terward.

Some wept. Some moaned. But the most were silent and dry-eyed,
moving slowly forward like people in a dream. Oh, sahib, I have had
bad dreams in my day, and other men have told me theirs, but never
one like that!

There was a little water-hole below where we lay--the merest cupful
fed by a trickle from below the hill. Some of them gathered there to
scoop the water in their hands and drink, and I saw a Turk ride
among them, spurring his horse back and forward until the water was
all foul mud. Nevertheless, they continued drinking until he and
another Turk flogged them forward.

"Sahib!" said I, calling to Ranjoor Singh. "A favor, sahib!"

He came and lay beside me with his chin on his hand. "What is it?"
said he.

"The life of that Turk who trod the water into mud!" said I. "Let me
have the winding up of his career!"

"Wait a while!" said he. "Let the men watch. Watch thou the men!"

So I did watch the men, and I saw cold anger grow among them, like
an anodyne, making them forget their own affairs. I began to wonder
how long Ranjoor Singh would dare let them lie there, unless perhaps
he deliberately planned to stir them into uncontrol. But he was
wiser than to do that. Just so far he meant their wrath should urge
them--so far and no further. He watched as one might watch a fuse.

"Those Kurds of this morning," he told me (never taking his eyes off
the men) "hurried off to the southward expecting to meet this very
procession. Kurds hate Turks, and Turks fear Kurds, but in this they
are playing to and fro, each into the other's hands. The Turks drive
Armenians out into the desert, where the Kurds come down on them and
plunder. The Turks return for more Armenians, and so the game goes
on. I learned all that from our Turkish officer we took this
morning."

While he spoke a little child died not a hundred yards away from
where I lay. Its mother lay by it and wept, but a Turk spurred down
and skewered the child's body on his lance, tossing it into the
midst of a score of others who went forward dumbly. Another Turk
riding along behind him thrashed the woman to her feet.

"That ought to do," said Ranjoor Singh, crawling backward out of
sight and then getting to his feet. Then he called us, and we all
crawled backward to the rear edge of the ridge. And there at last we
stood facing him. I saw Gooja Singh whispering in Anim Singh's great
ear. Ranjoor Singh saw it too.

"Stand forth, Gooja Singh!" he order