t he held her in a vice.

"You great schoolboy,--let me go!" she commanded, between laughter and
vexation. "I don't care if you do hate dinner parties. I must have
them sometimes. I love to see people enjoying themselves as they all
did tonight, except that odious Mrs Norton, who doesn't count. You're
not pliable enough. That's what's the matter with you. But if I live
to a hundred and twenty you'd never make a hermit out of _me_!"

"And if you gave a party every night of your life you'd never make a
society man out of me. I should simply apply for a trans-frontier
billet, where wives are not admitted. But look here, little woman, did
Norton tell you about next week?"

"Of course he did. You'll be gone in three or four days. It's
hateful. Do let me have my arms back, darling."

And he surrendered this time.

"Are you sleepy?" she asked, her eyes, full of laughter, resting in his.

"Lord, no. I'm going to sit up and put in two hours work at least
before turning in."

"Indeed you'll do no such thing. You're going to sit up and talk to
me. I didn't like to bother Mr Norton; but I've a hundred questions to
ask you about it all."

"_Hazur ke kushi_! [2] Ask away. Only let me get at my pipe, and I'm
at your service."

He filled and lighted it with leisurely satisfaction; and Quita,
settling herself on the carpet beside him, her face looking into his,
her bright head laid against his knee, kept him talking of Border
politics and Border warfare till all thought of putting in two hours'
work was out of the question.

[1] Prestige.

[2] As your Honour's pleases.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

"The work is with us; the event is with Allah."
--Kipling.

"Shade, water, grass . . . Not half a bad place for a picnic, eh,
Major? And I hope that plausible-looking scoundrel, talking to Norton,
has provided a decent breakfast for us. Five hours of marching in this
air puts an edge on a fellow's appetite."

Richardson's remark was addressed to Desmond,--now a Major of six
months' standing,--whose practised eye was critically surveying the
camping-ground assigned by the local magnate, Nussar Ali Khan, to the
seven British officers and their handful of native troops.

The site chosen was the topmost of two wide terraces descending to a
stream, from whose farther bank a great hill rose abruptly, dark with
pine and ilex, and cleft into a formidable nullah. On the right, flat
house-tops of a wa