word, and nothing short of death could free them from it.
There was not a shred of self interest to actuate them; there could not
have been. Their given word was law and there it ended.

There were isolated commands, like that at Jundhra, that were too far
away to strike at Delhi and too large and too efficient to be shut in by
the mutineers. They were centers on their own account of isolated small
detachments, and each commander was given leave to act as he saw best,
provided that he acted and did it quickly. He could either march to the
relief of his detachments or call them in, but under no condition was he
to sit still and do nothing.

So, Colonel Carter's note addressed to O. C.--Jundhra only got
two-thirds of the way from Doonha. The gunner who rode with it was
brought to a sudden standstill by an advance-guard of British cavalry,
and two minutes later he found himself saluting and giving up his note
to the General Commanding. The rebels at Jundhra had been worsted and
scattered after an eight-hour fight, and General Turner had made up his
mind instantly to sweep down on Hanadra with all his force and relieve
the British garrison at Doonha on his way.

Jundhra was a small town and unhealthy. Hanadra was a large city, the
center of a province; and, from all accounts, Hanadra had not risen yet.
By seizing Hanadra before the mutineers had time to barricade themselves
inside it, he could paralyze the countryside, for in Hanadra were the
money and provisions and, above all, the Hindu priests who, in that
part of India at least, were the brains of the rebellion. So he burned
Jundhra, to make it useless to the rebels, and started for Hanadra with
every man and horse and gun and wagon and round of ammunition that he
had.

Now news in India travels like the wind, first one way and then another.
But, unlike the wind, it never whistles. Things happen and men know
it and the information spreads--invisible, intangible, inaudible, but
positive and, in nine cases out of ten, correct in detail. A government
can no more censor it, or divert it, or stop it on the way, than it can
stay the birthrate or tamper with the Great Monsoon.

First the priests knew it, then it filtered through the main bazaars
and from them on through the smaller streets. By the time that General
Turner had been two hours on the road with his command every man and
woman and child in Hanadra knew that the rebels had been beaten back
and that Hanadra was