ntil dawn. Then he called the people to a meeting and reassured
them as to his intentions. Without doubt they had been led away, he told
them, in their attack on Shagpur, by the evil designs of their chief,
Minghal. Minghal was now gone--had fled away to escape disgrace and
humiliation. But his cowardice was a disgrace still greater. None but a
coward would have taken flight thus, leaving his men without a leader
and his family defenceless.

"Minghal has a serpent's cunning, but the heart of a hare," cried the
old chief. "He is not fit for rule. He tried to take my village, and
failed; and we have shown that even at tricks we can beat him. I will
punish no man for Minghal's ill-doings. I myself will be your chief, and
you shall be my people."

The men sent out in pursuit of Minghal returned by and by unsuccessful.
In that hilly country there were many hiding-places where he might
dwell. In the afternoon Rahmut returned to Shagpur, leaving one of his
principal lieutenants in charge with a score of men, and taking a like
number of Minghal's men with him for safety's sake.

Sherdil received great praise for his skilful stratagem. Rahmut wished
to keep him at Shagpur, offering him great inducements to remain. But
Sherdil was not to be tempted. He had eaten Lumsden Sahib's salt, he
said, and when his furlough was over he would return to his duties at
Mardan, the head-quarters of the Guides. Perhaps later on, when his term
of service had expired and he was granted a pension, he might settle in
his native village; but for the present he was content to remain one of
the Guides and serve the sirkar. And when, a few days later, he donned
his khaki again and rode away to rejoin his comrades, no one in Shagpur
was sorrier than Ahmed. Sherdil's departure had left a blank.

CHAPTER THE SIXTH

In the Nets

The capture of Minghal's village gave such an accession of strength to
Rahmut Khan that he was soon emboldened to plan an expedition of greater
importance than any he had undertaken before. He heard that the chief of
a small hill village had refused to pay the Government revenue, and that
Sir John Lawrence, the Commissioner in Peshawar, would shortly dispatch
a force to the village to enforce the payment. The community being a
small one, it was not likely that the British force would be numerous;
and Rahmut conceived the idea of laying an ambush for it on its return
and running off with the revenue. He had a motive bey