As usual there was much hard
swearing on both sides, but the weight of the evidence went with
Alladad Khan. The most influential man in the village, he made it
understood that it would be wisest to support his claim. To Nicholson
the case was perplexing, but he had strong reasons for believing that
the youth was in the right. He decided upon a novel plan to solve the
difficulty.

One morning, therefore, Alladad Khan and his neighbours were greatly
concerned at seeing their _hakim's_ famous white mare grazing
untethered on a piece of grass on the outskirts of the village. This
meant a fine or a whipping at least for some one, so the party resolved
to drive the animal to the next village, and let the people there bear
the brunt of their lord's wrath. The mare was accordingly turned into
the road, but Alladad Khan and his followers had not gone far before
they saw Nicholson himself fastened with ropes to a tree!

[Illustration: "They saw Nicholson himself fastened with ropes to a
tree."]

When, with trembling hands, they went to release him, Nicholson asked
in a stern voice, "Whose land is this I am on?"

"It belongs to Alladad Khan, my lord," replied one or two bolder than
the rest. The piece of ground was the actual plot in dispute between
uncle and nephew. At this assertion Alladad Khan emphatically denied
ownership. "It is not mine, indeed, my lord," he protested, "but my
nephew's. Nay, of a truth, it is not mine!"

"Will you swear it is so?" demanded Nicholson. And Alladad Khan swore
by all he held most sacred that the land was his nephew's. This was
all that Nicholson wanted; and, having now several witnesses to the
other's statement, he permitted himself to be unbound.

The breaking-in of these "fluttered folk and wild" among whom he was
thus cast took Nicholson four years, but the work was done thoroughly.
Throughout the vast district between the Indus and the Sulaiman
Mountains his name alone was sufficient to inspire awe and bring the
refractory to reason. For a long time after he had left Bannu, it is
said, the village people would wake at night trembling, declaring they
heard the tramp of "Nikalseyn's war-horse." And Waziri mothers would
still their crying babes by saying that he was coming to them, though
by thus holding him up as a bogey they did Nicholson an injustice, for
he was ever tender and kind with children.

There is significance, too, in a note which Mr. Thorburn makes in his
i