Tales of Destiny Part 14

"With a grim smile Shir Jumla Khan listened to this narrative. But he made no comment; he merely issued instructions for the informer to be fed and for the present closely guarded.

"But if there had been any lingering doubt as to the truth of the story, confirmation came ere the breaking of the dawn. For we were once again disturbed from our rest, this time by the noise of a great tumult in the camp of the besiegers, loud shouting followed by the discharge of muskets, the sounds gradually dying away in the distance as if a fight and a pursuit had taken place. When day broke such indeed proved to be the case; we could descry in the camp a row of tents thrown down and dismantled, also dead or wounded men being brought in from the country beyond, while away on a distant ridge was a considerable body of tribesmen retreating toward their homes.

"At this sight joyful huzzas resounded through the fortress, and we did indeed all feel that Allah, by disrupting the forces of the enemy, was fighting on our side. And as I spread my prayer carpet, and prostrated myself toward Mecca, the pious thought in my heart was one that had many times been inculcated by my n.o.ble grandsire himself: 'Let the wise man reflect that he can in no way succeed without the help of G.o.d Most High.'

"During the day we took counsel as to the advisability of an attack on the somewhat attenuated host without the walls. But from our posts of observation we could see that every one in the camp was under arms and on the alert, no doubt foreseeing that such an attempt was likely on our part. So we concluded to let events develop, and contented ourselves with watching the progress of the sabat. Here there was no relaxation of endeavour, for the protected trench made a considerable advance ere the sun once again sank over the western hills.

"Darkness had not long fallen when another bleating voice of a suppliant for admittance was heard by the sentry at the gateway. Introduced to our presence, the newcomer, a goatherd by his appearance, and with the signs of travel on his garments, removed his head dress, untwisted the long locks of hair bound according to custom around his head, and, producing a small packet from the midst of his tresses, flung it on the floor. I picked up the missive, and handed it to our chieftain.

"Shir Jumla Khan untied the packet, and produced therefrom a heavy gold signet ring. While he was examining this, the seeming goatherd raised his voice:

"'O prince of princes, protector of the poor and oppressed, by the token in your hands know that I who wear this humble disguise am the son of Mustafa Khan, thy brother chieftain, who craves a refuge within the walls of this G.o.d-guarded citadel. I am empowered to propose terms which will bring substantial reward for you and sure deliverance from the pack of wolves yelping at your gates.'

"The youth soon convinced us that he was none other than he claimed to be, an additional guarantee to the possession of the ring being afforded by the full and detailed messages which he brought from his father. At the council which followed I was privileged to be present. The son of Mustafa Khan first recounted the story we already knew, of the deadly insult inflicted on his father, and then told briefly the tale of the morning flight and fight. His fleeing clansmen were now concealed in a gorge not a mile away, some two hundred fighting men, and would be glad to join their forces with those of Shir Jumla Khan, so that they might wipe out the stain of the dishonour they had suffered. If the gates were opened to them, they would come to the citadel that very night.

"But, watching my grandfather's face, I could see him smiling through his beard.

"'I want no more mouths to feed, young man,' replied The Tiger of the Pathans. 'But take this message to your sire. Let him come here, alone and unattended, and thus serve as a hostage for his own good faith. Then shall we two together concert a plan whereby an attack by his men from the other side of the camp will be made at the same moment as a sortie by my men on this side, so that together we shall crush our common enemy as we would break a nut between two stones. I have spoken.'

"'But my mother,' faltered the youth, 'and my sister? They and two women attendants are with my father, and he cannot leave them alone and unprotected.'

"Shir Jumla Khan stroked his beard; the appeal was one that reached his benignant heart.

"'How could they come here?' he asked, addressing the young man.

"'We have a camel with panniers. In that they escaped from the camp last night. I myself could lead them hither.'

"'Then in the name of G.o.d let the women too come into this place of refuge. You and your father, and the camel with the panniers, will be admitted, if you can reach the gates before the breaking of the dawn.'

"'And a place of seclusion for the ladies?'

"'What need to ask that?' exclaimed my grandsire, abruptly and angrily.

'I will show the respect to Mustafa Khan's women which I should expect him to show to mine. A house will be got ready ere you return.'

"And he waved the youth from his presence.

"I was at the gateway in the grey of the morrow's dawn when the fugitives arrived--Mustafa Khan, a big burly figure wrapped in his camel robe, the son still in the garments of a goatherd, and, led by him, a camel from the back of which was slung panniers for women, one on each side, enveloped in the usual coverings that safeguarded those within from forbidden eyes.

"But although, both out of proper respect for women and in duty toward our guests, I had not attempted to look at the camel or its burden, having indeed inclined my head downward as the animal pa.s.sed, yet as I again raised my eyes did I involuntarily catch sight of a dainty white hand and the gleam, through momentarily parted curtains, of a beautiful face--that of a young girl, fair as a lily, sweet and innocent as the half-opened blossom of a rose. And methought that, in her very childlike innocence, as our eyes met for a single instant, she smiled into mine ere she gathered together the curtain that hid the vision of loveliness from my ravished gaze.

"My heart was hammering against my breast as I watched the father and the brother, with the swaying camel, disappear under the archway of a building sheltered by the encompa.s.sing wall of the fortress. This I knew had been designated as the home of the refugees during their stay among us, but never had I imagined that such a treasure was to be bestowed in so rough a casket.

"All that day Mustafa Khan and my grandfather remained in close and secret conclave. Again I occupied my time by watching the approaching sabat. The work was progressing quicker than ever. At this rate, within two or three days the covered trench would be within a short stone throw of the fortress walls. After the evening meal I reported this position of affairs to Shir Jumla Khan.

"He only smiled gently at me.

"'Rest easy in your mind,' he said. 'Everything is understood and arranged between me and Mustafa Khan. On the day after to-morrow our enemies will be delivered into our hands.'

"But that night sleep would not come to my eyes. The face of the beautiful girl haunted me, and a great longing came over me to behold her again. I even began to hope that the conjoining of our fortunes might bring the damsel to me, to be the joy of my life and the pride of my future home. Already I was framing in my heart the sentences wherewith I would plead my cause after the battle was over, both with my grandsire and with Mustafa Khan. And I vowed that, in the fighting to come, I would do some deed of daring that would surely win the girl's father to my side.

"Meanwhile I wandered around the battlements, and half unconsciously I found myself on the walls at a place that surmounted the house which sheltered my beloved, with her mother and their women attendants, G.o.d is my witness, but I had no thought of profane prying, contrary alike to the laws of the Prophet and to the laws of hospitality. But my eyes fell on a beam of light coming from a tiny window niched deep down in a recess of the building. And even as I saw this, there came to my ears a faint, regular sound--a m.u.f.fled 'tap, tap, tap.' Instantly every fibre of my being was in a quiver.

"I know not what instincts guided me--to burst asunder the bonds both of conventionality and of religion that might have restrained me, to make suspicion of some vague unseen danger stifle within my breast every tender thought of awakening love. But in my surge of excitement love and faith were alike forgotten. I ran from the walls, and without consulting anyone returned but a few minutes later with a coil of rope in my hands.

To fasten this to one of the parapets, to tie a few knots at intervals so as to give me handhold and foothold--all this was the work of another minute or two. Then, slowly and cautiously, hand under hand, I was descending into the well-like recess toward the one tiny shaft of light that pierced its black darkness.

"'Tap, tap, tap'--the mysterious sound grew more and more distinct as I dropped down and down. Then, all of a sudden, the playing of a zither and the full-throated song of a woman smote my ears, and I arrested my descent. Almost could I have climbed back again, unseeing and ashamed.

But in a brief momentary interlude in the music I heard, loud and unabashed now, the steady 'thump, thump, thump' as of a hammer, and straightway I knew that the song and its accompaniment were but part of some devilish plot--a means devised to m.u.f.fle the sound of the other operations, whatever these might be. In another moment I was abreast of the window, small as a loophole for musketry, but all-sufficient for my requirements, I had the rope twisted around my leg, and, secure against slipping, I craned forward to peer inside.

"My irreverent eyes fell on no woman's face--the music was floating upward from an adjoining chamber. But in the room into which I gazed was a strange sight--four men stripped to the waist and toiling for all the world like diggers of a well. The flagstones of the floor had been torn up, and a great hollow cavern had been dug below. From this cavity two of the figures were pa.s.sing up baskets of mud and gravel, into the hands of Mustafa Khan himself, who was bestowing the material around the walls of the room. The fourth man, also in the pit that had been dug, was tapping a long iron crowbar into a hole that had evidently been pierced in the soft ground in the direction of the fortress wall.

"I knew little enough about engineering in those days, but it needed only common sense for me to realize that the miscreant Mustafa had betrayed our hospitality for no other purpose than to breach the walls of the citadel. If there had been women in one pannier there had been men in the other, and, to balance the camel's load, there had been powder and tools for the nefarious task, the crowning achievement, no doubt, of an elaborate conspiracy.

"But I lost no time then in trying to piece together the details of the scheme. It was action that was needed now. So, just as silently and cautiously as I had descended, I climbed back again by my rope and regained the battlements. I paused just for a moment to listen to the sweeping chords of the zither, played by no unskilled hand, and to the rich notes of the woman's voice swelling into the midnight air. Then I gathered the rope in my arms, and sought the sleeping quarters of my grandfather.

"The old Tiger of the Pathans, as I knew well, was prepared to be aroused at any hour of the night. Even his tulwar was buckled to his belt when, in answer to my summons, he stepped forth into the outer chamber. He listened to my eager story, peering at me the while from beneath his s.h.a.ggy eyebrows. But not even the twitching of a muscle in his face betrayed surprise.

"At the close of my narrative he laid a kindly hand on my shoulder.

"'O son of my dead son,' he said gravely, 'if what you have seen to-night be not a dream, then have you done me great service. But go now and sleep, and prepare yourself for what is to come. Rest a.s.sured, more than ever before, that Allah is on our side, and that, even as I said to you last night, our enemies are being delivered into the hollow of our hands.'

"But sleep still refused to come to me that night. The call for morning prayer found me wide awake, turning over in my mind the many perplexities of the situation. Had the quarrel in the camp of our adversaries been nothing but a cunning pretence, the fight among the tribesmen before the dawn a mere sham, even the gathering in of the supposed dead and wounded an artful deception for our eyes, all contrived so that this devil of devils, Mustafa Khan, should gain access to the citadel with skilled sappers and mining munitions? And was the youth who had played the part of a goatherd really a son of the man, or a serpent-tongued liar, a chosen master of craft whose seeming guilelessness had helped to delude us? It had been a crude first idea on his part to suggest the admission as refugees of a swarm of armed men, but, when this had failed, there had been glib readiness with the other and more subtle plan that had so nearly succeeded. And as I reflected on these things, I marked the young hypocrite for my own particular prey.

"During the morning hours I was surprised to see the two khans, guest and host, betrayer and betrayed, walking around the gardens in seeming amity. But after a time my grandsire beckoned me to his side.

"'This is a grandson of mine,' he said, presenting me to Mustafa Khan.

'He has reported to me that the sabat is approaching too close to your present quarters, and that any explosion would endanger the members of your household.'

"I saw the traitor pale under the quiet eye of The Tiger of the Pathans.

"'There will be no explosion to-day,' he stammered.

"'You seem to be fully and precisely acquainted with the plans of our enemies. Nay, do not draw that sword by your side, Mustafa Khan. Look behind you, man.'

"With haggard face now, Mustafa turned round. It was to see half a dozen pikes pointed at his ribs. At a signal from their master a guard had noiselessly drawn near.

"'You know what to do, jemadar,' said the old Tiger to the officer in charge. There was a vicious smile now on his face, such as I had never seen there before and never saw again--a savage curling of the upper lip that showed the white fangs of the relentless hunting animal.

"And, prodded by the encircling spikes, Mustafa Khan went to his doom--calmly and proudly erect, be it said, for a Pathan always knows how to die with dignity and resignation to the will of G.o.d. Nor must we forget that he was a brave man, for in coming to the citadel he had boldly ventured his life on a desperate chance, and perfidy in the game of war brings shame only when it meets with discomfiture. Peace be with his soul!

"My grandsire and I were now alone.

"'You will let me fight that crawling snake, his son?' I cried, with a gesture of appeal.

"'He is already carrion for the vultures,' was the reply. 'He was no son of Mustafa Khan, just a low-born hireling schemer, and it needed only a prod of the dagger to make him betray the whole plot, and whine for the mercy which I would have scorned myself to bestow. The two skilled sappers are still mining--under my directions this time. We shall make a feint of a sally to-morrow morning at the hour prearranged by Mustafa Khan with the tribesmen outside. But it is the sabat and its occupants that will be blown into the sky, and not my good stout walls'--this last with the old familiar smile, stern but pleasant to look upon.

"'And the girl who sang?' I ventured, falteringly.

"'She is safe in the protection of my home. On her rests no blame, for in the part she played she was but obeying her father's bidding. Now, that is all for the present. Keep your own counsel, and be with me to-morrow at the dawn.'