pass?"

"The valley is full of the dead," said the Afghan. "It is better
to fall into the hands of the English than the hands of the dead.
They march to and fro below there. I saw them in the lightning."

He recovered his composure after a little, and whispering, because
Halley's pistol was at his stomach, said: "What is this? There is
no war between us now, and the Mullah will kill me for not seeing
you pass!"

"Rest easy," said Halley; "we are coming to kill the Mullah, if
God please. His teeth have grown too long. No harm will come to
thee unless the daylight shows thee as a face which is desired by
the gallows for crime done. But what of the dead regiment?"

"I only kill within my own border," said the man, immensely
relieved. "The dead regiment is below. The men must have passed
through it on their journey - four hundred dead on horses,
stumbling among their own graves, among the little heaps - dead
men all, whom we slew."

"Whew!" said Halley. "That accounts for my cursing Carter and the
Major cursing me. Four hundred sabres, eh? No wonder we thought
there were a few extra men in the troop. Kurruk Shah," he
whispered to a grizzled native officer that lay within a few feet
of him, "hast thou heard anything of a dead Rissala in these
hills?

"Assuredly," said Kurruk Shah with a grim chuckle. "Otherwise, why