Part 14 (1/2)
”She must have learned that trick fro
”Maybe She's clever She asked me over the phone whether her thirty ram in cypher to find out The ansas that you had found 'e 'em with you When she called me up on the phone the second tiht So I e discovered 'e I asked her to couised and particularly did not want to be recognized, which was reasonable enough She sent Rewa Gunga instead Now, this seems important:
”Before I sent you down to Delhi-before I sent for you at all-I told her what I meant to do, and I never inwith a man As it happened her objections only confirmed my determination to send for you, and before she went down to Delhi to clean up I told her flatly she would either have to ith you or else stay in India for the duration of the war”
The general did not notice that King was licking his lips Nor, if he had noticed King's hand that noas in front of hiuessed that the sorunted in token of attention, and the general continued
”She gave in finally, but I felt nervous about it Noithout your getting sight of her-you say you haven't seen her?-her whole attitude has changed! What have you done? Bringing up her thirtyYet, she swears by you! Used to swear at you, and now says you're the only officer in the British aro up the Khyber without you! Says you're indispensable! Sent Rewa Gunga round to e my mind about you! What have you done to her-bewitched her?”
”Done nothing,” said King
”Well, keep on doing nothing in the same style and the world shall render you its best jobs, one after the other, in sequence! You've a, sir?”
”Nothing, except that he's her ot to take him up the Khyber with you What she orders, he'll do, or you may take it fro as she is on our side you will be pretty safe in trusting Rewa Gunga And she has got to be on our side Got to be! She's the only key we've got to Khinjan, and hell is brewing there this ates and ride the devil down the Khyber if she thought it worth her while! You're to go up the Khyber after her to convince her that there are betterwith hell-fire! The Rangar told ht?”
As they turned at the end of the platforold bracelet
”Good!” said the general, but King thought his face clouded ”That thing is worth more than a hundred men Jack Allison wore that sauise from Bukhara So did another ive it back to her when the show's over, King”
King nodded and grunted ”What's the news fro specific, except that the place is filling up You re in Khinjan? Well, they say now that the 'Heart of the Hills' has been awake for a long time, and that when the heart stirs the body does not lie quiet long No use trying to guess what they o and find out And remember-the whole armed force at h to tempt the tribes to conclusions! It's a case for diplo said nothing, but the chin-strap htly whiter, as it always does under the stress of emotion He can not control it, and he has dyed itno s on one's face than on a sleeve
”Here coeneral ”Well-there are two battalions of Khyber Rifles up the Pass and they're about at full strength They've got word already that you are gazetted to them They'll expect you By the way, you've a brother in the KR, haven't you?”
”At Ali Masjid, sir”
”Give hiards when you see hiine whistling You'd better hurry, Good-by, my boy Get word to ards to your brother! Good-by!”
King saluted and stood watching while the general hurried to the waiting motor-car When the car whirled away in a din of dust he returned leisurely to the train that had been shortened to three coaches Then he gave the signal to start up the spur-track, that leads to Jamrud, where a fort cowers in the very throat of the dreadfulest gorge in Asia-the Khyber Pass
It was not a long journey, nor a very slow one, for there was nothing to block the way except occasional es The Ger up that track, but there e for the sport of it, and the sepoys all along the line were posted in twos, and awake
It was low-tide under the Hi India of her arh and dry with a little nondescript force stranded there, as it were, under a British major and some native officers There were nothunder of gathering regiments, nor for that matter any more of that unarmed native helplessness that so stiffens the backs of the official English
Frowning over Jaover the Khyber's course were an accent to the savagery
But King sa, as there to meet him, advanced with outstretched hand and a smile that would have melted snow on the distant peaks if he had only looked the other way