Driftwood Spars | Page 5

the dogs of tedium. Tell on." And in point of fact I was now
too credulous to be anything but astounded.... John Robin Ross-Ellison!
"Well, one day, my brother and I went forth to shoot sand-grouse,
tuloor,[15] chikor,[16] chinkara[17] and perchance ibex, leaving behind
this black body-servant Moussa Isa, the Somali boy, because he was
sick. And it was supposed that we should not return for a week at the
least. But on the third day we returned, my brother's eyes being
inflamed and sore and he fearing blindness if he remained out in the
desert glare. This is a common thing, as the Sahib knoweth, when dust
and sun combine against the eyes of those who have read over-many
books and written over-much with the steel pen upon white paper, and
my brother was somewhat prone to this trouble in the desert if he
exhausted himself with excessive shikar and--other matters. And this
angered him greatly. Yet it was all ordained by Allah for the undoing of
that unclean dog Ibrahim Mahmud--for, returning and riding on his
white camel (a far-famed pacer of speed and endurance) under the great
gateway of the Jam's fort--high enough for a camel-rider to pass
unstooping and long enough for a rêlwêy-tunnel--he came upon
Mahmud Ibrahim and his friends and followers (for he had many such,
who thought he might succeed his father as Vizier) doing a thing that
enraged my brother very greatly. Swinging at the end of a cord tied to
his hands, which were bound behind his back, was the boy Moussa Isa
the Somali, apparently dead, for his eyes were closed and he gave no
sign of pain as Ibrahim's gang of pimps, panders, bullies and
budmashes[18] kept him swinging to and fro by blows of lathis[19] and
by kicks, while Ibrahim and his friends, at a short distance, strove to hit
the moving body with stones. I suppose the agony of hanging forward
from the arms, and the blows of staff and stone, had stunned the
lad--who had offended Ibrahim, it appeared, by preventing him from
entering my brother's house--probably to poison his water-lotah[20]
and gurrah[21]--at the door of which he, Moussa Isa, lay sick. My
brother, Mir Jan, sprang from his camel without waiting for the driver
to make it kneel, and going up to Ibrahim, he struck him with his closed,
but empty, hand. Not with the slap that stings and angers, he struck him,
but with the thud that stuns and injures, upon the mouth, removing

certain of his teeth,--such being his anger and his strength. Rising from
the ground and plucking forth his knife, Ibrahim sprang at my brother
who, unarmed, straightway smote him senseless, and that is talked of in
Mekran Kot to this day. Yea--senseless. Placing the thumb upon the
knuckles of the clenched fingers, he smote at the chin of Ibrahim, and
laid him, as one dead, upon the earth. Straight to the front from the
shoulder and not downwards nor swinging sideways he struck, and it
was as though Ibrahim had been shot. The Sahib being English will
believe this, but many Baluchis and Pathans do not. They cannot
believe it, though to me Subedar-Major Mir Daoud Khan Mir Hafiz
Ullah Khan of the 99th Baluch Light Infantry of the Army of the King
Emperor of India, they pretend that they do, when I tell of that great
deed.... Then my brother loosed Moussa Isa with his own hand, saying
that even as he had served Ibrahim Mahmud so would he serve any
man who injured a hair of the head of his body-servant. And Moussa
Isa clave to my brother yet the more, and when a great Sidi slave
entered the room of my brother by night, doubtless hired by Ibrahim
Mahmud to slay him, Moussa Isa, grappling with him, tore out his
throat with his teeth, though stabbed many times by the Sidi, ere my
brother could light torch or wick to tell friend from foe. Whether he
were thief or hired murderer, none could say--least of all the Sidi when
Moussa Isa, at my brother's bidding, loosed his teeth from the man's
throat. But all men held that it was the work of Ibrahim, for, on
recovering his senses that day of the blow, he had walked up to my
brother Mir Jan and said:--
[15] Bustard. [16] A kind of partridge. [17] Gazelle. [18] Bad
characters. [19] Long staves. [20] Brass cup or vase. [21] Basin or pot.
"'For that blow will I have a great revenge, O Jan Rah-bin-Ras el-Isan
Ilderim Dost Mahommed Mir Hafiz Ullah Khan, descendant of Mirs
and of mlecca dogs, this year or next year, or ten years hence, or when
thou art old, or upon thy first-born. By the sacred names of