Part 1 (1/2)
Told in the East
by Talbot Mundy
TOLD IN THE EAST
HOOkue disk upon a low mud wall that crested a rise to ard, and flattened at the bottoht apparently A dozen dried-out false-acacia-trees shi+vered as the faintest puff in all the world of stifling wind h them; and a hundred thousand tiny squirrels kept up their ai in search of food that was not there
A coppers that seemed to care whether the sun went down or not He see-bong-bong!”-that had never ceased since sunrise, and had driven nearly rew louder At last Brown came out of a square mud house, to see about the sunset
He was nobody but plain Bill Brown-or Sergeant Williaive him his full name and entitlements-and the price of hiht at the dull red disk of the sun, and spat with eloquence Then he wiped the sweat from his forehead, and scratched a place where the prickly heat was bothering him Next, he buttoned up his tunic, and brushed it down neatly and precisely There was official business to be done, and a man did that with due formality, heat or no heat
”Guard, turn out!” he ordered
Twelve men filed out, one behind the other, from the hut that he had left They seemed to feel the heat more than Brown did, as they fell in line before Brown's sword There was no flag, and no flag-pole in that nameless health-resort, so the sword, without its scabbard, was doing duty, point doard in the ground, as a totees' boots, and there it stayed from sunrise until sunset, to be displaced by whoever dared to do it, at his peril
They had no clock They had nothing, except the uniforms and arms of the Honorable East India Co-pot or two, a kettle, a little money and a butcher-knife Their supper bleated miserably some twenty yards away, tied to a tree, and a lean Punjabi squatted near it in readiness to buy the skin It was a big goat, but it was y, so he held only two annas in his hand The other anna (in case that Brown should prove adaree, but he was prepared to perjure himself a dozen times, and take the names of all his female ancestors in vain, before he produced it
The sun flattened a little an to et away from the day's ill deeds
”Shoulder umms!” commanded Brown ”General salute! Present-uht was on theh somebody had shut the lid Brown stepped to the sword, jerked it out of the ground and returned it to his scabbard in three motions
”Shoulder-uain, disconsolately, without swearing and without mirth They had put the sun to bed with proper military decency They would have seen humor-perhaps-or an excuse for blasphemy in the omission of such a detail, but it was much too hot to swear at the execution of it
Besides, Broas a strange individual who detested swearing, and it was a very useful thing, and wise, to huot it
Brown posted a sentry at the hut-door, and another at the crossroads which he was to guard, then went round behind the but to bargain with the goatskin-merchant But he stopped before he reached the tree
”Boy!” he called, and a low-caste native servant came toward him at a run
”Is that fakir there still?”
”Ha, sahib!”
”Ha? Can't you learn to say 'yes,' like a hu to have a talk with hioat, and tell the Punjabi to wait, if he wants to buy the skin”
”Ha, sahib!”
Brown spun round on his heel, and the servant wilted