"His vow is safe, brother; but what of our vow of vengeance?"
"Aye; we know what is meant by these trials. Antni Sahib loves Sher Singh and will not have him slain, and the judges will know it. They will appoint a pleader to gain him his life by false words."
"And we, brother—we who have sworn to wash out the stain from the severed cloth in the blood of the brother-slayer? We shall be baulked, and the women will laugh at us in the streets."
"Aye; men will mock at our beards," said Rukn-ud-din bitterly. "Has
Jirad Sahib forgotten all that has passed?"
Amrodh Chand's head approached his comrade's closely. "I think Jirad Sahib has remembered our vow. Did he not make us swear that after this night the place should be to us as though it was not? What, then, of to-night?"
Rukn-ud-din pondered sagely this most undeserved aspersion on Gerrard's sincerity. "It is well thought of," he said. "Moreover, it seemed to me but now that I heard a cry or gasp. What if it were Jirad Sahib's voice calling to us, and we have failed him?"
"We will succour him at once," said Amrodh Chand. "See, brother, I will knot the ends of the rope under this projecting stone, and follow thee up."
All unconscious of the insubordinate reasoning of his followers, Gerrard had made his way up the wall, and reaching the tree, peered into the blackness in search of Charteris. There was no sign of the lantern, but not far off he could hear curious muffled sounds, as though a struggle was taking place in resolute silence. Feeling along the tree-trunk with his hands, he discovered the opening in the wall, and squeezed himself past the roots into it—rather nervous work in pitch darkness and with the rope left behind. He found himself in a narrow passage, the roof and sides of which he could easily touch, and close in front of him was going on the struggle he had heard. Two or more men must be rolling over one another on the floor, wrestling desperately, but in silence. Gerrard durst not interfere, lest he should seize the wrong man, and he ventured only to say, "Here, Bob!" in a low voice during a pause in the fighting, for fear of betraying their presence to others. Suddenly a horrible thud, followed by a gasping "Ah-h-h!" from Charteris, proclaimed that the contest was over, and Gerrard was nearly knocked down by some one who cannoned into him backwards. A hand was on his throat in a moment, but when the fingers came in contact with his collar they released their grip, and Charteris whispered with a hoarse laugh—
"Why, Hal, I nearly strangled you. Thought you were a comrade of the fellow here. Step over him and shield the light. We must make sure."
Gerrard obeyed—not without an uneasy feeling of exposing himself to unseen foes—and jumped violently when his foot came in contact with some portion of the body of Charteris's late foe. But no attempt was made to seize him, and he stood upright, filling the passage as far as possible, while Charteris opened the lantern the merest slit, and turned it on the man's face.