I do not know.

Three officers we made prisoner, making five that we had to care
for. The other officers were slain. We never knew how few or how
many Turks escaped under cover of darkness, but I suspect not more
than a dozen or two at the most. Whatever tale they told when they
got home again, it is pretty certain they gave the Kurds the blame,
for, how should they suppose us to be anything except Kurds?

We took no loot except the horses and rifles. We stacked the rifles
in a cart, picked the best horses, taking twenty-five spare ones
with us, and gave our worst horses to the Armenians to eat. We sent
a few Syrians in a hurry to warn the Armenians in the desert against
those Kurds who had ridden to the south to intercept them, and
tipped out two cartsful of corn that we could ill spare, putting our
wounded in the empty carts. We had one-and-twenty wounded, many of
them by our own riflemen.

Then we rode on into the night, Ranjoor Singh urging us to utmost
speed. The Armenians begged us to remain with them, or to take them
with us. Some clung to our stirrups, but we had to shake them loose.
For what could we do more than we had done for them? Should we die
with them in the desert, serving neither them nor us? We gave them
the best advice we could and rode away. We bade them eat, and
scatter, and hide. And I hope they did.

We rode on, laughing to think that Kurds would be blamed for our
doings, and wondering whether the Armenians had enough spirit left
to make use of the loot we did not touch. Some of us had lances now;
a few had sabers; all had good mounts and saddles. We were likely to
miss the corn we had given away; but to offset that we had a new
confidence in Ranjoor Singh that was beyond price, and I sang as I
rode. I sang the ANAND, our Sikh hymn of joy. I knew we were a
regiment again at last.

CHAPTER VII

Since when did god take sides against the brave?--RANJOOR SINGH.

Did the sahib ever chance to hear that Persian proverb--"DUZD NE
GIRIFTAH PADSHAH AST"? No? It means "The uncaught thief is king."
Ho! but thenceforward that was a campaign that suited us! None could
catch us, for we could come and go like the night wind, and the
Turks are heavy on their feet. We helped ourselves to what we
needed. And a reputation began to hurry ahead of us that made
matters easier, for our numbers multiplied in men's imagination.

The Turks whom we had recently defeated gave Kurds the credit for
it, an