Page:Alien Souls by Achmed Abdullah (1922).djvu/64

that sparkled with the cold-white gleam of diamonds.

He jerked the camel to its knees and dismounted. But that night he did not stop to make camp, nor did he sit long at his meal.

For above him, like a dream of freedom, stretched the rock-perched village of his birth, and every minute spent here in the valley was like another wasted year. So he sat down, picked up a handful of mulberries and ate them; and when a shaggy, skulking Afridi came wandering into the valley, a wire-bound Snider in his arms, and doubtless out to take a late shot at a blood-enemy, Yar Khan stopped him with a shouted friendly greeting and offered him the camel as a present. For he was anxious to tread the jagged rocks of The Hoof of the Wild Goat, and he knew that no plains-bred animal could find foothold on the narrow, winding path which led to the mountain top. Often his father had described the path to him, every foot of it—too, savoring every foot of it in the telling.

The price of the camel? "Masha, illah!" he thought, "my father bartered the years of his manhood for a waistbandful of coined gold; let me then throw away a handful for a minute of home!" and he put the bridle in the Afridi's eager hand, crooking two fingers in sign of a free present.

"Manda na bash—May your feet never be weary!" the grateful Afridi shouted after Yar Khan, who was already speeding up the dark path, the heavy goatskin bag punctuating each step, the joy in his heart as keen as a new-ground sword.

The night was a pall of deep brown, and the road twisted and dipped and turned. But he walked along steadily and sure-footed, though he had not seen the hills, except in dreams, since he was a lisping babe