"Huzoor--dhurm nâl."[[9]]
Then silence, broken only by the long howl of jackals gathering before their time round that scene of mutiny and murder.
* * * * *
Darkness once more. The darkness of daylight shut out by prisoning walls. The sweltering heat of July oozing through the shot-cracked walls; the horrors of starvation, and siege, and sickness round two dim figures. And once again a strenuous voice--this time a woman's.
"Dhurm Singh!"
"Huzoor."
The answer came as before--broad, soft, guttural, in the accent of the north--
"Sonny baba, Dhurm Singh!"
"Huzoor--dhurm nâl."
Then silence, broken only by the whist-ch-t of a wandering bullet against the wall of the crumbling fort, where one more victim had found peace.