Not mere common tricks, sahib, but mysteries such as are known to
few even of us. Do not say no, sahib."
"Well, if you wish it, Rujub, I will give you half an hour," and
Bathurst looked at his watch. "It is seven now, and I have to dine.
I have work to do that will take me three hours at least, but at
eleven I shall have finished. You will see a light in my room; come
straight to the open window."
"We will be there, sahib;" and with a salaam the juggler walked
off, followed by his daughter.
A few minutes before the appointed time Bathurst threw down his
pen with a little sigh of satisfaction.
The memo he had just finished was a most conclusive one; it seemed
to him unanswerable, and that the Department would have trouble in
disputing his facts and figures. He had not since he sat down to
his work given another thought to the juggler, and he almost started
as a figure appeared in the veranda at the open window.
"Ah, Rujub, is it you? I have just finished my work. Come in; is
Rabda with you?"
"She will remain outside until I want her," the juggler said as
he entered and squatted himself on the floor. "I am not going to
juggle, sahib. With us there are two sorts of feats; there are those
that are performed by sleight of hand or by means of assistance.
These are the juggler's tricks we show in the verandas and compounds
of the white sahibs, and in the streets of the cities. There are
others that are known only to the higher order among us, that we
show only on rare occasions.
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