Harold Lamb

“ The councilors stared at him with hard, covetous eyes and fingered their beards.
“Inshallah! That is a truth. Can not the wall be made stronger?”
Robert nodded.
“Dig a ditch at its foot—a wide ditch. Or the foe would start tunnels to run under and collapse the towers.”
“And what else?”
“Nay,” the knight smiled, “am I also a prophet to tell of what is to be? What I know, I know, and words are easily twisted. I have answered your question.” ”

“ Muhammad did not seem displeased this time, and he gave the knight the Moslem title.
“Yah khawand, the men of the garrison will obey your commands; a firman, a decree, shall be written for their leaders to see. The good wazir has authority in matters of the treasury.”
He glanced restlessly at the tall crusader.
“It has been dinned into my ears by my councilors that you are the one man who can defend the wall of Bokhara. Give me your pledge that you will do so!”
“Speak, fool,” whispered Abdullah, reining his horse nearer Robert. ”

“ A murmur went up at this, and men pushed closer to study the face of Muhammad. Until the Shah signed to him Robert did not realize that he was the man in question. Osman for once looked utterly astonished, but the mullah seemed satisfied. When he stood under the elephant Robert saw that the lines of fatigue and worry were strongly marked in Muhammad's broad face, and that he was too restless to keep still for long. ”

“ Meanwhile the councilors did not neglect to seize the cattle of the countryside and to fill up the granaries of the city.
By the third evening the slaves had been joined by throngs of merchants and idlers, for it was known at last that the Moslem host under Muhammad had suffered at the hands of the barbarians, and that the Shah was actually in flight before the Mongols. He had with him a formidable army, and with Bokhara prepared for siege and the Shah to lead the defense the Moslems of the city had no fear of the outcome. ”

“ The leader of the garrison being dead, and Osman occupied with his own affairs, the forces in the city lacked a head.
“You have told us no more than we understood before!” exclaimed a kadi with a narrow skull and a wisp of a beard. “Surely you have greater knowledge than that, and we have means to make you speak. The vermin-pit is an ill dwelling-place.”
“Lies are easily had,” assented the knight, “and in Bokhara I have heard much lying and little truth.” ”

“ When a friend calls for aid—then is the warrior weighed in the balance. And by his deeds, not by his promises, is the bahator judged.
THE next morning the talk of the warders was that Muhammad was approaching Bokhara with his army and there was rejoicing in the bazaars. Carpets were hung out on the balconies overlooking the wide street that led from the Otrar gate through the righistan—the central square on which the great Jumma mosque was situated—past the two palaces of the Shah and Osman, over the bridge that spanned the canal, to the western gate. ”

“ A besieging army would need to drag timber for engines and food from a distance. There was plenty of water within the city and ample forces to man the wall. No ordinary stone-casters could make a breach wide enough to do harm. ”