“Listen!” he directed.
Ramsa Lal stood in an attitude of keen attention, and the Major watched him with feverish anxiety, which he was wholly unable to conceal.
“Do you hear it?” he demanded—“hoofs on the path!”
Ramsa Lal shook his head.
“I hear nothing, Sahib.”
“Put your ear to the ground, and listen. I tell you that I saw figures moving away below there, and I heard—hoofs, stumbling hoofs.”
The man knelt down upon the ground, and, bending forward, lowered his head. Major Fayne watched him, and with growing anxiety, so that, what with this and the pallid moonlight, his face appeared ghastly.
But again Ramsa Lal stood up, shaking his head.
“Nothing, Sahib,” he repeated.