"My uncle has just given me Sheik. He says it will be more useful to me than to him."
"Then, sahib, you need never fear being caught when you are once on his back. Even with the colonel's weight there is not a horse in the district can touch him, and with you in the saddle he will go like the wind."
Before starting Colonel Groves presented the two men with horses of his own breeding.
"Without being comparable with Sheik, they are powerful and well-bred horses, fast, and capable of accomplishing long journeys. As I know you will serve my nephew as well and faithfully as you did last time, I shall never regret having parted with the horses," he said to them. "One or other of you will always be with him, and it is useless for a master to be well mounted if his followers cannot keep pace with him. I do not say that either of these horses could keep up with Sheik if he were pressed, but at least you will find few that can go faster."
The men were overjoyed with the present. The Sikhs, like the Indian irregular cavalry, provided their own horses and equipments, and it was a matter of personal pride to be well mounted. To be the possessors of animals like these, uniting the hardiness of the native horse with the power and speed of their English sire, was an unhoped-for pleasure, and they expressed their thanks in the warmest terms.
As it was evident that Mr. Agnew would very shortly be leaving for Mooltan, and that therefore speed was necessary, Percy and his two men started at daylight next morning and rode by long stages down to Lahore.
Until the last halt before reaching the city Percy had ridden in native dress, as, although things had now settled down a good deal, the feeling was as strong as ever against the British, who still, at the earnest request of the maharanee and the durbar, maintained a force at Lahore to support the young maharajah's authority. It was, therefore, advisable to avoid attention until they reached the capital. As soon as they arrived there Percy rode to the Residency.
"I am glad you have come, Mr. Groves," the Resident said as he was ushered into the study. "You must have come down fast indeed. I told my messenger to carry my note as quickly as he could, but I hardly fancied that you could have been down for another three days; and Mr. Agnew starts to-morrow, so you are just in time."
"You did not mention in your letter, sir, the day on which he would set out; but I came down as rapidly as I could in order to catch him here if possible." At this moment a gentleman in civilian dress, with a young officer, entered the room. They hesitated on seeing that the Resident was engaged.
"Come in, Mr. Agnew," Sir Frederick Currie said. "This is Mr. Groves. He has come down post-haste to take up his appointment as your assistant."