They trotted forward until the bed of the Khyber began to grow very
narrow, and Ali Masjid Fort could not be much more than a mile away,
at the widest guess. Then King drew rein and dismounted, for he
would have been challenged had he ridden much farther. A challenge
in the Khyber after dark consists invariably of a volley at short
range, with the mere words afterward, and the wise man takes precaution.

"Off with the mules' packs!" he ordered, and the men stood round
and stared. Darya Khan, leaning on the only rifle in the party,
grinned like a post-office letter box.

"Truly," growled Ismail, forgetting past expression of a different
opinion, "this man is as mad as all the other Englishmen."

"Were you ever bitten by one?" wondered King aloud.

"God forbid!"

"Then, off with the packs--and hurry!"

Ismail began to obey.

"Thou! Lord of the Rivers! (For that is what Darya Khan means.)
What is thy calling?"

"Badragga" (guide), he answered. "Did she not send me back down
the Pass to be a guide?"

"And before that what wast thou?"