h Allah has been good to me too," he added; "am I not now a
dafadar? He who has patience wins. Thou canst not now be a dafadar
before me."

Ahmed congratulated him warmly on his promotion. Then he asked what the
Guides had been doing during his absence, and heard of almost daily
encounters with the enemy. He learnt also that Hodson Sahib was no
longer in command of the corps. He had raised a new body of horsemen, of
whom the Guides were somewhat jealous.

"There goes one of them," cried Sherdil, pointing to a tall figure in
khaki, with a scarlet sash over the shoulder and a huge scarlet turban.
"We call them flamingoes, for they are very like. Thou shouldst see them
on horseback, some of them who have ridden little; it is a sight to make
you crack your sides."

"And who is now our commander, then?"

"Shebbeare Sahib, a good man: has he not been twice wounded? But it
seems as though our commanders change with the moon, so short a time do
they abide with us."

And then he told of what men had been killed, and what wounded. He
himself had been incapacitated for a week through a sabre cut. Ahmed
asked if any new men had joined the corps.

"None, though there was a man of good promise who came with us into that
fight I told you of towards Alipur; a silent man, with a noble beard.
Some of us thought he was a candidate; some, a sahib--thou knowest how
the sahibs love strange adventures; but I have never looked upon him
since."

"Of what sort was he, Sherdil?"

"A straight man, with a grave face, and a good seat on horseback."

"Was he anything like me?"

"Hai! Thou art a stripling: he was a _man_, I say. Maybe if thou live
long enough thou wilt have a beard like his. Truly thou wouldst have
rejoiced to see him that day. Did he not smite, Rasul? Did he not cleave
his way through the Purbiyas with clean thrust and stroke? I would fain
look on him again."

"Thou hast seen him this day, Sherdil."

"Sayest thou? Where? I knew it not."

"Thou seest him now."

Sherdil stared.

"Dost thou not remember how thou didst thyself give me a moustache that
day we went as traders to Mandan? Even so I got for myself the beard, in
Karnal."

The men laughed, and chaffed Sherdil uproariously on his failure to
recognize his prize pupil.

"Wah!" cried the new dafadar; "but those who said the man was a
sahib----"

He stopped, checked by a look from Ahmed. Then they talked of the
prospects of the siege, and the merits of the