Quickhanded

And yet through that same flitch of bacon, He in a sack was well nigh taken By the quickhanded farmer's wife, And barely came off with his life.

I was accepted as Uday's bodyguard or major domo, a position which, I was to understand later, was traditionally held by foreigners of one type or another, by Arabs, Abyssinians, Pathans, Afghans, Mongols, Turks, Persians, all the quickhanded adventurers who had come in turn to Hindustan, seeking fortune.

Discover yourself, and be wary; yet what are you to do? For there is a wakeful, quickhanded thief on this way.