Who stopped the last Afghan raid?’ It was
me really, but Dravot was too angry to remember.
‘Who bought your guns? Who
repaired the bridges? Who’s the Grand-Master
of the sign cut in the stone?’ and he
thumped his hand on the block that he used
to sit on in Lodge, and at Council, which
opened like Lodge always. Billy Fish said
nothing and no more did the others. ‘Keep
your hair on, Dan,’ said I; ‘and ask the
girls. That’s how it’s done at home, and
these people are quite English.’

“‘The marriage of a King is a matter of
State,’ says Dan, in a white-hot rage, for he
could feel, I hope, that he was going against
his better mind. He walked out of the
Council-room, and the others sat still, looking
at the ground.

“‘Billy Fish,’ says I to the Chief of Bashkai,
‘what’s the difficulty here? A straight
answer to a true friend.’ ‘You know,’ says
Billy Fish. ‘How should a man tell you
who know everything? How can daughters
of men marry gods or devils? It’s not
proper.’

“I remembered something like that in the
Bible; but if, after seeing us as long as they