“Salaam aleikoum!”
“And upon thee be peace!” King answered in the Pashtu tongue, for the “Hills” are polite, whatever the other principles.
Rewa Gunga's face beamed down on him, wreathed in smiles that seemed to include mockery as well as triumph. Looking up at him at an angle that made his neck ache and dazzled his eyes, King could not be sure, but it seemed to him that the smile said, “Here you are, my man, and aren't you in for it?” He more than half suspected he was intended to understand that. But the Rangar's conversation took another line.
“By jove!” he chuckled. “She expected you. She guessed you are a hound who can hunt well on a dry scent, and she dared bet you will come in spite of all odds! But she didn't expect you in Rangar dress! No, by jove! You jolly well will take the wind out of her sails!”
King made no answer. For one thing, the word “hound,” even in English, is not essentially a compliment. But he had a better reason than that.
“Did you find the way easily?” the Rangar asked but King kept silence.
“Is he parched? Have they cut his tongue out on the road?”
That question was in Pashtu, directed at Ismail and the others, but King answered it.
“Oh, as for that,” he said, salaaming again in the fastidious manner of a native gentleman, “I know no other tongue than Pashtu and my own Rajasthani. My name is Kurram Khan. I ask admittance.”
He held up his wrist to show the gold bracelet, and high over his head the Rangar laughed like a bell.