He laughed and slavered and he
sported sportively before Kurban Sahib. The man brought coffee and the
woman showed us _purwanas_ from three General Sahibs, certifying that they
were people of peace and goodwill. Here are the _purwanas_, Sahib. Does
the Sahib know the Generals who signed them?
They swore the land was empty of Boer-log. They held up their hands and
swore it. That was about the time of the evening meal. I stood near the
verandah with Sikander Khan, who was nosing like a jackal on a lost scent.
At last he took my arm and said, "See yonder! There is the sun on the
window of the house that signalled last night. This house can see that
house from here," and he looked at the hill behind him all hairy with
bushes, and sucked in his breath. Then the idiot with the shrivelled head
danced by me and threw back that head, and regarded the roof and laughed
like a hyena, and the fat woman talked loudly, as it were, to cover some
noise. After this passed I to the back of the house on pretence to get
water for tea, and I saw fresh fresh horse-dung on the ground, and that
the ground was cut with the new marks of hoofs; and there had dropped in
the dirt one cartridge. Then Kurban Sahib called to me in our tongue,
saying, "Is this a good place to make tea?" and I replied, knowing what he
meant, "There are over many cooks in the cook-house. Mount and go, Child."
Then I returned, and he said, smiling to the woman, "Prepare food, and
when we have loosened our girths we will come in and eat;" but to his men
he said in a whisper, "Ride away!" No.
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