He seemed to be speaking to a stranger--so great a gulf was between them now--a gulf as wide, as impassable, as this one at his feet between the balcony and the Taragarh Hill.

"Have you forgotten that night when we sat in the doorway of the hut under the Aiguilles d'Arve?
I remember it very clearly.

You said to me, of your own accord, 'We will always be friends.

No man, no woman, shall come between us.

We will work together and we will always be friends.'" By not so much as the flicker of an eyelid did Shere Ali betray that he heard the words.