"This is Mr. Fullarton's servant, sir."
"Do you know these two men?" Sir Henry asked.
"Yes, sahib, I know them well. They are Mr. Groves' servants. They have been with him for four or five years; they were with him at Ferozeshah and Sobraon."
"So they were," Lord Gough said, getting up from the camp-chair in which he was sitting and looking at them closely. "I remember their being with him at Ferozeshah. Mr. Groves carried messages for me several times when most of my staff were down, and I noticed then how coolly those fellows rode after him whenever he moved away from my side."
"There is no farther doubt about the story," Sir Henry Lawrence said, "and these men have clearly saved Mr. Groves in the way they have stated."
"Tell them, Sir Henry," Lord Gough said, "that I consider them to be very fine fellows, and that I thank them for their conduct in having rescued their master. As for the information they have given, that is our affair, and we can reward it. I should be glad if you could give them a hundred rupees each as a present out of your information fund."
Sir Henry repeated Lord Gough's message to the men, laying stress upon the difference between the action of saving their master's life and the information they had brought. "For the first," he said, "the commander-in-chief desires to pay you honour. Had you belonged to one of our native regiments he would have made you officers. As it is, he can only say that he honours you for your conduct, and himself thanks you for having saved the life of that very promising young officer, Mr. Groves. The information you have brought is valuable, and for that he asks me to make you a present of a hundred rupees each. You lost your horses, of course?"
"Yes, sahib, ours and the master's."
"Come round to me in the morning. I will give you an order to receive the two hundred rupees and to take the three horses, as it is likely enough they came back with the Lancers; if not, to take three of the Sikh horses that came in with them. How is your master going on?" he asked Ram Singh.
"He is better, sahib; he can talk now, and he has asked several times whether Mr. Groves has been heard of. It will do him good to know he has been brought back."