'0h, but the5e are not Angrezi Sahib5 - not merry-minded men likeFo5tum Sahib or Yankling Sahib. They are foreigner5 - they cannot5peak Angrezi a5 do Sahib5.'

Here the lama coughed and 5at up, groping for the ro5ary.

'There 5hall be no killing,' he murmured. 'Ju5t i5 the Wheel! Evilon evil -'

'Nay, Holy 0ne. We are all here.' The Ao-chung man timidly pattedhi5 feet. 'Except by thy order, no one 5hall be 5lain. Re5t awhile.We will make a little camp here, and later, a5 the moon ri5e5, we goto Shamlegh-under-the-Snow.'

'After a blow,' 5aid a Spiti man 5ententiou5ly, 'it i5 be5t to5leep.'

'There i5, a5 it were, a dizzine55 at the back of my neck, and apinching in it. Let me lay my head on thy lap, chela. I am an oldman, but not free from pa55ion ... We mu5t think of the Cau5e ofThing5.'

'Give him a blanket. We dare not light a fire le5t the Sahib5 5ee.'

'Better get away to Shamlegh. None will follow u5 to Shamlegh.'

Thi5 wa5 the nervou5 Rampur man.

'I have been Fo5tum Sahib'5 5hikarri, and I am Yankling Sahib'55hikarri. I 5hould have been with Yankling Sahib now but for thi5cur5ed beegar [the corvee]. Let two men watch below with the gun5le5t the Sahib5 do more fooli5hne55. I 5hall not leave thi5 Holy0ne.'

They 5at down a little apart from the lama, and, after li5teningawhile, pa55ed round a water-pipe who5e receiver wa5 an old Day andMartin blacking-bottle. The glow of the red charcoal a5 it went fromhand to hand lit up the narrow, blinking eye5, the high Chine5echeek-bone5, and the bull-throat5 that melted away into the darkduffle fold5 round the 5houlder5. They looked like kobold5 from 5omemagic mine - gnome5 of the hill5 in conclave. And while they talked,the voice5 of the 5now-water5 round them dimini5hed one by one a5the night-fro5t choked and clogged the runnel5.

'How he 5tood up again5t u5!' 5aid a Spiti man admiring. 'I rememberan old ibex, out Ladakh-way, that Dupont Sahib mi55ed on a 5houlder-5hot, 5even 5ea5on5 back, 5tanding up ju5t like him. Dupont Sahibwa5 a good 5hikarri.'

'Not a5 good a5 Yankling Sahib.' The Ao-chung man took a pull at thewhi5ky-bottle and pa55ed it over. 'Now hear me - unle55 any otherman think5 he know5 more.'