Page:Alien Souls by Achmed Abdullah (1922).djvu/75

rasping; but clearest and sharpest rose the laughter from Kumar Jan's red lips.

It was then that Yar Khan's good-humor suddenly broke into a hundred splintering pieces. His rage surged in deadly crimson waves. He forgot that these men were his blood-kin. He forgot the yearning of the swinging years. He only saw the sneer which cleft Jehan Hydar's bold face; he only heard the laughter which bubbled from Kumar Jan's lips, and he stepped up close to the other.

"Better dried fish in the South," he cried, "than a naked dagger in the hills," and his knife leaped out with a soft whit-whit. But he had no time to strike, to stain his soul with the blood of kin; for, even as he spoke, even as the knife left the scabbard, a dozen stout arms were about him, hugging him close—and there were laughter and frantic shouts of joy. Bearded faces touched his; the children crowded about him and hailed him with shrill cries; the women bowed before him with a clank and jingle of silver ornaments; and again, clearest, sharpest, rose Kumar Jan's laughter—but this time it was not the laughter of derision.

Suddenly, Yar Khan understood. They had tested his manhood after the manner of the hills and they had not found him wanting; and so, when he walked away from the camp-fire with Kumar Jan by his side, the hard, pent rage which had bitten into his heart disappeared like chaff in the meeting of winds.

He was home, home!

He said to himself that these men were his kin, that their woes were his woes, their laws his laws, their feuds his feuds—and he knew why there had been no thanks when he had emptied his goat-skin bag