remove it. The people poured down from their villages to the moist,
warm valley of poppy-fields; and the King and I went with them.
Hundreds of dressed deodar-logs had caught on a snag of rock, and the
river was bringing down more logs every minute to complete the
blockade. The water snarled and wrenched and worried at the timber,
and the population of the State began prodding the nearest logs with
a pole in the hope of starting a general movement. Then there went up
a shout of 'Namgay Doola! Namgay Doola!' and a large red-haired
villager hurried up, stripping off his clothes as he ran.

'That is he. That is the rebel,' said the King. 'Now will the dam be
cleared.'

'But why has he red hair?' I asked, since red hair among hill-folks
is as common as blue or green.

'He is an outlander,' said the King. 'Well done! Oh, well done!'

Namgay Doola had scrambled out on the jam and was clawing out the
butt of a log with a rude sort of boat-hook. It slid forward slowly
as an alligator moves, three or four others followed it, and the
green water spouted through the gaps they had made. Then the
villagers howled and shouted and scrambled across the logs, pulling
and pushing the obstinate timber, and the red head of Namgay Doola
was chief among them all. The logs swayed and chafed and groaned as
fresh consignments from upstream battered the now weakening dam. All
gave way at last in a smother of foam, racing logs, bobbing black
heads and confusion indescribable. The river tossed everything before
it. I saw the red head go down with the last remnants of the jam and
disappear between the great grinding, tree-trunks. It rose close to