The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-01-29
J. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.,
| THE !, ], =. ! s'er, |
! EXILE |! } ( II ) ) g.; ssi.'. :; MATED
BY CALDWELL LIPsErT
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expect you speak the sahib
who steals my window curtains.
When traveller come, no curtains
my windows, and I very much
shame. If you, great burra sahib.
not wishfspeak, what can do ?"
Having entirely exhausted the re-
sources Of His English vocabulary
the dal1 bungalow khansamah paus-
ed for breath and to see what effect
the extent and variety of his ao-
quaintance with our tongue would
have upon me. The speech, how
ever, ,was G mere fash in the pan,
carefully committed to memory for
the occasion, and I had to have re-
course to the yernacular to learn the
history of his woes. It appeared
that there was an old sahib, very
old sahib, who lived in a house in
the woods close by, and whenever
the khansanah put up new curtains
he came and took them away, and
if the khansamah tried to prevent
him he got beaten, for he was q
very fierce old man and had been q
great bahadur in his day.
"What did the man want the cur
tains for?"
''For clothes"
GLOW long had he lived in the
woods?"
ooh, q very long time; perhaps a,
hundred years"
That was all that I could learn
about the matter. I told the khan
samah to lock up the curtains in
future and only to bring them out
when some traveller was in the
bungalow. I would speak to the sa-
hib about it when I saw him, and
then I straightway forgot the whole
episode.
It was two or three mornings aft
erward that I was out for stroll in
the woods soon after sunrise. It
was late autumn. and here in the
temperate Kulu valley the fierce In
dian, sun does not reach its full in
tensity. There was crisp fresh
ness in the air almost like an Eng
lish morning, and after the bare,
brown, sun stepped plains Of the
Punjab, from which I had lately
come, the lush green of the under
growth was cool and refreshing to
the eye. The large rosy checked
Kulu apples. cleaned through the
branches of the orchards. But for
the bite already letent in the slant
ing rays of the sun I might have
been in Devonshire.
Presently I was aware of curl
GUS figure approaching me. 1t was
a tall old man with bent shoulders
and long white hair falling about
the collar of his coat. His clothes,
though neatly made, were of q cheap
white calico SO largely in use among
the natives, and his shoes were Of
untanned cowhide. His hat was
of plated straw. Everything about
him was evidently homemade ex-
cept one thing round his waist
was wound a red cummerbund,
which gave him the air of stage
brigand of venerable aspect.
"Ha, sir," said he, following the
direction of my gaze as he came
near, 'the scarlet, the grand old
scarlet! 1t reminds me of the good
old days when r wore her majesty's
uniform in the Crimea before ever I
came to this country" AS looked
closer / recognized the pattern cf
the red rep Of the curtains in the
dak bungalow. This was the khan
samah's enemy.
I thought the scarlet might be a
tender subject, so I spoke Of other
things. 1t appeared that he was
specially interested in the mineral
wealth of the valley.
eeThege is gold in those hills" he
said. 'There is gold at the sources
OF this stream which flows beside
our feet. But have not the means
to reach its fastnesses nor the ma
chinery to pluck it from the bowels
of the earth.
As he talked had leisure to OBJ
serve him more closely. In land
where the fierce heat of the sun
dries up the marrow of2a mans Vi
tality and shortens his life by a
span, where at sixty even strong
man is at the end Of his life, he was
evidently the age he claimed. His
eye was already growing lusterless
and his step losing the firm tread Of
health. His hands we're scanned
with toll, but he had fine head,
the arched brow and the inward
seeing eyes of the dreamer, and he
spoke like man who, even in this
back water of life had been at pains
to keep himself abreast o.; the
world. How did such man come
to be stranded in this wilderness?
Later / heard his story from
some of the planters in the valley.