had passed in the night. Yet he wondered why
they had halted at that particular spot, for if it was a tank, there was
in all probability a village on the other side of the rising ground. He
watched them for a time, and presently saw a man riding towards them
from round the shoulder of the hillock. As he reached them, some of the
dismounted men crowded about him; in the distance they looked to Ahmed
like flies clustering. After a time two of them mounted their horses,
and accompanied the new-comer along the high-road in the direction of
Delhi. When they came near the crest of the rising ground they halted
and dismounted. One of the men held the horses in the middle of the
road, while the others went on foot to the top, and gradually
disappeared as they descended on the further side. The third man
remained motionless with the horses in the road.

Ahmed felt interested. What were they about? What lay beyond the
hillock?

After a while he saw two figures reappear on the skyline. They were no
doubt the same two, for they walked down to the man with the horses,
mounted, and trotted back to the main body. A few minutes afterwards two
other men left the plantation and rode up the acclivity as the others
had done, dismounting also before they reached the top. While one held
the horses the other ascended the slope, with a slowness that spoke of
caution, and went out of sight as the others had done before him. Ahmed
looked for him to return after an interval, but minute after minute
slipped away and still he did not reappear. Had he gone on some scouting
errand, or perhaps to take post as sentry? It was clear that on the
further side of the hillock something was going on in which the horsemen
on this side were keenly interested.

All at once the explanation occurred to Ahmed. The Guides were without
doubt encamped beyond the hillock. It had been their practice all
through the march from Mardan to halt in the early morning. The horsemen
at the plantation were probably a roving band of mutinous sowars from
Delhi, who had been raiding, and now found the Guides between them and
the city. To obtain confirmation of his conclusions, Ahmed slipped down
from the tree and asked one of the men whether there was a village
beyond the hillock.

"Truly there is," said the man, "and it is some seventeen koss from
Karnal."

This was the distance the Guides might be expected to march during the
night.

"And how far is it from us?" he asked