The officer at once pulled out his flask and handed it to him.
"Thank you very much," Percy said, after taking a drink. "No, I did not see anything of the cavalry. I was walking all last night; and when it got hot this morning I could not keep awake. I only started again half an hour ago. They must have passed before that, for I saw nothing of them."
"Are there any of the rebels along on this road?"
Percy shook his head. "There were not fifty men left in the camp on the bank of the Chenab all yesterday," he said. "I was there, and was expecting you to cross all day."
"Yes, we made a hideous mess of it," the officer said in a tone of deep disgust. "If we had crossed yesterday, as we ought to have done, we should have come on the rear of Sher Singh's army when he was engaged with Thackwell, and have smashed him into a cocked hat. It has been an astounding blunder. There is no chance of our overtaking any body of troops?"
"Not the slightest, unless this road runs into the one by which the Sikhs are retreating. I hear they are retiring on the Jhelum, and will make a stand there."
"Well, as you have no horse," the officer said, "the best thing you can do is to get up on one of our limbers and go with us. Our force is crossing the river, and will, I suppose, to-morrow push on to join Thackwell, somewhere on the Julalpore road."
As Percy learnt that he was still twelve miles distant from the river he accepted the invitation, climbed up on to a limber between two artillerymen, and in an hour reached Heylah, where the artillery and guns sent forward joined Thackwell's force, which had halted there. Finding that the main body of Lord Gough's force had halted after crossing the river, and that it was probable no farther movement would be made for some little time, Percy purchased from a trooper for a few shillings a horse he had picked up on the way, having found it standing by the side of its dead master, who, although terribly wounded, had managed to keep his saddle for some miles. Mounting this he started at once to return by the road by which he had arrived.
He had met no one he knew in Sir Joseph Thackwell's camp, and considered it his duty to report himself at head-quarters. The chief reason for haste was his anxiety for his two men, who would, he knew, if they had managed to make their escape, rely upon his returning sooner or later to the place where he had appointed to meet them. It was ten o'clock when he was challenged by a sentry as he approached the camp. As soon as he was found to be a British officer he was permitted to proceed, and presently found his way to the tent of the principal political officer with Lord Gough. The latter was seated talking to a gentleman when Percy was shown in by an orderly.
"I have come to report myself as having escaped from Sher Singh's camp," he said.