of the Prophet that
some way should be found before his leave was expired.

Next day he sought an interview with the chief, and had not been in
conversation with him more than half-an-hour before Rahmut called his
council together and asked their opinion of an enterprise Sherdil had
suggested. It won their hearty admiration. One of Minghal's sources of
revenue consisted of a tribute levied on traders passing to and from
Central Asia. Their route lay within a few miles of his village, and,
indeed, sometimes they made use of a change-house in it. They usually
travelled in bodies of considerable size, and sufficiently well armed to
offer a good defence against marauders. But they found it profitable to
placate the principal chiefs through whose territories they passed by
paying a tribute varying with the importance of the chiefs; and the
chiefs on their side recognized that their interests were better served
by the regular income thus derived than by forays which might or might
not be successful, and which would ultimately have the effect of scaring
away the trade caravans altogether.

Sherdil had suggested that advantage of this fact might be taken to
practise a trick on Minghal. He proposed that a small party of Rahmut's
men should be equipped as traders, and thus gain admittance to Minghal's
village. Then, at night, they might find some means of seizing his
tower, and while the village was in confusion Rahmut could attack it
with the main body of his men.

The old chief himself, true to his character, was at first reluctant to
fall in with this cunning scheme. He pointed out that Minghal's attack
on his own tower had failed, and foresaw many possibilities of failure
in the proposed adventure. He would have preferred to wait until he
could have gathered a sufficient reinforcement to enable him to make a
direct attack in force on his enemy. But Sherdil laughed away his
doubts; the burden of his reasoning was that against a wily enemy like
Minghal, wiles must be employed. And as for the matter of the tower, and
a possible failure there, that was not worth considering.

"Minghal had no Sherdil and no Ahmed," he said, with a magnificent
gesture. "I, Sherdil, have learnt somewhat from the sahibs, and has not
Ahmed the blood of sahibs in his veins? We are more than a match for
Minghal, believe me."

Rahmut frowned, and threw an anxious glance at Ahmed when this reference
was made to his English birth. This admiration of t