"There are your men, seize them!" cried I, throwing myself upon Ganesha with such violence that we fell to the ground together, struggling with deadly hate; but two of the Nujeebs came to my aid, just as Ganesha had succeeded in drawing a small dagger he wore in his girdle, and as I had fortunately seized his hand.
"Bind him hand and foot," said I, disengaging myself from him, "and gag him, or he may alarm the village by his cries." This was done, and he was disarmed; a cloth was tied round his mouth so that he could not speak, and we hurried our prisoners along as fast as the darkness and the roughness of the road would allow.
None of us spoke, nor was it till the day had fully dawned that I looked upon Ganesha; then our eyes met, and the furious expression of his face I shall never forget. "Take the gag from his mouth," said I to one of the Nujeebs! "let him speak if he wishes." It was done.
"You are revenged at last, Ameer Ali," he said; "may my curses cleave to you for ever, and the curses of Bhowanee fall on you for the destruction of her votary! May the salt you eat be bitter in your mouth, and your food poison to you!"
"Ameen!" said I; "you have spoken like Ganesha. I am indeed revenged, but the debt is not paid yet—the debt you owe me for my mother's life. Devil! you murdered her."
"Ay, and would have murdered you, when you were a weak puling child, but for that fool Ismail, he met his fate, however, and yours is yet in store for you."
"You will not see it," said I; "and when I behold you hung up like a dog I shall be happy."
"Peace!" exclaimed the leader of the Nujeebs; "why do you waste words on him, Ameer Ali?"
"Because I am glutting my soul with his sufferings," I answered; "and, had I my will, I would stand by and taunt him till the hour of his death. Did he not murder my mother? and, if he had not, should I have murdered my sister? Have I not cause for deep and deadly hate? Yet I will be silent now."