ch as from a distant
part."

"It is as the sahib says."

"You will take the risk?"

"If the captain sahib commands."

"Never met so direct a fellow," said Hodson to the others. "My spies
have a good deal to say about bakshish, as a rule. Well," he went on in
Pashtu, "what will you want?"

"Clothes, shawls, and a camel, sahib."

"And where will you get them?"

"In the bazar at Karnal, sahib."

"Steal them, eh?"

"Buy them with the hazur's rupees," said Ahmed, with a smile.

"And what are you going to do in Delhi?"

"I wait for commands, sahib."

"Can you write?"

"No, sahib."

"Of course not. Then you will be no good to me."

"But with rupees I can pay a munshi, sahib."

"He is our man," said Hodson in English. "He has an answer for
everything, and judging by the way he told us his story just now we
shan't have so much trouble in sifting his information as we have with
Rajab Ali's friends."

Rajab Ali was a one-eyed maulavi, an old friend of Sir Henry Lawrence,
whose many connections about the court of Delhi frequently sent Hodson
news of what was going on in the city. These communications were
sometimes made verbally by trusty messengers, sometimes in writing, on
tiny scrolls of the finest paper, two and a quarter inches long by one
and a half broad. The writing on them was so minute that the translation
when written out filled more than two pages of large letter paper. But
the actual information they contained was so scanty, and so much
embellished in the manner no oriental can avoid, that the separation of
the corn from the chaff gave Hodson a great deal of trouble. Moreover,
being written by hangers-on of the court, they included a vast amount of
unreliable gossip and hearsay. Hodson welcomed the opportunity of
gaining news that might be gleaned among the people themselves. He had
reason to believe that a great number of the more respectable
inhabitants of Delhi, who had had experience of the benefits of orderly
government, deplored the excesses of the sepoys and badmashes of the
city, and the disorders that sprang from the weakness of the king. It
would be a material gain to the besiegers to learn how far that feeling
extended, and how far the normal population would support the hordes of
rebels who were constantly pouring into the city.

"You will go among the people," said Hodson to Ahmed, "into the bazars,
among the sepoys, and listen to their talk, and find out what they think
and what