Part 26 (1/2)
”Then one officer!” said the Kurd, and I treree to that, and I feared he ht a minute I would not have feared, yet who thinks at such tie and last of their own skin are such as Ranjoor Singh; a year after war begins they are still leading The rest of us must either be content to be led, or else are superseded I burst into a sweat all over, for all that a cold wind swept aht have knoas not to be spared
After two seconds, that seereed I will give you one of ive you Gooja Singh!” said he
Sahib, I could have rolled aled with ah for all the insults I had received from him I could not conceal all my merriment Doubtless h was sitting on the other side of Ranjoor Singh, partly facingof what passed over my face-as I scarcely intended that he should And in a ht of his arath His face had turned e?” he said in a voice like grinding stone
”Aye,” said Ranjoor Singh ”Be a proud one! They have had to give ten o aith them all by h ”Why not? We hold ten of theirs against your safe return”
”Good! Then I will go!” he answered, and I knew by the black look on his face and by the dull rage in his voice that he would harm us if he could But there was no tih frouh exa one man after another as not sufficiently important, and it o hours before ten Kurds that satisfied hih in exchange for the the Kurds without so ood-by, or a salute
”He should be punished for not saluting you,” said I, going to Ranjoor Singh's side ”It is a bad example to the troopers”
”KUCH-KUCH-,” said he ”No trouble Black hearts beget black deeds White hearts, good deeds Maybe we all ed him Let him prove whether he is true at heart or not”
Observe, sahib, how he identified hih he kneell that all except I until recently had denied him title to any other naed,” said he, as much as to say, ”What my men have done, I did” So you reat o!” said I ”He will be the ruin of us yet!” But he laughed
”Sahib,” I said ”Suppose he should get to see this Wassht of that,” he answered ”Why should the Kurds let hio near Wassmuss? Unless they return hies; they will run no risk of Wassh Besides, frouess from what the Kurds say, this Wassmuss is to all intents and purposes a prisoner Another tribe of Kurds, pretending, to protect hiuarded The best he can do is to play off one tribe against another Our friend said Wasse, but I think the fact is the other tribe holds hiets the blame I suspect they held our friend's brother as security for the gold he is toin these mountains”
”Much politics and little hope for us!” said I, and at that he turned on me as he never had done yet No, sahib, I never saw hiely as he did to ates of his weariness were down at last and I got a glimpse of what he suffered-he who dared trust no one all these o,” he mocked, ”that if I told you half my plan you would quail? And that if I told the whole, you would pick it to pieces like hens round a scrap of ers? Have I no eyes-no ears? Do I need a frog to croak toback, or s back?” said I ”Nay, forward! I will die beside you, sahib!”
”I seek life for you all, not death,” he answered, but he spoke so sadly that I think in that minute his hope and faith were at lowest ebb
”Nevertheless,” I answered, ”if need be, I will die beside you I will not hang back Order, and I obey!” But he looked at ,” he said, ”is the noise fools s!”
What could I answer to that? I sat down and considered the rebuff, while he went and reat preparation for an execution and a Turkish funeral So that there was little extra argument required to induce one of our Turkish officer prisoners-the bimbashi+ himself, in fact-to write the letter to Wassave to the Kurdish chief, and the Kurd rode aith his es he had left with us, but h, who rode unarroup of horseh, and later, e advanced through those blood-curdling mountains I was sorrier yet to think of hiue he could not speak The ave the the rifles for inspection
I took Abrahaes, ere herded together apart froard theht than prisoners and awaited with resignation whatever ht be their kisht meet with violence, and they replied they were afraid of nothing They added, however, that no ht bring forth
Then I asked theh's guess about his being practically a prisoner They said he was ever on the move, surrounded and very closely watched by the particular tribe of Kurds that had possession of him for the moment
”First it is one tribe, then another,” they told ets this gold, we shall have Wassiance of one or two more tribes to join with us and oust those Kurds who hold hi into Persia to bribe the Bakhtiari Khans and such like, but that day is gone by Noe Kurds will grow rich But as for us”-they shrugged their shoulders like this, sahib, one by also I left them with the impression they are very fatalistic folk
There was no ht have to wait there, so Ranjoor Singh gave orders for the best shelter possible to be prepared, and ith the cave at the rear, and plundered blankets, and one thing and another we contrived a camp that was ale of fire-wood, and we had to send out foraging parties in every direction at no small risk The Kurds, like our mountain men of northern India, leave such matters to their woer at Ranjoor Singh because he had not allowed us to capture wohed at us for not having stolen woendheim vowed he had never seen such fools
But as it turned out, we had not long to wait That very evening, as I watched froreat boulders, I beheld a Turkish convoy of about six hundred infantry, led by a bi of pack- out behind them, and five loaded donkeys led by soldiers in thetoward the hills, and I sent a h to watch them
It soon becaht They had tents with them, and they pitched a camp three-quarters of a mile, or perhaps a mile away from the mouth of our defile, at a place where a little stream ran between rocks It was clear they suspected no treachery, or they would never have chosen that place, they being but six hundred and the hills full of Kurds so close at hand Nevertheless, they were very careful to set sentries on all the rocks all about, and they gave us no ground for thinking wethey outnuuard for our prisoners and hostages, and that fifty of our force were Syrians and therefore not h felt doubtful, too, until I saw hian to hope as furiously as he
The Turks down on the plain were studying the sky, too We could see them fix bayonets and athered stones hich to re-enforce the tent pegs, and in every other way possible they ainst one of those swift, sudden storms that so often burst down the sides of mountains Most of us had experienced such storms a dozen times or more in the foot-hills of our Hi fell the sky to our rear grew blacker than night itself and a chill swept down the defile like the finger of death
”Repack the ca in the cave”