know - that he was on guard here holding the outposts against
blood and treachery and terrible things - playing the Great Game.
One never loses at that game if one plays it straight, and I am
sure that at the last it was joy he felt and not fear. He has not
lost. Did you notice in the church a niche before every soldier's
seat to hold his loaded gun? And the tablets on the walls;
"Killed at Kabul River, aged 22." - "Killed on outpost duty." -
"Murdered by an Afghan fanatic." This will be one memory more.
Why be sorry."

Presently:-

"I am going up to the hills tomorrow, to the Malakhand Fort, with
Mrs. Delany, Lady Meryon's aunt, and we shall see the wonderful
Tahkt-i-Bahi Monastery on the way. You should do that run before
you go. The fort is the last but one on the way to Chitral, and
beyond that the road is so beset that only soldiers may go
farther, and indeed the regiments escort each other up and down.
But it is an early start, for we must be back in Peshawar at six
for fear of raiding natives."

"I know; they hauled me up in the dusk the other day, and told me
I should be swept off to the hills if I fooled about after dusk.
But I say - is it safe for you to go? You ought to have a man.
Could I go too?"

I thought she did not look enthusiastic at the proposal.

"Ask. You know I settle nothing. I go where I am sent." She said
it with the happiest smile. I knew they could send her nowhere