"You? Where were you?"
"In the street near by; I tried to get out to you, but the crowd was too plentiful, and before I could do so, you showed that you needed no help."
"Matters were rather lively, and I had no weapon then but my revolver, which I was rather tardy in using," laughed Harkins.
Addressing the others, Avery gave a graphic account of the doughty style in which their new friend knocked the enthusiastic natives right and left, winding up with a fusillade from his revolver and a hasty withdrawal down the street.
While this chatting was going on, Luchman made a reconnaissance, fearful that the sound of their firearms might have brought some of their enemies to the spot. He reported the path clear. Harkins was urged to join in the journey to Kurnal, but he preferred to stay in that vicinity. When the ladies joined in the request, however, he gallantly consented.
"I suppose it is good hunting almost everywhere in this part of Hindostan, and I'll go with you."
Accordingly Luchman took the lead and the party resumed their journey northward.
There lay the huge body or the tiger in the path where he had fallen, and the ladies shuddered as they carefully stepped around it. The two guns were reloaded, Harkins remarking that the mate of the tiger was likely to be in the neighborhood.
Dropping to the rear with Avery, Harkins told him that he had been in a couple of bad fights since leaving Delhi.
"There was no need of referring to it before the ladies," said he, "for it might have alarmed them. You can make up your mind that we shall have hot work before we reach Kurnal. These Ghoojurs, as they call them, are all over the country, and are looking for plunder. I had a brush with them before I was out of sight of the city, but the most curious difficulty came this evening. I caught sight of three persons just ahead of me dressed like our countrymen, and I hailed them. They stopped and looked around, and then, before I knew it, all three blazed away at me. They were natives clothed in the dress of some poor unfortunates whom they had murdered.