r the vultures,' was the reply. 'He was no son
of Mustafa Khan, just a low-born hireling schemer, and it needed only a
prod of the dagger to make him betray the whole plot, and whine for the
mercy which I would have scorned myself to bestow. The two skilled
sappers are still mining--under my directions this time. We shall make a
feint of a sally to-morrow morning at the hour prearranged by Mustafa
Khan with the tribesmen outside. But it is the sabat and its occupants
that will be blown into the sky, and not my good stout walls'--this last
with the old familiar smile, stern but pleasant to look upon.

"'And the girl who sang?' I ventured, falteringly.

"'She is safe in the protection of my home. On her rests no blame, for
in the part she played she was but obeying her father's bidding. Now,
that is all for the present. Keep your own counsel, and be with me
to-morrow at the dawn.'

"And with the dawn came the swarm of Mustafa Khan's clansmen, running
eagerly toward the opened gateway of the fort, with their fellow
conspirators shouting and shooting and waving their swords in pretended
pursuit. But just within the entrance were ranged a dozen guns and
arquebuses on swivels, loaded to their muzzles with slugs of iron. And
almost at the same moment as the rain of death mowed down the onrushing
horde, a great explosion shook the earth outside, and the fragments of a
hundred bodies blown from the sabat by our countermine filled the air.
Then indeed did our men-at-arms, footmen and horsemen, sally forth to
pursue with sword and spear their scattered and dismayed enemies,
sending scores to their deaths and the survivors scampering to their
dens among the mountains.

"And none ever again dared to attack my grandsire, The Tiger of the
Pathans."

* * * * *

With a proud smile the Afghan surveyed his audience. No one ventured to
question him, yet there was a look of unsatisfied curiosity on more than
one face.

"Oh, yes," laughed the soldier, lightly, "I heard the fair zither player
and singer again--often again--in my own home."

VII. HER MOTHER LOVE

TOLD BY THE PHYSICIAN

By general although unspoken assent, the eyes of all the company were
now directed to the venerable hakeem, as if to invite from him the next
contribution to the night's entertainment. Meditatively for a moment the
man of medicine stroked the broad white beard that descended almost to
his girdle, and then began