handful to hold the tribes in check."

King nodded. There has never been peace along the northwest border.
It did not need vision to foresee trouble from that quarter. In
fact it must have been partly on the strength of some of King's
reports that the general was planning now.

"That was a very small handful of Sikhs you named as likely to give
trouble. Did you do that job thoroughly?"

King grunted.

"Well--Delhi's chock-full of spies, all listening to stories made
in Germany for them to take back to the 'Hills' with 'em. The
tribes'll know presently how many men we're sending oversea.
There've been rumors about Khinjan by the hundred lately. They're
cooking something. Can you imagine 'em keeping quiet now?"

"That depends, sir. Yes, I can imagine it."

The general laughed. "That's why I sent for you. I need a man
with imagination! There's a woman you've got to work with on this
occasion who can imagine a shade or two too much. What's worse,
she's ambitious. So I chose you to work with her."

King's lips stiffened under his mustache, and the corners of his
eyes wrinkled into crow's-feet to correspond. Eyes are never coal-
black, of course, but his looked it at that minute.

"You know we've sent men to Khinjan who are said to have entered