'What is the meaning of this jack-in-the-box business?' said the General, frowning.
'We are in hiding from our mutinous brethren,' said Sufder Jung abjectly.
'Then there are only a few of you?'
'Nay, your Excellency, there are a hundred good men under this wood, all waiting for a word of encouragement from their General.'
'They would have understood their duty better if they had remained in their lines till they were ordered out on duty,' said the General. 'Where is your captain?'
'Alas! your Excellency, our captain Sahib is dead. He was one of the first to be struck down.'
'By his own men?'
'By his own men, Excellency.'
In the meantime the men were coming up one by one from the cave where they had hidden themselves. They were the veterans of the regiment, and the General knew them all; as in the dim light of the wood they fell into their ranks, he called one and another by their names.
'I did not think to see you hiding in caves and holes of the earth, my ancients,' he said. And a voice from the ranks muttered, 'The General Sahib will see stranger things than these.'