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Thwaite picked up and read the latest, which was a scrawl in quavering characters over three telegraph for a row of his oith the navvies there, and that he could send no reinforcements at present If he quieted the trouble in time he would try and hold the Mazeno Pass, and meanwhile he had done his best to wake the Punjab As the wires would be probably cut within the next hour there would be no ht Thwaite to keep the invader in the passes, as the whole south country was a e ran in short violent words, and Thwaite had a vision of Ladcock, short, ruddy, and utterly out of temper, stirred up from his easy life to hold a frontier

There was no word frohlands about Hunza and Punial were the most disaffected on the Border, and doubtless the first to be taone, and he could only pray that the race of God have eyes in their heads to read the signs of the times There was a brief word from Jackson at Boonji There attacks had been ine-sheds since sunset, which his -stock was lying there, as five freight trains had brought up e the day before Of this the enemy had probably had word Anyhow, he hoped to quiet all local disturbances, and he would undertake to see that every station on the line arned He would receive reinforcements from Abbotabad by the afternoon of the next day; if Bardur and Gilgit, or Yasin as it ht be safe--unless, indeed, the whole nexus of hill-tribes rose as one man In which case there would be the devil to pay, and he had no advice to give

Thwaite read and laughed grimly It was not a question of a day's delay, but of an hour's, and the hill-tribes, if he judged Marker's cleverness rightly, would act just as Jackson feared The business had begun ait and Boonji In a little they would have news of real tribal war--Hunzas, Pathans, Chitralis, Punialis, and Chils, tribes whoht a dozen times before and knew the s Well supplied with money and arms--this would have been part of Marker's business--they would be the forerunners of the great are war, then scientific annihilation by civilized hands--a sweet prospect for a peaceful man in the prime of life!