The sepoy, to whom this was a most natural request, pointed with his finger to the opposite side of the maidan. 'There is a ruined mosque close by,' he said. 'The fathers of the devils we have slain desecrated it, and it has never been rebuilt since.'
'I know the place,' answered Subdul. Sweeping round, he left them to their devices, and, after a few minutes of rapid riding, rejoined his master.
'What news?' said Tom.
'The worst!' answered Subdul; and he repeated what he had heard, adding that the garden where the dreadful deed had been done was close by the spot where they were standing.
For a few moments Tom was paralysed. This was worse—far worse—than he had dreamed.
'Women and children!' he groaned.
'Every one of them, Excellency.'
'The brutes! The devils! Subdul, if we had only a score of our Gumilcund men at our back——'
'We could do nothing, Excellency. There are hundreds in the city.'
'Cowards! every mother's son of them. I should have come with an army; but it is too late now. Let us look for the child.'