Yet Gerrard had no choice, if he was to keep his
promise to Partab Singh at all. Had he taken the road to Darwan with
his escort, he might eventually have returned at the head of larger
forces, but it would have been to find that the Rani had been drugged
and hurried to the funeral pyre, and that Kharrak Singh had "died of
grief"--little likely as the vivacious youngster appeared to succumb to
such a fate.

The heat of the day was by no means over, though it was late in the
afternoon, and actual bodily discomfort almost blotted out thought as
Gerrard rode on through the dust, the landscape ahead one blinding
glare of trembling, moving lines. He was on the sunny side of the
elephant, and on the other Sher Singh seemed to find shade enough to
stimulate his inventive faculties. At any rate, he was talking loudly
to his friends, and the words which Gerrard overheard occasionally
assured him that they were devising unpleasant experiences for him.
Beside him the great beast swung patiently along, and behind came the
zenana litters, their golden draperies covered by way of mourning with
coarse cotton cloth, so as to shut out every possible breath of air.
The towers and minarets of Agpur began at last to grow visible through
the wavering haze, and Gerrard realised that a grove of trees
surrounding a saint's tomb, which they were approaching, would be the
scene of a halt to rearrange the procession and enable it to enter the
city with proper dignity. There might even be troops waiting there,
summoned by Sher Singh when he found himself worsted in the moral
combat, and in that case the struggle would take place immediately, and
could have but one result. Gerrard felt that he really did not much
mind how soon it came, but he roused himself angrily from the lethargy
which was creeping over him, and called up Badan Hazari and Rukn-ud-din
to acquaint them with his intention of seizing the tomb if there was
any sign of hostilities, and getting the corpse and the women into the
courtyard, where the guard might close the gates and defend them for a
time. Even as he spoke, the outlines of the trees became clearer, and
he saw that there were certainly mounted men waiting under their
shadow. He was turning to give the order which would have sent Badan
Hazari and half his men to drive Sher Singh from the other side of the
elephant, and turned the stately procession into a wild rush for the
tomb, when it struck him that one of the me