The Hidden Treasure
gazelles. Sa'id Ja'far and the policeman shouted to me: I
hurried up to them, dismounted, snatched the extra weight of
the water-skin off the saddle, while the policeman leaped into
it and pursued over the long grassy shoulder of the mountain.
Husein went running after: the other two stood by me,
watching them out of sight.
They were away for over forty minutes, and a beautiful
peace, an unbroken solitude, lay around us again. I began
to fear that our policeman had been killed. Sa'id Ja'far
thought not. The fugitives, he considered, were amateurs.
Professional bandits, he said, wore white, which made them
inconspicuous in the rocks: but quite a number of honest
tribesmen might turn to a bit of robbery on a track as lonely
and as notorious as this, especially now when they would
hardly ever meet an armed opponent. One need never fear a
sudden attack in force, Sa'id Ja'far explained. What happens
is, that as you ascend towards the pass one man will step out
as this man did from some gully, and ask you to allow yourself
to be looted. If you comply, you can go on, denuded but
not molested. If you resist, the robber will turn and usually
get away in the rough ground. You and your caravan will
continue in apparent safety until you reach the pass: this is
usually a narrow passage between rocks: and here an enfilading
fire from either side will make an end of you and your
obstinacy.
Sa'id Ja'far had just finished his exposition of the technique
of the national pastime in Luristan, when two wayfarers
appeared, coming towards us along the lonely level of the
track. One was an oldish, the other a young, man, and both
had the heavy-headed metal stave in their hand. Sa'id Ja'far
and Ali went to meet them before they came too close to me.
It was amusing to watch the approach, for each side evidently
had the blackest suspicions of die other. From a safe distance
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