"You seem to have worked a miracle," said Gerrard feebly, "but I'm a bit done up—couldn't see how you did it."
"A rest and something cool to drink is what you want," said Charteris, half helping, half pulling him off his horse. "Lie down here and take this. I give you fair warning, Master Gerrard, you ain't going to die on my hands and leave me to settle with this hornet's nest you have stirred up here—not if I know it."
Gerrard obeyed meekly, and lay still until the trees and Charteris and the horses and the troopers had ceased whirling and wavering before his eyes. Then he sat up. "Bob, what was it you told Sher Singh? How can it have happened?"
"Bounce, all bounce!" said Charteris sadly. "At least, my Darwanis are certainly behind me, but a jolly good way behind; and as to Antony, if he is on the move, it's solely in response to my urgent entreaties, which he is highly unlikely to regard with favour."
"Anyhow, you seem to have got me out of a very nasty fix."
"Such was my intention. But you wish it hadn't fallen to me to get you out? Never mind, old boy; I wish it hadn't been you to be got out."
"Oh, nonsense! You know I'm uncommon obliged to you, my dear fellow. But did you fly here? It can't possibly be my message this morning that brought you."
"Lie down like a decent Christian and don't talk, and I'll tell you all about it. You don't seem to realise that you have had a precious narrow escape of sunstroke. Well, you don't need me to tell you that I have been keeping a vigilant eye on your proceedings for some time, with a shrewd suspicion that the air of the very high circles in which you were moving would not be good for your health. I felt so more than ever when my spies brought me word that Sher Singh was sneaking through my territory, evidently bound for Agpur. I sent him my salaams and a polite invitation to pay me a visit, but he had made himself scarce just in time. Then I thought it well to take the liberty of opening a letter of Antony's to you, as we agreed I should do in case of emergency, and when I found him cautioning you against any interference in the question of the Agpur succession, and talking of the extraordinary moderation of the claim advanced by the elder son, I decided it was time to move. So I set out to meet you on your way to the frontier, ostensibly to make arrangements for receiving the Rajah properly. This morning the people in the village where we halted for the night were full of the Rajah's death. As usual, nothing would make them say how they knew of it, but they were firm on the fact, so I saw the plot was thickening. Then, as we rode, we came across your messenger, and it was clear that the fat was in the fire already. I sent him on at once, with letters to my fellows in Darwan, and to try and open Antony's eyes, and made straight for this tope to intercept you."
"And to save all our lives," said Gerrard. "My dear Bob, how can I thank you?"
"Don't want to be thanked," growled Charteris. "If you don't know from your own feelings how I hated doing it, you ought to, that's all. Never mind, you'll do something of the same sort for me one day, and then I shall have the crow over you. And now just give me some idea of the state of affairs. Keep your silly head quiet, can't you? I didn't tell you to get up. Well, put your back against the tree, if you must sit up. Who killer Cock Robin—that is to say, Partab Singh?"