"You say that all of the European officers in Jailpore have been killed?"

"I did not count. I did not even know them all by mine or sight.
I think, though, that all were killed. I heard men among the mutineers
declare that all had been accounted for, save only three women and
a child, and me. Those four I myself had hidden, and as for myself--
I too was accounted for, and not without credit to the Raj for whom
I fight!"

"I believe you, Juggut Khan! Did you have to cut your way out?"

The Rajput smiled.

"There was a message to deliver, sahib! What would you? Should
I have waited while they arrested me?"

"Oh! You managed to evade them, did you?"

"At least I am here, sahib!"

The general chewed at his mustache, leaned his chair back against
the wall and tapped at his boot with a riding-cane.

"Tell me, Juggut Khan," he said after another minute's thought, "what
is your idea? Is this sporadic? Is this a local outbreak? Will
this die down, if left to burn itself out?"

The Rajput laughed aloud.

"`Sporadic,"' he answered, "is a word of which I have yet to learn