After that I have no idea what would
have happened to us, except that I am sure we should never have got
near enough to the British lines to make good our escape. We must
find another way than that!"

"We might have made the attempt!" said Gooja Singh, and a dozen men
murmured approval.

"Simpletons!" came the answer. "The Germans laid their plans for the
first for photographs to lend color to lies about the Sikh troops
fighting for them! Ye would have played into their hands!"

"What then?" said I, after a minute, for at that answer they had all
grown dumb.

"What then?" said he. "Why, this: We are in Asia, but still on
Turkish soil. We need food. We shall need shelter before many hours.
And we need discipline, to aid our will to overcome! Therefore there
never was a regiment more fiercely disciplined than this shall be!
From now until we bring up in a British camp--and God knows when or
where that may happen!--the man who as much as thinks of
disobedience plays with death! Death--ye be as good as dead men
now!" said he.

He shook himself. A sense of loneliness had come on me since he told
us we were in Asia, and I think the men felt as I did. There had
been nothing to eat on the steamer, and there was nothing now.
Hunger and cold and rain were doing their work. But Ranjoor Singh
stood and shook himself, and moved slowly along the line to look in
each man's face, and I took new courage from his bearing. If I could
have known what he had in store for us, I would have leaped and
shouted. Yet, no, sahib; that is not true. If he had told me what
was coming, I would never have believed. Can the sahib imagine, for
instance, what was to happen next?

"Ye are as good as dead men!" he said, coming back to the center and
facing all the men. "Consider!" said he. "Our ship is sunk and the
Turks, to save their own skins, will swear they saw us drown. Who,
then, will come and hunt for dead men?"

I could see the eyes of the nearest men opening wider as new
possibilities began to dawn. As for me--my two hands shook.

"And we have with us," said he, "a hostage who might prove useful--a
hostage who might prove amenable to reason. Bring out the prisoner!"
said he.

So I bade Tugendheim come forth. He was sitting on the straw where
the guards had pushed him, still working sullenly to free his hands.
He came and peered through the doorway into darkness, and Ranjoor
Singh stood aside to let the men see him. They can not have