The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-22

Mrs. khel Malik became Mrs Mir
Khan almost at once. They lived hap
PLY as turtle doves, having inherited
all the property of the old man, as
well as the dover which Khel Malik
had furnished in swap for the lady, not
TO mention all his other property be-
sides. There were other heirs, but Mir
khan's possession of the Snder rifle
nonsuited them at once. No doubt Mir
Khan and his wife, surveying each
other, and the cows and the gun, often
reflected with pleasure on that good
shot.
In the course of year young Mir
Khan was born. He was made the oc.
casion for great rejoicing, for an Afri-
oil knows no pride greater than that
OF having lusty male heir to succeed
him honorably in the business of TAX
ing long shots at English soldiers, OF
carving an enemy into sections with
the family knife, and of painfully and
carefully acquiring horses on one side
of the border to sell on the other side.
This particular heir promised to be.
come as vindictive and ugly a heather
hillman as any good father could wish,
and great were the compliments show.
cred on the couple. Among the con-
CALCULATIONS was Mir Khans younger
brother. He, too, had been a sutton
for the charming Athira- now more
charming than ever. He thought things
over and the result of his reflections
became apparent six months later
when, in fraternal jest, he tickled Mir
khan's ribs so amusingly with the
bone handled knife that Athira became
a widow.
The head men of the village did not
object strenuously. The collections of
blood money from the various persons
who wooed the lady so stormily were
nd ~,t
ply paid whatever assessment was
levied on him for the killing, out of the
killed mans wealth. Then there were
the wedding feasts and the payments
to the priests. Taking it all in all, the
village was entirely content to let each
of Athira's old suitors marry her on
the same terms. But none of the out
side suitors cared to interfere. The
SMalik clan more than limited that
Athira was to remain in their family
exclusively, and that, whatever private
family differences might exist between
them, they all would rally to each other
and stand united and firm with the
Snider and with knives against any ag-
gression by others.
Now Mir Khan's younger brother,
Athira's third husband, was wiser than
the rest had been. He realized strong
ly what a tactical advantage that Sni-
der was. and he never moved abroad
without it. Always before he made his
exit from his door he would peer out
carefully, with the Snider held in read
mess to demonstrate against any inter-
ference with his domestic bliss.
Particularly did he look out for
possible call from his cousin. Pandai
Zakia Khel Malik, who, besides hap
pening to be the son of Athira's first
husband by a former marriage, also
had been a sutton. Pandai Zakla Khel
Malik was not clear in his mind as to
which of these two important facts
was the more concerned in making it
his sacred duty to kill somebody, but
of the necessity for such a killing he
was entirely certain.
There would have been no delay
whatever in fulfilling this obligation if
it had not been for the Snider. AS it
was, Malik the younger had to wait
He waited patiently. An Afridi tribes
man who will lie for twenty hours in
white hot sand, in order to have one
exceedingly long shot at a British col
umn can afford to wait for such a prize
as Athira and her fortune, even though
the latter had become somewhat dim
inished by the various drains on it.
Then there came another Interruption
in the shape of a holy war against the
British. A dirty. half-naked fakir, find
ing collection of biackmail and gratui-
ties alike slow in the valley country,
crossed his eyes for few days until
his brain swan, danced around like a
teetotum till he was in a fair condi-
ton of drunkenness, and then, being
in good form, began to preach war
of determination.
"Hya! Hya!" he cried through the
mountain villages, that hang on the
| mountains like particularly good spec
| linens of birds nests. up, brave broth
ers! 1t is written that you shall pre-
vail" The mighty, black-haired, wick
ed-faced sons of the Benz Israel did not
need much coaxing. In twenty-four
hours all that hopeless wilderness of
| hurled rocks and tumbled cragS was
alive with war. The signal fires fam
| ed from peak to peak of the mountains
| that guard the Indus river Every bare,
stony lige gorge held the men
with the long knives-the terrible At
| ridi slicing knives that can cut a man
clean in two from the top of his skull
to his waist, cleaving through helmet
and padded coat, bone and sinew, as
if they were shearing through paper.
When the tribes are up" blood feuds
are suspended by unwritten but bind
ing law. So far almost a year, during
which the Afridls played the parts of
|
ling in their mountain Businesses, now
bursting out of ambush and cutting up
| some weak British force, Athira's nus
| band and the person who desired 10
succeed him in the usual way, fought
side by side. But when the machine
| guns finally-as the British machine
| guns usually do in the end-go some
where on the side of a mountain, with
the Afridis penned nicely below, and
began to shoot swiftly and with ex-
| cellent aim, the Afridi uprising was
| over at once. And those who had es-
caped the guns and the nasty iances
that waited at the opening of the val
lev went home by secret ways and were
good Afridis again, with their weapons
snugly hidden away.
In his fear of the evil and sharp eyed
British, who would be sure to come
nosing around the villages after arms
Athira's husband for once did not dare
To carry his Snider rifle openly. lie
hurled it behind his house. And Pan
dai Zakla Khel Malik, who had taken
nm his little private feud on the very
instant that the machine guns mad END
ed the other feud, saw 1t, for ne mao
crept I'D to the house to spy out the
land. having tired of waiting With thf
Snider thus delivered over to him. tine
rest was simplicity itself. He lay down
snugly in the high grass on little NIL
behind the house, and when his riVa
and cousin appeared in the morning
one good, steady shot made Athira