Now and again he lifted his head and glanced
toward the doorway through which the strange apparition had
disappeared, half expecting to see once more the white extended hand,
half believing that he had been the victim of a delusion, a fantasy
born of the mysterious veil with which the whole palace seemed
shrouded. Then he glanced at the ring which sparkled on his own
finger, and he knew that it was no delusion, but that a corner of the
veil lay perhaps within his grasp.
CHAPTER XIII
THE ROAD CLEAR
The English colony heard of the Rajah's project with mingled feelings
of amusement and anxiety. As Colonel Carmichael expressed it, it would
have been safer to have stirred up a hornet's nest than to attempt any
vital reform in the native quarters; and he was firmly convinced that
the inhabitants of the Bazaar would cling to their dirt and squalor
with the same tenacity with which they clung to their religion. When
the first batch of native workers, under the direction of a European
overseer, set out on the task of constructing new and sanitary
quarters half a mile outside Marut, he announced that it was no more
than the calm before the storm, and kept a weather eye open for
trouble. But, in spite of these gloomy prognostications, the work
proceeded calmly and steadily on its way. The new dwellings were well
constructed, broad, clean thoroughfares taking the place of the
narrow, dirty passages which had run like an unwholesome labyrinth
through the old Bazaar.
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