them.

"Let us loot, then, and pay ourselves!" was the unanimous verdict, I
being about the only one who did not voice it. I claim no credit. I
saw no loot, so what was the use of talking? We were crossing a
desert where a crow could have found small plunder. But being by
common consent official go-between I rode to Ranjoor Singh's side
and told him what the men were saying.

"Aye," he nodded, not so much as looking sidewise, "any one would
know they are saying that. What say the Turk and Tugendheim?"

"Loot, too!" said I, and he grunted.

It was this way, sahib. Our Turkish officer prisoner was always put
with his forty men to march in front--behind our advance guard but
in front of the carts and infantry. Thus there was no risk of his
escaping, because for one thing he had no saddle and rode with much
discomfort and so unsafely that he preferred to march on foot more
often than not; and for another, that arrangement left him never out
of sight of nearly all of us. One of us daffadars would generally
march beside him, and some of the Syrian muleteers had learned
English either in Egypt or the Levant ports, so that there was no
lack of interpreters. I myself have marched beside the Turk for
miles and miles on end, with Abraham translating for us.

"Why not loot? Who can prevent you? Who shall call you to account?"
was the burden of the Turk's song.

And Tugendheim, who spoke our tongue fluently, marched as a rule
among the men, or rode with the mounted men, watched day and night
by the four troopers who had charge of him--better mounted than he,
and very mindful of their honor in the matter. He made himself as
agreeable as he could, telling tales about his life in India--not
proper tales to tell to a sahib, but such as to make the troopers
laugh; so that finally the things he said began to carry the weight
that goes with friendliness. He soon discovered what the feeling was
toward Ranjoor Singh, and somehow or other he found out what the
Turk was talking about. After that he took the Turk's cue (although
he sincerely despised Turks) and began with hint and jest to
propagate lust for loot in the men's minds. Partly, I think, he
planned to enrich himself and buy his way to safety--(although God
knows in which direction he thought safety lay!). Partly, I think,
he hoped to bring us to destruction, and so perhaps offset his
offense of having yielded to our threats, hoping in that way to
rehabilitate himself. So goe