A Prince of Dreamers

ty flies,

uds that q

f it now,

er be yo

Ha

Birbal. May God's curse li

de the half-tasted sweetmeat he had taken from the golden basket

ured Mirza Ib

wed gravely; finally yawned. In truth the Prince wearied him not a little with his childish petulance, his hasty resentments, his invariable failure to take action; for he had just e

fathers had killed superfluous sons, sons had killed a superfluous father

a way, it was true, this great lout of a lad formed the most convenient nucleus round which conspiracy against the Kin

of India, so it were not Akbar with his strong hand on the throat of all rulers who chose to rule in the good old fashion. If Sal?m c

orning; for the Prince was a late riser and seldom attended audience. "His Majesty app

eaker. "Have a care, fool," he cried, "Man

nquire, the firebrand of a madwoman--she was a picture for looks as she stood breathing defiance--by the prophet! I envied the idolater his hold upon her!--began on childish tears, and ere one could cry rotten fru

omed round from

berlain," he said sullenly, "as some who

so they carried her back shoulder-high to Satanstown, where half the young blades still linger, hoping for a smile.

one who took his

What said they?"

y breathed the more free, knowing themselves rid of the necessity for, sooner or later, sewing

le of how the virtuous mothers of Barha received the Darling of the Town a

d that morning, having as yet hardly recovered his

ad with a covert sneer,

rbal what the Syedan said or what Akbar did; sinc

ath, "Curse Birbal! I would to G

the wish of--of the Most Excellent the Heir-Apparent to the throne of India?" he asked

ice grow in grace with my father, as do all folk who die in sanctity.

hing. Ibrah?m concealed a yawn by putting a scented sweatmeat into the cavern of his mou

his Luck--as folk say he hath--to the infidel, Birb

ean you?" asked t

in the kingly turban at the audience, and folk say--with what truth I kno

anger and fear. "Gone!" he echoed. "My father has no right!--it is min

ishing the immediate wound, so that its venom might have time to work. "Remember the saying: 'The truth no

instrument which stood by his side. It was a sort of guitar, shaped

rth is hidden

buds of rub

wers so tinted

hard marble h

s touch on all

oud, and give t

glisten as the

he quaint arches of the building in which the Prince lounged i

d be found; shelter that could bring with it no sense of being cribbed, cabined, or confined, since in these four column-supported and arcaded platforms, each superimposed on the next in lessening squares, no two things are absolutely alike. Carv

cessions of bird and beast, fruit and flower, magical monsters and mythical men that lay carven before his eyes, seeking ther

fa

us affection lay at the bottom

side disturbed the sleepy afternoon air, a swift step took the steep stairs to

d of all ornament save a heron's plume at the side. His lean figure and alert air made him look years younger than his age, and his entry brought instant change of atmosphere to the perfumed indolence of the young Prince's court

e till bed-time! I come to challenge thee to a game of chauga

ore leisurely. But the very conjunction of names was sufficient for Sal?m

"Since being foe to you makes me foe

cried, with a sort of servile swagger, "filch not my foe from me. Firsts pair with firsts, seconds with seconds. S

ness of the challenge. Akbar stood frowning

t one's neck! So, seeing the most excellent of lieutenants through being Tarkhan hath a supremacy in sin, I pray so far, to be excused; 'twill b

good-humour. "Shaikie shall choose his, and a cast

his father. His mind was full of vague anger against that father. Had he indeed parted with the Luck of the House, leaving him, the heir, forlorn

of the red boundary flags and the red and gold boundary ropes which were held at intervals by pages dressed to match in red and gold. Within the oblong thus marked out, the glittering white and gold and red and silver teams loosin

ar excelled at it, holding it to be "no mere play, but a means of learning prompt

) hard held, all eyes--even those of the ponies--fixed on the ball which was held high in the King's right hand. On either side of the tense, vibrating line stood a pony, one for either team, its rider holding it by the reins ready on the instant to fling himself into the saddle and ride out to

wild whoop, was not a second behind him, and so, tassels waving, sticks carried like lances came a veritable to

irst Englishman who saw polo played), felt his pulses bound with excitement at this fo

very point and stood quivering with the arrest, while its rider, holding back in his stirrups for all he was wort

a-la-Harri-ho! A

hoofs, and swinging arms which in an instant gathered, a whirling nebula

t, hard held, flung itself high in air, almost uns

ave registered the contest, until a click, faint yet loud enough to fill each heart with joy or anger to

cry from both sides and away the

ven with a will, dropped, rebounded, fell again within a foot of

rdance with custom the defeated five rode back along the sides of the ground toward the starting end, pausing every twenty paces to pirouette their p

hrow-up decreed that the King should--not unwillin

kbar's little Arab, certain it is that after much swinging and driving of the ball backward and forward the cry arose amongst the spectators "He hath it--Khodadad hath it this time!" And there

lloped forward to defend the goal, but it was in vain, for in the final mêlée someone--in the dust and glamour--God knows wh

ides with almost f

ought almost prophetically; since its lineal descendant, polo, has made India bearable to generations of an English garrison. So while John Newbery's eyes wandered over the jewels of the spectators aro

n--the Sindi hat

the best player of chaugan this side the Indus), showed ahead, trundling the ball as he might h

t stiffened itself in downward pressure as just ahead he saw a faint inequality of the ground. No! the

ousand

ke a lofter at a bunkered golf ball, Akbar's club was underneath--the nex

thing else was forgotten for the moment in pure personal anger. The thought of revenge rose in him unhampered even by care for personal safety; for was he not-

ght of a wandering sweetmeat-seller showed dimly amid the dust, and high on the towering palaces which backed

e Sal?m, wiping the sweat from his

out the blaze-balls, Shaiki! 'Twill be a point in thy favour, young eyes

n line while the blazing ball of pilas wood, soaked in oil

," he laughed, as with a bound his favourite countrybred mare B

to his mount, a chestnut Sindi stallion almost oversize

the huddled riders followed on its track. Not all of them, however; one rider held aloof, evidently biding his time for something which every instant of growing darkness would favour. It was Khodadad, Tarkhan. A sinister indifference possessed him. If the chance c

the chan

the right of him and the King's voice

ll? No matter, thought Khod

cious chestnut and cut acros

could be no doubt as to who would have the worst of it. The Hindu pig

ose to his stirrup leather, and he realised in an instant that he was o

ry! Two could p

ded a point. But the pace of the brute was the devil. What right had even Kings t

is polo-stick. That finished it. With a scream of rage and fear it plunged forward almost knocking over the smaller horse by force of its superior weight, but the next instant it was on its hind legs beating the air

's mind as after one vain, almost unconscious, tug, he realised the position, flung his stick from him, dug spurs to the bay and gripping it all he knew with his knees, rode straight to the crash. It

hurt, Shaikie?" he gasped, the breath well-nigh

ning to realise what his father had done

posse helped him to rise, "it was thy foot did it--God sent

"The King is down--the King is killed!" and folk were, in the dusk and

nly Khodadad knocked out of time for the moment by that backward flung stick of

and looked at hi

to consciousness in Ibrah?m's arms, "ride not so--so reckl