"You will think that we do not know our own minds, but we have concluded that as the moon is bright and our horses fairly fresh we will push on to Sealkote."
"It is for you to decide," Nand Chund said. "You are welcome to stay with us, and free to ride on if you prefer it." After a few inquiries about the way the two men mounted and rode on. As soon as the sound of the horses' hoofs became faint Chund spoke to one of his men, who immediately left the party and glided away to the right.
"I have sent him to watch them," Nand Chund said to Percy; "I warrant they will halt before they are gone half a mile. My man will keep in the fields till he gets near them, and will bring us word if they move on."
"What do you suspect them to be?"
"I have no doubt they are enemies. They may have been on our track since we started, or only for the last day's march, but they are watching us no doubt."
"What makes you think so, Nand Chund?"
"Many things. It was unlikely that they would be upon this by-path instead of on the main road. That they should offer to stop with us when they were so well mounted, was singular, also their change of intentions when they found that we were going to halt. Their conversation too was not that of honest men."
"What did they talk about?"
"They said they were coming from Lahore, and talked of all the doings there."
"What was the harm in that?" Percy asked in surprise.