4
THE BALLAD OF
Then up and spoke the Colonel’s son that led a troop of the Guides:
‘Is there never a man of all my men can say where Kamal hides?’
Then up and spoke Mahommed Khan, the son-of the Ressaldar,
‘If ye know the track of the morning-mist, ye know where his pickets are.
‘At dusk he harries the Abazai—at dawn he is into Bonair,
‘But he must go by Fort Bukloh to his own place to fare,
‘So if ye gallop to Fort Bukloh as fast as a bird can fly,
‘By the favour of God ye may cut him off ere he win to the Tongue of Jagai,
‘But if he be passed the Tongue of Jagai, right swiftly turn ye then,
‘For the length and the breadth of that grisly plain is sown with Kamal’s men.
‘There is rock to the left, and rock to the right, and low lean thorn between,
‘And ye may hear a breech-bolt snick where never a man is seen.’
‘Is there never a man of all my men can say where Kamal hides?’
Then up and spoke Mahommed Khan, the son-of the Ressaldar,
‘If ye know the track of the morning-mist, ye know where his pickets are.
‘At dusk he harries the Abazai—at dawn he is into Bonair,
‘But he must go by Fort Bukloh to his own place to fare,
‘So if ye gallop to Fort Bukloh as fast as a bird can fly,
‘By the favour of God ye may cut him off ere he win to the Tongue of Jagai,
‘But if he be passed the Tongue of Jagai, right swiftly turn ye then,
‘For the length and the breadth of that grisly plain is sown with Kamal’s men.
‘There is rock to the left, and rock to the right, and low lean thorn between,
‘And ye may hear a breech-bolt snick where never a man is seen.’
