330 KIPLING
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
are sown with Kamal's men.' The Colonel's son has taken a horse, and a raw
rough dun was he, With the mouth of a bell and the heart of Hell and
the head of the gallows-tree. The Colonel's son to the Fort has won, they bid him
stay to eat Who rides at the tail of a Border thief, he sits not
long at his meat. He's up and away from Fort Bukloh as fast as he
can fly, Till he was aware of his father's mare in the gut of
the Tongue of Jagai, Till he was aware of his father's mare with Kamal
upon her back, And when he could spy the white of her eye, he
made the pistol crack.
He has fired once, he has fired twice, but the whist- ling ball went wide. 'Ye shoot like a soldier,' Kamal said. 'Show now
if ye can ride.'
It's up and over the Tongue of Jagai, as blown dust- devils go, The dun he fled like a stag of ten, but the mare like
a barren doe.
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