loosed, curb-chains shifted, and saddles adjusted, and the men
dropped down among the stones. Whatever might happen now, they
held the upper ground of any attack.

The thunder ceased, and with it the rain, and the soft thick
darkness of a winter night before the dawn covered them all.
Except for the sound of falling water among the ravines below,
everything was still. They heard the shutter of the watch-tower
below them thrown back with a clang, and the voice of the watcher
calling, "Oh, Hafiz Ullah!"

The echoes took up the call, "La-la-la!" and an answer came from
the watch-tower hidden round the curve of the hill, "What is it,
Shahbaz Khan?"

Shahbaz Khan replied in the high-pitched voice of the mountaineer:
"Hast thou seen?"

The answer came back: "Yes. God deliver us from all evil spirits!

There was a pause, and then: "Hafiz Ullah, I am alone! Come to
me."

"Shahbaz Khan, I am alone also; but I dare not leave my post!"

"That is a lie; thou art afraid."

A longer pause followed, and then: "I am afraid. Be silent! They
are below us still. Pray to God and sleep."