‘Yes, but I will come again. My dear friends, is that road shut?’ He pointed to where the North Star burned over the Khyber Pass. ‘By Jove! I forgot. Of course. Happy to meet you, old man, any time you like. Got everything you want? Cheroots, ice, bedding? That’s all right. Well, au revoir, Dirkovitch.’ ‘Um,’ said the other man, as the tail-lights of the train grew small. ‘Of--all--the--unmitigated--!’ Little Mildred answered nothing, but watched the North Star and hummed a selection from a recent Simla burlesque that had much delighted the White Hussars. It ran-- I’m sorry for Mister Bluebeard, I’m sorry to cause him pain; But a terrible spree there’s sure to be When he comes back again. THE HEAD OF THE DISTRICT There’s a convict more in the Central Jail, Behind the old mud wall; There’s a lifter less on the Border trail, And the Queen’s Peace over all, Dear boys The Queen’s Peace over all. For we must bear our leader’s blame, On us the shame will fall, If we lift our hand from a fettered land And the Queen’s Peace over all, Dear boys, The Queen’s Peace over all! THE RUNNING OF SHINDAND. I The Indus had risen in flood without warning. Last night it was a fordable shallow; to-night five miles of raving muddy water parted bank and caving bank, and the river was still rising under the moon. A litter borne by six bearded men, all unused to the work, stopped in the white sand that bordered the whiter plain. ‘It’s God’s will,’ they said. ‘We dare not cross to-night, even in a boat. Let us light a fire and cook food. We be tired men.’ They looked at the litter inquiringly. Within, the Deputy Commissioner of the Kot-Kumharsen district lay dying of fever. They had brought him across country, six fighting-men of a frontier clan that he had won over to the paths of a moderate righteousness, when he had broken down at the foot of their inhospitable hills. And Tallantire, his assistant, rode with them, heavy-hearted as heavy-eyed with sorrow and lack of sleep. He had served under the sick man for three years, and had learned to love him as men associated in toil of the hardest learn to love--or hate. Dropping from his horse he parted the curtains of the litter and peered inside. ‘Orde--Orde, old man, can you hear? We have to wait till the river goes down, worse luck.’ ‘I hear,’ returned a dry whisper. ‘Wait till the river goes down. I thought we should reach camp before the dawn. Polly knows. She’ll meet me.’ One of the litter-men stared across the river and caught a faint twinkle of light on the far side. He whispered to Tallantire, ‘There are his camp-fires, and his wife. They will cross in the morning, for they have better boats. Can he live so long?’