CHAPTER XXXV.
The detection of his long concealed and successful peculations was a thunderbolt to the Jemadar. The Khan refused to see him, or to hear any exculpation he had to urge; and then, knowing the influence Kasim Ali possessed with his commander, he sought him, and implored him to use his influence with the Khan for pardon and for silence on the subject; he became abject, he even threw himself at the young man’s feet, and when these failed, offered him a bribe to accede to his terms. It wanted but this to excite Kasim Ali’s full indignation: he had despised the man for his meanness, but the insult aroused him, and he spurned the offer fiercely.
‘Cheat and rogue!’ he cried, ‘many a man is whipped through the bazaars for less than this. Inshalla! I shall live to see this done upon thee. I have not forgotten thee, and thou art too well known in the army for any good men to feel regret at thy fate. Men say that thou art a devil, and not a man. By Alla I believe them. Begone! wert thou the Sultaun’s son I would spurn thee.’
There was no one near, and the Jemadar eyed Kasim as the thought flashed into his mind that a thrust of his sword or dagger would silence him for ever, and that without his aid the Khan would easily be persuaded to drop the prosecution. Kasim was weak too, and might easily be overcome, and his hand stole to his sword-hilt; but the string which secured it to the scabbard was fast, and he could not draw it; with a muttered curse he clutched a long knife he wore in his girdle, and, on pretence of repeating his request, advanced a step; his eye glistened like that of a tiger about to spring; another moment might have been fatal to Kasim Ali, but he saw the action, and instantly seizing his sword which lay before him he started to his feet.
‘I see thy cowardly intention, Jemadar,’ he said; ‘as yet, I will not draw this weapon, which would be polluted by a coward’s blood; but advance one step, and by Alla and the Apostle thou mayest say the Kulma, for thou diest. Begone! in the name of the Prophet, and seek not thine own death.’
The coward attempted to stammer out an excuse, to protest that he had been misunderstood; but he could say nothing intelligible, and he slunk away defeated and mortified, with deadly hate rankling at his heart and urging him to revenge.
‘That I should have been foiled by that boy!’ he said aloud as he quitted the house; ‘that I should have been destined to devour such abomination! that I, Jaffar Sahib, should have been thus trampled upon! Ya Ali! ya Hoosein! grant me power of revenge. Yea, his blood will hardly wipe out the insult I have suffered. Yes, tell him so,’ he cried to a woman who he thought watched him; ‘tell him so—tell him Jaffar Sahib curses him, and, as there is a light in heaven, will have his revenge for what has happened.’
‘Jaffar Sahib!’ cried the woman, rushing forward; ‘thou canst not be he? thou canst not be he whom I thought dead years ago?’
‘Begone! I know thee not; thou art one of his followers, and I curse thee;’ and flinging her off, for she had clung to his arm, so violently that she stumbled against a stone and fell, he strode on at a rapid pace.
She arose slowly, and looked after him as he hurried on. ‘Holy Prophet!’ she said, as she brushed away the dust and her loose hair from her eyes, ‘it must be he; his look when he was excited, his very tones, his name too, all are his. Jaffar Sahib! that name hath not sounded in mine ears since we met last, when the bright moon was above us, and the trees casting their deep shade over us veiled that from her prying glare which even now shames me to remember. Holy Alla! he did not remember Sozun! how should he? Years have passed since we were young, and they have not been without effect; and to meet thus, when I had thought him dead long, long ago, and mourned him in my heart! Ya Alla! what destiny is this before me? Be it what it may,’ she continued, walking a few paces, ‘I will see him, and he shall know that Sozun still lives.’