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I shall have enough men here to attack instantly and smash any small force as soon as it begins to gather anywhere near the border. But Khinjan is another story. We can't prove anything, but the spies keep bringing in rumors of ten thousand men in Khinjan Caves, and of another large lashkar not far away from Khinjan. There must be no jihad, King! India is all but defenseless!
"He bade me go to Sikaram where my village is and bring him a hundred men for his lashkar. He says he has her special favor. Wait and watch, I say! "Has he money?" asked King, apparently drawing a bow at a venture for conversation's sake. But there is an art in asking artless questions. "Aye! The liar says the Germans gave it to him! He swears they will send more. Who are the Germans?
"The mullah Muhammad Anim answered he knows nothing of thee and cares less! He said and he said it with vehemence it is no more to him where a hakim sits than where the rats hide!" He watched King's face and seeing that, King allowed his facial muscles to express chagrin. "Between us, it is a poor time for messages to him. He is too full of pride that his lashkar should have beaten the British."
There's a big lashkar gathering somewhere in the 'Hills, and it might have been done by their skirmishers, but I don't think so." "A lashkar besides the crowd at Khinjan?" "Yes." "Who's supposed to be leading it?" "Can't find out," said Courtenay. Then he stepped aside to give orders to the escort. They carried the dead bodies into the fort. "Know anything of Yasmini?"
"We who are free of Khinjan Caves do not send men out to bring recruits. We know better than to bid our men tell lies for others at the gate. Nor, seeking proof for our new recruit, do we send men to hunt a head for him not even those of us who have a lashkar that we call our own, mullah Muhammad Anim. Each of us earns his own way in!"
"There has been fighting in the Khyber," somebody, informed him, and he stopped with lancet in mid-air to listen, scanning a hundred faces swiftly in the smoky lamplight. There were ten men who held lamps for him, one of them a newcomer, and it was he who spoke. "Fighting in the Khyber! Aye! We were a little lashkar, but we drove them back into their fort! Aye! we slew many!" "Not a jihad yet?"
"Thou hast ears that can listen!" answered King. "In the letter that I left at Ali Masjid there is news of the lashkar that is gathering in the 'Hills, above Ali Masjid and beyond Khinjan. King sahib is ordered to be awake and wary." "And to lame no more horses jumping them over rocks!" "Nay, the karnal sahib said he is to ride after no more jackals with a spear!"
These lions he had imported from abroad and turned loose to furnish sport to his shooting friends; but they killed so many of the peasantry that they had to be recaptured and confined. The town of Lashkar, the State capital city, being reported full of plague, I was naturally careful in passing through. Nothing in it calls for comment, however.
"Same old game!" said King to himself. "What knowest thou of the lashkar that is gathering?" "I? Oh, a little. An uncle of mine, and three half-brothers, and a brother are of its number! One came at night to tempt me to join but I have eaten the salt. It was I who first warned our karnal sahib. Now, let me by!" "Nay, wait!" ordered King. But he lowered his pistol point.
"We keep hearing of that lashkar that we can't locate, under a mullah whose name seems to change with the day of the week. And there are everlasting tales about the 'Heart of the Hills." "No explanation of 'em?" Athelstan asked him. "None! Not a thing!" "D'you know of Yasmini?" "Heard of her of course," said his brother. "Has she come up the Pass?" His brother laughed.
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