oke the line and turned sideways, overthrowing two
Granthis and their horses as she did so. The mahout, with voice and
goad, tried manfully to get her back into the path, but there was a
moment's wild confusion, in the midst of which Gerrard became aware of
a mob of wild Darwanis, their garments flying, charging down upon his
rear.

"They have broken through! Our Sahib is slain--Chatar Sahib--the Red
Sahib!" they yelled. "Fly for your lives!"

Gerrard spurred back impetuously to stop them, under a hail of bullets
from the enemy rallying in the bushes. A sudden numbing pain in his
arm made him drop the reins, and he had only time to realise that Sher
Singh's pursuing horsemen were on the heels of the fugitives before
their rush swept him from the saddle, and he went down into a cruel
welter of hoofs. Then all was silence.

When he recovered consciousness, he was lying helpless, and as he
thought bound, in an elephant's howdah. An attempt at movement showed
him that he was not bound, but bruised and wounded from head to heel.

"Heaven-born!" said a voice at his side, and he distinguished the tones
of Munshi Somwar Mal. "Now do the roses bloom again in the garden of
joy, since your honour lives!"

"But Charteris Sahib--the Rani--every one?" murmured Gerrard, trying to
remember what had happened.

"The Rani Sahiba saw your honour fall, and herself took command of the
soldiers, bidding them die rather than fail to recover your body.
Sirdar Badan Hazari was killed, fighting very valiantly, and the
Komadan Sahib Rukn-ud-din now leads the troops."

"But Charteris Sahib--what of him, I say?"

"Alas, sahib! The Rani Sahiba bade return to look for him when the foe
were driven back, but none were found alive save a wounded Darwani, who
had seen Chatar Sahib's body thrown over a horse and carried away."

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ONE WHO WAS LEFT.

"My dear, I wish you would take that unfortunate young Gerrard in
hand." Mr James Antony, acting-Resident at Ranjitgarh owing to the
absence of his brother on sick-leave, wore a worried look as he entered
his wife's room.

"I will do what I can, love, but I am never quite sure how to approach
these young men. If only dear Theodora were here----" Mrs James was
alluding to her sister-in-law, Mrs Edmund Antony.

"Oh, if Ned and his wife were here, the trouble would be at an end,"
said James Antony, with his big laugh. "I can't begin an interview by
blowing a man u