from her horse into the turmoil seething round her. The man in
the howdah received a second gun from an attendant, and turned in
another direction, that in which Gerrard was just appearing at the head
of the Habshiabadis. Charteris shouted a useless warning, realising as
the words left his lips that his voice could never carry across the din
of battle, but even while he shouted, Gerrard's sword flew from his
hand and he pitched forward on his horse's neck. More Charteris could
not see, for the Granthis under Bishen Ram uttered a yell of triumph
and sprang forward to hurl themselves into the strife, but Warner was
ready for them, and a shell bursting in front of their line gave them
pause. Another advance, another shell, and then a shower of grape,
adroitly directed at a stream of men trying to edge their way down into
the plain by a side-path, and after a half-hearted volley directed at
the guns over the heads of the fighters below, the Granthis gave up
their attempt to move. It was now or never, for the Habshiabadis were
wavering, evidently uncertain whether to stay and succour Gerrard or to
continue their charge. Charteris saw that if success was to be
attained he must risk every man he had, and pausing only to send the
doctor to tell Warner again to keep the Granthis back at all costs, he
hurled himself and his eager Darwanis into the fray. The unsupported
guns and the disaffected regiments on the hill were the only portions
of his force left outside the _melee_. Before this desperate expedient
Sher Singh's spirit quailed. He left his elephant, and mounting a
horse, spurred out of the battle towards Agpur. Disgusted by his
disappearance, his men held out for a while, but Charteris and his wild
horsemen were riding them down on one side, and the rallied
Habshiabadis on the other, and they were without a leader. They broke
at last, and made for Agpur in headlong flight, pursued so closely by
the Darwanis that Warner durst not fire upon them. Charteris was
chasing his own men now, turning them back with praise and promises,
threats and curses, seizing one man by the arm and another by the
bridle, in deadly fear that they would carry the pursuit too far, and
be caught when Sher Singh's men turned at bay. With the assistance of
their own chiefs, he succeeded at last in shepherding back all but a
few who had gone too far to be reached, and was met as he returned by a
deputation of Granthis, very stiff and auste