"Salaam, bhatiyara, thou beholdest me again," he said on entering.
The innkeeper looked up with a start from among the pots in which he was preparing supper for two guests.
"Salaam," he said, with no great cordiality. "Thou hast been on a long visit to that friend of thine."
"Truly. Who can strive against fate! I was smitten with a fever. We hill-men suffer grievously in the plains in this time of rain. But I am now recovered, Allah be praised! and ready to go once more about my business. Give me to eat, I am very hungry; and then I will sleep.
To-morrow I will go forth again with my goods, and maybe I shall find more ready buyers."
"Hai! who can strive against fate! But a few days after thou hadst departed, there came in the middle of the night vile robbers, and lo!
when I awoke in the morning, thy goods were not. It is kismet."
"Thou sayest! and my camel--did he die?"
There was a tone of mockery in the question which apparently escaped the notice of the innkeeper, though it provoked a chuckle from the two traders who were tearing apart with their fingers a well-stewed fowl.
"Hai!" said the innkeeper, with a mournful face; "when thou didst not return, thy camel would not eat, and his hump sank away to flatness, and on the tenth day he died."
"Thou sayest? Of a truth, bhatiyara, he must needs come to life again no later than the morrow"s sunrise, and those vile robbers must be p.r.i.c.ked in their hearts and restore the goods they have stolen, or a.s.suredly the Kotwal will come and visit this serai, and he will say, since it is so ill a place for man and beast, it must be made desolate. What must be will be."
"Hai! hai!" cried the man, lifting his hands, "how should a dead camel breathe again the breath of life, and evil-doers become good?"
"Even these things are possible, good bhatiyara. And now let me eat, and make ready a good charpoy. These things that I say shall come to pa.s.s even while I sleep."
And his two fellow-guests laughed aloud, while the innkeeper muttered in his beard.
CHAPTER THE TWENTIETH
Wolf and Jackal
Next morning Ahmed found his camel contentedly munching at his stall, with no visible diminution of his hump; and his bales of goods were ranged in decent order along the walls, though when he came to examine them he found that their contents were strangely mixed. But he said nothing of that; he only expressed to the innkeeper his gratification that the night had seen such wonders wrought, and after a simple breakfast he went out and, hiring no coolie this time, took a few of his more costly wares to visit his old friend the darwan of Minghal Khan.
Cordial greetings pa.s.sed between them; the darwan had pleasant recollections of the dainties with which he had been regaled by this excellent Pathan at his former visit. Then he asked why his friend had been so long in hiding the light of his countenance from him. Ahmed told him that he had been ill, and made him laugh heartily at his story of how the rascally innkeeper had brought a dead camel to life and restored stolen goods in the s.p.a.ce of one night.
"And now, good darwan," he said, "thinkest thou I might show some of my wares to your n.o.ble master? My business has halted while I was sick, and I must needs sell somewhat lest I starve."
"Truly, my friend, it is an ill time. The great man has no money; we, his poor creatures who are not worthy to unloose his shoes, get no wages, and our khansaman sells more and more of our chattels day by day to get the wherewithal to buy our poor food. And I fear me, even if the ill.u.s.trious one were as rich as Nadir Shah of old renown, it would be vain to approach him now. But a little while ago there came a chaprasi with news that his regiment had been rioting. Indeed (and this khabar was whispered in my ear) the men tried last night to gain some little sustenance from the plunder of some new men who have come--woe upon them!--to this sorely crowded city. And by ill-hap they had the worse of the encounter; verily these new-comers sting like scorpions; and their leader, one Asadullah, has gone to the palace to complain to the Protector of the Poor, our ill.u.s.trious king. The great one is even now clothing himself in haste to go also to the palace and acquaint the Ill.u.s.trious with the truth of the matter. And so it is an ill time, as I said; neither his pocket nor his temper suits with business of thy sort."
"Hai! how wretched is my lot!" said Ahmed.
"Here is the great one"s horse," said the darwan, as a sais led the animal from the courtyard and began to walk him up and down. "And behold the great one himself."
He rose from his squatting posture at the door as Minghal came out. The subahdar was clearly in a state of great annoyance. He kicked aside the small bundle which Ahmed had laid on the ground, and bade him betake himself to Jehannum.
"Merciful one, be not wroth with the meanest of thy slaves," said Ahmed, salaaming humbly. "If I might but be allowed to see thy face at some more convenient season! I have wares of great beauty and worth, even such as might delight the eyes of the hazur himself and----"
"Bas, bas!" cried Minghal. "Get thee hence and trouble me not."
He called to the sais to bring up his horse.
"There is a shawl woven most marvellously with gold threads," Ahmed said, with an air of the greatest deference. "If the magnificent one would but deign the wink of an eye----"
"Enough, I say!" cried Minghal, with his foot in the stirrup. Then a thought seemed to strike him. "Come to me to-morrow; I may then cast an eye on thy worthless trumpery."
"Hazur, thy servant"s heart leaps for joy," said Ahmed, salaaming, and Minghal sprang to the saddle.
"Tell the khansaman to make ready a repast fit for princes against my return this night," he called to the darwan. "I shall not return until the sun goes down."
Then he rode off on his clattering way to the palace.
"Thou art favoured above all," said the darwan to Ahmed, "and, being a just man, thou wilt not forget to let a little flow over from thy full cup?"
"My prosperity shall be thine, worthy darwan; and the thought of the great one"s favour to come will be as a delicious perfume to me this day."
On leaving the darwan, Ahmed found his way to the quarters of the men who had beaten off the attack of Minghal"s regiment the night before. He felt some curiosity to see this warlike Pathan, named Asadullah, whose arrival had so soon been followed by a broil. When he reached the serai, he learnt that the chief had not yet returned from the palace; and knowing that Minghal had also gone thither to put his side of the story before the king, Ahmed guessed that the poor old monarch would have an uncomfortable morning.
He spent the rest of the forenoon in wandering about the city, picking up what news he could. Then he returned to his own serai for his midday meal and a sleep; he foresaw that he might have little opportunity for rest during the night. On awaking, he went out to the bazar and bought a stout hook, like those by which carcases are hung in butchers" shops. As he left the bazar, he overtook Minghal Khan"s khansaman, who was returning with a load of provisions he had bought for his master"s supper. Ahmed had wished more than once for an opportunity of conversing with the khansaman, and the present moment seemed favourable.
"Salaam, worthy khansaman," he said, stepping alongside the old man.
"Salaam, but I know thee not, stranger, and I am in haste," was the reply.
"Far be it from me to hinder one so venerable in years and so exalted in position, yet since thy worthy master has deigned to say that he will let his eye rest on my poor wares to-morrow, I would fain say a respectful word to the ruler of his household. It is a proud thing to serve one so high in the king"s favour, and I warrant thou findest his service more to thy taste than that of him thou wast wont to serve--the accursed Feringhi."
The khansaman looked at him sharply.
"What knowest thou--a banijara from the hills, if my eyes see aright--of whom I served?" he said.
"Thy excellent darwan is a friend of mine," replied Ahmed, "and he has told me one or two things. How thy heart must have rejoiced when thy old master and all his family met their fate! Didst thou have a hand in it?"
"Would that I had!" said the khansaman, with fervour. "Would that all the dogs of Feringhis were even as that dog of a sahib under whose yoke I groaned!"
""Tis beyond doubt that all his family were slain? Had he many sons?"
"None, save the child that now learns the vile learning of the Feringhis far over sea."
"That is pity. Maybe he had daughters?"
"One pale-faced thing, of no account."
"Without doubt she is dead also. Though indeed it is said that some of the Feringhis" women escaped, being preserved by some unworthy children of the Prophet. Even as I came hither I beheld such a pale-faced thing in the palki of a zamindar; not that I saw her, the palki being closed; but it was told me by the palki-wallahs. She had been seized out of the hands of her ayah and khitmutgar as she sought safety."
Ahmed watched the khansaman narrowly as he said this; but there was no change in the man"s expression. It was that of complete indifference.
"I perceive we are drawing near to the great one"s house," he continued.
"Salaam aleikam!"