Part 24 (2/2)
He spat, too, in a very fury of re ”Henceforward, then, I am Kurram Khan, the dakitar, and ye two are my assistants, Ismail to hold the men with boils, and Darya Khan to heat the irons-both of ye to be my men and support me ords when need be!”
”Aye!” said Ismail, quick to think of details, ”and these others shall be the tasters! They have big bellies, that will holdLet them s a little of each medicine in the chest now, for the sake of practise! Let them learn not to ue-”
”Aye, and the breath co fragments of an adventurous career ”Let the!”
”We will not drink the medicines!” announced the man who had a stomach ache ”Nay, nay!”
But Isain and danced away, hugging hi ”Hee-yee-yee!” until the jackals joined him in discontented chorus and the Khyber Pass becaht of so's
”Why be a Rangar? Why be a Rajput, sahib? She loves us Hillmen better!”
”Do I look like a Hill
”Nay, not now But he who can work one e thy skin once hed ”And fall heir to a blood-feud with every second man I chance upon! A Hill-man is cousin to a hundred others, and what say they in the 'Hills'?-'to hate like cousins,' eh? All cousins are at war As a Rangar I have left my cousins down in India Better be a converted Hindu and be despised by some than have cousins in the 'Hills'! Besides-do I speak like a Hillue better!”
”Yet-does a Hillman slip? Would a Hillman use Punjabi words in a careless moment?”'
”God forbid!”
”Therefore, thou dunderhead, I will be a Rangar Rajput,-a stranger in a strange land, traveling by her favor to visit her in Khinjan! Thus, should I happen to make mistakes in speech or action, it ly beawayme to all and sundry! Is that clear, thou oaf?”
”Aye! Thou art reat Afridi began to rub the tips of his fingers through his straggly beard in a way thatseemed to draw considerable satisfaction froe that he understood More than any one thing in the world just then he needed a friend, and he certainly did not propose to refuse such a useful one
”And,” he added, as if it were an afterthought, instead of his chief reason, ”if her special h out the 'Hills,' shall I not the ar too? If I wear her bracelet and at the saar, ill not trust reed Is low and Khyber would be dark again in half an hour, for the great crags in the distance to either hand shut off rowing thicker It was ti my horse!” he ordered and they hurried to obey with alacrity born of new respect, Darya Khan attending to the tri at another man It was a very different little escort fro hied its very nature in fifteen hed at the the idiots-ested ”It is a govern, and they nodded ”Stolen along with the horse!”
”Then the bridle?”
”Stolen too, ye men without eyes! Ye insects! A Stolen horse and saddle and bridle, are they not a passport of gentility this side of the border?”
”Aye!”