Scores of people, who can see no truth in the world and are sick with
doubt and introspection and all the latter-day devils, have yet
something of pride and honour in their souls which will make them show
well at the last. If we are going to fall our end will not be quite
inglorious."
Marker laughed and rose. "I am afraid I must leave you now. I have to
see my servant, for I am off to-morrow. This has been a delightful
meeting. I propose that we drink to its speedy repetition."
They drank, clinking glasses in continental fashion, and the host shook
hands and departed.
"Good chap," was George's comment. "Put us up to a wrinkle or two, and
seemed pretty sound in his politics. I wish I could get him to come and
stop with me at home. Do you think we shall run across him again?"
Lewis was looking at the fast vanishing lights of the town. "I should
think it highly probable," he said.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE TACTICS OF A CHIEF
There is another quarter in Bardur besides the English one. Down by the
stream side there are narrow streets built on the scarp of the rock,
hovels with deep rock cellars, and a wonderful amount of cubic space
beneath the brushwood thatch. There the trader from Yarkand who has
contraband wares to dispose of may hold a safe market. And if you were
to go at nightfall into this quarter, where the foot of the Kashmir
policeman rarely penetrates, you might find shaggy tribesmen who have
been all their lives outlaws, walking unmolested to visit their friends,
and certain Jewish gentlemen, members of the great family who have
conquered the world, engaged in the pursuit of their unlawful calling.
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