Not one of them reached the ground
alive, and in the darkness it must have been impossible for the
mutineers below to divine how many were the granary's defenders.
"That'll keep 'em quiet for a while, I'll wager! Now, quick, you men!
Get down below, and follow Juggut Khan, and don't forget to shut
the door tight on you. These prisoners here are going to follow
you--they may as well go down with you for that matter. No! that
won't do. They could open the door below, couldn't they? They'll
have to stay up here. Got any rope? Then bind them, somebody.
Bind their hands and feet. Now, off with you!"
Brown spent the next few minutes signaling with the lantern, and reading
answering flashes that zig-zagged in the velvet blackness of the British
lines. Then, as a voice boomed up through the granary, "All's well,
sir! I'm just about to shut the door!" he fixed his eyes on the fakir,
and laughed at him.
"You and I are going to turn in our accounts of how we've worked out
this `Hookum hai' business, my friend!" he told him. "You've given
orders, and I've obeyed orders! We've both accounted for a death
or two, and we've both accepted responsibility.
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