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Guns are too precious to move without escort, and British troops are too expensive to cart about in the rains. So here we are, twiddling our thumbs till better times come." "But what about the country and Sher Singh?" "Sher Singh is safe in Agpur. We've got him shut up there, at any rate. But Granthistan is in a blaze, Hal. The Commander-in-Chief is on his way up-country.
The former promptly clutched his glass and raised it aloft, spilling the neat spirit as he did so. Then, with drunken solemnity, he called for order. "Boys," he cried, "you'll you'll drink a to toast. Sure you will. Every one of you'll drink it. My fu sher wife, Eve Eve Marsham. Jim Th Thorpe thought he'd best me, but " A table was suddenly sent flying in the crowd.
We may all be shot down in a heap to-morrow, you know, in spite of my powers of persuasion. But I don't fancy you will, somehow. Sher Singh asked me very mysteriously whether you knew the secret of the entrance to his father's private treasury. Not knowing I couldn't say, but I can be mysterious too, and I told him there were some things that couldn't be spoken about.
Its Rájá, Maldeo Singh, had given to the great Sher Sháh more trouble in the field than had any of his opponents. He had, however, refused an asylum to Humáyún when Humáyún was a fugitive. He was alive, independent, and the most powerful of all the princes of Rájpútána when Akbar ascended the throne of Delhi. Jaisalmer, Bíkáner, and the states on the borders of the desert were also independent.
A tall man much muffled in a large cloak was ushered in, and at Gerrard's invitation, sat down on the floor. When Badan Hazari was gone, he lowered the cloak a little, and looked at Gerrard as though he expected recognition, but there was none. "I place my life in your hands, sahib. I am Sher Singh." "There are many of that name," said Gerrard, puzzled. "Not many who are also princes of Agpur."
"It was told in the ears of this slave that your honour was very wrathful concerning the escape of the brother-slayer, and he presumed to approach unbidden with news." "And what is the news?" demanded Gerrard, still ruffled. "That the man who escaped was not Rajah Sher Singh at all, sahib." "What! you mean that he is among the prisoners?" "Not so, sahib. He has never left the city."
They had not quite arrived at the point of murdering him and his lieutenants and marching to join Sher Singh, but the thing was openly discussed, and very little was needed to precipitate matters. In face of this heavy blow, Charteris acted with his customary despatch.
"Why, it is not exactly in Agpur territory, but merely ready to enter it, in case Colonel Antony does not receive every day satisfactory reports from my friend here and myself." "Does Antni Sahib not trust me, that he thus blackens the face of his most faithful slave?" cried Sher Singh. "Ah, you should not have left Darwan without replying to my messages, you know," said Charteris.
If Sher Singh is to be kept from overrunning Granthistan, he must be stopped at once. I believe that you and I can do it." "But how? with merely the Habshiabadis and your troops?" "Precisely. If we march on Agpur, they daren't leave the city undefended with us in their rear.
I stood it for two days and nights, but if it had gone on, I swear to you I must have given in; I was pretty near mad then. But curiously enough, Sher Singh discovered the treasury for himself in an odd sort of way. You know the great tank where the lotus grows? Well, one of Sher Singh's ladies brought some gold-fish with her from Adamkot and turned them into it.
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