ng,
he at last consented to devote a day to the work required. After a few
hours' rest a portion of the Guides marched out to the villages in
question, forced their way into them with the loss of one man killed and
three wounded, and set fire to the houses.

A party of about a dozen Guides, Ahmed among them, with Sherdil at their
head, set off to ride down a body of armed villagers mounted on hardy
country-bred ponies. The Guides' horses were feeling the strain of the
previous three weeks' marching, while the villagers' mounts were fresh;
but it was a point of honour with the Guides never to let their enemy
escape, and Sherdil pushed on for mile after mile, gradually overhauling
the fugitives. Captain Daly's orders were that no prisoners were to be
taken; not one of the hapless villagers escaped.

As the little party was returning at a foot pace to rejoin their
comrades, they caught sight of a group of bearers carrying a palki, and
escorted by a couple of horsemen. Thinking it probable that the palki
contained a village headman endeavouring to escape in a vehicle
ordinarily used only by native ladies, Sherdil decided to give chase; it
would be a notable feather in his cap if he could march into Karnal and
hand over to Captain Daly the ringleader in the recent troubles.

"Daly Sahib will make me a dafadar at once," he said, with a chuckle, to
Ahmed. "True, the palki may hold no person at all, but only treasure; I
know their ways. But we shall have something for our pains, Ahmed-ji."

The men carrying the palki could not go quickly, but they were more than
a mile distant, and the Guides' horses were so done up that they were
incapable of more than a canter. Still, unless the quarry should be able
to hide, they might be overtaken in the course of a quarter of an hour.
Sherdil led the way, the sowars following in a scattered line. They had
scarcely ridden three or four hundred yards when they came suddenly to a
deep nullah. Sherdil attempted to leap his horse over it, but the animal
was too wearied for the effort; it failed to clear the gully, and fell
with its rider. The trooper next behind his leader met with the same
mishap. Then came Ahmed. Being a little in the rear of the others, he
had had time to prepare for the leap, and his horse Ruksh, besides being
superior to the rest, was less fatigued through having had to carry a
lighter weight. He took the leap gamely and landed safely on the other
side, although with on