Those were exciting moments, mingled, to me, with horror, as at every discharge and puff of white smoke, I saw the water torn up by the grape, and some horse make a frantic plunge, rear up, fall over, and horse and man disappear.
It was only a matter of a few minutes, though, before we saw the rajah and the greater part of his followers mounting the opposite bank, and then galloping off to disappear beyond the trees that came down nearly to the water’s edge.
“Let me pursue, with twenty or thirty men,” said Haynes, excitedly. “We’ll take him.”
But Brace shook his head.
“What I should like to do myself,” he said; “but I cannot. No; they are well-mounted; they know the country, and they have the start. Besides, we are too weak as it is, and I can’t afford to risk losing the guns again by sending half of my force away. We don’t know yet what reception we may meet with in the town.”
Very soon after we were trotting back toward the place in full expectation of being fired upon; but we did not receive a shot, and as we rode boldly in, we did not encounter a single military-looking man, those who crowded the streets being the ordinary traders and work-people, who treated us with a quiet cold stare.
The first task was to scout through the place with a couple of pickets, while our guns were drawn up on an open space in the middle of the town, where some of the principle people came with offerings of sweets and chupatties, beside more substantial food and offerings.
The place was so small that our men were not long in bringing in a report that there was not an armed man visible, the whole of the fighting element having retreated with the rajah, as soon as it was seen that the guns were retaken. But our numbers were so small, and the position so precarious, that Brace used every precaution, throwing out posts in the two directions from which danger was likely to approach, while the men were rested and refreshed, and a search made for ammunition, of which there was none too much in the boxes.
This was for a time in vain, but as soon as Dost was taken into consultation, he salaamed, started off, and in a quarter of an hour was back again to announce that he had discovered two ammunition-waggons in a kind of shed, and upon my following him with half a dozen men and a couple of teams of horses, he led us to the spot where I found that the rajah and his men had brought away as many cartridges, with ball, grape, and canister, as the two waggons would hold.
These were drawn out at once, and taken to the halting-place, where the gunners gave a cheer as they saw that for some time to come their six-pounders would not want for food.