he religion of Islam freed from all the
controversies of rival sects and over-learned mullahs. It is the
religion of my fathers and the religion of my youth, and in it I abide.
Let me tell you a story of the rough school in which I received my early
training and where such thoughts as these first began to sink deep into
my mind.

* * * * *

"Have you ever heard of Shir Jumla Khan? No? Well, that is doubtless
because he has been dead for a full score of years, and because he held
his sway in a land remote from these plains of Hindustan, up in the
rugged mountains, where brave tribesmen guard the valleys which their
ancestors tilled, and yield allegiance to no one but their own
hereditary chieftains. Such was my country and my people, for I am proud
that in my veins runs the blood of the man who for a hundred miles
around my boyhood home was known as The Tiger of the Pathans. Behold in
me a grandson of Shir Jumla Khan."

The narrator folded his arms across his breast, in an attitude of quiet
dignity. After just a moment's pause he continued:

"We were all born fighters, the members of my clan, for during hundreds
of years many a swarming host had swept past the gateways of our
territory, Persians, Arabs, Afghans, Moguls, Turkmans, hordes of
fighting men of every race and tongue, sometimes marching south bent on
conquest, at other times returning to their homes laden with rich
spoils, and yet at other times defeated and broken, with enemies
pressing at their heels. And it was the patrimonial right of our tribe
to take toll from all alike, from victors and vanquished, from pursuers
and pursued.

"Sometimes an army would pass through our mountains under safe conduct
from all the tribes, and the price paid in money, horses, camels, and
cattle, cloths and other goods, would be divided among the several
clans. But in this practice there had grown to be more danger for
ourselves than from forays or assaults on passing enemies, because over
the division of the spoils there would be quarrelling, followed by
fighting, among the tribes. Thus had originated many a blood feud
enduring through many generations.

"In the early days of Shir Jumla Khan it had come about that several
rich caravans had fallen exclusively into his hands. With the money thus
provided by the bountifulness of Allah, he had been enabled to build for
himself a citadel that for vastness and security surpassed those of all
his