From these Lisle managed to concoct a savoury mess, as he had often watched the men cooking their meals.
The sergeant had evidently chosen two good men to share the tent with Lisle.

They were both old soldiers, not given to much talking; and were kind to their young comrade, giving him hints about cooking and making himself comfortable, and abstaining from asking many questions.

They were easily satisfied with his answers and, after the meal was eaten, sat down with him and talked of the coming campaign.

Neither of them had ever been to Chitral, but they knew by hearsay the nature of the road, and discussed the probability of the point at which serious opposition would begin; both agreeing that the difficulties of crossing the passes, now that these would be covered with snow, would be far greater than any stand the tribesmen might make.
"They are tough fighters, no doubt," one of them said; "and we shall have more difficulty, with them, than we have ever had before; for they say that a great many of them are armed with good rifles, and will therefore be able to annoy us at a distance, when their old matchlocks would have been useless." "And they are good shots, too." "There is no doubt about that; quite as good as we are, I should say.

There will be a tremendous lot of flanking work to keep them at a distance but, when it comes to anything like regular fighting, we shall sweep them before us.
"From what I hear, however, we shall only have three or four guns with us.