Chapter 25

From the camp below Sir Neville Chamberlain watches the fight. The moment is critical; if the enemy maintain their hold on the Crag he will have to retire. It must be retaken at all costs. He orders the 101st Royal Bengal Fusiliers to the front, and more companies of the Guides; and since this is no ground for cavalry work, let the troopers dismounted share in the assault. The gallant fellows are nothing loath. Up they go, lightly as only hill-men can. Heedless of the bullets that shower among them, they force their way steadily to the crest, and then the word is given to charge.

The line sweeps forward with a cheer--the infantry with fixed bayonets, the troopers with lance and sword. They dash full into the midst of the brave enemy; there is a shock, a slight check, and then the tribesmen falter, give back, and are driven down the slope.

The victors press on in pursuit. Some fleet-footed fellows outstrip the rest. Look at that black-bearded Guide running to overtake with his lance one of the fleeing men! Ah! he stumbles over a rock, staggers, falls at full length; and the fugitive, but a yard or two ahead, turns to cleave him as he lies. Two or three join him; he has his sword uplifted to strike, when a British lieutenant runs up and fells him with a pistol-shot. His comrades close round and beset the Englishman, four to one. Dafadar Sherdil Khan attempts to rise, but one of the enemy deals him a blow that disables him. The officer flings his pistol at the head of one man, then with his sword wards off the desperate thrusts of the others. If he stands merely on the defensive he will be overborne by numbers: there is no help at hand. Gathering his strength he rushes into the midst of the group. It breaks apart; in an instant he springs to the man on the right and cuts him down. Then he turns to deal with the rest. One is running again to the prostrate dafadar. With great leaps the lieutenant makes after him, and reaches him just in time to prevent the fatal blow. And then, as the Englishman turns once more to face the odds, a handful of the Royal Bengals come up at the double, and sweep upon the hapless tribesmen; not one of them escapes.

* * * * *

James Barclay had returned to his corps. Many of his old friends were gone, but Sherdil remained, and none was more delighted than he to welcome Ahmed Khan, after his five years' absence, as a British officer. And when, at Hoti-Mardan, some months after the fight at the Crag, it became known that Lieutenant Barclay of the Guides had been awarded the little bronze cross "For Valour," it was Sherdil, whose life he had saved, that led the troopers in their round of cheers.

Lieutenant Barclay did not forget to visit his adoptive father. Old Ahsan, bent, and very frail, knew him before he reached the gate, and his withered face beamed as he saluted him: "Salaam, hazur: truly Allah is great!"

Rahmut Khan gave him a royal welcome.

"Still art thou my son!" he cried, "and the sight of thee is very good."

He had loyally held to his compact with Jan Larrens, and the British raj had no warmer friend on the frontiers than he. Age had laid its icy finger on him; the tale of his years was well-nigh told. Only one thing troubled his peace of mind: neither Dilasah nor Minghal Khan had tasted his vengeance. Dilasah had fled from the village at the first news that the chief was returning home; and of Minghal, though he had sought diligently, he had discovered no trace.

Barclay wondered whether the two men, like Nana Sahib and Bakht Khan and other figures in the great rebellion, had disappeared for ever. But a year or so later, when he was being shown over the jail at Agra by the governor, he was taken to see two notorious ruffians who were serving a term of fifteen years' imprisonment for highway robbery with violence. And remembering that Rahmut Khan had been imprisoned in that very jail, he thought it a just retribution when he recognized, in the two fettered prisoners tramping round and round at the pole of the oil-mill, Dilasah and Minghal Khan. He sent word of his discovery to the old chief, and in due time received an answer written by the village scribe, Dinga Ghosh.

"The house of the wicked shall not prosper. I would I had slain them; but what must be, will be. Allah be with thee!"

GLOSSARY

The vowels are pronounced (approximately) as in German. The accent indicates a long vowel.

_almirah_, cupboard.

_ayah_, nurse, lady's-maid.

_badmásh_, bad character, hooligan.

_bakr-id_, Mohammedan festival in honour of Abraham's intended sacrifice of Ishmael (not Isaac, as in the Bible story).

_bang_, or _bhang_, an intoxicating drink.

_banijárá_, trader.

_bariya_, swordgrinder.

_bas_, enough.

_bázár_, market-place.

_begam_, lady of rank (Musalmán).

_bhatiyárá_, innkeeper.

_bhisti_, water-carrier.

_chapáti_, thin unleavened cake.

_chaprási_, messenger.

_charpoy_, bedstead.

_chit_, note.

_chogah_, sleeveless cloak of camel's hair.

_chup_, silence!

_dafadár_, sergeant of cavalry (native).

_darbár_, king's court, levée.

_darwán_, doorkeeper.

_dasturi_, commission.

_dhoti_, the cloth garment worn by Hindus.

_Dín_, the religious duties of Musalmans; the word is used as their war-cry in fighting against infidels.

_dooli_, a swinging litter.

_eo_, hail!

_fakir_, Mohammedan religious mendicant.

_Feringhi_, European.

_galá_, throat.

_ghi_, clarified butter.

_Gujars_, a tribe of robbers.

_hakim_, doctor.

_hazur_, lord.

_hilo mat_, don't move.

_jaldi karo_, quickly do; hurry up.

_jamádár_, lieutenant of cavalry (native).

_jasail_, Pathan musket.

_-ji_, affix implying affection = dear.

_jin_, spirit, goblin.

_káfir_, unbeliever.

_kala pani_, black water, the sea.

_kásid_, courier.

_khabar_, news.

_Khán_, prince; a title commonly added to Pathan names.

_khánsámán_, butler, head servant.

_khitmutgar_, table servant.

_koss_, about two miles.

_kotwál_, chief of the police; _kotwáli_, police head-quarters.

_lákh_, 100,000.

_lathi_, stick, club; _lathi-wallah_, man armed with a club.

_lotah_, brass pot.

_mádi_, toddy extracted from the cocoa-palm.

_maulavi_, learned Musalman and spiritual guide.

_mirzá_, prefixed to Mogul names = prince.

_mlecha_, or _mlechchha_, foreigner.

_mullah_, official who leads the prayers in a mosque.

_munshi_, writer, secretary.

_náik_, corporal.

_nassar_, or _nazar_, offering by an inferior to a superior.

_pagri_, turban.

_palki_, palanquin, closed carriage borne on poles.

_Pathán_, Afghan, whether in Afghanistan or immigrant in India.

_Peshwá_, prime minister and actual sovereign of the Maráthá kingdom.

_pice_, copper coin = quarter anna = about one farthing.

_pulao_, a savoury stew.

_Purbiya_, man from Eastern Bengal.

_ráj_, rule.

_risáldár_, officer commanding troop of horse.

_ryot_, peasant.

_sahib-log_, the sahib people = British.

_sais_, groom.

_sárbán_, camel-driver.

_sayid_, descendant of Ali, son-in-law of Mahomet.

_serai_, inn.

_shigram_, carriage.

_shikári_, hunter.

_Shiva_, third person of the Hindu trinity.

_shroff_, banker.

_sirkar_, or _sarkár_, government.

_sowar_, or _sawár_, trooper.

_súar ká bachcha_, son of a pig.

_subahdár_, high officer.

_talwár_, sword.

_tamáshá_, entertainment, jollification.

_wallah_, an affix denoting a person closely connected with the thing expressed by the word to which it is affixed--_competition wallah_ = candidate; _palki-wallah_ = palki-bearer.

_zamindar_, landowner.

THE BOY'S NEW LIBRARY

By Herbert Strang

HUMPHREY BOLD PALM TREE ISLAND ROB THE RANGER A HERO OF LIÉGE THE MOTOR SCOUT SWIFT AND SURE FIGHTING WITH FRENCH THROUGH THE ENEMY'S LINES FRANK FORESTER KING OF THE AIR ROUND THE WORLD IN SEVEN DAYS CARRY ON BURTON OF THE FLYING CORPS LORD OF THE SEAS TOM WILLOUGHBY'S SCOUTS THE LONG TRAIL THE BLUE RAIDER THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN SETTLERS AND SCOUTS

By Major Charles Gilson

THE LOST EMPIRE

By Captain G. B. McKean, V.C.

MAKING GOOD SCOUTING THRILLS

By Joseph Bowes

THE YOUNG ANZACS THE ANZAC WAR TRAIL THE AUSSIE CRUSADERS

By G. A. Henty

FRIENDS THOUGH DIVIDED THE YOUNG FRANCTIREURS IN TIMES OF PERIL

By Desmond Coke

THE SCHOOL ACROSS THE ROAD

By Richard Bird

THE RIPSWAYD RING

By Hylton Cleaver

BROTHER O' MINE

By Col. J. P. Groves

TARBUCKET AND PIPECLAY

By Henry Frith

THE CAPTAINS OF CADETS

By Gordon Stables

JUST LIKE JACK ON SPECIAL SERVICE

By W. H. G. Kingston

FROM POWDER MONKEY TO ADMIRAL ROGER WILLOUGHBY

By G. Manville Fenn

MIDDY AND ENSIGN CUTLASS AND CUDGEL

By Edwin Hodder

TOSSED ON THE WAVES

By T. Baines Reed

THE WILLOUGHBY CAPTAINS

By Harry Collingwood

A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

By J. F. Cobb

IN TIME OF WAR

By T. S. Millington

SOME OF OUR FELLOWS

By W. M. Thayer

FROM LOG CABIN TO WHITE HOUSE