held propped by his knees beneath the bedclothes, holding the paper
tight to keep it from fluttering in the breeze of a big electric fan.

"There's the release for your prisoners. Take it--and take them!
Whatever possessed you to want such a gift?"

"Orders, sir."

"Whose?"

"His. He sent for me to Peshawur and gave me strict orders to
work with, not against her. This was obvious."

"How obvious? It seems bewildering!"

"Well, sir,--first place, she doesn't want to seem to be connected
with me. Otherwise she'd have been more in evidence. Second place,
she has left Delhi--his telegram and Saunders' men on oath
notwithstanding--and she did not mean to leave those men. I imagine
her best way to manage Hillmen is to keep promises, and they say
she promised them. Third place, if those thirty men had been
anything but her particular pet gang they'd either have been over
the border or else in jail before now,--just like all the others.
For some reason that I don't pretend to understand, she promised
'em more than she has been able to perform. So I provide performance.
She gets the credit for it. I get a pretty good personal following
at least as far as up the Khyber! Q.E.D.,sir!"

The man in bed nodded. "Not bad," he said.