I take the soul of my Kurban Sahib to
witness that I give over to the justice of the Sahibs these Sahibs who
have made me childless." Then I gave him the ropes and fell down
senseless, my heart being very full, but my belly was empty, except for
the little opium.
They put me into a cart with one of their wounded, and after a while I
understood that they had fought against the Boer-log for two days and two
nights. It was all one big trap, Sahib, of which we, with Kurban Sahib,
saw no more than the outer edge. They were very angry, the _Durro Muts_--
very angry indeed. I have never seen Sahibs so angry. They buried my
Kurban Sahib with the rites of his faith upon the top of the ridge
overlooking the house, and I said the proper prayers of the faith, and
Sikandar Khan prayed in his fashion and stole five signalling-candles,
which have each three wicks, and lighted the grave as if it had been the
grave of a saint on a Friday. He wept very bitterly all that night, and I
wept with him, and he took hold of my feet and besought me to give him a
remembrance from Kurban Sahib. So I divided equally with him one of Kurban
Sahib's handkerchiefs--not the silk ones, for those were given him by a
certain woman; and I also gave him a button from a coat, and a little
steel ring of no value that Kurban Sahib used for his keys, and he kissed
them and put them into his bosom. The rest I have here in that little
bundle, and I must get the baggage from the hotel in Cape Town--some four
shirts we sent to be washed, for which we could not wait when we went
up-country--and I must give them all to my Colonel-Sahib at Sialkote in the
Punjab.
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