"Of course, you don't know. It seems stale news to me. There's a whole army corps encamped ten miles beyond the bridge--twenty thousand men at a guess, with field-guns, all complete. I saw hundreds of transport-wagons rolling up, camel caravans too. It's a big thing."
"But what's the game? They don't need an army corps to bag this mine."
"Hanged if I know. It seems clear they intend to march up the valley; it was probably an advanced outpost that we came into conflict with. So far as I know the valley leads only to Afghanistan and--India."
"Those Mongols we have heard about, then, are going to have a slap at Afghanistan?"
"Or India!"
"That's tosh. Twenty thousand men are no good for invading India, and they wouldn't come this way in any case."
"That's just what I said to myself. Of course Afghanistan is much nearer, and they might catch the Amir napping by choosing this unusual road. But after all, what concerns us is our position here."
"Yes. What have you been doing all day?"
"Flying up and down like a swallow--or wasn't it an eagle that dropped something on a Johnny's bald skull--in the classics. I haven't done that exactly, but I've had a little practice in bomb dropping."
He related the manoeuvres by which he had checked the pursuit of the Pathans and driven the Kalmucks down-stream, and the subsequent adventurous flight of Nurla Bai.