wer me my question first! When I have your answer, I will
give you mine swiftly enough, in deeds not words! What is the
outcome of all your talk? Below there is the loot, and, as I said,
here stand I between it and you! Now decide, what will ye!"

He turned his back, and that was bravery again; for under his eye
the men were used to showing him respect, whereas behind his back
they had grown used to maligning him. Yet he had thrown their shame
in their very teeth because he knew their hearts were men's hearts.
Turning his back on jackals would have stung them to worse dishonor.
He would not have turned his back on jackals, he would have driven
them before him.

It began to occur to the men that they once made me go-between, and
that it was my business to speak up for them now. Many of them
looked toward me. They began to urge me. Yet I feared to speak up
lest I say the wrong thing. Once it had not been difficult to
pretend I took the men's part against Ranjoor Singh, but that was no
longer so easy.

"What is your will?" said I at last, for Ranjoor Singh continued to
keep his back turned, and Gooja Singh and Rarnnarain were seeking to
forestall each other. Anim Singh and Chatar Singh both strode up to
me.

"Tell him we will have none of such plunder as that!" they both
said.

"Is that your will?" I asked the nearest men, and they said "Aye!"
So I went along the line quickly, repeating the question, and they
all agreed. I even asked Tugendheim, and he was more emphatic than
the rest.

"Sahib!" I called to Ranjoor Singh. "We are one in this matter. We
will have none of such plunder as that below!"

He turned himself about, not quickly, but as one who is far from
satisfied.

"So-ho! None of SUCH plunder!" said he. "What kind of plunder, then?
What is the difference between the sorts of plunder in a stricken
land?"

Gooja Singh answered him, and I was content that he should, for not
only did I not know the answer myself but I was sure that the
question was a trap for the unwary.

"We will plunder Turks, not wretches such as these!" said Gooja
Singh.

"Aha!" said Ranjoor Singh, unfolding his arms and folding them
again, beginning to stand truculently, as if his patience were
wearing thin. "Ye will let the Turks rob the weak ones, in order
that ye may rob the Turks! That is a fine point of honor! Ye poor
lost fools! Have ye no better wisdom than that? Can ye draw no finer
hairs? And yet ye dare offer to dicta