ay with them all by myself into the mountains?"

"Aye," said Ranjoor Singh. "Why not? We hold ten of theirs against
your safe return."

"Good! Then I will go!" he answered, and I knew by the black look on
his face and by the dull rage in his voice that he would harm us if
he could. But there was no time just then to try to dissuade Ranjoor
Singh from his purpose, even had I dared. There began to be great
argument about the ten hostages the Kurd should give, Ranjoor Singh
examining each one with the aid of Abraham, rejecting one man after
another as not sufficiently important, and it was two hours before
ten Kurds that satisfied him stood unarmed in our midst. Then he
gave up Gooja Singh in exchange for them; and Gooja Singh walked
away among the Kurds without so much as a backward look, or a word
of good-by, or a salute.

"He should be punished for not saluting you," said I, going to
Ranjoor Singh's side. "It is a bad example to the troopers."

"KUCH--KUCH--," said he. "No trouble. Black hearts beget black
deeds. White hearts, good deeds. Maybe we all misjudged him. Let him
prove whether he is true at heart or not."

Observe, sahib, how he identified himself with us, although he knew
well that all except I until recently had denied him title to any
other name than traitor. "Maybe we all misjudged," said he, as much
as to say, "What my men have done, I did." So you may tell the
difference between a great man and a mean one.

"Better have hanged him long ago!" said I. "He will be the ruin of
us yet!" But he laughed.

"Sahib," I said. "Suppose he should get to see this Wassmuss?"

"I have thought of that," he answered. "Why should the Kurds let him
go near Wassmuss? Unless they return him safely to us we can execute
their hostages; they will run no risk of Wassmuss playing tricks with
Gooja Singh. Besides, from what I can learn and guess from what the
Kurds say, this Wassmuss is to all intents and purposes a prisoner.
Another tribe of Kurds, pretending, to protect him, keep him very
closely guarded. The best he can do is to play off one tribe against
another. Our friend said Wassmuss holds his brother for hostage, but
I think the fact is the other tribe holds him and Wassmuss gets the
blame. I suspect they held our friend's brother as security for the
gold he is to meet and escort back. There is much politics working
in these mountains."

"Much politics and little hope for us!" said I, and at that he
turned on