native. Athelstan King had changed his very nature with his clothes.
He stood like a native--moved like one; even his voice was changed,
as if--like the actor who dyed himself all over to act Othello--he
could do nothing by halves.

"I'm going to try to get in without my men seeing me!" said the younger.

"If they do see you, they'll shoot!"

"Yes, and miss! Trust a Khyber jezailchi not to hit much in the dark!
It'll do 'em good either way. I'll have time to give 'em the password
before they fire a second volley. They're not really dangerous till
the third one. Good-by!"

"By, Charles!"

Officers in that force are not chosen for their clumsiness, or
inability to move silently by night. His foot-steps died in the
mist almost as quickly as his shadow. Before he had been gone a
minute the Pass was silent as death again, and though Athelstan
listened with trained ears, the only sound be could detect was of
a jackal cracking a bone fifty or sixty yards away.

He repacked the loads, putting everything back carefully into the
big leather envelopes and locking the empty hand-bag, after throwing
in a few stones for Ismail's benefit. Then he went to sit in the
moonlight, with his back to a great rock and waited there cross-legged
to give his brother time to make good a retreat through the mist.
When there was no more doubt that his own men, at all events, had
failed to detect the lieutenant, he put two fingers in his mouth