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A chevroned black-beard half a horse-length behind him translated the demand into stately Pashtu, and for answer the hill chieftain mounted his stolen horse and shook his tulwar. He had pistols at his belt, but he did not draw them; across his shoulder swung a five-foot-long jezail, but he loosed it and flung it to the ground.
" at the price of strict obedience?" "Eh-h-h-h-h!" It seemed there was no word in Pashtu that could express their willingness. "We be very, very weary for our Hills!" explained the nearest man. "Aye!" King answered. "And ye all owe Ali!" "Uh-h-h-h-h!" But he knew better than to browbeat them on that account just then, for the men of the North are easier led than driven up to a certain point.
At the first cell he raised his left hand and made the gold bracelet on his wrist clink against the steel bars. A moment later be cursed himself, and felt the bracelet with his fingernail. He had made a deep nick in the soft gold. A second later yet he smiled. "May God be with thee!" boomed a prisoner's voice in Pashtu. "Didn't know that fellow was handcuffed," said Saunders.
"Oh, as for that," he said, salaaming again in the fastidious manner of a native gentleman, "I know no other tongue than Pashtu and my own Rajasthani. My name is Kurram Khan. I ask admittance." He held up his wrist to show the gold bracelet, and high over his head the Rangar laughed like a bell. "Shabash!" he laughed. "Well done! Enter, Kurram Khan, and be welcome, thou and thy men.
King answered in the Pashtu tongue, for the "Hills" are polite, whatever the other principles. Rewa Gunga's face beamed down on him, wreathed in smiles that seemed to include mockery as well as triumph. Looking up at him at an angle that made his neck ache and dazzled his eyes, King could not be sure, but it seemed to him that the smile said, "Here you are, my man, and aren't you in for it?"
"But you are one of three who left here and went up the Pass at dawn! I recognize you." "Aye!" said the man. "She met me and gave me this letter and sent me back." "How great is the lashkar that is forming?" asked Courtenay. "Some say three thousand men. They speak truth. They who say five thousand are liars. There is a lashkar." "And she went up alone?" King murmured aloud in Pashtu.
King made no answer. For one thing, the word "hound," even in English, is not essentially a compliment. But he had a better reason than that. "Did you find the way easily?" the Rangar asked but King kept silence. "Is he parched? Have they cut his tongue out on the road?" That question was in Pashtu, directed at Ismail and the others, but King answered it.
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