Talbot Mundy

“ An accident might happen any moment. The Waziri hags might come-your honor might be dead—in Allah's name, a hundred things! Yet I bit the anger as it surged, and swallowed it again, like a man who has overeaten. And I lied to her—I, who have lied to no man–I, who love truth as an eagle loves the air. But a woman is a woman. I said your honor was down the track a little way, and had sent myself to bring her thither. ”

“ The sahiba checked a scream. She is brave. She felt for her pistol, but I had that, as I have told you. And it was just as well, for the voice was a voice I knew.
“'O Akbar bin Mahommed,” he said softly, 'I am Ali, thy brother, and I need thy aid.'”
“Nay, sahibs, he is not my mother's son, but a man who follows Kangra Khan. He and I once swore blood-fellowship. But now I have a grudge against him, and he shall pay in full! Mistaking the sahiba for a man, because of the darkness doubtless, for she has not yet learned how to carry herself, he whispered to me, minded not to let another hear. ”

“ Yet Kangra Khan grew furiously angry, cursing him for having thrown away a crore of rupees, miscalling him outrageous names, and threatening to have him flayed alive by women before a fire. Yet Ali is a man whom Kangra Khan has loved exceedingly, and when Ali begged an opportunity to make such amends as might be, the favor was granted. Yet not an easy task! Nay, nay!
“'Go,” ordered Kangra Khan, and bring me that man Ram-is-den, living and unhurt, in the girl's place. ”

“ Allah is my friend. He who knoweth all things put a thought into my heart. Lo, I go forward. Lo, I follow and observe. As a jackal tracks the leopard, lo I keep down-wind of them. Said I, if she were my wife, and I Ram-is-den, would I not very swiftly clap my foot and frenzy on the trail? As a she-bear whose young one has been netted Ram-is-den will pursue; and are the leggings and the hat not where the sahiba laid them? He will pick up the scent and come swiftly! ”

“ Pathan and Waziri are at one another's throats. The sides men took mean nothing now. Each one for himself, and the shortest road home! Loot—that is all that matters! By day, the men whom we are seeking hide and none save Allah knoweth where; yet we would be a mark against a skyline. When the night comes they will fare forth; and we likewise. In the dark all men are equal, and numbers nothing against cunning. ”

“ Those hags would steal a hair from a jackal's tail! Moreover, it was well I did so, for I had enough to carry that I had lifted from the Waziri's packs in the sangar. And now I had the sahiba to manage also.
“I remembered your honor's purpose in freeing my wrists at the time when we swore friendship. Had I not risked more than life—aye, honor!—to bring the clothing of a shaveling for the sahiba's use? Who am I, that I should risk so much in vain? Lo, I would clothe her, that she might be safe! I would bind the uleema's turban on her head, that none might lift hand against her! Hah! ”

“ Lo. She remembered me perfectly. It might have been that she had rescued me, and not I her! She began giving orders at once, and to ask more questions than a man with a book in his hand could have answered in a night, so that I knowing little English, was at my wits' end how to answer. Nevertheless, when a man is at his wits' end, Allah still provides. There came a thought to me.
“I recalled how I had left my bundle in a dark place near the corner where the track forks, lest the women who follow those Waziris—whom may Allah curse!—should find it while I might be busy with some other matter. ”

“ If we should offend him, he might turn against us as swiftly and as savagely as he had hitherto tried to serve. Should we two prove too many for him, he could easily slip away and bring friends to his aid by promising them a share of the loot. ”