iscreet practitioner.

It fell on a day that there was illness in Chikki's household, and
someone brought him word that the Bannu doctor was in camp not far
off at Thal; so it came about that while I was seeing patients by
my tent that afternoon four of Chikki's stalwarts, armed cap-a-pie,
appeared with a polite and urgent request that I would accompany them
back to his stronghold, Chinarak, and use my medical skill on the sick
ones. As soon as the day's work was over we started off. There was a
thunderstorm on the mountains above us, and a mountain-torrent had
to be crossed which would not be fordable in flood, so we urged on
to a point whence a view could be got of the river-bed. On reaching
it we saw the turbid waters of the flood sweeping down about a mile
higher up the valley from the place where we had to cross, while we
had considerably over a mile of rough ground to traverse before we
could reach the ford. All pressed forward, the footmen running at
the horses' stirrups, and we just managed to get through the rising
stream before the flood reached us, thus saving what would have been
some hours of waiting for the flood to subside.

Chinarak is a mud fort, with towers and an intricate maze of yards,
houses, and passages within; but its strength lies more in its
inaccessibility, for the narrow gorge, with high, overhanging cliffs,
by which we approached might easily be defended by a few marksmen. On
the north side, however, the approach to it is easier. After the
sick had been seen, Chikki informed me that, as he had heard that I
was a preacher of the Injil, he wished to hear me, so that he might
judge of the comparative merits of Christianity and Muhammadanism;
and to that purpose he had called his Mullah, and we two should sit
on either side and speak in turn, while he judged. His men collected
round us, truly a motley crew, nearly all of them men who had fled
across the border from British justice for some murder or other
crime, and had found congenial employment in his bodyguard. I had
just been visiting some of their houses professionally, and found
representatives of all the tribes down the frontier, and even a few
Hindustanis. There they were, with a devil-may-care look in their
truculent faces, which made you feel that they would take half a
dozen lives, to rob a cottage, with as little compunction as if
they were cutting sugar-cane. Perhaps Chikki thought I was eyeing
my congregation suspiciously, for h