d his say and sworn a dozen God-invoking Rangar oaths
before he pledged his word, and then having pledged it, he threw Rajput
tradition and the odds against him into one bottomless discard and
proceeded to show Cunningham exactly what his fealty meant.

"By the boots and beard of Allah's Prophet!" he swore, growing
freer-tongued now that his liberty of action had been limited. "Here we
stand and talk like two old hags, Mahommed Gunga! My word is given. Let
us find out now what this fledgling general of thine would have us do.
If he is to release my prisoner, at least I would like to get amusement
out of it!"

So he and Mahommed Gunga swaggered across the courtyard to where
Cunningham had joined the McCleans again.

"We come with aid and not objections, sahib," he assured him. "If we
listen, it may save explanations afterward."

So at a sign from Cunningham they enlarged the circle, and the East
and West--bearded and clean-shaven, priest and soldiers, Christian and
Mohammedan--stood in a ring, while almost the youngest of them--by far
the youngest man of them--laid down the law for all. His eyes were all
for Rosemary McClean, but his gestures included all of them, and they
all answered him with nods or grunts as each saw fit.

"Send for the Sikh!" commanded Cunningham.

Five minutes later, with a lump of native bread still in his fist,
Jaidev Singh walked up and saluted.

"Where is Byng-bahadur now?" asked Cunningham.

"At Deeseera, sahib--not shut in altogether, but hard pressed. There
came cholera, and Byng-bahadur camped outside the town. He has been
striking, sahib, striking hard with all too few to help him. His
irregulars, sahib, were disbanded at some one's orders just before this
outbreak, but some of them came back at word from him. And there were
some of us Sikhs who knew him, and who would rather serve him and die
than fight against him and live. He has now two British regiments with
him, sadly thinned--some of my people, some Goorkhas, some men from the
North--not very many more than two thousand men all told, having lost
heavily in action and by disease. But word is going round from mouth to
mouth that many sahibs have been superseded, and that only real sahibs
such as Byng-bahadur have commands in this hour. Byng-bahadur is a man
of men. We who are with him begin to have courage in our bones again.
Is the answer ready? Yet a little while? It is well, sahib, I will rest.
Salaam!"

"You see," said