“His shrieks delighted my soul.

“‘’Tis a marvellous mystery to me,’ sighed my brother.  ’He knows how innocent and healing are these waters and yet he refuses them.  He saw me use them on my own eyes—­and surely the medicine is unchanged?’ And he balanced the bottle sideways above the face of his enemy and allowed the devilish acid to well up and impend upon the very edge of the neck of the bottle, as he murmured:  ’But a single drop for each eye!  More I cannot spare—­to-day.  Perchance a drop for each ear to-morrow, and one for his tongue on the next day—­if his madness spare him to us for so long.’

“Then, as Ibrahim, foaming, shrieked curses and cried aloud to Allah and Mohammed his Prophet, he said:  ’Nay, this is ingratitude.  He shall not have them to-day at all, but shall endure without them till sunrise to-morrow.  Take him yonder, and lay him on that flat rock, bareheaded in the sun, that his tears may be dried for him.’ ...

“Yea!  I found no fault with my brother then, Sahib.

“He was a master in his revenge.  And the durbar murmured its applause, and praised and thanked my brother.  Not one of them but had suffered at the hands of Mahmud Shahbaz, his father, the Vizier, or at the insolent hands of this his own son....  Then Mir Jan called to Moussa Isa, his body-servant, and said unto him:—­

“’Hear, Moussa Isa, and make no tiny error if thou wouldst see to-morrow’s sun and go to Paradise anon.  Feed that carrion well and pretend to be filled with the pity that is the child of avarice.  Ask what he will give thee to help him to escape.  Affect to haggle long, and speak much of the difficulties and dangers of the deed.  At length agree to put him on my fast camel this night at moon-rise, if thou art left as his guard and we are wrapt in slumber.  Play thy part well, and show thy remorse at cheating thy master—­even for a lakh[35] of rupees—­yea, and show fear of what will happen to thee, and pretend distrust of him.  At length succumb again, and as the moon just shows above the mountains untie his bonds and do thus and thus—­’ and he whispered instructions while a light shone in the eyes of Moussa Isa, the Somali, and a smile played about his mouth.

  [35] One hundred thousand.

“And Mir Jan told the matter that night to all and gave instructions.

“Moussa Isa meanwhile did everything as he was bid and, while we ate, he carried his own food to the Weeper, as though secretly.

“Long and merrily we feasted, pretending to drink to excess of the forbidden sharab, singing and behaving like toddy-laden coolies, and in time we staggered to our carpets, put on our poshteens,[36] pulled rugs over our heads and slept—­not.

  [36] Warm sheep-skin coats.