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I have been a good friend to the English!" For the second time the Khan of Chiltistan had sought refuge from his own people. Captain Phillips looked round. "Hush," he whispered in a startled voice. "Let me shut the door!" Captain Phillips with a sharp gesture ordered the Khan back to the shadowy corner from which he had sprung out.
Those were days when there were men upon the plains of India." And Shere Ali broke out with a fierce oath. "Amongst the hills, at all events, there are men today. There is no sacred ground for them in Chiltistan." "Not even the Road?" asked Ahmed Ismail; and Shere Ali stopped dead, and stared at his companion with startled eyes.
But from none of the seven nobles did the voice proceed. In front of them all knelt an old man in the brown homespun of the people. Phillips, from the doorway, could see his great beard wagging as he prayed, and knew him for one of the incendiary priests of Chiltistan.
"I have met him in London," said Violet Oliver. So Shere Ali was in Peshawur, when he should have been in Chiltistan! "Why?" Ralston put the question to himself and looked to his companion for the answer. The colour upon her face, the interest, the sympathy of her eyes gave him the answer.
Shere Ali turned to the Resident, and though his face did not change from its brooding calm, a fire burned darkly in his eyes. "From Afghanistan to Thibet the frontier will rise," he said proudly. Captain Phillips shook his head. "From Afghanistan to Thibet the Frontier will wait, as it always waits. It will wait to see what happens in Chiltistan."
If he had been sent to Ajmere instead of to England, if he and Linforth had not crossed the Meije to La Grave in Dauphiné, if a necklace of pearls he had offered had not been accepted very likely at this very moment he might be reigning in Chiltistan, trusted and supported by the Indian Government, a helpful friend gratefully recognised.
The taxes no doubt are very burdensome, and it may be the caravans from Bokhara and Central Asia should pay less to the treasury as they pass through Chiltistan, and perhaps I do unjustly in buying what I want from them at my own price." Thus he delicately described the system of barefaced robbery which he practised on the traders who passed southwards to India through Chiltistan.
Days were to pass and still the high snow-peaks which glittered in the sky, gold in the noonday, silver in the night time, above the valleys of Chiltistan were to be hidden in the far North. But already the words began to be spoken and the little incidents to occur which were to ripen him for his destiny. They were garnered into his memories as separate and unrelated events.
No wonder she lived in terror lest it should claim her son. And apparently it did claim him. "The road through Chiltistan?" he said slowly. "Of course," answered Dick. "Of what other could I be thinking?" "They have stopped it," said the Colonel, and at his side he was aware that Sybil Linforth drew a deep breath. "The road reaches Kohara. It does not go beyond. It will not go beyond."
"Yes, Huzoor," and Ahmed's eyes flashed at the question. "I met three men from Chiltistan on the Lowari Pass. They were going down to Kurachi. I, too, must make the pilgrimage to Mecca." He stood watching the flame of the lamp as he spoke, and spoke in a monotonous dull voice, as though what he said were of little importance.
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