King--of the Khyber Rifles: A Romance of Adventure by Talbot Mundy (ereader for textbooks .TXT) 📗

“Sounds simple!” said King.

“Simple and sordid!” agreed Saunders.

King looked up and down the line of locked doors and then straight into Saunders' eyes in a friendly, yet rather disconcerting way. One could not judge whether he were laughing or just thinking.

“D'you suppose it's as simple as all that?”

“How d'you mean?”

“D'you suppose the Germans aren't in direct touch with the tribes?”

“Why should they be? The simpler the better, I expect, from their point of view; and the cheaper the better, too!”

“Um-m-m!” King rubbed his chin. “On what charge did you get these men?”

“Defense of the Realm--suspicious characters--charge to be entered later.”

“Good! That's simple at all events! Know anything of my man Ismail?”

“Sure! He's one of Yasmini's pets. She bailed him out of Ali's three years ago and he worships her. It was he who broke the leg and ribs of a pup-rajah a month or two ago for putting on too much dog in her reception room! He's Ursus out of Quo Vadis! He's dog, desperado, stalking horse and Keeper of the Queen's secrets!”

“Then why d'you suppose she passed him along to me?” asked King.

“Dunno! This is your little mystery, not mine!”

“Glad you appreciate that! Do me a favor, will you?”

“Anything in reason.”

“Get the keys to all these cells--send 'em in here to me by Ismail--and leave me in here alone!”

Saunders whistled and wiped sweat from his glistening face, for in spite of windows open to the courtyard it was hotter than a furnace room.

“Mayn't I have you thrown into a den of tigers?” he asked. “Or a nest of cobras? Or get the fiery furnace ready? You'll find 'em sore--and dangerous! That man at the end with handcuffs on has probably been violent! That 'God be with thee' stuff is habit--they say it with unction before they knife a man!”

“I'll be careful, then,” King chuckled; and it is a fact that few men can argue with him when he laughs quietly in that way. “Send me in the keys, like a good chap.”

So Saunders went, glad enough to get into the outer air. He slammed the great iron door behind him as if he were glad, too, to disassociate himself from King and all foolishness. Like many another first-class man, King sheds friends as a cat sheds fur going under a gate. They grow again and quit again and don't seem to make much difference.

The instant the door slammed King continued down the line with his left wrist held high so that the occupant of each cell in turn could see the bracelet.

“May God be with thee!” came the instant greeting from each cell until down toward the farther end. The occupants of the last six cells were silent.

Numbers had been chalked roughly on the doors. With wetted fingers he rubbed out the chalk marks on the last six doors, and he had scarcely finished doing that when Ismail strode in, slamming the great iron door behind him, jangling a bunch of keys and looking more than ever like somebody out of the Old Testament.

“Open every door except those whose numbers I have rubbed out!” King ordered him.

Ismail proceeded to obey as if that were the least improbable order in all the world. It took him two minutes to select the pass-key and determine how it worked, then the doors flew open one after another in quick succession.

“Come out!” he growled. “Come out!--Come out!” although King had not ordered that.

King went and stood under the center light with his left arm bared. The prisoners, emerging like dead men out of tombs, blinked at the bright light--saw him--then the bracelet--and saluted.

“May God be with thee!” growled each of them.

They stood still then, awaiting fresh developments. It did not seem to occur to any one of them as strange that a British officer in khaki uniform should be sporting Yasmini's talisman; the thing was apparently sufficient explanation in itself.

“Ye all know this?” he asked, holding up his wrist. “Whose is this?”

“Hers!”

The answer was monosyllabic and instant from all thirty throats. “May Allah guard her, sleeping and awake!” added one or two of them.

King lit a cheroot and made mental note of the wisdom of referring to her by pronoun, not by name.

“And I? Who am I?” he asked, since it saves worlds of trouble to have the other side state the case. The Secret Service was not designed for giving information, but discovering it.

“Her messenger! Who else? Thou art he who shall take us to the 'Hills'! She promised!”

“How did she know ye were in this jail?” he asked them, and one of the Hillmen laughed like a jackal, showing yellow eye-teeth. The others cackled in chorus after him.

“Answer that riddle thyself--or else ask her! Who are we? Bats, that can see in the night? Spirits, who can hear through walls? Nay, we be plain men of the mountains!”

“But where were ye when she promised?”

“At Ali's. All of us at Ali's--held for debt. We sent and begged of her. She sent word back by a woman that one of the sirkar's men shall free us and send us home. So we waited, eating shame and little else, at Ali's. At last came a sahib in a great rage, who ordered irons put on our wrists and us marched hither. Only when each was pushed into a separate cell were the irons taken off again. Yet we were patient, for we knew this is part of her cunning, to get us away from Ali without paying him. 'May Ali die of want,' said we, with one voice all together in these cells! And now we be ready! They fed us before we had been in here an hour. Our bellies be full, but we be hungry for the 'Hills'!”

King thought of the gold-hilted knife, that still rested under his shirt. He was tempted to show it to them and find out surely whose it was and what it meant. But wisdom and curiosity seldom mingle. He thought of Ismail--“Ursus, of Quo Vadis--dog, desperado, stalking-horse and Keeper of the Queen's secrets.” It was not time yet to run risks with Ismail. The knife stayed where it was.

“I shall start for the Hills at dawn,” he said slowly, and he watched their eyes gleam at the news. No caged tiger is as wretched as a prisoned Hillman. No freed bird wings more wildly for the open. No moth comes more foolishly back to the flame again. It was easy to take pity on them--probably