nd
the Allies, with determination to give one another credit at least
for that in future! Pre--sent arms!"

So we presented arms, he kissing the hilt of his saber again; and it
was not until three days afterward that I overheard one of the
troopers saying that Gooja Singh had called attention to the fact of
its being a German saber. For the moment there was no more doubt
among us; and if Gooja Singh had not begun to be so fearful lest
Ranjoor Singh take vengeance on him there never would have been
doubt again. We felt warm, like men who had come in under cover from
the cold.

It was growing dusk by that time, and Ranjoor Singh bade us at once
to return to where the horses and Syrians waited in the hollow, he
himself continuing to sit alone on the summit of the ridge,
considering matters. We had no idea what he would do next, and none
dared ask him, although many of the men urged me to go and ask. But
at nightfall he came striding down to us and left us no longer in
doubt, for he ordered girths tightened and ammunition inspected.

The Syrians had no part in that night's doings. They were bidden
wait in the shadow of the ridge; with mules inspanned, and with
Tugendheim in charge we trusted them, to guard our Turkish
prisoners. Tugendheim bit his nails and made as if to pull his
mustache out by the roots, but we suffered no anxiety on his
account; his safety and ours were one. He had no alternative but to
obey.

Before the moon rose we sent our unmounted men to the top of the
ridge under Chatar Singh, and the rest of us rode in a circuit,
through a gap that Ranjoor Singh had found, to the plain on the far
side.

The Turks had driven their convoy into the desert and had camped
behind them, nearly three hundred strong. They had made one big fire
and many little ones, and looked extremely cheerful, what with the
smell of cooking and the dancing flame. Their horses were picketed
together in five lines with only a few guards, so that their capture
was an easy matter. We caught them entirely by surprise and fell on
them from three sides at once, our foot-men from the ridge
delivering such a hot fire that some of us were hit. I looked long
for the Turk who had fouled the water, and for the other one who had
lanced the child's body, but failed to identify either of them. I
found two who looked like them, crawling out from under a heap of
slain, and shot them through the head; but as to whether I slew the
right ones or not