Thus it was with Linforth.

He talked with no greater wit than his companions, he made no greater display of ability, he never outshone, and yet not a few men were conscious of a force underlying his quietude of manner.

Those men were the old and the experienced; the unobservant overlooked him altogether.
"Yes," said Shere Ali, "since you want to come you will come." "I shall try to come," said Linforth, simply.

"We belong to the Road," and for a little while he lay silent.

Then in a low voice he spoke, quoting from that page which was as a picture in his thoughts.
"Over the passes! Over the snow passes to the foot of the Hindu Kush!" "Then and then only India will be safe," the young Prince of Chiltistan added, speaking solemnly, so that the words seemed a kind of ritual.
And to both they were no less.