"Yes," assented the child's father as the old man paused. Once again there was that lump in his throat. He saw, as in a vision, the old Mahomedan tomb rearing its half-ruined dome so close to the railway--the white-faced child praying God to bless everyone he loved, those dark faces standing round reverently.
"Lo!" continued old Bisvâs gently, "I think the saint down below must have heard--Imân says he did--for what followed was of no man's making. We were all drowsing in the tomb--'tis a good five miles from the Huzoor's bungalow to the railway, for all it goes so near to the city--when Baba-jee--he hath the ears of a mouse still--said 'Hist!'
"So I looked out, and there were men--five or six of them, on the line. Then it came to me what the ill-begotten hounds had been doing in Bengal, and a sort of fury seized on me. So I crept back. Jullunder Baba was asleep among the blankets on the tomb slab, but I whispered the others, and they unbuckled their swords and made ready."
The faces of the four old warriors who, standing two on one side two on the other of the speaker, had watched his every word, were a study. Exultation, pride, absolute satisfaction showed in every line of them, and the lean old fingers gripped their sword-hilts once more.
"Then Baba-jee gave the word--he was 'senior-orfficer,' and--and--Huzoor, they ran away!!!"
Even John Carruthers' chuckle had a suspicion of a sob in it.
"And then! Oh! hero!" he said, "what then?"
"Huzoor! I looked out over the desert and far, far away on the straight line I saw light. And there was a faint rumble in the air. It was a train. Mayhap the chota sahib had been right, mayhap it was the Train-of-Majesty! So I turned on the 'trick lamp,' and there it was on the line--that thing--it had a string to it that lay on the rail. And--and--Huzoor! my memory fails me--There was the child, and there was the train!--I had to decide----
"Then I cried to Imân, 'Quick! the chota sahib! Run far with him--far!--far!' So when that was done I up with my sword and I smote the string that lay on the rail!----" he paused, then went on--
"So that was done also; and Imân brought the child back, and the train sped past, and we all stood in a row and did durshan; though I know not if it was durshan or not, since, mayhap, it was not the Royal train after all."