“Yes, and I know it means you will probably have to resign, and will certainly get the cold shoulder at Simla. But I call upon you to do it, just as I am staking everything myself—and I have a wife and child. It will prevent no one knows how much bloodshed, the desolation of hundreds of miles of country, and years of unrest and bitter feeling, for the Government can’t press things against the opinion, not only of the man on the spot, but of their own official converted by observation of the facts. They will shunt us—that’s only to be expected—but it will save the frontier.”
“You are right, and it must be done. You are at liberty to tell the tribes that I throw all my influence on the side of maintaining the treaty with Nalapur.”
“Thanks. If anything happens to me, look after my wife and the boy.”
The trust was the seal of the newly born friendliness between them, and Mr Burgrave felt it so. “God knows,” he said, with more emotion than Dick had seen him display before, “I wish I could risk my life as you are doing, but at least I’ll do what I can.”
Without another word, Dick crossed to the spot where Colonel Graham was standing, still examining the distant glare through his field-glass.
“Our friend Nicodemus has gone to work very shrewdly,” he said, as Dick came up. “I should say that his signal is absolutely invisible to any one on the plain. We only see it because we are so high up.”
“So much the better,” said Dick. “I suppose you’ve guessed what our plotting was about, Colonel? I have my plans all cut and dried by this time, and with the civil and the political power both against you, you’ll have to let me go. Assuming that there won’t be any attack till dawn, I shall take Anstruther with me, and creep out as soon as it’s really dark. He must go across the hills and hunt for the relief column, and guide it here when he has found it, and I shall set to work to palaver the tribes.”
“They’ll shoot you at sight,” groaned the Colonel.
“I hope not. At any rate, for argument’s sake, we’ll take it that they don’t. Of course my dodge will be to get them to delay the attack by insisting beforehand on an impossible proportion of loot. While their messengers and Bahram Khan’s are going to and fro, Anstruther, knowing the ground, ought to be able to bring up the column. When I see his signal, the tribes will hasten to make graceful concessions, and Bahram Khan will order the attack. While he is occupied at the front, a few of the tribesmen and I will make a dash for the Amir, and the column will get its guns into position. Then, if all goes well, a grand transformation scene. The guns plump a shell or two into the advancing ranks, the Sikhs and Goorkhas, and possibly a British regiment, make their appearance on the heights, the tribesmen turn their rifles against their own side, and the Amir shows himself and orders his revolted army to surrender. If they won’t, their blood will be upon their own heads, as they’ll soon see, but I think only Bahram Khan and a few irreconcilables will refuse.”
“And you?” demanded the Colonel. “Your programme doesn’t provide for your being killed a dozen times over, does it? What will Mrs North say when she hears what you think of doing?”