shall be overridden. Then the Khyber will be a roaring river of
men pouring into India, as my father's father told me it has
often been! India shall bleed in these days--but there will be
fighting in the Khyber first!"

"And what of her? Of Yasmini?" King asked.

"Thou wearest that--and askest what of her? Nay--tell!"

"Should she order the jezailchis to be false to the salt--?"

"Such a question!"

The man clucked into his beard and began to fidget in the saddle.
King gave him another view of the bracelet, and again he found a
civil answer.

"We of the Rifles have her leave to be loyal to the salt, for, said she,
otherwise how could we be true men; and she loves no liars. From
the first, when she first won our hearts in the 'Hills,' she gave
us of the Rifles leave to be true men first and her servants afterward!
We may love her--as we do!--and yet fight against her, if so Allah
wills--and she will yet love us!"

"Where is she?" King asked him suddenly, and the man began to laugh
again.

"Let me by!" he shouted truculently. "Who am I to sit a horse and
gossip in the Khyber? Let me by, I say!"