mperor!' he said. 'You're just in time for the
performance.'"

"I saw his Sikhs looked a bit battered. 'Where's your command? Where's
your subaltern?' I said.

"'Here--all there is of it,' said Stalky. 'If you want young Everett,
he's dead, and his body's in the watch-tower. They rushed our road-party
last week, and got him and seven men. We've been besieged for five days.
I suppose they let you through to make sure of you. The whole country's
up. 'Strikes me you've walked into a first-class trap.' He grinned, but
neither Tertius nor I could see where the deuce the fun was. We hadn't
any grub for our men, and Stalky had only four days' whack for his. That
came of dependin' upon your asinine Politicals, Pussy dear, who told us
that the inhabitants were friendly.

"To make us _quite_ comfy, Stalky took us up to the watch-tower to see
poor Everett's body, lyin' in a foot o' drifted snow. It looked like a
girl of fifteen--not a hair on the little fellow's face. He'd been shot
through the temple, but the Malo'ts had left their mark on him. Stalky
unbuttoned the tunic, and showed it to us--a rummy sickle-shaped cut on
the chest. 'Member the snow all white on his eyebrows, Tertius? 'Member
when Stalky moved the lamp and it looked as if he was alive?"

"Ye-es," said Tertius, with a shudder. "'Member the beastly look on
Stalky's face, though, with his nostrils all blown out, same as he used
to look when he was bullyin' a fag? That was a lovely evening."

"We held a council of war up there over Everett's body. Stalky said the
Malo'ts and Khye-Kheens were up together; havin' sunk their blood feuds
to settle us. The chaps we'd seen across the gorge were Khye-Kheens. It
was about half a mile from them to us as a bullet flies, and they'd made
a line of sungars under the brow of the hill to sleep in and starve us
out. The Malo'ts, he said, were in front of us promiscuous. There wasn't
good cover behind the fort, or they'd have been there, too. Stalky
didn't mind the Malo'ts half as much as he did the Khye-Kheens. He said
the Malo'ts were treacherous curs. What I couldn't understand was, why
in the world the two gangs didn't join in and rush us. There must have
been at least five hundred of 'em. Stalky said they didn't trust each
other very well, because they were ancestral enemies when they were
at home; and the only time they'd tried a rush he'd hove a couple of
blasting-charges among 'em, and that had sickened 'em a bit.

"It