Not a rupee had changed hands.
Westphalen watched with growing amazement.
Next stop was on Westphalen's side of the street, the chupatti stall next door. The husband brought a basketful out for inspection. Another nod, and these too were deposited on the back of a mule.
Again, no money changed hands—and no questions about quality. Westphalen had never seen anything like it since his arrival in India. These merchants would haggle with their mothers over the price of breakfast.
He could imagine only one thing that could wring such cooperation from them: fear.
The priest moved on without stopping at the water stand.
"Something wrong with your water?" Westphalen said to the vendor squatting on the ground beside him. He spoke in English. He saw no reason to learn an Indian tongue, and had never tried. There were fourteen major languages on this Godforsaken subcontinent and something like two hundred and fifty dialects. An absurd situation. What few words he had picked up had been through osmosis rather than conscious effort. After all, it was the natives' responsibility to learn to understand him. And most of them did, especially the merchants.
"The temple has its own water," the vendor said without looking up.
"Which temple is that?"
Westphalen wanted to know what the priest held over these merchants' heads to make them so compliant. It was information that might prove useful in the future.
"The Temple-in-the-Hills."
"I didn't know there was a temple in the hills."
This time the water vendor raised his turbaned head and stared at him. The dark eyes held a disbelieving look, as if to say, How could you not know?
"And to which one of your heathen gods is this particular temple dedicated?" His words seemed to echo in the surrounding silence.
The water vendor whispered, "Kali, The Black Goddess."
Oh, yes. He had heard that name before. She was supposedly popular in the Bengal region. These Hindus had more gods than you could shake a stick at. A strange religion, Hinduism. He had heard that it had little or no dogma, no founder, and no leader. Really—what kind of a religion was that?
"I thought her big temple was down near Calcutta, at Dakshinesvar."
"There are many temples to Kali," the water vendor said. "But none like the Temple-in-the-Hills."
"Really? And what's so special about this one?"
"Rakoshi."
"What's that?"
But the water vendor lowered his head and refused to respond any further. It was as if he thought he had said too much already.
Six weeks ago, Westphalen would not have tolerated such insolence. But six weeks ago a rebellion by the Sepoys had been unthinkable.
He took a final sip of the water, tossed a coin into the silent vendor's lap, and stepped out into the full ferocity of the sun. The air in the open was like a blast from a burning house. He felt the dust that perpetually overhung the street mix with the beads of perspiration on his face, leaving him coated with a fine layer of salty mud.
He followed the svamin through the rest of the marketplace, watching the chosen merchants donate the best of their wares without a grumble or a whimper, as if glad of the opportunity. Westphalen tracked him through most of Bharangpur, along its widest thoroughfares, down its narrowest alleys. And everywhere the priest and his mule train went, the people faded away at his approach and reappeared in his wake.
Finally, as the sun was drifting down the western sky, the priest came to the north gate.
Now we've got him, Westphalen thought.
All pack animals were to be inspected for contraband before allowed exit from Bharangpur or any other garrisoned town. The fact that there was no known rebel activity anywhere in Bengal did not matter; it was a general order and as such had to be enforced.
Westphalen watched from a distance of about two hundred yards. He would wait until the lone British sentry had begun the inspection, then he would stroll over as if on a routine patrol of the gate and learn a little more about this svamin and his temple in the hills.
He saw the priest stop at the gate and speak to a sentry with an Enfield casually slung across his back. They seemed like old friends. After a few moments, without inspection or detention, the priest resumed his path through the gate—but not before Westphalen had seen him press something into the sentry's palm. It was a flash of movement. If Westphalen had blinked he would have missed it.
The priest and his mules were beyond the wall and on their way toward the hills in the northwest by the time Westphalen reached the gate.
"Give me your rifle, soldier!"
The sentry saluted, then shrugged the Enfield off his shoulder and handed it to Westphalen without question. Westphalen knew him. His name was MacDougal, an enlisted man —young, red-faced, hard-fighting, hard-drinking, like most of his fellow Bengal European Fusiliers. In his three weeks as commander of the Bharangpur garrison, Westphalen had come to think of him as a good soldier.
"I'm placing you under arrest for dereliction of duty!"
MacDougal blanched. "Sir, I—"
"And for taking a bribe!"
"I tried to give it back to 'im, sir!"
Westphalen laughed. This soldier must think him blind as well as stupid!
"Of course you did! Just like you gave his mules a thorough inspection."
"Old Jaggernath's only bringing supplies to the temple, sir. I've been here two years, Captain, and 'e's come by every month, like clockwork, every new moon. Only brings food out to the hills, 'e does, sir."
"He must be inspected like everybody else."
MacDougal glanced after the retreating mule train. "Jaggernath said they don't like their food touched, sir. Only by their own kind."
"Well, isn't that a pity! And I suppose you let him pass uninspected out of the goodness of your heart?" Westphalen was steadily growing angrier at this soldier's insolence. "Empty your pockets and let's see how many pieces of silver it took to get you to betray your fellow soldiers."
Color suddenly flooded back into MacDougal's face. "I'd never betray me mates!"
For some reason, Westphalen believed him. But he couldn't drop the matter now.
"Empty your pockets!"
MacDougal emptied only one: From his right-hand pocket he withdrew a small, rough stone, clear, dull red in color.
Westphalen withheld a gasp.
"Give it to me."
He held it up to the light of the setting sun. He had seen his share of uncut stones as he had gradually turned the family valuables into cash to appease his more insistent creditors. This was an uncut ruby. A tiny thing, but polished up it could bring an easy hundred pounds. His hand trembled. If this is what the priest gave to a sentry as a casual reward for leaving his temple's food untouched…
"Where is this temple?"
"Don't know, sir." MacDougal was watching him eagerly, probably looking for a way out of dereliction charges. "And I've never been able to find out. The locals don't know and don't seem to want to know. The Temple-in-the-Hills is supposed to be full of jewels but guarded by demons."
Westphalen grunted. More heathen rubbish. But the stone in his hand was genuine enough. And the casual manner in which it had been given to MacDougal indicated that there could be many more where that came from. With the utmost reluctance, he handed the ruby back to MacDougal. He would play for bigger stakes. And to do so he had to appear completely unconcerned about money.
"I guess no harm has been done. Sell that for what you can and divide it up between the men. And divide it equally, hear?"
MacDougal appeared about to faint with surprise and relief, but he managed a sharp salute. "Yes sir!"