.

"Thy servant knows not with any certainty, but maybe it is two koss."

It was a tantalizing situation to be in. Ahmed felt sure that his
comrades were encamped within an hour's march of him and yet he could
not reach them. Why had the sowars halted at the plantation instead of
returning to Delhi by some roundabout route? And yet, he reflected, even
if they were not there, he could hardly dare to move on in the broad
daylight. There were the same dangers to be feared as had determined his
previous conduct.

The position was delicate enough. The sowars might take alarm. In that
case they would probably retreat to find some shelter, and might easily
come upon the very nullah in which the little party was concealed. The
Guides would no doubt remain in their encampment for the greater part of
the day, moving on again when night fell. Even if the rebel horsemen
should not be scared by any action of the Guides, it was always possible
that some of them should take it into their heads to go a-roving. At any
moment, too, a villager, a wandering mendicant, a kasid from one village
to another, might cross the plain and get sight of the fugitives. There
were signs of footpaths, and passers-by would not need to come right up
to the nullah before suspecting the presence of the hidden party, for
Ruksh was but imperfectly concealed by the bush.

Moreover, the party would soon be in want of food. The bearers had with
them provisions for only one day, and though Ahmed did not know how much
food was in the palki, he suspected that it was very little: the
zamindar would hardly have foreseen the possibility of so long a delay
in reaching his brother's house. Ruksh could find some little sustenance
in the leaves of the shrubs around him, but he would soon strip them
bare. There was water in the bed of the nullah, and the bearers had
already given the girl some in the lotah she had used before; they
themselves of course, being Hindus, would not drink from the vessel
which her lips had contaminated, but stooped and lapped up the running
water. But none of the party was in a condition to wait through the long
hours of an Indian day in the hottest season of the year, and then to
undertake a night march, without more refreshment than it seemed
possible for them to obtain. Ahmed thought over the situation with no
little anxiety. To move away might be immediately fatal; the only
alternative was to remain hidden on the chance of the sowars by a