the general's express order to apply for a "passport" that would
take him into Khinjan Caves--mentally cursing the necessity for
asking any kind of favor,--and wondering whether to ask this man
for it or wait until he should meet Yasmini. He had about made up
his mind that to wait would be quite within a strict interpretation
of his orders, as well as infinitely more agreeable to himself,
when the Rangar answered his thoughts again as if he had spoken
them aloud.

"She left this with me, saying I am to give it to you! I am to
say that wherever you wear it, between here and Afghanistan, your
life shall be safe and you may come and go!"

King stared. The Rangar drew a bracelet from an inner pocket and
held it out. It was a wonderful, barbaric thing of pure gold, big
enough for a grown man's wrist, and old enough to have been hammered
out in the very womb of time. It looked almost like ancient Greek,
and it fastened with a hinge and clasp that looked as if they did
not belong to it, and might have been made by a not very skillful
modern jeweler.

"Won't you wear it?" asked Rewa Gunga, watching him. "It will prove
a true talisman! What was the name of the Johnny who had a lamp
to rub? Aladdin? It will be better than what he had! He could
only command a lot of bogies. This will give you authority over
flesh and blood! Take it, sahib!"

So King put it on, letting it slip up his sleeve, out of sight,--
with a sensation as the snap closed of putting handcuffs on himself.
But the Rangar looked relieved.