the
conspirators to justice. Setting to work with his accustomed readiness,
and aided by one of his _ressaldars_,[2] Fatteh Khan, Khuttuk, of whose
prowess on many a bloody field the story will in due course be told,
Lumsden with characteristic alacrity undertook this intricate and
dangerous duty. His tracks covered, so to speak, by the unsuspicious
bearing of a blunt soldier in command of a corps of rugged trans-border
warriors, the unaccustomed role of a skilled detective was carried out
with promptness and success. In the course of a very few days some of
the Guides had obtained conclusive proof regarding three matters: that
the Maharani was at the head of the movement, that her chief agent was
the Sikh general Khan Singh, and that the Company's troops had already
been tampered with.

[2] _Ressaldar_, a native commissioned officer of cavalry.

As the plot thickened it was discovered that a meeting of the
conspirators, including fifty or sixty men of various regiments, was to
take place on a certain night at a certain place. Lumsden patiently
awaited the event, intending with the Guides to surround and capture the
conspirators red-handed. But, on the night fixed for the meeting, a
retainer of General Khan Singh came to visit one of the Guides, with
whom he was on friendly terms, and in the course of conversation made it
evident that his master was not easy in his mind, why not no one could
say, and that he had half determined on flight. The man of the Guides,
leaving his friend in charge of a comrade, with commendable acumen
hastened to Lumsden and told him the story. That officer at once saw
that the moment had come to strike, lest the prey escape. He therefore
immediately clapped the Sikh general's retainer into the quarterguard,
much to that individual's astonishment, and promptly parading the
Guides, hurried down to the city and surrounded Khan Singh's house.

It was now past eleven o'clock, the house was in darkness and strongly
barricaded all round; the city was that of a foreign power, and no
police, or other, warrant did Lumsden hold. But he was no man to stand
on ceremony, or shirk responsibility, nor was he one for a moment to
count on the personal risks he ran. Finding the doors stouter than they
expected, his men burst in a window, and headed by their intrepid
officer dashed into the building. There, overcoming promptly any show of
resistance, they seized General Khan Singh, his _munshi_[3] and a
conf