Page:The Phantom 'Rickshaw - Kipling (1890).djvu/87

 -house whose goods had been feloniously diverted into the hands of other robbers just across the Border, and whose misfortunes were the laughing-stock of the bazar. Ohe, mullah, whence come you and whither do you go?"

"From Bourn have I come," shouted the mullah, waving his whirligig; "from Roum, blown by the breath of a hundred devils across the sea! Oh, thieves, robbers, liars, the blessing of Pir Khan on pigs, dogs and perjurers! Who will take the Protected of God to the North to sell charms that are never still to the Amir? The camels shall not gall, the sons shall not fall sick, and the wives shall remain faithful while they are away, of the men who give me place in their caravan. Who will assist me to slipper the King of the Roos with a golden slipper with a silver heel? The protection of Pir Khan be upon his labours!" He spread out the skirts of his gaberdine arid pirouetted between the lines of tethered horses.

"There starts a caravan from Peshawar to Kabul in twenty days, holy father," said the Eusufzai trader. My camels go therewith. Do thou also go and bring us good luck."

"I will go even now" shouted the mullah. "I will depart on my winged camels, and be at Peshawar in a day! Ho! Hazar Mir Khan," he yelled to his servant; "drive out the camels, but let me first mount my own."

He leaped on the back of his beast as it knelt, and turning round to me cried: "Come thou also, Sahib, a little along the road, and I will sell thee a charm an amulet that shall make thee King of Kafiristan."

Then the light broke upon me, and I followed the two camels out of the Serai till we reached open road and the mullah halted.

"What d'you think o' that?" said he in English. "Carnehan can't talk their patter, so I've made him my servant. 'He makes a handsome servant. 'Tisn't for nothing that I've been knocking about the country for fourteen years. Didn't I do that talk neat? We'll hitch on to a caravan at Peshawar till we get to Jagdallak, and then we'll see if we can get