"Salaam, Bellairs sahib!" The voice was growing feebler.
"I would have done more for thy father's son! Thou art welcome.
Aie! But thy charger is a good one! Good-by! Time is short, and
I would talk with the colonel sahib!"
He waved Bellairs away with a motion of his hand and the lieutenant
went back to his wife again.
"He sent me away just like that, too!" she told him. "He said he
had no time left to talk to women!"
Colonel Carter bent down again above the Risaldar, and listened to
as much as he had time to tell of what had happened.
"But couldn't you have ridden round them, Risaldar?" he asked them.
"Nay, sahib! It was touch and go! I gave the touch! I saw as I
rode how close the issue was and I saw my chance and took it! Had
the memsahib been slain, she had at least died in full view of the
English--and there was a battle to be won. What would you? I am
a soldier--I."
"Indeed you are!" swore Colonel Carter.
"Sahib! Call my sons!"
His sons were standing near him, but the colonel called up his grandsons,
who had been told to stand at a little distance off.
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