"Ain't we too old friends to stand on our dignity with each other, Hal? I have taken a lot upon myself, I confess it, but you are in command here, and I know it as well as you do. Jolly cheeky of me to offer you advice, of course, but I couldn't see you rushing into destruction without hinting at the fact."
"I know. It's all right, old boy. Well now, will you lead the advance, as a favour to me?"
"Hal, you're a brick. No, I won't. You go first, with your own Granthis, whom you have well in hand, I suppose? at any rate, they won't fire unless you give the word. Then Rukn-ud-din, with the guns and hotties—and incidentally the women—and then your humble servant with the Darwanis. If they led, they would fire right and left for pure devilry, but being in the rear, I think I can make them see the necessity of waiting till they are attacked."
The evening meal had been hurriedly despatched during the course of this conversation, and Gerrard now went out to summon Badan Hazari and give him his orders, while Charteris saw to the packing of such of their joint possessions as were not too heavy to impede a hasty flight. The moon had barely risen when the column formed up for the march, Gerrard and his men leading, the Agpuris, with the women, elephants, guns and baggage in the centre, and Charteris with his Darwanis bringing up the rear. He had taken the precaution to warn the sentries round the tents to turn back any coolie who might try to creep out and carry information to the main camp, while any outsider dropping in for a little friendly conversation was to be gently but firmly detained, and this, with the ruse of leaving the tents standing, kept Sher Singh's men completely in the dark. There was a wild scene of confusion when they realised what was happening, tomtoms beating, trumpets sounding, and men rushing together, but the compact body of matchlockmen with their matches lighted, and troopers with drawn swords, looked so formidable that beyond firing a stray shot or two, the army made no opposition to their progress. The Darwanis were wildly desirous to reply to the random shots with a volley, but Charteris succeeded in keeping them in hand, and the column ploughed its way steadily across the sand of the river-bed, and up the bank on the opposite side. The country was fairly open here, but Gerrard sent out scouts in front and flanking-parties on either side, to guard against a determined rush, which might be deadly in its result if Sher Singh were less easily hoodwinked than he seemed. Two of the Darwanis who knew the country well from past raids, and had guided Charteris as he came, rode ahead to show the way, and the column tramped on doggedly in the moonlight, the great lurching forms of the elephants casting strange shadows by the way.
After a long day's hunting, and an evening so full of excitement, Gerrard found it difficult not to sleep as he rode. In fact, his mind was asleep, though his eyes were open and keenly surveying the landmarks, which persisted in assuming the form of advancing masses of troops, or exhibiting lights where no lights were. He found relief occasionally in riding back a little to whip up stragglers, but it gave him unfeigned pleasure when, after what seemed untold hours of marching, Charteris pricked forward to tell him that they were now within a mile of the "bad bit," and had better halt where they were until dawn. But Gerrard had no mind to give in too soon.
"You don't think it would be well to press on and push through at one go, Bob? The men don't seem at all done up," he felt it his duty to say.
Charteris hesitated a moment. "No, I don't," he said. "If Sher Singh is occupying the bad bit at all, his men are there already—sent off probably while he kept you in talk after the big flare-up—for it would be no good despatching them after we had started. Don't it strike you as queer that they have made no motion to harass our rear? I imagine they are holding back till they can catch us between two fires. If you agree with me, let us give the beasts a rest and a feed here, and send two or three of my beggars scouting ahead."
Gerrard consented, and they saw that the horses were picketed so as to provide a barrier against a sudden rush, made the men lie down with their weapons beside them, posted sentries all round the bivouac, and agreed to keep watch for an hour each, to ensure the sentries not going calmly to sleep. Gerrard, who felt wide-awake again now after talking and walking about, insisted on taking the first watch, which passed uneventfully. Then he called Charteris, and dropping into the hollow which the latter had scooped for himself in the sand, was asleep in a moment, only to be waked, as it seemed, in another moment, by his friend's shaking him vigorously.
"Time to get up, Hal! No shaving-water, so don't look round in that bewildered way. You'd arrive at Ranjitgarh with a beard—a fine, flowing, patriarchal, even prophetic beard, like what Ronaldson has taken to sport—if this sort of thing went on long. He paid me a visit when he was passing through to his district, and I assure you I was immensely taken with his new adornment. It would be perfectly killing among the ladies, I'm sure—throw our poor whiskers and moustaches horribly into the shade. Talk of owls! I never saw any one stare like you. This, my young friend, is a cup of tea, and this is a hard-boiled egg—the best choti haziri our chaps can manage—and the animal beside you, looking astonished at your laziness, is your horse, vulgarly termed a quad. But give me your hand, old boy, and let me haul you up to take part in this epicurean meal."
"You're in spirits to-day, Bob," observed Gerrard, with a mighty yawn, as he accepted the tin cup.