Chapter 9 Summary

The hanging man, Yakub Beg, cries out and moans and pants as Flashy without thinking takes up his weight. Flashy says he is not Russian, but an English POW who speaks Persian. Beg sees providence in Flashy's coming, which cannot appreciate - wondering why he does not let this "Asiatic nigger" simply dangle, rather than break his own back. As Khan of Khokand and guardian of the White Mosque, Yakub greets Flashy as a guest. When Izzat Kutebar comes to, Yakub introduces him. A might swordsman once, old Kutebar had been hanging in chains when Yakub is captured. Only because he has served long in Afghanistan does Flashy realize these are not madmen by the way they revile one another with irony and formal imagery native to Persian and Pushtu. Kutebar trusts no one to rescue them as Yakub anticipates. At nighttime, Yakub...