We were off our horses in an instant, and ran up: Kumal Khan was groaning beneath it. We lifted it up and got him out; but he was either so frightened or hurt he could not speak. At last he recovered; and the first words he uttered were a volley of abuse at the driver.
"Look!" cried he; "a smooth road, not a stone or a pebble, and yet that son of a base mother must needs drive up yonder bank, and has nearly killed me."
"He shall be well punished for his carelessness," said I; "but are you hurt, Khan?"
"My right arm is very painful," said he, holding it; "and I wish to Alla I had a horse to ride, instead of going further in that concern."
"It cannot now be helped," said Bhudrinath; "and it is well none of your bones were broken. We will keep nearer you in future, and see that the fellow drives more carefully."
The cart had been by this time set fairly in the road again, and Kumal Khan's mattress and pillow arranged. As he turned away from us, and laid hold of one of the posts of the curtains, and had his foot on the wheel to get in, I threw the handkerchief round his neck. "What—what is this?" was all that escaped him; the rest was an indistinct gurgling in his throat for an instant. The wrench I gave to his neck must have extinguished life, for he relaxed his hold of the post, and fell to the ground without sense or motion.
"Neatly and cleverly done," cried Bhudrinath; "I could not have managed it better myself; you see he does not stir—he is dead enough. Now, Meer Sahib, believe that a man can be killed before he touches the ground."
"I must see you do it," said I; "this fellow held on by the cart for some moments. But come," I added to the men, "lift the body into the cart, we have no time to lose." They bundled it in, and we set off as rapidly as the bullocks could trot.
"What if he should revive with this jolting?" said I to Bhudrinath.
"Never fear," he replied; "if he does, he will only have to be killed over again; but depend upon it he is dead enough: no man ever survived the wrench you gave him—his neck is broken. The old Gooroo has taught you well, I see plainly."