pt him for a
long time. Ahmed felt afterwards as if he had been turned inside out. He
related all that had happened to him since his departure from the Ridge;
his fight with the lathi-wallahs, his interview with Fazl Hak (at which
Hodson chuckled), his eavesdropping in Minghal Khan's house, the failure
of all his attempts hitherto to discover anything about Dr. Craddock. He
mentioned casually how he had seen the khansaman disappear through a
hole in the wall.

"The rascal!" said Hodson. "Without doubt he has some little hoard of
his own by which he sleeps. And you say that he talks foully about the
sahibs?"

"True, hazur."

"I hope the villain will get his deserts some day. Craddock Sahib will
without doubt be found--if he is yet alive--in some quiet garden or on
some roof-top. You will go back into the city. I am pleased with you.
You will find out all you can that will help us when the assault
comes--the numbers of rebels at the various gates, the haunts of the
ringleaders, the secret ways by which they may try to escape. And if you
can discover anything of their plans again, as you have done, you must
let me know. Have you money?"

"Enough, sahib, and I have still some goods to sell."

"Ah, I had forgotten your goods. I doubt whether you will find them as
you left them."

"Then the bhatiyara will suffer many pangs," said Ahmed simply, and
Hodson laughed.

It was many days, however, before Ahmed returned to Delhi. His exposure
on the night of his escape, followed by the march and fighting, and the
fatigues of returning in the heat, had brought on a slight fever. He lay
up in the quarters of the camp-followers, trusting to Nature for his
cure. And during these days he heard much talk of the incidents of the
camp. Cholera had broken out; General Barnard himself died of it after a
few hours' illness on the day after the sortie to Alipur. His successor,
General Reed, was in ill-health, and officers and men were discussing
who would really lead them. Many of the natives complained bitterly of
their treatment by the British soldiers. The cook-boys, who carried
their food, often had to dodge round shot from the city, and had become
expert at it, dropping down on their knees when they saw the shot
coming. And when they rose and went on with their pots and tins the men
would jeer at them, and curse them for being late with the food. Ahmed,
as he heard things like this, wondered whether all the sahibs had such
contemp