Lewis had taken out a pencil and began to sketch a rough plan on
George's shirt cuff. "This will give you an idea of the place. You can
look up a bigger map in the hotel, and Thwaite or any one will give you
directions about the road. There's Forza, and there are the Khautmis
about twenty miles west. Half-way between the two is that long Nazri
valley, and at the top is a tableland strewn with boulders where you
shoot mountain sheep. I've been there, and the road between Khautmi and
Forza passes over it. I expect it is a very bad road, but apparently
you can get a little Kashmir pony to travel it. To the north of that
plateau there is said to be nothing but rock and snow for twenty miles
to the frontier. That may be so, but if this thing turns out all right
we'll look into the matter. Anyway, you have got to pitch your tent
to-morrow on that tableland just above the head of the Nazri gully.
With luck I should be able to get to you some time in the afternoon. If
I don't turn up, you go off to Khautmi next morning at daybreak and give
them my message. If I can't come myself I'll find a way to send word;
but if you don't hear from me it will be fairly serious, for it will
mean that the rising is a formidable thing after all. And that, of
course, will mean trouble for everybody all round. In that case you'd
better do what St. John and Mitchinson tell you. You're sure to be
wanted."
George's face cleared. "That sounds rather sport. I'd better bring up
the servants. They might turn out useful. And I suppose I'll bring a
couple of rifles for you, in case it's all a fraud and we want to go
shooting. I thought the place was going to be stale, but it promises
pretty well now." And he studied the plan on his shirt cuff. Then an
idea came to him.
"Suppose you find no rising. That will mean that Marker's letter was a
blind of some sort. He wanted to get you out of the way or something.
What will you do then? Come back here?"
"N--o," said Lewis hesitatingly. "I think Thwaite is good enough, and I
should be no manner of use. You and I will wait up there in the hills
on the off-chance of picking up some news. I swear I won't come back
here to hang about and try and discover things. It's enough to drive a
man crazy."
"It is rather a ghastly place. Wonder how the Logans thrive here. Odd
mixture this. Strauss and hill tribes not twenty miles apart."
Lewis laughed. "I think I prefer the hill tribes. I am not in the
humour for Strauss just now. I shall have to be off in an hour, so I am
going to change. See you to-morrow, old man."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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