Partab
Singh himself, the spear in his iron hand shaking like a leaf; at their
head. Kharrak Singh hailed their astonishment as a tribute to himself,
for some reason or other, and clapped his hands and cried "Shabash!"
until he was tired.

"Is the child unhurt?" the foremost Komadan ventured at last to ask,
rather unnecessarily.

"Fool! who should have hurt me?" cried Kharrak Singh.

"The Feringhee," answered every one together.

"Surely ye are all mad, O people. I would have killed him with my
dagger!" and the boy clapped his hand to his girdle, only to discover
that the precious dagger had dropped by the way. Turning immediately
upon Gerrard, he began to beat him with his fists. "Where is my
dagger, O fair man? Hast thou stolen it? Give it back!"

"_Choop!_" said Gerrard unceremoniously, for Partab Singh had ridden to
the edge of the bank opposite.

"O my friend, was this well done--to endanger your own life and the
child's, and cause all my people to believe you a murderer, for the
sake of a moment's jest?" asked the old man.

"Maharaj-ji, there was no jest. The child lay on the ground, in the
path of the charging boar, and I could save him in no other way----"

"He caught me up on his spear, as a kite snatches up a kitten!" cried
Kharrak Singh proudly. "I felt the breath of the unclean beast on my
leg!"

Partab Singh turned to his guards. "Bring hither the heads of the
liars who spake evil of my friend Jirad Sahib, and lay them before
him." Then to Gerrard, "My face is black, O my friend. When justice
has been done, I shall be less abashed, and able to speak to you."

"I entreat your Highness to pardon the men. Their eyes deceived them,
and they thought they spoke the truth. If I am indeed your friend----"

"They shall live. Their eyes alone shall pay the forfeit, for I have
no use for eyes that deceive their owners."

"Nay, let them go free. I ask nothing else of your Highness."

"This is in very deed my friend's will?"

"In very deed."

"I had sooner you had asked for half my treasury, but the wretches
shall go free," grumbled Partab Singh, and two very badly frightened
men were ignominiously sped with kicks and cuffs to the rear. The
nearest cultivators were then summoned, and forced to break down the
canal-banks, and make a temporary causeway for Gerrard to cross, in the
midst of which the Rajah met him and embraced him, and insisted that he
should forthwith mount his own sple