Page:Alien Souls by Achmed Abdullah (1922).djvu/31

"Do you, then, love the bear of the North that you are willing to serve him?"

"Love is of the mind and not of the heart,"—he flung out a bare palm,—"unless it be the love of woman. And Bibi Halima is dead."

"Then why serve Russia?" For be it remembered that in those days I served the Ameer of Afghanistan, and that there was talk in the bazaars of a railway being built from Bokhara to Merv, within striking distance of Herat.

Again he smiled.

"Because I said that love is of the mind. What does me weal, that I love and serve. What does me harm, that I hate and fight. See? Years from now, if it be so written, my son, thanks to the honor which shall be mine under the shadow of the czar, will be a soldier of the czar in the north, in Bokhara. He will be trained after the manner of the North, and he will shoot as straight as a hawk's flight. He will be the pride of the regiment, and he will wear the little silver medal on a green ribbon which is given to the best marksman in the army. And one day the young soldier, bearing a Russian name, even as will his father, will desert from his regiment for a week or a month, and the tale will be spread that he has gone north to Moscow because of his young blood's desire to see new sights and kiss strange women. But He will not have gone north at all. No, by the teeth of God and mine own honor! He will have gone south, to these very hills, and there will be no desire in his heart but the desire to kill. He will kill Ebrahim Asif and his sons—may he have as many as there are hairs in my beard!—and also the women, at night, when they go to the brook to fetch water for the evening meal. He