dently chosen two good men to share the tent
with Lisle. They were both old soldiers, not given to much talking;
and were kind to their young comrade, giving him hints about
cooking and making himself comfortable, and abstaining from asking
many questions. They were easily satisfied with his answers and,
after the meal was eaten, sat down with him and talked of the
coming campaign. Neither of them had ever been to Chitral, but they
knew by hearsay the nature of the road, and discussed the
probability of the point at which serious opposition would begin;
both agreeing that the difficulties of crossing the passes, now
that these would be covered with snow, would be far greater than
any stand the tribesmen might make.

"They are tough fighters, no doubt," one of them said; "and we
shall have more difficulty, with them, than we have ever had
before; for they say that a great many of them are armed with good
rifles, and will therefore be able to annoy us at a distance, when
their old matchlocks would have been useless."

"And they are good shots, too."

"There is no doubt about that; quite as good as we are, I should
say. There will be a tremendous lot of flanking work to keep them
at a distance but, when it comes to anything like regular fighting,
we shall sweep them before us.

"From what I hear, however, we shall only have three or four guns
with us. That is a pity for, though the tribesmen can stand against
a heavy rifle fire, they have a profound respect for guns. I
expect, therefore, that we shall have some stiff fighting.

"How do you like the prospect, Mutteh Ghar?"

"I don't suppose I shall mind it when I get accustomed to it,"
Lisle said. "It was because I heard that the regiment was about to
advance that I hurried up to join. I don't think I should have
enlisted, had it been going to stay in the cantonment."

"That is the right spirit," the other said approvingly. "It is the
same with all of us. There is no difficulty in getting recruits,
when there is fighting to be done. It is the dull life in camp that
prevents men from joining. We have enlisted twice as many men, in
the past three months, as in three years before."

So they talked till night fell and then turned in; putting Lisle
between them, that being the warmest position.

In the morning the march was resumed in the same order, Lisle again
taking his place with the baggage guard. The march this time was
only a single one; but it was long, never