Page:Talbot Mundy - Eye of Zeitoon.djvu/105



So now the awaited ripe reward—

Your cactus crown! Since I have urged

"Get ready for the untoward"

Ye bid me reap the wrath I dirged;

And I must show the darkened way,

Who beckoned vainly in the light!

I'll lead. But salt of Dead Sea spray

Were sweeter on my lips to-night!

Oh, days of aching sinews, when I trod the choking dust

With feet afire that could not tire, atremble with the trust

More mighty in my inner man than fear of men without.

The word I heard on Kara Dagh and did not dare to doubt—

Timely warning, clear to me as starlight after rain

When, sleepless on eternal hills, I saw the purpose plain

And left, swift-foot at dawn, obedient, to break

The news ye said was no avail—advice ye would not take!

Oh, nights of tireless talking by the hearth of hidden fires—

On roofs, behind the trade-bales—among oxen in the byres—

Out in rain between the godowns, where the splashing puddles warn

Of tiptoeing informers; when I faced the freezing dawn

With set price on my head, but still the set resolve untamed,

Not melted by the mockery, by no suspicion showed,

To hide by day in holes, abiding dark and wind and rain

That loosed me straining to the task ye ridiculed again!

Oh, weeks of empty waiting, while the enemy designed

In detail how to loot the stuff ye would not leave behind!

Worse weeks of empty agony when, helpless and alone,

I watched in hiding for the crops from that seed I had sown;