her lord herself, and offered it to him
on bended knees.

I could not see her face, for her back was toward me and she had
her shawl over her head; but I thought of that little vial of
croton oil Narayan Singh had given her instead of poison, and the
Sikh caught my eye meaningly.

Ali Higg was pleased to condescend. He took the bowl in both
hands, muttered a blessing, and drank deep, swallowing about half
the stuff before he noticed its strange flavor. Then he flung the
priceless bowl away from him, smashing it to atoms, and picked up
his rifle to take an aim at Ayisha.

"By Allah, the bint* has poisoned me!"

---------
* Literally girl; about as respectful as the word "skirt" would
be if used of one's wife.
---------

She screamed and ran. He fired, but she was already past the
corner, and the bullet grazed the rock. Moreover, croton oil is a
drastic cathartic, and waits on no man's convenience. He dropped
the rifle, groaned--and I would rather not set down quite all
the rest.

Sufficient that it gave Narayan Singh and me our opportunity. It
made him too weak to resist, and we took care of him. I let him
go on believing he was poisoned, and gave him harmless doses that
he presently believed had saved his life; so that even the
tyrannical fanatic felt a kind of gratitude.

Held like a baby in the Sikh's enormous arms with no less than
half a dozen terrified women looking on--for they had all run one
way while Ayisha ran the other--he slowly recovered control of
his emotions, while the women loudly praised my medicinal skill.

And since I knew almost nothing at all of medicine, and therefore
could say anything I chose without feeling guilty--like the
fellow on a soapbox who harangues a crowd on politics--I told him
he must have the boils lanced there and then, or otherwise the
poison might get to them and inflame them beyond all hope.

I suppose the men who had met us at the corner of the great
flight of steps did not come and interrupt because they had had
enough of his temper for one morning and did not choose to sample
it again uninvited. The rifle-shot did not bring them, because it
was nothing new for him to vent displeasure by shooting at folk;
and if there were a corpse, and it had not fallen over the cliff
or been kicked over, they would come and remove it when ordered,
but certainly not sooner.

Ali Higg has strength enough left to assure me that if I killed
him he would wait for me in the next