Part 13 (1/2)
”Does that e put you in command?” asked Brown, a trifle truculently
”No, sahib! But it orders you to listen to my advice whenever possible”
”That means that you are under my orders?”
”That letter does not say so, sahib!”
”Very well, are you, or are you not?”
”We are supposed to act in concert, sahib”
”It doesn't say so in the letter! Yes, or no? Are you going to obey orders, or aren't you? In other words, are you co with me, or do you stay behind?”
”I come with you, sahib!”
”Then you obey my orders!”
”But the letter says-”
”That I'm to take your advice whenever possible! I don't need advice just at the ot orders here to march, and I'm off at once! You can please yourself whether you come with o with you, sahib”
”Under ut Khan Here's e, and take the fakir with us, with a halter round his neck for the sake of arguet two bullock-carts down there, and we'll stick him in one of them, with Sidiki the interpreter tied to hiet in the other, and get all the sleep you can You and I'll take turns sleeping all the way to Jailpore, so's to be fresh, both of us, and fit for anything by the tiet there!”
”I am ready, sahib”
”You two ain!” shouted Brown ”Let hiently as though you loved him The rest-'Tshun! Form two-deep-on the center-close order, march Ri' dress Eyes front Ri' turn By the left-quickwearily whether it orth his while to offer hi in the direction of the distant huts
”They have rifles, sahib?” he queried
”Lots of 'e others”
”It would not be well to e”
”As well now as later” ”True, sahib! And my time has not come yet; I know it Else had I died of weariness, as idly to that point of view in everything he did, from that tiaged on a forlorn hope that was so close to being an absolute i He had no doubt whatever in his own mind but that his own death, and the death of those with him, was a matter now of hours, or possibly of minutes His one resolute determination was to die, andtheir oath of service He had orders, and he would pass the to his interpretation of them He would obey his orders, and they theirs, and the rest was no business of his or anybody's
They put the fakir in a hut; where Juggut Khan-too weary for foraging-stood guard over hiut Khan applied the butt of a lighted cigarette to the tender skin between the fakir's shoulder-blades, the anxious fakir-worshi+pers were told that all ell They were to let the white soldiers take tagons, or three even, if they wanted them They were to return to their houses at once, and hide, lest the devils ould shortly overwhelm the white men shouldHe, the fakir, intended to take the whitethe road toward Jailpore, where the devils ould deal with them would have no opportunity to make mistakes And, since the natives knew that Jailpore was a rebel stronghold, and that ten white htest dae there, they chose to believe the fakir and to obey him