‘Is there any priest in the Kingdom to whom he will listen?’ said I, for a light was beginning to break upon me.

‘He worships his own God,’ said the Prime Minister.  We can starve him out.’

‘Let the white man approach,’ said Namgay Doola from within.  All others I will kill.  Send me the white man.’

A rabbit-faced villager, with a blush-rose stuck behind his ear, advanced trembling.  He had been in the conspiracy, but had told everything and hoped for the King’s favour.

The door was thrown open and I entered the smoky interior of a Thibetan hut crammed with children.  And every child had flaming red hair.  A raw cow’s tail lay on the floor, and by its side two pieces of black velvet—­my black velvet—­rudely hacked into the semblance of masks.

‘And what is this shame, Namgay Doola?’ said I.

He grinned more winningly than ever.  ‘There is no shame,’ said he.  ’I did but cut off the tail of that man’s cow.  He betrayed me.  I was minded to shoot him, Sahib.  But not to death.  Indeed not to death.  Only in the legs.’

’And why at all, since it is the custom to pay revenue to the King?  Why at all?’

‘By the God of my father I cannot tell,’ said Namgay Doola.

‘And who was thy father?’

‘The same that had this gun.’  He showed me his weapon—­a Tower musket bearing date 1832 and the stamp of the Honourable East India Company.

‘And thy father’s name?’ said I.

‘Timlay Doola,’ said he.  ’At the first, I being then a little child, it is in my mind that he wore a red coat.’

’Of that I have no doubt.  But repeat the name of thy father thrice or four times.’

He obeyed, and I understood whence the puzzling accent in his speech came.  ‘Thimla Dhula,’ said he excitedly.  ’To this hour I worship his God.’

‘May I see that God?’

‘In a little while—­at twilight time.’

‘Rememberest thou aught of thy father’s speech?’

’It is long ago.  But there is one word which he said often.  Thus “Shun.”  Then I and my brethren stood upon our feet, our hands to our sides.  Thus.’

‘Even so.  And what was thy mother?’

’A woman of the hills.  We be Lepchas of Darjeeling, but me they call an outlander because my hair is as thou seest.’

The Thibetan woman, his wife, touched him on the arm gently.  The long parley outside the fort had lasted far into the day.  It was now close upon twilight—­the hour of the Angelus.  Very solemnly, the red-headed brats rose from the floor and formed a semicircle.  Namgay Doola laid his gun against the wall, lighted a little oil lamp, and set it before a recess in the wall.  Pulling aside a curtain of dirty cloth he revealed a worn brass crucifix leaning against the helmet-badge of a long forgotten East India regiment.  ‘Thus did my father,’ he said, crossing himself clumsily.  The wife and children followed suit.  Then all together they struck up the wailing chant that I heard on the hillside—­