Part 12 (2/2)
”I had seen it come before and had hidden my face from it like the rest of my kin, but now my fear was too strong for hiding. Besides, who could hide when Someone watched always? And why should I hide if I were faithful--if I were as the Stars?
”Thus a great joy mingled with my fear, until something in me cried out with a great longing for something that was not in me, and something that I had not, seemed to come to me until my wand twirled faster, as if other hands were on it, and my lips, as I cried out that I was faithful, felt the touch of other lips upon them.
”So through the Darkness that hid the Stars while the hot wind howled about me and flung hot earth grains in my face, I shouted to the Stars to come down to me.”
The very fire had gone now, and I strained my eyes into the shadows, seeing nothing but endless curves as of smoke.
”And lo! One came!
”Just where the wand whirled by my hot hasty hands touched the steady stake of wood I saw a tiny star.
”But, as I saw it, something came to me also, making me forget the Star!
”It was Io!
”She had left her cherished one; with her b.r.e.a.s.t.s full of milk, she had left the little drinker athirst; she had followed my footsteps through the darkness to find me and lay her hand in mine.
”Io! Io! Bringer of Dreams! Io! Io! Disturber of Dreams, thou didst come!
”And the touch of our hands and our lips together made us forget the stars.h.i.+ne which had come with it.
”But the s.h.i.+ne grew and grew, so that when we looked again it was not a Star at all, but something new and strange. Something that crept among the dry gra.s.ses and the wilted green things, something that leaped and laughed amid the darkness, something that sent hot arms towards us, till I caught her in mine and fled from it, leaving the wand and the steady stake behind.
”So we fled and fled, with the Fire which came from the Stars.h.i.+ne behind us always. Fled in the faithful footsteps of the Stars.... Fled to find the Dawn!...”
There was silence; a long silence! And was that the Dawn, the gracious Dawn!
Something, surely, all rose flecked on saffron and suffused with Light lay before my upturned eyes.
It was an azalea blossom. But, as I rose to my feet from the springy juniper where I had been lying, my head sheltered by the straggling branches of the leafless bush, the dawn had come, indeed, on the far rim of the wide plain.
And between it and me, rising from the retreating snow and the carpeting of spring flowers, was a white vapour which, lit by the rosy sun rays behind it, showed like smoke from a prairie fire.
But our fire was out. Only a heap of grey ashes remained, though the sleep which had come from the juniper branches still held the sleeping servants.
It needed a rough awakening, as rough as that which had left the prisoning ice at the mercy of the prisoned water, to rouse them and make them stand yawning, stretching in the dawn, avowing that _haschish_ itself could not bring wilder dreams than those which had been theirs that night. But was it a dream? or does the man, hand-in-hand with the woman, still fly from the Fire which came from the Star-s.h.i.+ne!
THE GIFT OF BATTLE
”Then you recommend them both,” said the mild little Commissioner, doubtfully; he was a vacillating man, by nature lawful prey to his superiors.
Tim O'Brien, C.I.E.--the uncoveted distinction had been, to his great disgust, bestowed on him after a recent famine, in which his sheer vitality had saved half a province, and earned him, rightfully, the highest honour of the empire--removed his long Burmah cheroot from his lips and smiled brilliantly. He was a thin brown man with a whimsical face.
”And what would I be doing with wan of them on the Bench and the other in the dock? For it would be that way ere a week was past. It is very kind of the L.G. to suggest putting either Sirdar Bikrama Singh or Khan Buktiyar Khan on the Honorary Magistracy, but he doesn't grasp that they are hereditary enemies and have been the same for eight hundred years. Ever since the Pathans temporarily conquered the Rajputs, in the year av' grace 1256! So you couldn't in conscience expect wan of them not to commit a crime if the other was to be preferred before him. Ye see, he'd just have to kill someone. But, if ye appoint them both, the dacencies of Court procedure and the hair-splittin' formalities of the local Bar will conduce to dignity--to say nothing of their own sense of justice, which, I'll go bail, is stronger than it is in most people ye could appoint. Equity's apt to go by the board if ye've too much legal knowledge; and they have none of that last. But I'll give them a good Clerk of the Court and guarantee they come to no harrm. Yes, sir, I recommend them both--to sit _in banco_.”
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