoked on till the coal
was dead. The girls waited patiently. They knew that his silence
meant that he was only marshaling the events in their chronological
order.
"The king was a kindly old chap, simple, yet shrewd, and with that
slumbrous oriental way of accomplishing his ends, despite all
obstacles. Underneath this apparent simplicity I discovered a grim
sardonic humor. Trust the Oriental for always having that packed away
under his bewildering diplomacy. He was all alone in the world. He
was one of those rare eastern potentates who wasn't hampered by
parasitical relatives. By George, the old boy could have given his
kingdom, lock, stock and barrel, to the British government, and no one
could say him nay. There was a good deal of rumor the last time I was
there that when he died England would step in actually. The old boy
gave me leave to come and go as I pleased, to hunt where and how I
would. I had a mighty fine collection. There are tigers and leopards
and bears and fat old pythons, forty feet long. Of course, it isn't
the tiger country that Central India is, but the brutes you find are
bigger. I have about sixty beasts there now, and that's mainly why I'm
going back. Want to clean it up and ship 'em to Hamburg, where I've a
large standing order. I'm going first to Ceylon, for some elephants."