ing to find interest
in a novel when his butler came with news that the telephone bell was
ringing in the gun-room. Thwaite, being tired and cross, told him to
answer it himself, expecting some frivolous message about supplies. The
man returned in a little with word that he could not understand it.
Then Thwaite arose, blessing him, and went to see. The telegraph office
proper was on the other side of the river, on the edge of the native
town, but a telephone had been established to the garrison.

Thwaite's first impulse was to suspect a gigantic hoax. A scared native
clerk was trying to tell him a most appalling tale. George had not
spared energy in his message, and the Oriental imagination as a medium
had considerably increased it. The telegrams came in a confused order,
hard to piece together, but two facts seemed to stand out from the
confusion. One was that there was an unknown pass in the hills beyond
Nazri through which danger was expected at any moment that night; the
other was that treason was suspected throughout the whole north. Then
came the name of Marker, which gave Thwaite acute uneasiness. Finally
came George's two words of advice--keep strict watch on the native town
and hold Bardur in readiness for a siege; and wire the same directions
to Yasin, Gilgit, Chitral, Chilas, and throughout Kashmir and the
Punjab. Above all, wire to the chief places on the new Indus Valley
railway, for in case of success in Bardur, the railway would be the
first object of the invader.

Thwaite put down the ear-trumpet, his face very white and perspiring.
He looked at his watch; it was just on nine o'clock. The moon had
arisen and the telegram said "moonrise." He could not doubt the
genuineness of the message when he had heard at the end the names
Winterham and Haystoun. Already Marker might be through the pass, and
little the Khautmi people could do against him. He must be checked at
Bardur, though it cost every life in the garrison. Four hours' delay
would arm the north to adequate resistance.

He telephoned to the telegraph office to shut and lock the doors and
admit no one till word came from him. Then he summoned his Sikh
orderly, his English servant, and the native officers of the garrison.
He had one detachment of Imperial Service troops officered by Punjabis,
and a certain force of Kashmir Sepoys who made ineffective policemen,
and as soldiers were worse than useless. And with them he had to defend
the valley, and h