An amlusb
Somewhere farther south in those hills, an ambush was
lying in wait for Shah Riza and me, if we had only known
it. The buried treasure, acting according to precedent, had
inspired the wicked vizier to send six men after us to " prevent
my return." They expected this to take place by the same
route of our going, so that the police interference, and
consequent change of plans, had something to be said
for it. Until I reached Baghdad, however, I was ignorant
of all these excitements, and rode on feeling neither more
nor less safe amid the four policemen, than I had felt with
Shah Riza and the muleteer alone.
The Gangir Valley
We came to Bani Chinar in the last light of the day, and
looked down into a bowl among the hills filled with inaize-
and rice-fields, and the damp exhalations of the evening.
The river flowed there under tufted clumps of reeds taller
than a man on horseback, and the tents were above on bare
ground opposite. We had to get across. An old peasant,
pottering about with a spade, pointed vaguely towards a
ford, but refused to guide us. " Father of a dog/* they
shouted to him, and all four policemen launched one argu-
ment in turn, growing more emphatic as the effect seemed
to be less impressive. At last the old man moved. We
crossed the stream. It flowed nearly up to the horses' bellies
in a cool atmosphere of its own. Mint and Michaelmas
daisies grew among the willows and white-plumed reeds,
and a moorhen swam into the shadows of the branches,
leaving circles on the water behind her.
From the five tents of the camp one looked across the
bowl to the other rim of hills; the sky above wras pale and
clear with one pink cloud: the evening cool and gentle,
swimming softly into moonlight. This was our last stage