"If Linforth were to come out to Chiltistan it might make a difference." They had walked round to the rails in front of the stand, and Shere Ali looked up the steps to the Viceroy's box.

The Viceroy was present that afternoon.

Shere Ali saw his tall figure, with the stoop of the shoulders characteristic of him, as he stood dressed in a grey frock-coat, with the ladies of his family and one or two of his _aides-de-camp_ about him.
Shere Ali suddenly stopped and nodded towards the box.
"Have you any influence there ?" he asked of Colonel Dewes; and he spoke with a great longing, a great eagerness, and he waited for the answer in a great suspense.
Dewes shook his head.
"None," he replied; "I am nobody at all." The hope died out of Shere Ali's face.
"I am sorry," he said; and the eagerness had changed into despair.

There was just a chance, he thought, of salvation for himself if only Linforth could be fetched out to India.

He might resume with Linforth his old companionship, and so recapture something of his old faith and of his bright ideals.