Produced by M.R.J.
THE EYE OF ZEITOON
By Talbot Mundy
Author of Rung Ho, King—of the Khyber Rifles, Hira Singh,
The Ivory Trail, etc.
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I Parthians, Medes and Elamites ………………………… 1
II "How did sunshine get into the garden? By whose leave came
the wind?" ………………………………………. 21
III "Sahib, there is always work for real soldiers!" ……… 40
IV "We are the robbers, effendi!" ………………………. 52
V "Effendi, that is the heart of Armenia burning!" ……….. 74
VI "Passing the buck to Allah!" ……………………….. 91
VII "We hold you to your word!" ………………………… 118
VIII "I go with that man!" …………………………….. 128
IX "And you left your friend to help me?" ………………. 142
X "When I fire this pistol—" ………………………….. 163
XI "That man's dose is death, and he dies unshriven!" ……. 176
XII "America's way with a woman is beyond belief!" ………. 195
XIII "'Take your squadron and go find him, Rustum Khan!'
And I, sahib, obeyed my lord bahadur's orders." ……… 211
XIV "Rajput, I shall hang you if you make more trouble!"…… 229
XV "Scenery to burst the heart!" ……………………….. 243
XVI "What care I for my belly, sahib, if you break my heart?" 257
XVII "I knew what to expect of the women!" ……………… 277
XVIII "Per terram et aquam" ……………………………. 290
XIX "Such drilling as they have had—such little drilling!" .. 303
XX "So few against so many! I see death, and I am not sorry!" 316
XXI "Those who survive this night shall have brave memories!". 333
XXII "God go with you to the States, effendim!" ………….. 349
Chapter One Parthians, Medes and Elamites
SALVETE!
Oh ye, who tread the trodden path
And keep the narrow law
In famished faith that Judgment Day
Shall blast your sluggard mists away
And show what Moses saw!
Oh thralls of subdivided time,
Hours Measureless I sing
That own swift ways to wider scenes,
New-plucked from heights where Vision preens
A white, unwearied wing!
No creed I preach to bend dull thought
To see what I shall show,
Nor can ye buy with treasured gold
The key to these Hours that unfold
New tales no teachers know.
Ye'll need no leave o' the laws o' man,
For Vision's wings are free;
The swift Unmeasured Hours are kind
And ye shall leave all cares behind
If ye will come with me!
In vain shall lumps of fashioned stuff
Imprison you about;
In vain let pundits preach the flesh
And feebling limits that enmesh
Your goings in and out,
I know the way the zephyrs took
Who brought the breath of spring,
I guide to shores of regions blest
Where white, uncaught Ideas nest
And Thought is strong o' wing!
Within the Hours that I unlock
All customed fetters fall;
The chains of drudgery release;
Set limits fade; horizons cease
For you who hear the call
No trumpet note—no roll of drums,
But quiet, sure and sweet—
The self-same voice that summoned Drake,
The whisper for whose siren sake
They manned the Devon fleet,
More lawless than the gray gull's wait,
More boundless than the sea,
More subtle than the softest wind!