"They have rifles, sahib?" he queried.
"Lots of 'em! Three that they took from my men, among others."
"It would not be well to march into a trap at this stage."
"As well now as later."
"True, sahib! And my time has not come yet; I know it. Else had
I died of weariness, as my horse did."
Brown kept rigidly to that point of view in everything he did, from
that time on until he reached Jailpore. He believed himself to be
engaged on a forlorn hope that was so close to being an absolute
impossibility as to be almost the same thing. He had no doubt whatever
in his own mind but that his own death, and the death of those with
him, was a matter now of hours, or possibly of minutes. His one
resolute determination was to die, and make the others die, in a manner
befitting their oath of service. He had orders, and he would pass
them on according to his interpretation of them. He would obey his
orders, and they theirs, and the rest was no business of his or anybody's.
They put the fakir in a hut; where Juggut Khan--too weary for foraging--
stood guard over him.
Pages:
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124