As her head withdrew with a shrill call to the kitmatgah, Sir Colvin and Chantry entered from the verandah. The Commissioner, with the sense of nakedness which men have felt so often since the days of Eve from following a woman's counsel, wished, on learning of Terrington's arrival, to confront him personally with the news of the Durbar. So after he had seated himself and listened to what could be told him on the prospects of supply, he put the question with an exaggerated imitation of his own bluffness. "Well! I suppose you've heard of the Durbar?" "I'm afraid, sir," said the other, "I've been too hungry to hear of anything but breakfast. It's to be cold chikor," he added, smiling, as Rose Chantry, followed by the kitmatgah, made a muslin whiteness in the mess room-door. She heard the cheerful lie with a flash of admiration for the man who spoke it. So many beaten men, she knew, would have jumped at the peevish chance to hit back, especially when the hard truth to hit with was in their hands. "Well," continued Sir Colvin, saluting Mrs. Chantry and reseating himself, as the tray was laid before Terrington, "I decided, as no reply came to my last demand, some sort of move must be made at once, if we weren't to be boxed here all the winter. So, as there was no chance of ferreting the Khan out of that hole of his, we're going to talk him into reason over there." Terrington, with his knife in the partridge, looked up and nodded. "I suppose the plan's no more to your mind than ever?" queried the Commissioner. "No, sir," said his military adviser. "I think it's even less." "How! from what you've heard?" exclaimed Sir Colvin. "No," said the soldier slowly; "from what I haven't heard. There's no talk in the hills; and when a Sari man's dumb, he's either got something to say, or something not to say it." "Hang it all!" cried Chantry. "I wonder if there's anything that you wouldn't think a bad sign?" Aire shrugged his shoulders. "Well! the die's cast," he said; "and we've got to see the thing through. The only question left is one of escort. We want to look imposing but not belligerent. What do you think?" "The smaller the better," said Terrington drily. "Why?" "You can't take enough to make it safe for you," explained the other; "but you can take enough to make it unsafe for us." "For _you_?" Sir Colvin asked. "Suppose you don't come back?" was Terrington's reply. "Gad! but you're a cheerful counsellor," cried Chantry hotly. "If they murder us, eh," said Aire. "And you think they mean to, Captain Terrington?" asked Rose Chantry. Terrington shook his head. "Not to-morrow!" he said. "Mir Khan wouldn't expect to get the chance." "You mean he doesn't believe we're such unqualified fools as to go there?" Sir Colvin suggested. "That's probably how he puts it," said Terrington blandly. "Well that gives us a chance the more," Chantry threw in.