Where is the next command? The next command north? Harumpore?
Then why is there no news from Harumpore? I will tell you, sahib."

"You mean, I suppose, that the country is up, in between?"

"You know that it is up, sahib!"

"You think that no message could get through to me?"

"I know that it could not! Else had one already come. My advice
to you, sahib, as one soldier to another and tendered with all respect,
is to up and leave this Bholat. Here, of what use are you? Here
you can hold a small city, until the countryside has time to rise
and lay siege to you and hem you in! Outside of here, you can be
a hornet-storm! They will burn Bholat behind you. Let them! Let
them, too, pay the price. Swoop down on Harumpore, sahib--join there
with Kendrick sahib's command. There make a fresh plan, and swoop
down on some other place. But move, quickly, and keep on moving!
And waste no time on places that are already lost."

"Then you would have me leave those women and that child, that you
tell me of to their fate?"

"Nay, sahib! I am not of your command. I have done my duty to the
Raj, and I now go about my own business."

"And that is?"

"To repay a debt that I owe the Raj, sahib!"