reply that all you have is at their disposal. If they have any
petition,--and they generally have,--they insinuate it gently in the
general conversation, so you have to be looking out for traps of this
sort. When you have suffered sufficient evil for the day, you mildly
suggest that they are probably fatigued, and would like to rest. They
take the hint, and the remainder of the biscuits, and depart. We used to
have lots of these visits, which went by the name of "political teas."

Mihrbhan Shah proved very useful to us, I fancy he knew he would get
small mercy if he fell into the hands of the opposition, and therefore
did all he could to place our force between them and himself. Both at
Pingal and our next halting place, Cheshi, he managed to billet all our
small force in the villages, and no doubt our men were very thankful as
we were getting pretty high up, and the nights were decidedly cold.
Although it was a friendly district, we had regular pickets and
sentries, and a British officer on duty to see everything was correct.




CHAPTER III


THE SHANDUR PASS

Shortly after leaving Pingal, the character of the country changed
considerably, and instead of a continual alternation of cliff and river
bed, the valley became more open and level; we were, in fact, nearing
the upper end of the valley. Beyond Cheshi the road leads up a bluff and
down the other side on to the bed of the Pandur Lake. This lake had, at