d he, "except that we have fed you and armed you. By your
own acts you are the servants of my master."

The mullah was rapidly working himself into a frenzy. He swung his long
bony arms across his breast and turned his face skywards. "Ye hear
that, my children. The free people, the Bada-Mawidi, of whose loins
sprang Abraham the prophet, are the servants of some foreign dog in the
north. If ye were like your fathers, ye would have long ago ere this
wiped out the taunt in blood."

The man sat perfectly composed, save that his right hand had grasped a
revolver. He was playing a bold game, but he had played it before. And
he knew the man he had to deal with.

"I say again, you are my master's servants by your own confession. I
did not say his slaves. You are a free people, but you will serve a
greater in this affair. As for this dog who blasphemes, when we have
settled more important matters we will attend to him."

The mullah was scarcely a popular member of his tribe, for no one
stirred at the call. The stranger sat watching him with very bright,
eager eyes. Suddenly the priest ceased his genuflexions, there was a
gleam of steel among his rags, then something bright flashed in the air.
It fell short, because at the very moment of throwing, a revolver had
cracked out in the silence, and a bullet had broken two of his fingers.
The man flung himself writhing on the ground, howling forth
imprecations.

The stranger looked half apologetically at the chief, whose glum
demeanour had never relaxed. "Sorry," he said; "it had to be done in
self-defence. But I ask your pardon for it."

Fazir Khan nodded carelessly. "He is a disturber of peace, and to one
who cannot fight a hand matters little. But, by Allah, ye northerners
shoot quick."

The stranger relinquished the cherry-wood pipe and filled a meerschaum
from a pouch which he carried in the pocket of his cloak. He took a
long drink from the loving-cup of mulled wine which was passing round.

"Your mad priest has method in his folly," he said. "It is true that we
are attacking a great people; therefore the more need of wariness for
you and me, Fazir Khan. If we fail there will be the devil to pay for
you. The English will shift their frontier-line beyond the mountains,
and there will be no more lifting of women and driving of cattle for the
Bada-Mawidi. You will all be sent to school, and your guns will be
taken from you."

The chief compressed his attractive features i