"Halil Khan was a brave man as well as a great leader," I replied. "You are going to give him a soldier's funeral. You surely have no wish to treat him in the same terrible way that your men were treated?"
He urged his point of view with such heat that I at last grew angry and asked him by what right he demanded Halil Khan's body, and to answer me as to who had killed him.
"You did, Sahib," he replied, eyeing me curiously.
"Exactly," I said with decision. "Then to whom does the body belong—to you or to me?"
This seemed rather to appeal to him, for he replied with greater calm:
"To you, Sahib, I suppose."
"I suppose so too, and I am going to do what I like with it. Go at once to Gusht, buy a new winding sheet, and we will give Halil Khan a soldier's burial; one befitting his brave deeds and position. Bring in all the mullahs (priests) you can find in Gusht. Oh, and, by the way, you can pay for the winding sheet for wasting so much of my time in argument."
So we accorded Halil Khan a really fine soldier's funeral. Nor was this without results, for we learned, later, that it had made a great and favourable impression throughout the Sarhad.