among the rocks on either hand, frightening one of the mules so
that it stumbled and fell and had to be helped up again. When that
was done, and the mule stood trembling, they all faced the wall.
But they were too weary to hold their hands up any more. Thirst
had begun to exercise its sway. One of the men was half delirious.

"Who are ye?" howled a human being, whose voice was so like a wolf's
that the words at first had no meaning. He peered over the parapet,
a hundred feet above, with his head so swathed in dirty linen that
he looked like a bandaged corpse.

"What will ye? Who comes uninvited into Khinjan?"

King bethought him of Yasmini's talisman. He, held it up, and the
gold band glinted in the sun. Yet, although a Hillman's eyes are
keener than an eagle's, he did not believe the thing could be
recognized at that angle, and from that distance. Another thought
suggested itself to him. He turned his head and caught Ismail in
the act of signaling with both hands.

"Ye may come!" howled the watchman on the parapet, disappearing instantly.

King trembled--perhaps as a racehorse trembles at the starting gate,
though he was weary enough to tremble from fatigue. The "Hills," that
numb the hearts of many men, had not cowed him, for he loved them and
in love there is no fear. Heat and cold an hunger were all in the
day's work; thirst was an incident; and the whistle of lead in
the wind had never meant more to him than work ahead to do.

But a greyhound trembles in the leash. A boiler, trembles when