Talbot Mundy

“ The hag whom I had kicked so cavalierly turned out to be one of them.
Her principal virtue, or demerit—according as a man employed her or became her victim—was that she could see in the dark what a man would do by daylight; and by mixing incantations with his food could prevent his doing this or that thing and oblige him to do something else. That, they said, was why Kangra Khan had sent her into the hut with us; and they added that now no doubt I would have to do as Kangra Khan wished. ”

“ The much more usual method is to keep a prisoner in the dark as to his destiny. He was talking to me, but at Joan Angela, hoping she would offer to pay the demanded ransom. But ignorance of the extent of danger is a great fortifier of courage; and inborn love of adventure is no weak straw to blow away with argument. ”

“ His principal business seemed to be to watch the British aeroplanes and give warning if they should turn in our direction.
One of the players asked me if I had any money to gamble with, but I was not fool enough to say yes. I always carry money. There were four five-hundred-rupee notes tucked away in a pocket inside my waist band, and I suspected Joan Angela of having more than that in some fairly safe hiding place; but the sight of money would have acted like blood on wolves. There are better ways than bribery to win the friendship of a savage. ”

“ He gestured magnificently in Joan Angela's direction.
“They tell me the sahiba has a mint of money!”
“So we're held for a ransom?” I asked.
“Aye, a great one!”
I gestured upward with my thumb. There was the roar of two aeroplanes over head.
“The Lancers will come presently,” I assured him.
“Aye! Those fools will prod a hornet's nest! They are across the river now. I sent my man an hour since to warn them to turn back again. They will make him prisoner. When they question him, he will ask whether four hundred can wisely attack us. I have twenty thousand men.” ”

“ I have been blamed since because I did not advise her there and then to agree to pay the ransom. Then they could have sent a messenger to make the necessary stipulations with the military; bankers, or the Government, would doubtless have advanced the money on Joan Angela's note, and even a third of a million dollars would hardly have inconvenienced her much. But the truth is, it hardly occurred to me.
Courage is more contagious than disease. ”

“ Is a woman's resolution greater?” he asked ironically. Then, with bitter meaning: “Eat while you have the chance!”
He motioned to the hag, who brought the bowl of porridge and set it down between Joan Angela and me, together with two old, rusty spoons. The stuff was smoky and nearly cold, nor any too clean, and we preferred our fingers to the spoons. There was grit, too, in the stuff. But I think Joan Angela enjoyed it, partly because almost any food was good after a long fast and a wetting; mainly because of the adventure, and the novelty.
Kangra Khan stood watching us, smiling rather grimly. ”

“ He, too, is afraid of her. The next time she refuses him a request, he will bring her back to thee to be kicked and choked! None of us dares wring her neck, but who cares whether she bewitches thee?”
I asked where the British Lancers were, and with considerable glee they pointed out a sort of amphitheatre in the foot-hills about twenty miles away. After a while I made out an extended string of dots, like insects, and they told me those were the Lancers vainly searching in the wrong direction for Joan Angela and me. ”

“ They had turned loose the two horses that belonged to my Beluchis, so the Lancers would follow them and give Kangra Khan a chance to slip by unobserved. He didn't cross the river with the rest of us, but continued along the bank in the direction of the Lancers' camp, saying he'd see me later and that he held me to my promise to go quietly. I told him I'd come to his funeral when the British hanged him, and he grinned as if he thought that a good joke. ”

“ Nothing obliges a man to recover so swiftly as something particular to think about, and Lord knew I had that in plenty. If I had my choice, for instance, between saving Joan Angela Leich or Rheims Cathedral, the building would go without a moment's hesitation. ”

“ It may have been fever; a man's brain after a severe blow is seldom in shape to judge sensibly; but the only line of action that appealed at all to me just then was to escape by some means as we threaded the hills by night, and work our way back to the Jhelum River. I began to talk it over with Joan Angela. ”

“ I told about magic I had witnessed in Benares, and about imaginary old women who could turn a man into a crow, the crow into an alligator, the alligator into a fish, and the fish into an insect, after which the insect could be trodden on and squashed by the first hoof that happened along—evolution vice versa, as it were. ”

“ If we had turned to the right, maybe you and I wouldn't be here now, but I'd have missed the Lancers' camp, and then some other brigands would have bagged me, so what's the odds? I knew I'd taken the right direction.
“It got so dark at last you couldn't see a thing. Then some men jumped out of a hole by the river bank and knifed my Beluchis without a word. I had a pistol and tried to use it, but another rascal cut my horse's throat, and grabbed me as he fell, so the shot went wild. Then he knocked the pistol out of my hand and I was prisoner. ”

“ The guttering candle threw half of her face in shadow, but made her brave eyes shine, and the outline of her face was something that is never born outside America, whatever fools may say about the “melting pot.” There was no nonsense there, no humbug, no claptrap, but a gallant good humor, and a disregard for things of no account that seems to me better than religion.
She had on a long, dove-colored overcoat, but it was chilly, and I told her to take one of the sheepskins and throw it over her to keep off the draft that came whimpering through the cracks ”

“ When daylight comes I daresay it'll all look simple enough, but in the dark it felt like climbing Everest or something. When we reached this hut they shoved me in, and threw in some sheepskins, and you on top of them, and left us. But a little later on they opened the door and pushed in an old woman—at least she looks old—that's her you hear crooning. She's scared to death of us.
“Every once in a while she shows me a knife about a yard long. ”