But Shere Ali was glad.

For their very opposition--in so loverlike a way did every thought somehow reach out to Violet Oliver--brought him a little nearer to the lady who held his heart.

He found the Commissioner sealing up his letters in his office.
That unobservant man had just written at length, privately and confidentially, both to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab at the hill-station and to the Resident at Kohara.

And to both he had written to the one effect: "We must expect trouble in Chiltistan." He based his conclusions upon the glimpse which he had obtained into the troubled feelings of Shere Ali.

The next morning Shere Ali travelled northwards and forty-eight hours later from the top of the Malakand Pass he saw winding across the Swat valley past Chakdara the road which reached to Kohara and there stopped..