Through the Sikh War: A Tale of the Conquest of the Punjaub

by G. A. Henty

All night the journey continued. Percy was so sleepy that he several times dozed off in his seat, and woke with a start, finding himself reeling in the saddle. At times, however, he was obliged to pay attention to their course, for it was often a mere track, that even the men walking ahead had difficulty in following. There were deep nullahs to be crossed, and once or twice wide water-courses, dry now, but covered with stones and boulders. These were, as Nand Chund told him, foaming torrents in the wet season, and at such times quite impassable. Occasionally the track turned off in a direction quite different to that they were following; and they then directed their course by the stars, a man going ahead with a torch until they came again upon cultivated ground and struck upon a path leading in the right direction.

The two rivers were crossed safely, and they then rode north for two days.

Percy felt thankful indeed when, after pushing on all that last night, Nand Chund, upon arriving at a clump of bushes, decided to halt just as daylight was beginning to break in the east. The two best-mounted men received their instructions, and at once rode on at a brisk pace, while the rest entered the bushes and dismounted, the men with their long knives clearing a space sufficiently large for the party. A fire was lit and food cooked, then four men were placed on watch at the edge of the thicket, and the rest threw themselves down to sleep. It seemed to Percy that he had hardly closed his eyes, but he knew he must have slept for some hours, from the heat of the sun blazing down upon him, when Nand Chund put his hand on his shoulder and said:

"All is well, sahib. A party of horse are approaching, and I doubt not that the colonel is with them."

Percy leapt to his feet and made his way to the edge of the thicket.

"They are our men," Nand Chund said; "they are riding in regular lines." A minute or two later he added, "There is the colonel himself at their head—the officer with the white horse-hair crest to his helmet."

Unless so informed Percy would have had no idea that the tall bearded man in silk attire was an Englishman, until he leapt from his horse beside him, exclaiming heartily, "Well, Percy, my boy, I am glad indeed to see you safe and sound. I have been in a fidget about you for the last week; for I have had news that bands of strange horsemen had been seen on the roads, and there were reports that some of them had entered my district, though where they had gone none knew. However, all is well that ends well. I was delighted when two fellows rode into the fortress this morning, within a few minutes of each other, with the news that you had got thus far, and were hiding here till I came out to fetch you. You may imagine we were not long in getting into the saddle. Well, this has been a rough beginning, lad; but your troubles are at an end now. You may be sure that there is no foe near at hand who will venture to try conclusions with four hundred of the best troops in the Punjaub. I hardly fancied that you would have come, Percy. I don't know when I have been so pleased as when I received the letter from Mr. Fullarton at Loodiana, saying that you had come out with him, and would probably be there in a few days."

"I was very glad to come, uncle,—very. It did not take me five minutes to decide about coming after I had read your letter."

"You are something like what I expected you to be, Percy, although not altogether. I fancied that you would be more like what your father was at your age. It seems but yesterday that we were boys together, though it is so many years ago. But I don't see the likeness—I think you are more like what I was. Your father, dear good fellow as he was, always looked as if he had a stiff collar on. Even from a boy he was all for method and order; and no doubt he was right enough, though I hated both. Well, you may as well mount, and you can tell me about your voyage as we ride back. You have done your work well, Nand Chund. I knew that I could safely trust the boy in your charge. Have you been troubled by the way?"

"Only once have we absolutely seen them, sahib;" and the officer gave the colonel a short account of the incident of the pretended travellers.