SHORT STORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2202, 14 May 1896, Page 42

SHORT STORY.

CALLING THE CAMELS HOME. It was a very dark Bight when H&bibnllah arrived with his nine camels at the lonely Zhob Levy post on tbe road to Dero Ismail Khan. Though a native of tha regions round about he, with true Mahommedan recklessness, turned into sleop, leaving his beasts unsaddled to forage during the rest of the nighc. Small wonder that at dawn the loss of the whole nine was reported at the nearest post. The loss was promptly attributed to cattle-lifters, and as a band of Waziris had been rumoured to have come from the Mahsud tribe, during tbe last faw days, " Saddle and ride 1 " was the order of the day. Bakshan Kban slipped bis medicine phial into his pocket; Wazir Khan put a chillum and some tobacco into his holster, instead of his ration pocket ; Gurdit. Singh put a twisted cloth containing opium into his turban; the English officer crammed • half a dozen chnpatties and a flask of whisky into bis pockets. In 20 minutes 15 armed men were galloping to the place whence the' oamelß had been lifted. Bakshan Khan's trackers had been before them, and had run tbe trail across the river, and into the hills the other side. Every indication was that the party had gone off towards Wa&o in a bee-line across the bills, and with probably 10 hours' start. In that awful country, and with the Blow and malignant camel peculiar to those parts, they were probably a dozen miles ahead. To follow that trail among .that mass of torrents, all twisting like wounded snakes, and in as many directions as imagination could devise, seemed at first an absolutely impossible task. Bat to the men following it every nullah was as well known as London streets to a Cockney. ' Not for nothing bad they hsßted the wild goat and sheep and 'lehikor day after day in those fastnesses. Only two routes were possible. One, an easy one with sandy going, up a nullah and then lororo g, shallow seek, through » kind of

down country with rocks for gras*, Into] another nullah, and so down among an interminable wash of ravines to tbe Gumal and Waziristan. The other was a stiff, but not steep, climb by way of the lowest hills into a wide plain crossed by ravines, and then by an in'ricue system of nullahs to the confluence of the Toi and Gumal, and so to Wano. At the end of the two hours' ride np the latter route, chosen because it was the shortest in distance, a sure indication was found. Taming a tall, ragged knee of a precipitous rock, a man was seen. making off up the mountain side. He bore a handsome jezail across hjls shoulders, and was dressed as if on a journey far from home. At the shouts of the party he turned and unslung Mb jezail, but a shot fired by a sowar induced him to ground arms; and then at a second hail from Waz'r Ehan ht came down to the party. He was instantly seized and disarmed. On inquiry be was found- to be a young Mahsud, who gave the name of "Mazdnri," till an application of stirrup leather to bis legs revealed an alias of " Bakhtawar." This being accepted as probable, he wai further qnes- [ tioned. His replies were evasive, to say the least. Daring the conversation four or live sowars had gone ahead, and found on the soft wet aide of a trickle of water a plain mark of a camel's foot. This damned the prisoner. He was decorated as to his neck with a collar of tough picketing rope; the slack end was made fast to a sowar's saddle, and he was bid run or bang. A sword-point at bis back ended all his hesitation. H-a ran, and nimbly, too, while the pursuers followed at a brisk trot, winding up the sandy bed of the nullab. A collection of camels' dung, hastily thrown into a email cranny of the rocks, close 'to the site of a sheepfold, removed all doubts. Tbe prisoner ran on foi nearly a mile more before he tripped and fail, cutting his left knee and arm badly. As he did so a shot fired from a rock on the mountain side, about 100 yds ahead, scattered sand and flints among the horses' legs. It was now quite certain that the rear-guard of the camel-lifters had been caught, and a hard gallop to head off the firer resulted in his capture within half an hour. He was not wounded, bat very tired. By way of emphasising the wishes of the party, this youth and Bikhtawar were both thrashed by Waztr Khan and Gurdit Singh, deprived of their arms, and pinioned. They were then sent back to the post under escort of five sowars, whose hones had shown signs of being done. As near as the offioer could judge, ten miles had now baen travelled, and there wa3 hops that if a hard push was made the camels might be caught before they entered tbe ravines. After that, as well look for a needle in a barrel of gunpowder with a lighted match. The danger was nearly as great. A rapid oounoil of war was held while the horses drank at the water and cropped a little of the sour herbage at its edge. Wbea all are ' of much the same mind, there is little need of words, and so in half an hour's time the pursuers, now ten in number, saddled and mounted, and were off at a canter. While crossing the rough and stony down-lika country a horsa fall and was badly hurt. This necessitated the sending, back of the injured horse, and three other sowars, whose horse 3 Beamed unlikely to last out the stern chase, which as all knew was bound to be a long one. This delay of ten minutes was not such a great loss after all ; for hardly had the pur-, suers started again than the keen eyes of Bakshan Khan saw a camel standing against the sky line, on the top of a mountain, about a mile ahead, as the crow flies. As he called attention to it another camel appeared, and then a man. Against the dear sky they looked gigantic. The camels seemed the most weird and diabolical creatures seen out of a draam, while the man appeared at least 10ft high, and of gigantic dimensions. A truly uncanny sight. In a moment more they dropped over tbe ridge. The point at whioh they appeared showed that they had changed their route a little, and that by a daring dash across a difficult and little-used sheep track tbe pursuers could drop into the plain of ravines before or at same time as the Wariris. The question was whether the horses conld survive that awful scramble and gallop afterwards. But blood wag np, and without a word they all tried for ifc. To get np to the top of the seek was not very difficult } but the descent 1 Faoilis. deseensus Avemi. But this was far otherwise. A yawning precipice of about 200 ft deep on the bridle band, and a path consisting entirely of boulders which goats might jump or a man scramble over on the very brink, was almost, too much for the horses. These gallant creatures had far weaker nerves than their riders, and, though each man dismounted and led his horse, walking in front with the bridle reins behind his back, the agony of fear made them sweat as the galloping had yet failed to* do. It was painful to see the fear-distended nostrils, the glaring eyas, and the tremble of every muscle in their hard-knit frames. The clash of the hoofs and the ominous elide as the hard iron bit the unrelentirg boulder made both man and horse thrill with absolute terror. It was simply awful. Nothing but the lust of blood, whan man hunts man — the greatest and most exciting hunt of all— conld have steeled the hearts of the pursuers. Nothing but the blind trust in company, which drives the war-horse into the deadly chai ge— the hideous companionship of perfect fear — could have enabled the horses to succeed in this awful enterprise. Their groans sent a cold shudder down the spines of the men. Tears started to Bakshan IjShan's eyes at the sgony of his beloved mare. Ha vented his feelings in curses, and bo did his white brothers. The passage did not last 20 minutes. It might have been 20 hours. All reached the plains safely. But the horses wera spent with terror. Tbe camels were seen not half a mile ahead making for the ravines as fast as blows could urge them. The Englishman pulled out his flask, and pouring a few drops on his handkerchief, wiped bis horse's nostrils. Then he mounted. Bakshan Khan breathed into his mare's nostrils, and .Gardit -Singh mounted and spurred. W*zir Khan, oalling aloud on Allah, mounted too. , At first a trot, feeble and uncertain ; then, as they felt good firm grouad, a gallop. The horses regained courage with pace. The camels neared the ravines as the pursuers raced hard for them. In that supremo moment tber* wa» nothing

known of raoe or creed or colonr. The Bilucb, Sikh, Pathan, and Englishman, each swearing indiscriminately at each other, raced for blood. Another three hundred yards. A camel's leading rope breaks, and the jaded brute stands still. A yell of joy from the pursuors. A couple of shots from the Waziris. Bakshan Kban pulls up, and is off his mare like a streak of lightning. A shot from his rifle hits the man who is striving to drive the camel on. The rest sweep on with a yell I Another two hundred yards to oross. They have them t No I They reach tbe brink of the first ravine to find nothing. In a way inconceivable except to an actual baholder, there remains only a solitary camel and a dying man bleedicg from a bullet wound in the back of the neck. The rest are as olean gone as if the earth had swallowed them up. It is hopeless to search those endless ravines. The horses wera quite done up. Eight hours' hard going across that dreadful oouatry at an average of five miles per hour made it far more desirable to make for home as quickly as possible. So they loaded the dead Mahsud on the camel, and, after resting a couple of hours, began to wend their weary way home by the easiest ways known. The horses found water and grass about nightfall, and the seven weary and hungry men forgot all differences of race and religion in considering their safety and relief in that dangerous dasert. Each man put his provisions out on a flat rock, and then, under cover of the dark, each went alone and took his share. Tbe Mu-<snlnaan drank from the English flask, the Sikh ate the Mussulman's cbupatties, the Englishman took and urnoked a pill of the blessed opium. Surely God sent that drug for man's solace in his hoar of utmost need. It was nearly noon next day when the pursuers returned to the post. After taking Bis hours' dead sleep It was time to attend to business. Habibullah had recognised^his camel, and also the dead man &s a man he had met on the road near Mir Ali Khel, who had said he was a coolie on the road. The great question no .v was how to get the remaining eight camels back. At the instigation of Bakshan Khan the following device was adopted. A rope was hung from one of the big beams supporting the roof of the gate, and Bakhtawar, mounted on a ghi-box, was placed with the nooaa round bis neck. In this position he was told before bis fellowprisoner that unless the camels returned safe and sound before the third sun set his corpse would be burned on the dunghills below the post. The other youth was then stripped to a garment doing duty for a shiit, sonndly flogged, and then honnded out of the post defenceless. It had previously been ascertained that tho two were cousin?, and that Bikhtawar was the son of a man having some influence. Ths dead man's corpse was not to be burned unless the camels failed to return. He was also an influential person— or had been. AU that now remained was to wait, and trust that the camels woald be restored. It was a game of brag. The young SJahsad bore himself with a calm indifference to his fate. He even pretended that he was a Ghazi, and as such oould not burn. One could not but admire his courage. None the less was ha carefully guurded under a Sikh guard, no Mussulman being allowed to approach him ; for the faith of Islam is the faith of Freemasons, ancl the oath of the Sikh is as strong as the sword that baptises him. 1 On the afternoon of the day that was to end Bakhrawar's life an old man came into the post. He was Baktawar'a father. Grey, broken-toothed, scara on his face and arms from countless fights), he looked lika a grim old boar. "To-morrow at sundown," said he, " you shall see eight camels come in. If not, hang and burn me with my only son I " After this he said no word. Respite was perforce granted, and the Ea£lish officer went to bed wondering how he was to get out of the Borape. If the game of brag failed; what was he to do? An hour before dawn the hand of the Afridi jemadar was laid on his face, and the voice said, " Let go tbe wild goats, for I go out bunting, and will not return till I bring the horse 1 " "I am not afraid," was the reply, " go not till the second dawn I " and the jemadar retired as softly as he came. It was late afternoon, and the enn all bat touched the western mountain orest when they took the old man and his son and put nooses on their neoks, and their feet on the boxes, with a horse harnessed to each rope. Lswer and lower sank the sun. Half the disc had gone when a camel turned the corner of the rockj road below the post. iTast as the sun set the eight camels stood inside the post, with two stout, grinning Mashsude In charge. The men so suddenly released from death evinced no feelings of any sorb. The only sign of relief they gave was a ready acquiescence in the confiscation of their arms, and the handonffing of all four Mahnuda till next day, when they were escorted across tho river and set free. In the evening the jemadar returning from shooting. Ha said, " I shot two wild goat?, but they were without horns; and the sahib wants horns. What oan I show ? " ' And he laughed a Satanic laugh. So did B^kshan Khan. — Pall Mall Gazette.