nearest to see anything; and it was admitted that the crowd had been
suddenly panic-stricken and had scattered before the police could
secure witnesses. So he drove away, wondering, and ordered the driver
to follow the road taken by the murdered trooper.

It was just on the edge of evening, when the lighted street-lamps
were yet too pale to show distinctly, that he passed the disused
boarded shop and saw, on the side of the street opposite, the babu
who had brought him the story of riot that afternoon. He stopped his
carriage and stepped out. On second thought he ordered the carriage
away, for he was in plain clothes and not likely to attract notice;
and he had a suspicion in his mind that he might care to investigate
a little on his own account. He walked straight to the babu, and that
gentleman eyed him with obvious distrust.

"Did you see my trooper murdered?" he demanded; for he had learned
directness under Colonel Kirby, and applied it to every difficulty
that confronted him.

Natives understand directness from an Englishman, and can parry it;
but from another native it bewilders them, just as a left-handed
swordsman is bewildered by another left-hander. The babu blinked.

"How much had you seen when you ran to warn me this afternoon?"

The babu looked pitiful. His fat defenseless body was an absolute
contrast to the Sikh's tall manly figure. His eye was furtive,
glancing ever sidewise; but the Sikh looked straight and spoke
abruptly though with a note of kindness in his voice.