"Your honor is pleased to be humorous? No, I am not drunk. Nor have
I eaten opium. I have eaten of the bread of bitterness this day,
and drunk of the cup of gall. I have seen British officers--good,
brave fools, some of whom I knew and loved--killed by the men they
were supposed to lead. I have seen a barracks burning, and a city
given over to be looted. I have seen white women--nay, sahib, steady!--
I have seen them run before a howling mob, and I have seen certain
of them shot by their own husbands!"

"Quietly!" ordered Brown. "Don't let the men hear!"

"One of them I slew myself, because her husband, who was wounded,
sent me to her and bade me kill her. She died bravely. And certain
others I have hidden where the mutineers are not likely to discover
them at present. I ride now for succor--or, I rode, rather, until
your expert marksman interfered with me! I now need another horse."

"You mean that the native troops have mutinied?" "I mean rather more
than that, sahib. Mohammedans and Hindus are as one, and the crowd
is with them. This is probably the end of the powder-train, for,
from what I heard shouted by the mutineers, almost the whole of India
is in revolt already!"

"Why?"

"God knows, sahib! The reason given is that the cartridges supplied
are greased with the blended fat of pigs and cows, thus defiling both
Hindu and Mohammedan alike. But, if you ask me, the cause lies deeper.
In the meantime, the rebels have looted Jailpore and burned their