Talbot Mundy

“ What do you know?"
"I've telephoned all the other stations, and my men swear Yasmini has not left Delhi by train!"
King smiled at him.
"If I leave by train d'you suppose she'll hear of it?"
"You bet! Bet your boots! Man alive—if she's interested in you by so much,"—he measured off a fraction of his little finger end—"she knows your next two moves ahead, to say nothing of your past half-dozen! I crossed her bows once and thought I had her at a disadvantage. She laughed at me. On my honor, my spine tingles yet at the mere thought of it! You've never met her? Never heard her laugh? ”

“ Ismail shook his head.
"Why? What could he do to thee?"
"It is because I know not what he would do to me that I will do nothing!" answered Ismail. "He is not at all like other sahibs I have had dealings with. This man does unexpected things. This man is not mad, he has a devil. I have it in my heart to love this man. But such talk is foolishness. We are all her men!"
"Aye! We are her men!" came the chorus, so that King looked up and watched them over the open book.
At dawn, when the train pulled out, the thirty prisoners sat safely locked in third-class compartments. ”

“ Ismail answered him.
Inches lent the Afridi dignity, but dignity has often been used as a stalking horse for untruth. King nodded, and it was not possible to judge by his expression whether he believed or not.
"Let's make a move," be said, turning to Saunders. "She seems at any rate to wish it believed she has gone North. I can't stay here indefinitely. If she's here she's on the watch here, and there's no need of me. If she has gone North, then that is where the kites are wheeling! I'll take the early morning train. Where are the prisoners?" ”

“ King laughed. "Ye shall leave this place as my prisoners. Here ye have no friends. Here ye must obey. But what when ye come to your 'Hills' at last? Can one man hold thirty men prisoners then? In the 'Hills' will ye still obey me?"
They answered him in chorus. Every man of the thirty, and Ismail into the bargain, threw his right hand in the air.
"Allah witness that we will obey!"
"Ah-h-h!" said King. "I have heard Hillmen swear by Allah many a time! Many a time!"
The answer to that was unexpected. Ismail knelt—seized his hand—and pressed the gold bracelet to his lips! ”

“ The Germans pay Ali a little, and he traps the Hillmen when they come South—lets 'em gamble—gets 'em into debt—plays on their fear of jail and their ignorance of the Indian Penal Code, which altereth every afternoon—and spends a lot of time telling 'em stories to take back with 'em to the Hills when they can get away. They can get away when they've paid him what they owe. He makes that clear, and of course that's the fly in the amber. Yasmini sends and pays their board and gambling debts, and she's our man, so to speak. ”

“ Ali is the only spy out of the North who prospers much at present, and even he gets most of his money out of his private business. Why, man, the real Germans we have pounced on are all as poor as church mice. That's another part of the plan, of course, which is sweet in all its workings. They're paid less than driven by threats of exposure to us—comes cheaper, and serves to ginger up the spies! ”

“ Ali gave them bitterness to eat and picked their teeth afterward for gleanings! They stand in what they own!"
"Then, come!" ordered King, turning his back confidently on thirty savages whom Saunders, for instance, would have preferred to drive in front of him, after first seeing them handcuffed. But when he is not pressed for time neither pistols, nor yet handcuffs, are included in King's method.
"Each lock has a key, but some keys fit all locks," says the Eastern proverb. King has been chosen for many ticklish errands in his time, and Saunders is still in Delhi. ”

“ Sooner or later they grow tired of virtue, 'specially with so much intrigue goin' on under their noses, and back they all drift to Ali's and tell him tales to tell the Germans—and the round begins again. Yasmini coaxes all their stories out of 'em and primes 'em with a few extra good ones into the bargain. Everybody's fooled—'specially the Germans—and exceptin', of course, Yasmini and the Raj. Nobody ever fooled that woman, nor ever will if my belief goes for anything! ”

“ As the custom is he gave me the key of the great bag—on which I sit—as he said himself, for safe-keeping. Then why—why in Allah's name—am I not to have the key of this bag too? Of this little bag that holds so little and is so light?"
"It might be money in it?" hazarded one of the herd.
"Nay, for that it is too light."
"Paper money!" suggested another man. "Hundies, with printing on the face that sahibs accept instead of gold."
"Nay, I know where his money is," said Ismail. "He has but little with him."
"A razor would slit the leather easily," suggested another man. ”

“ No moth comes more foolishly back to the flame again. It was easy to take pity on them—probably not one of whom knew pity's meaning.
"Is there any among you who would care to come—?"
"Ah-h-h-h!"
"—at the price of strict obedience?"
"Eh-h-h-h-h!"
It seemed there was no word in Pashtu that could express their willingness.
"We be very, very weary for our Hills!" explained the nearest man. ”

“ 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. ”