“Don’t make me feel like a coward. I cannot stay; I must go with you.”
He looked at me fixedly for a few moments, and then turned to the rajah.
“Give us bread and wine,” he said.
The rajah pointed toward his house, but Brace refused to turn, and, in obedience to a command, a couple of men were sent in, and directly after three of the chiefs servants hurried out with refreshments and handed them to us.
We partook sparingly, and as we ate and drank Brace whispered—
“See, all of you, that you have plenty of ball cartridges.”
The order was needless, for we were all well supplied; and, five minutes later, a brief and distant leave-taking followed, and, shouldering our pieces, we set off, through the hot afternoon sunshine, to try and follow the track to the road. This reached, it would be one steady descent to Rajgunge, but, as we afterwards owned, not one of us believed that we should reach it alive.
Note 1. Budmashes are outlaws, footpads.
Note 2. Hathees are elephants.