The King

We had gone far into the desert.
Every night we pitched our tents and made a fire, as directed by the guide.
He was reputed to have been in the country to which we were going; some even said he was a native.
But he spoke rarely of its ways and customs, preferring to talk of the necessary tasks of the journey, and to urge the need for haste.
We thought: “Perhaps after all he only knows it from hearsay”. We were all alone in the desert.
Only sometimes in the night we heard through our dreams the sound of horses’ hooves, and then a faint clank of weapons, and voices saying:
“A message of greeting for the King “. And we wondered drowsily where in this desert there could be a king, that warriors should come so far to bear him greeting.
HART PRAsAD SHmnu.