Chapter XII: Garram Accused

Garram’s face darkened with anger, but he made no reply to his accusers. The scene was in the Emir’s audience hall, where he had been called to answer the charge. A long, low room of the universal red mud, supported on squat pillars, each of which had, at building, enclosed a living slave, as was the custom of the country. Its mud floor had been beaten and polished to the texture of black marble by the passing of countless feet. The Emir himself reclined on a dais, the front of which was ornamented with white cowrie shells in an intricate pattern.

In front of the Emir and on his right stood the Liman and Ladan, leaning on their black staves. On the left stood the young hunter, striving to keep back his rising anger.

The Liman had detailed his charge. That Garram was a _kafiri_--an unbeliever, who said no prayers, made no protestation of his belief in the One God whose Prophet is Mohammed, and never attended the mosque on Fridays. That he spent his time with a dog, a thing unclean as declared by the Law of Allah and the Prophet Mohammed.

He had got as far as this when the Emir interrupted. “But being all these things, he and his dog have saved me, the head of the State, from death when others whom you would call true men, since they are true believers, plotted my death!”

“Saved you, but by witchcraft,” heatedly the Liman responded.

The Emir smiled wearily. He had explained the method of detection to the Assembly to avoid just such accusations, but in vain. People will always believe what thrills them most, and probably he and Garram alone of the whole State believed the story.

“And Shaitan the Evil One, who showed the dog and boy, undoubtedly put the crime into the minds of the poor plotters, in order that this boy and dog, the servants of the Evil One, might by the detection of the plot, be exalted among the true believers.” In spite of the presence of the Emir, the speaker spat upon the ground to show his hatred of the Evil One and his helpers.

This was indeed distorted and fanatical reasoning, but the Emir looked grave for a moment. The holy man was more learned in such matters than he. The supposition, if true, put another interpretation upon the facts. He looked doubtfully at Garram and Kon. But he was first of all a man, and only second a Mohammedan. Gratitude prevailed over fear, and he again took up the defence.

“Have I priestly water in my veins instead of red blood! What you ask is too hard--that I should abandon those who have helped me even to saving my life and kingdom!”

A vengeful glint appeared in the eyes of the Liman. Garram could see his hands, clawlike as the talons of a bird of prey, clasping and clutching upon his staff. “Why, then, when all true believers sleep, does he depart, this son of the Evil One, to be absent all night? Where does he go, engaged upon his wicked practices, returning only long after the morning sun has risen?” He paused, and the look of surprise on the Emir’s face told him this was news. With quick cunning he added, “But Garram, an innocent man, will no doubt have told you all this.”

Garram too looked surprised. He had kept in touch with the happenings in his tribe by meeting the messenger from the Rainmaker once a month at the foot of the Hills. But he had done so with caution, traveling by night. This was the first news that his movements had been watched.

The Emir spoke again in defence. “This no doubt is untrue, like all the rest.”

“It is the truth,” interrupted Garram. “I leave the city and return in the morning. But what I do is not wrong and is no business but my own.”

The Emir’s look was ominous. Coldly he dismissed the Liman and his follower and turned to Garram, expecting an explanation. But none was forthcoming. Garram, silent and always inclined to keep his own counsel, was angered by the ease with which his friend the Emir had been persuaded to suspect him. Further, it might incriminate Ibrahim the Captain of the Guard, who since his restoration had, out of gratitude, permitted the boy to pass the gates at night.

The Emir, puzzled and so recently reminded how even so trusted a man as the Waziri could turn against him, suspected some sort of treachery in the unaccountable silence. For a while he waited. Then angrily but sadly motioned Garram to withdraw. Flushed in the face and with a feeling of guilt which he knew he did not deserve, the boy went.

At a loss for a plan, he wandered aimlessly about the palace. Then decided to go and consult his new friend, the Captain of the Guard. Particularly on the matter of a pig, a small black pig, a most amusing small black pig. But if these people thought so badly of a man not being of their own religion, and of a dog for being ceremonially impure, what would they think of his pig? For he knew that pigs were still more impure than dogs, according to the Sharia, the Holy Law of Islam. When Garram had first planned the catching of the plotters the Emir had given him some money and with this he had purchased a gift of flint and steel for the old Rainmaker. In return the magician had sent him a present of a small pig, for he knew the boy’s taste for meat.

But, unwilling to kill the cheery and playful little beast, Garram had smuggled it into a disused stable which his exploring instinct had discovered in a ramshackle corner of the far-flung palace. Now, as he went his round of the city guard inquiring for Ibrahim, he began to get more and more anxious. These fanatics would consider it a sufficiently grave crime that he had brought the pig within the city. Supposing they discovered it within the Emir’s own house?

“If just wandering at night is so grave a crime,” thought Garram, “what would they make this look like?”

Finding Ibrahim at length, Garram explained his needs. He was in disgrace, he said, and wanted to get away where he could think out what to do.

“I would have your aid.” The tall black Captain of the Guard smiled at the boy. “Cannot you accompany me?” continued Garram.

Ibrahim both could and would. Garram’s talk of the bush had whetted the young soldier’s appetite for hunting, and Garram’s fame promised something special in that line.

He had some small matter to attend to that night, Garram explained, so they should wait until dawn. This too suited Ibrahim well. He would have to ask permission to be absent from his duties, though this was a mere matter of form.

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