. There were present, he tells us, besides Reed, Brigadier
Sydney Cotton, Herbert Edwardes, Nicholson, Brigadier Neville
Chamberlain, and Captain Wright. The last-named had been summoned to
act in a similar capacity with Roberts. The question to be decided was
how to make the Punjaub secure and prevent a general rising there, and
the point to be borne in mind was that there were only some 15,000
British troops with 84 guns in the province, as against over four times
the number of natives armed with 62 guns.

Almost the first proposal was made by Nicholson. To raise a strong
force of native levies who could be trusted was his recommendation,
warmly supported by Edwardes, and it was unanimously approved by the
council. All along the border which they had brought into submission
during those arduous years of labour at Bannu, Attock, and other
stations, Nicholson and his chief had staunch friends among the Sikh
warriors. To these they now turned for help in the time of need. And
so it was that the Movable Column came into existence, that splendid
body of picked men who made themselves and their leader ever famous in
Indian history.

In the meantime it was arranged that General Reed, as senior officer in
the Punjaub, should join Lawrence (now Sir John) at Rawal Pindi, to act
in concert with the Chief Commissioner, and that Brigadier Cotton
should succeed him in command at Peshawur. As a measure of precaution,
the "treasure" (computed at 24 lakhs of rupees) was now removed from
the cantonments to the fort outside, where a European garrison guarded
it. At the same time, for the security of the ladies and children in
the station, Brigadier Cotton made his headquarters at the Old
Residency, a strong, double-storeyed building which was capable of
being well defended.

For the next week or two Nicholson and his colleagues had their hands
full. He himself tapped the mail-bags at the post office, making
thereby many important discoveries in the shape of treasonable
correspondence, and saw to the prompt checking of seditious reports,
such as that issued by the Mohammedan editor of a native paper, who
went to prison for his pains. The raising of the native levies, to his
disappointment, proceeded slowly. Most of the border chieftains were
waiting to "see how the cat jumped," to put it figuratively, and both
Edwardes and Nicholson were kept hard at work exerting their influence
with the _maliks_ of the various villages.