w and again with anxious eyes to the guest who sat on
the chief's right hand.

The guest was a long, thin man, clad in the Cossacks' fur lined military
cloak, under which his untanned riding-boots showed red in the
moonlight. He was still busy eating goat's flesh, cheese and fruits,
and drinking deeply from the sweet Hunza wine, like a man who had come
far and fast. He ate with the utmost disregard of his company. He
might have been a hunter supping alone in the solitary hills for all the
notice he took of the fifty odd men around him.

By and by be finished, pulled forth a little silver toothpick from an
inner pocket, and reached a hand for the long cherry-wood pipe which had
been placed beside him. He lit it, and blew a few clouds into the calm
air.

"Now, Fazir Khan," he said, "I am a new man, and we shall talk. First,
have you done my bidding?"

"Thy bidding has been done," said the great man sulkily. "See, I am
here with my chiefs. All the twenty villages of my tribe have been
warned, and arms have been got from the fools at Bardur. Also, I have
the Yarkand powder I was told of, to give the signals on the hills. The
Nazri Pass road, which we alone know, has been widened. What more could
man do?"

"That is well," said the other. "It is well for you and your people
that you have done this. Your service shall not be forgotten.
Otherwise--"

"Otherwise?" said the Fazir Khan, his hand travelling to his belt at the
sound of a threat.

The man laughed. "You know the tale," he said. "Doubtless your mother
told you it when you clutched at her breast. Some day a great white
people from the north will come down and swallow up the disobedient.
That day is now at hand. You have been wise in time. Therefore I say
it is well."

The stranger spoke with perfect coolness. He looked round curiously at
the circle of dark faces and laughed quietly to himself. The chief
stole one look at him and then said something to a follower.

"I need not speak of the reward," said the stranger. "You are our
servants, and duty is duty. But I have authority for saying that we
shall hold your work in mind when we have settled our business."

"What would ye be without us?" said the chief in sudden temper. "What
do ye know of the Nazri gates or the hill country? What is this talk of
duty, when ye cannot stir a foot without our aid?"

"You are our servants, as I said before," said the man curtly. "You
have taken our gold and our food. Wher