work lay with the horses, for they had to go far and pick their way
clear of habitations. Many of the troopers were natives of that part
of the world, ready and anxious to fight against their kin, and some
of the officers had made private and unofficial excursions into those
hills before. They crossed the border, found a dried river bed,
cantered up that, waited through a stony gorge, risked crossing a low
hill under cover of the darkness, skirted another hill, leaving their
hoof-marks deep in some ploughed ground, felt their way along another
watercourse, ran over the neck of a spur, praying that no one would
hear their horses grunting, and so worked on in the rain and the
darkness, till they had left Bersund and its crater of hills a little
behind them, and to the left, and it was time to swing round.
The ascent commanding the back of Bersund was steep, and they halted
to draw breath in a broad level valley below the height. That is to
say, the men reined up, but the horses, blown as they were, refused
to halt. There was unchristian language, the worse for being
delivered in a whisper, and you heard the saddles squeaking in the
darkness as the horses plunged.

The subaltern at the rear of one troop turned in his saddle and said
very softly:--

'Carter, what the blessed heavens are you doing at the rear? Bring
your men up, man.'

There was no answer, till a trooper replied:--

'Carter Sahib is forward--not there. There is nothing behind us.'

'There is,' said the subaltern. 'The squadron's walking on it's own