Part 27 (1/2)

CHAPTER VIII

Once in a lifetih!-HIRA SINGH

Well, sahib, our journey was not nearly at an end, but ht there was no ain-one in our faith in our leader, and with h can make miracles seem like details of a day's work

Turks who had been bayoneted and Turks slain by hailstones lay all about us, and we should have been dead, too, only that the hail was in our backs As it was, ten of our men lay killed and more than thirty stunned, some of whom did not recover Our little Greek doctor announced hih began to choose a firing party for hi donkeys were too bruised by the hail to bear a load, but the Turks had had some athered up the plunder, told off four troopers to each chest of gold, and dragged ourselves away It was essential that we get back to the hills before dawn should disclose our predicament, for whatever Kurds should chance to spy us would never have been restrained by pro proe

The moon came out from behind clouds, and we cursed it, for we did not want to be seen It shone on a world made white with hail-on a stricken camp-dead animals-dead men We who had swept down from the hills like the very spirit of the stor, chilled to the bone by the searching wind, and it was beginning to be dahen the last round We looked so little like victors that the Syrians sent up a wail and Tugendheih set the aniht

Noe began to pray for time, to recover froan to develop fevers, and if Ranjoor Singh had not fiercely threatened the doctor, things one fro the s, and five men died of wounds Yet, on the other hand, we did not desire too much ti to send regieance Before noon, somebody rallied the reht them back to bury dead and look for property, and they looked quite a formidable body as I watched the found nothing but tents torn to rags; but I counted more than four hundred, which rather lessened ht that did the work, not we

We could not burn our dead, for lack of sufficient wood, although we drove the Syrians out of caather more; so we buried them in a trench, and covered the the new-staht to those We did not bury them very deep, because a bayonet is a fool of a weapon hich to excavate a grave and a Syrian no expert digger in any case; so when the fires were burned out we piled rocks on the grave to defeat jackals

The Kurdish chief returned on the fifth day and by that tih ain, and ith the plunder we had taken, and the chests of gold in full view, he ell iold at once, and Ranjoor Singh surprised me by the calm courtesy hich he refused

”Why should ain?” he asked

For a long ti for soht deceive us Then suddenly he abandoned hope of argu out such a flood of words that Abrahaave e played a trick!” he shouted ”He and a ether Then in the night they ran away, and your hostage went to Wassmuss, and has told hiain than ten other men could invent in a year! So Wasshed out of countenance by a heritage of spawn of Tophet! And what has Wasmuss done but persuade three hundred Kurds of a tribe who are reat price! And so your Gerold and es back, and I will leave you to your own devices!”

It was an hour before Ranjoor Singh could calain before cross-examination induced hi Wassmuss, he said, probably did not know yet that we had taken the gold, but the neas on the way, for spies had talked in the night with the ten Kurds whouides and to help us keep peace We had given those ten a Turkish rifle each and various other plunder, because they helped us in the fight, and they had proe, and there is no controverting it

”What is Wassh asked

”Do?” said the Kurd ”He has done! He has set two tribes by the ears and sent them down to surround you and heold, that I et aith it before a thousand es!”

If as happening now had taken place but a week before, Ranjoor Singh would have found himself in a fine fix, for all except I would have there and then denounced hiler, or a knave But now the other daffadars who clustered around him and me said one to the other, ”Let us see what our sahibrevealed through two long hours of talk, and Chatar Singh went back to bid them have patience

”Is there trouble?” they asked, and he answered ”Aye!”

”Tell our sahib we stand behind hie and I think it did Ranjoor Singh's heart good,-not that he would not have done his best in any case

”You have lost e, and I hold yours,” he told the Kurd, ”so now, if you want yours back you must pay whatever price I name for them!”

”Who aold nor goods, nor anything but three hundred h

”Within an hour's ride,” said the Kurd, ”watching for the men who coes,” said Ranjoor Singh, ”when I and my men set foot in Persia!”