e enough. There are
no rebel dogs on this side of the river.' There was the ring of truth
in what he said, and I knew that if I raised my voice I was a dead man.
I could read it in the fellow's brown eyes. I waited, therefore, in
silence, to see what it was that they wanted from me.

"'Listen to me, Sahib,' said the taller and fiercer of the pair, the
one whom they called Abdullah Khan. 'You must either be with us now or
you must be silenced forever. The thing is too great a one for us to
hesitate. Either you are heart and soul with us on your oath on the
cross of the Christians, or your body this night shall be thrown into
the ditch and we shall pass over to our brothers in the rebel army.
There is no middle way. Which is it to be, death or life? We can only
give you three minutes to decide, for the time is passing, and all must
be done before the rounds come again.'

"'How can I decide?' said I. 'You have not told me what you want of
me. But I tell you now that if it is anything against the safety of
the fort I will have no truck with it, so you can drive home your knife
and welcome.'

"'It is nothing against the fort,' said he. 'We only ask you to do
that which your countrymen come to this land for. We ask you to be
rich. If you will be one of us this night, we will swear to you upon
the naked knife, and by the threefold oath which no Sikh was ever known
to break, that you shall have your fair share of the loot. A quarter
of the treasure shall be yours. We can say no fairer.'

"'But what is the treasure, then?' I asked. 'I am as ready to be rich
as you can be, if you will but show me how it can be done.'

"'You will swear, then,' said he, 'by the bones of your father, by the
honor of your mother, by the cross of your faith, to raise no hand and
speak no word against us, either now or afterwards?'

"'I will swear it,' I answered, 'provided that the fort is not
endangered.'

"'Then my comrade and I will swear that you shall have a quarter of the
treasure which shall be equally divided among the four of us.'

"'There are but three,' said I.

"'No; Dost Akbar must have his share. We can tell the tale to you
while we await them. Do you stand at the gate, Mahomet Singh, and give
notice of their coming. The thing stands thus, Sahib, and I tell it to
you because I know that an oath is binding upon a Feringhee, and that
we may trust you. Had you been a lying Hindoo, though you had sworn by
all t