Page:Alien Souls by Achmed Abdullah (1922).djvu/23

late that evening I saw Ebrahim Asif around the bend of a stone spur in the higher Salt Range, walking carefully, using the shelter of each granite boulder, like a man afraid of breech-bolt snicking from ambush. For a mile I followed him. and he did not see me or hear me. He knew that his enemy was in front, and he did not look behind. Again the sword was whinnying at my side, and the barrel of my rifle throbbed with desire. For Ali-Khan was friend to me, and we of Afghanistan are loyal in living, loyal also in taking life. Thus was there a choking rage in my heart; the young moon above me was bloated and crimson, like a slaughtered soul crying for vengeance; and in my mouth was the taste of dirt.

But there was my promise to Bibi Halima to keep Ebrahim Asif safe against her husband's claiming.

And I kept him safe, quite safe, by Allah, the holder of the balance of right. For using a short cut which I knew, having once had a blood-feud in those very hills, I appeared suddenly in front of Ebrahim Asif, covering him with my rifle.

He did not show fight, for no hillman will battle against impossible odds. Doubtless he thought me a robber of the highways; and so, obeying my command, he dropped his rifle and his cheray, and he suffered me to bind his hands behind his back with my waistband.

But when I spoke to him, when I pronounced the name of Ali-Khan and Bibi Halima, he turned as yellow as a dead man's bones. His knees shook. The fear of death came into his eyes, and also a great cunning; for these Moustaffa-Khel are gray wolves among wolves.

"Walk ahead of me, son of Shaitan and of a she-jackal," I said, gently rubbing his heart with the muzzle of my rifle. "Together you and I shall visit Ali-Khan. Walk ahead of me, son of a swine-fed bazaar-woman."