Part 23 (1/2)

”Help ht burning as if its battery provided current by the week instead of by the ed open the s He propped a ainst the pack and squatted in front of it Then he passed a little bottle to his brother, and Charles attended to the chin-strap ht brighter than dusk In a few minutes his whole face was darkened to one hue, and Charles stepped back to look at it

”Won't need to wash yourself for a month!” he said ”The dirt won't show!” He sniffed at the bottle ”But that stain won't come off if you do wash-never worry! You'll do finely”

”Not yet, I won't!” said Athelstan, picking up a little safety razor and beginning on his mustache In a minute he had his upper lip bare Then his brother bent over him and rubbed in stain where the scrubby mustache had been

After that Athelstan unlocked the leather bag that had caused Ismail so much concern and shook out from it a pile of odds and ends at which his brother nodded with perfect understanding The principal item was a piece of silk-forty or fifty yards of it-that he proceeded to bind into a turban on his head, his brother lending hier at every other turn When that was done, the man who had said he looked in the least like a British officer would have lied

One after another he drew on native gar thees he developed into a native hakia,-one of the men who practise yunani, or reat deal of added superstition, trickery and guesswork

”I wouldn't trust you with a ha'penny!” announced his brother when he had done

”Really? As good as all that?”

”The part to a T”

”Well-take these into the fort for ht the bundle of discarded European clothes and tucked theest show there has ever been! We've got to hold the Khyber, and we can't do it by riding pell-mell into the first trap set for us! Westarts-but we mayn't miss! We mayn't run past the ive it You needn't tell ot orders to hunt skirmishers to a standstill, because I know better I know you've just had your wig pulled for la two horses!”

”How d'you know that?”

”Never mind! I've been seconded to your crowd I' you orders This show isn't sport, but the real red thing, and I want to count on you to fight like a trained man, not like a natural-born fool I want to know you're holding Ali Masjid like Fabius held Ro slow and wily, just for the sake of the co the 'Hills' Hit hard when you have to, but for God's sake, old ht,” said his brother

”Then good-by, oldand shook hands Where had been a man and his reflection in the mist, there now seeed his very nature with his clothes He stood like a native-ed, as if-like the actor who dyed hi by halves

”I' er

”If they do see you, they'll shoot!”

”Yes, and miss! Trust a Khyber jezailchi not to hit ood either way I'll have tiive 'em the password before they fire a second volley They're not really dangerous till the third one Good-by!”

”By, Charles!”

Officers in that force are not chosen for their cluht His foot-steps died in the one a h Athelstan listened with trained ears, the only sound he could detect was of a jackal cracking a bone fifty or sixty yards away

He repacked the loads, putting everything back carefully into the big leather envelopes and locking the e in a few stones for Isht, with his back to a great rock and waited there cross-legged to give his brother tih the mist When there was no more doubt that his own men, at all events, had failed to detect the lieutenant, he put two fingers in his mouth and whistled

Al froed out of the mist he sat silent and still It was Darya Khan who ca at him, but Ismail was a very close second, and the other three were only a little behind For full two minutes after theone another's arms, astonished Then-

”Where is he?” asked Is sahib-where is he?”

”Gone!”