White hands cling to the tightened rein, Slipping the spur from the booted heel, Tenderest voices cry, 'Turn again,' Red lips tarnish the scabbarded steel, High hopes faint on a warm hearth-stone-- He travels the fastest who travels alone. One may fall but he falls by himself-- Falls by himself with himself to blame; One may attain and to him is the pelf, Loot of the city in Gold of Fame; Plunder of earth shall be all his own Who travels the fastest and travels alone. Wherefore the more ye be holpen and stayed-- Stayed by a friend in the hour of toil, Sing the heretical song I have made-- His be the labour and yours be the spoil. Win by his aid and the aid of disown-- He travels the fastest who travels alone. DRAY WARA YOW DEE For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.--_Prov._ vi. 34. Almonds and raisins, Sahib? Grapes from Kabul? Or a pony of the rarest if the Sahib will only come with me. He is thirteen three, Sahib, plays polo, goes in a cart, carries a lady and--Holy Kurshed and the Blessed Imams, it is the Sahib himself! My heart is made fat and my eye glad. May you never be tired! As is cold water in the Tirah, so is the sight of a friend in a far place. And what do _you_ in this accursed land? South of Delhi, Sahib, you know the saying--'Rats are the men and trulls the women.' It was an order? Ahoo! An order is an order till one is strong enough to disobey. O my brother, O my friend, we have met in an auspicious hour! Is all well in the heart and the body and the house? In a lucky day have we two come together again. I am to go with you? Your favour is great. Will there be picket-room in the compound? I have three horses and the bundles and the horse-boy. Moreover, remember that the police here hold me a horse-thief. What do these Lowland bastards know of horse-thieves? Do you remember that time in Peshawur when Kamal hammered on the gates of Jumrud--mountebank that he was--and lifted the Colonel's horses all in one night? Kamal is dead now, but his nephew has taken up the matter, and there will be more horses amissing if the Khaiber Levies do not look to it. The Peace of God and the favour of His Prophet be upon this house and all that is in it! Shafizullah, rope the mottled mare under the tree and draw water. The horses can stand in the sun, but double the felts over the loins. Nay, my friend, do not trouble to look them over. They are to sell to the Officer fools who know so many tilings of the horse. The mare is heavy in foal; the gray is a devil unlicked; and the dun--but you know the trick of the peg. When they are sold I go back to Pubbi, or, it may be, the Valley of Peshawur.