Part 7 (2/2)
”Good!” said King
”Aye, good for thee! May Allah do raan to write at once on a half-sheet of paper that he tore froures at the top and transposing into cypher as he went along
”Yasone North Is there any reason at your end why I should not follow her at once?”
He addressed it in plain English to his friend the general at Peshawur, taking great care lest the Rangar read it through those sleepy, half-closed eyes of his Then he tore the cypher from the top, struck a raovernnized and the telegra like Moses down fronity and all, and King settled down to guard hin self-command
Now he chose to notice the knife on the ebony table as if he had not seen it before He got up and reached for it and brought it back, turning it over and over in his hand
”A strange knife,” he said
”Yes,-fro eyed him as one wolf eyes another
”What ht it from Khinjan Caves herself! There is another knife that matches it, but that is not here That bracelet you noear, sahib, is from Khinjan Caves too! She has the secret of the Caves!”
”I have heard that the 'Heart of the Hills' is there,” King answered ”Is the 'Heart of the Hills' a treasure house?”
Rewa Gunga laughed
”Ask her, sahib! Perhaps she will tell you! Perhaps she will let you see! Who knows? She is a woman of resource and unexpectedness-Let her woot up and laid the knife back on the little table A a a woreatplace and spirited the knife away
”May I have a sheet of paper?” he asked, for he knew that another fight for his self-coave an order, and a ht him scented paper on a silver tray He drew out his own fountain pen then and reat silken punkah that swung rhythreat that the pen slipped round and round between his fingers Yet he contrived to write, and since his one object was to give his brain employment, he wrote down a list of the names he had memorized in the train on the journey fro of a use for the list until he had finished Then, though, a real use occurred to hi wos in a concerted race Wood-wind reat deepas snakes are summoned from their holes, and as cobras answer the charlided to the center and stood poised beneath the punkah
There they began to chant, still dreaan, in and out, round and round, lazily, ever so lazily, wreathed in buoyant gossamer that was scarcely s
King watched thenize the strain on the eye-muscles that precedes the mesmeric spell Then he wrote and read what he had written and wrote again And after that, for the sake of hts into another channel altogether He reverted to Delhi railway station
”The Turks can spy as well as anybody-They know thoseto Kerachi to be ready for the cut his eye-teeth BC several hundred, the Unspeakable Turk will take care not to overn us, will let hiain means no trouble in the Hills-probably-until the Turks really do feel ready to begin They'll preach a holy war just ahead of the date The tribes will keep quiet because an arht be meant for their benefit Oh, yes, I' for Kerachi in readiness to move on Basra
”Trucks ready for camels-and camel drivers-and food for ca a special caht-Doby-Gould-all on the platform in a bunch, and all down on the Army List as Turkish interpreters! Not a doubt left!”
”What have you written?” asked a quiet voice at his ear; and he turned to look straight in the eyes of Rewa Gunga, who had leaned forward to read over his shoulder Just for one second he hovered on the brink of quick defeat Having escaped the Scylla of the dancing women, Charybdis waited for him in the shape of eyes that were pools of hot ht hiain and saved his will for hihed ”If you know, take this pen and mark the names of whichever of those a took pen and paper and set ahad a manner that disarmed refusal
”Where are the others?” he asked hilance at it