Gerrard spurred back impetuously to stop them, under a hail of bullets from the enemy rallying in the bushes. A sudden numbing pain in his arm made him drop the reins, and he had only time to realise that Sher Singh's pursuing horsemen were on the heels of the fugitives before their rush swept him from the saddle, and he went down into a cruel welter of hoofs. Then all was silence.
When he recovered consciousness, he was lying helpless, and as he thought bound, in an elephant's howdah. An attempt at movement showed him that he was not bound, but bruised and wounded from head to heel.
"Heaven-born!" said a voice at his side, and he distinguished the tones of Munshi Somwar Mal. "Now do the roses bloom again in the garden of joy, since your honour lives!"
"But Charteris Sahib—the Rani—every one?" murmured Gerrard, trying to remember what had happened.
"The Rani Sahiba saw your honour fall, and herself took command of the
soldiers, bidding them die rather than fail to recover your body.
Sirdar Badan Hazari was killed, fighting very valiantly, and the
Komadan Sahib Rukn-ud-din now leads the troops."
"But Charteris Sahib—what of him, I say?"
"Alas, sahib! The Rani Sahiba bade return to look for him when the foe were driven back, but none were found alive save a wounded Darwani, who had seen Chatar Sahib's body thrown over a horse and carried away."
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ONE WHO WAS LEFT.
"My dear, I wish you would take that unfortunate young Gerrard in hand." Mr James Antony, acting-Resident at Ranjitgarh owing to the absence of his brother on sick-leave, wore a worried look as he entered his wife's room.