Page:Alien Souls by Achmed Abdullah (1922).djvu/101

is needed to strike a dagger blow. Where quarrel is buried, no fertilizer is needed with which to grow friendship. But—I am an honest man! I shall make the bargain even, so that nobody may complain and that none of your people may say that you are unwise. Your daughter shall be mine! Half the khirli catch shall be my people's. And I, on my part, shall lend to your people the help of wisdom which I learned amongst the Afghans. And after your death—which Allah grant be not for many years—I shall rule both villages."

He rose and bowed with grave courtesy.

"I am an impatient man," he went on. "My heart plays with my passion. Let the wedding be the next time I set foot in the Red Village. Come. Give oath."

He stood still and looked at Yar Zaddiq who, too, had risen. For several seconds, the older man did not speak. His stubborn resolve that never, as long as he was alive, should Ebrahim Asif marry his daughter, that never, until the end of time, should his people cede to the White Village one tenth, not one hundredth part of the fishing rights which were theirs according to the ancient law, stood firm; but his opponent's equal resolve hacked at his faith like a dagger.

"Give oath!" repeated the other, touching the hilt of his sword, and then Yar Zaddiq spoke.

"You shall wed my daughter the next time you set foot in the Red Village," he said solemnly. "I swear it upon the Koran!"

But Ebrahim grinned boyishly.

"And yet I have heard," he said very gently, "that you men of the older generation, converted to Islam at the point of the sword, are not the stout Moslems you claim to be. Thus—swear by the gods of our people,