d
coming too much toward us for their speed to be accurately judged.
Yet I thought they moved slowly.

Said he, "Do you see that hollow--one, two, three miles this side of
them?" And I answered yes. "That is a bend of the river that flows
by the city," said he. "There is water there, and fire-wood. They
have come far and are heading toward it. They are too far spent to
reach Angora before night. They will not try. That is where they
will camp."

"Sahib," I said, considering his words as a cook tastes curry, "our
men be overweary to have fight in them."

"Who spoke of fighting?" said he. So I went and lay down, and fell
asleep wondering. When he came and roused me it was already growing
late. By the time I had roused the men and they were all lined up we
could no longer see Angora for the darkness; which worked both
ways--those in Angora could not see us.

"If any catch sight of us," said Ranjoor Singh, speaking in a loud
voice to us all, "let us hope they mistake us for friends. What Turk
or German looks for an enemy hereabouts? The chances are all ours,
but beware! Be silent as ye know how! Forward!"

It was a pitiable effort, for our bellies yearned and our feet were
sore and stiff. We stumbled from weariness, and men fell and were
helped up again. Gooja Singh and his ammunition bearers made more
noise than a squadron of mounted cavalry, and the way proved twice
as long as the most hopeless had expected. Yet we made the circuit
unseen and, as far as we knew, unheard--certainly unchallenged.
Doubtless, as Ranjoor Singh said afterward, the Turks were too
overriden by Germans and the Germans too overconfident to suspect
the presence of an enemy.

At any rate, although we made more noise than was expedient, we
halted at last among low bushes and beheld nine or ten Turkish
sentries posted along the rim of a rise, all unaware of us. Two were
fast asleep. Some sat. The others drowsed, leaning on their rifles.
Ranjoor Singh gave us whispered orders and we rushed them, only one
catching sight of us in time to raise an alarm. He fired his rifle,
but hit nobody, and in another second they were all surrounded and
disarmed.

Then, down in the hollow we saw many little campfires, each one
reflected in the water. Some Turks and about fifty men of another
nation sat up and rubbed their eyes, and a Turkish captain--an
upstanding flabby man, came out from the only tent to learn what the
trouble might be. Ranjoor Singh strode