Two travellers
they called a greeting; then gingerly drew near, sticks held
ready. They asked each other the names of their tribes,
and where they were travelling. As the explanations appeared
satisfactory, die grip on the sticks relaxed, die distance became
less carefully maintained, and I was allowed to draw into the
radius of conversation.
The two travellers said that they had seen the men who
caused all the commotion. They were not robbers at all.
They were Hindimini tribesmen.
" Why did they leap out at us from the rocks?*' said I.
The party seemed to think this quite natural.
" Either they thought we were robbers, and wanted to be
in the best position to begin with," said Sa'id Ja'far, " or they
may have hoped that we were unarmed, and then of course
they might have robbed us whether they were robbers or no."
" It just shows," said I, " that when one goes about with a
policeman one can always find somebody to shoot. How
lucky to have missed the man."
" Well," said Sa'id Ja'far, " it was his fault. He ought to
have stopped when he saw a policeman, and not made him
gallop like this for miles. Here they come back."
The policeman was trotting towards us, with Husein jogging
at his stirrup leather, and the old mare tossing her mane as if
she felt that it had been a holiday.
He was very cross with the-Hindimini, They had made
him gallop half-way over the hill before he rode them down,
and then they had turned out to be most disappointingly
respectable quiet people.
" And the Naib (lieutenant), will think that I wasted a
cartridge for nothing," he added.
" Never mind," said I, " it was an excellent tamasha."
On this we were all agreed, and set off again in the best of
spirits on our delayed expedition.