--and spurred forward as in a
dream. There was no shouting; no war-cry. We rode into the Germans
as I have seen wind cut into a forest in the hills--downward into
them, for once we had leapt the trench the ground sloped their way.
And they went down before us as we never had the chance of mowing
them again.

So, sahib, we proved our hearts--whether they were stout, and true,
as the British had believed, or false, as the Germans planned and
hoped. That was a night of nights--one of very few such, for the
mounted actions in this war have not been many. Hah! I have been
envied! I have been called opprobrious names by a sergeant of
British lancers, out of great jealousy! But that is the way of the
British. It happened later, when the trench fighting had settled
down in earnest and my regiment and his were waiting our turn behind
the lines. He and I sat together on a bench in a great tent, where
some French artists gave us good entertainment.

He offered me tobacco, which I do not use, and rum, which I do not
drink. He accepted sweetmeats from me. And he called me a name that
would make the sahib gulp, a word that I suppose he had picked up
from a barrack-sweeper on the Bengal side of India. Then he slapped
me on the back, and after that sat with his arm around me while the
entertainment lasted. When we left the tent he swore roundly at a
newcomer to the front for not saluting me, who am not entitled to
salute. That is the way of the British. But I was speaking of
Ranjoor Singh. Forgive me, sahib.

The horse his trooper-servant rode was blown and nearly useless, so
that the trooper died that night for lack of a pair of heels,
leaving us none to question as to Ranjoor Singh's late doings. But
Bagh, Ranjoor Singh's charger, being a marvel of a beast whom few
could ride but he, was fresh enough and Ranjoor Singh led us like a
whirlwind beckoning a storm. I judged his heart was on fire. He led
us slantwise into a tight-packed regiment. We rolled it over, and he
took us beyond that into another one. In the dark he re-formed us
(and few but he could have done that then)--lined us up again with
the other squadrons--and brought us back by the way we had come.
Then he took us the same road a second time against remnants of the
men who had withstood us and into yet another regiment that checked
and balked beyond. The Germans probably believed us ten times as
many as we truly were, for that one setback checked their advance
along