me as he never had done yet. No, sahib, I never saw him
turn on any man, nor speak as savagely as he did to me then. It was
as if the floodgates of his weariness were down at last and I got a
glimpse of what he suffered--he who dared trust no one all these
months and miles.

"Did I not say months ago," he mocked, "that if I told you half my
plan you would quail? And that if I told the whole, you would pick
it to pieces like hens round a scrap of meat? Man without thought!
Can I not see the dangers? Have I no eyes--no ears? Do I need a frog
to croak to me of risks whichever way I turn? Do I need men to hang
back, or men to lend me courage?"

"Who hangs back?" said I. "Nay, forward! I will die beside you,
sahib!"

"I seek life for you all, not death," he answered, but he spoke so
sadly that I think in that minute his hope and faith were at lowest
ebb.

"Nevertheless," I answered, "if need be, I will die beside you. I
will not hang back. Order, and I obey!" But he looked at me as if he
doubted.

"Boasting," he said, "is the noise fools make to conceal from
themselves their failings!"

What could I answer to that? I sat down and considered the rebuff,
while he went and made great preparation for an execution and a
Turkish funeral. So that there was little extra argument required to
induce one of our Turkish officer prisoners--the bimbashi himself,
in fact--to write the letter to Wassmuss that Ranjoor Singh
required. And that he gave to the Kurdish chief, and the Kurd rode
away with his men, not looking once back at the hostages he had left
with us, but making a great show of guarding Gooja Singh, who rode
unarmed in the center of a group of horsemen. That instant I began
to feel sorry for Gooja Singh, and later, when we advanced through
those blood-curdling mountains I was sorrier yet to think of him
borne away alone amid savages whose tongue he could not speak. The
men all felt sorry for him too, but Ranjoor Singh gave them little
time for talk about it, setting them at once to various tasks, not
least of which was cleaning rifles for inspection.

I took Abraham to interpret for me and went to talk with our ten
hostages, who were herded together apart from the other ten armed
Kurds. They seemed to regard themselves as in worse plight than
prisoners and awaited with resignation whatever might be their
kismet. So I asked them were they afraid lest Gooja Singh might meet
with violence, and they replied they were af