was a voice I knew well, but whose voice it was I could not in my
weakness remember.

In what way I was dragged through all these narrow holes will remain an
eternal mystery for me. I came to myself on the verandah below, fanned
by fresh breezes, and as suddenly as I had fainted above in the impure
air of the cell. When I recovered completely the first thing I saw was
a powerful figure clad in white, with a raven black Rajput beard,
anxiously leaning over me. As soon as I recognized the owner of this
beard, I could not abstain from expressing my feelings by a joyful
exclamation: "Where do you come from?" It was our friend Takur
Gulab-Lal-Sing, who, having promised to join us in the North-West
Provinces, now appeared to us in Bagh, as if falling from the sky or
coming out of the ground.

But my unfortunate accident, and the pitiable state of the rest of
the daring explorers, were enough to stop any further questions and
expressions of astonishment. On one side of me the frightened Miss
X----, using my nose as a cork for her sal-volatile bottle; on the other
the "God's warrior" covered with blood as if returning from a battle
with the Afghans; further on, poor Mulji with a dreadful headache.
Narayan and the colonel, happily for our party, did not experience
anything worse than a slight vertigo. As to the Babu, no carbonic acid
gas could inconvenience his wonderful Bengali nature. He said he was
safe and comfortable enough, but awfully hungry.

At last the outpour of entangled exclamations and unintelligible
explanations stopped, and I collected my thoughts and tried to
understand what had happened to me in the cave. Narayan was the first to
notice that I had fainted, and hastened to drag me back to the passage.
And this very moment they all heard the voice of Gulab-Sing coming from
the upper cell: "Tum-hare iha aneka kya kam tha?" "What on earth brought
you here?" Even before they recovered from their astonishment he ran
quickly past them, and descending to the cell beneath called to them to
"pass him down the bai" (sister). This "passing down" of such a solid
object as my body, and the picture of the proceeding, vividly imagined,
made me laugh heartily, and I felt sorry I had not been able to witness
it. Handing him over their half-dead load, they hastened to join the
Takur; but he contrived to do without their help, though how he did it
they were at a loss to understand. By the time they succeeded in getting
through