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Only, if there is no news of Sher Singh's seeking support in the north, and bringing an army against us, remember what I have said." "It is well. We will remember," said Gerrard. "Say nothing of this to any one, unless it be to Amrodh Chand." "It is an order, sahib." Rukn-ud-din received leave to depart, and melted silently away. Gerrard looked at Charteris again.
"Kuku-ud-din or Amrodh Chand may have followed us." "They swore they wouldn't. Besides, Bob, it was quite near at hand, and they could not have caught us up in the dark. There was no sign of them at the entrance." "Quite so. Well, shall we wait and trip him up?" "No, he will hear guess we are there. We can't stay all night looking for him in the dark."
"Aye; men will mock at our beards," said Rukn-ud-din bitterly. "Has Jirad Sahib forgotten all that has passed?" Amrodh Chand's head approached his comrade's closely. "I think Jirad Sahib has remembered our vow. Did he not make us swear that after this night the place should be to us as though it was not? What, then, of to-night?"
Then Rukn-ud-din went back along the passage for the piece of burning match in a metal holder by means of which he and Amrodh Chandh had made their way to the fight, the sounds of which had stirred their blood, and the extinguished lamp was found and relighted.
Rukn-ud-din and Amrodh Chand had already been informed that their services were desired that night, and at the appointed time they slipped away from their quarters into the darkness and joined the two Englishmen.
All eyes were turned on the two Englishmen as they went forward, but no one said anything, though it seemed to Gerrard that there was a feeling of awe in the air. "It must be either the Rani or Kharrak Singh, for there are Amrodh Chand and the Rajputs," he murmured to Charteris. "And Rukn-ud-din in command of a scratch lot of guardsmen from all four troops!
"It is done, brother," replied the voice of Amrodh Chand from the other side of the place. "Partab Singh Rajah and his son and the mother of his son are avenged." A wild howl rent the air, as the servants of Sher Singh flung themselves furiously in the direction of the voice, but the Rajput had slipped round close to the wall, and Gerrard found him at his side, half-delirious with joy.
Rukn-ud-din pondered sagely this most undeserved aspersion on Gerrard's sincerity. "It is well thought of," he said. "Moreover, it seemed to me but now that I heard a cry or gasp. What if it were Jirad Sahib's voice calling to us, and we have failed him?" "We will succour him at once," said Amrodh Chand.
His agitation culminated at last in a wild charge into the darkness, followed by as many of the Habshiabadis as could find their horses, yelling and discharging their muskets into the night. Gerrard, hoarse with his vain exertions, half amused and half disgusted, was left with Rukn-ud-din and the Rajput Amrodh Chand and their men to defend the camp.
In the interval between the review and the banquet which was to wind up the day, therefore, a gorgeous band of horsemen thronged the approach to Gerrard's quarters, and Rukn-ud-din presented his officers, the chief of whom was the Rajput Amrodh Chand, who was a cousin of the Rani's.
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