This same strength of his was always getting him into scrapes with
people who did not believe he was so young, or, knowing him to be so
young, did not believe him to be so strong!
He played a similar trick to the one he had played on cousin Yakoob at
Kandahar on his big cousin Ibrahim, Prince Kumran's son. It was about a
fine kettledrum all tasselled in royal fashion, with gold and silver,
that Ibrahim's father had given him. Being a selfish boy, he would not
allow Akbar to touch it; whereupon the Heir-to-Empire, after a brief
tussle, carried off the kettledrum and beat it loudly through the
palace!
Kumran hearing of this was very angry, for the beating of a kettledrum
is a sign of Empire.
"Keep that young fighting cock of thine in better order, madam," he said
to his aunt, "or I shall have to find him a sterner gaoler."
Whereupon she flashed out and told him fairly that short of killing the
child, and for that crime even _he_ was not prepared, there was no way
of preventing the Heir-to-Empire from being what he was, a born king.
That was her way of quelling Kumran. By boldly setting aside the thought
of murder as impossible, she hoped to make it so; but she was not sure,
and after this she kept Mirak and Bija under control.
It was not much good, however, when just as autumn was coming on news
arrived from Kandahar that Humayon had at last succeeded in taking the
city, and, disappointed in not finding his son in the palace, was
preparing to march on Kabul.
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