Part 5 (1/2)
Telegrams translated into Punjabi were nailed to the door of a hut, telling of India in rebellion and of men, women and children butchered by the British in cold blood Other telegrams stated that the Sikhs of India in particular had risen, and that Pertab Singh, our prince, had been hanged in public Many other lies they posted up It would be waste of time to tell theht deceive the German public, but not us who had lived in India all our lives and who had received our mail from home within a day or two of our surrender
There cauht to let expediency be our guide in all things Yet ere expected to trust the ave us such advice!
Our sense of justice was not courted once They made appeal to our bellies-to our purses-to our lust-to our fear-but to our righteousness not at all They reat pictures of what German rule of the world would be, and at last I asked whether it was true that the kaiser had turned Muhaiven no answer until I had asked repeatedly, and then it was explained how that had been a rumor sent abroad to stir Isla but truth was told So I asked, was it true that our Prince Pertab Singh had been hanged, and they told me yes I asked theh was all the while in London I asked theh all this while, and for a tiain Then one day they began to talk of Ranjoor Singh
They told us he was being very useful to them, in Berlin, in daily conference with the Ger matters that pertained to the intended invasion of India Doubtless they thought that neould please us greatly But, having heard so many lies already, I set that down for another one, and the others becaust at Ranjoor Singh's unfaithfulness They believed and I disbelieved, yet the result was one
At night Gooja Singh held forth in the hut where he slept with twenty-five others He explained-although he did not say how he knew-that the Germans have kept for ue in India-an office h will be,” said he ”He will be h was Ranjoor Singh's bitterest eneht-time was the worst By day there was the camp to keep clean and the Ger of India, and of our dead officer sahibs, and of all that had been told us that we kneas lies Ever the conversation turned to Ranjoor Singh at last, and night after night the anger grew against him I myself admitted very often that his duty had been to lead us to our death I was ashamed as the rest of our surrender
After a tian to be drafted back to us froreat German victories They told us the German army was outside Paris and that the whole of the British North Sea Fleet was either sunk or captured They also said that the Turks in Gallipoli had won great victories against the Allies We began to wonder why such conquerors should seek so earnestly the friendshi+p of a handful of us Sikhs Our wounded began to be drafted back to us well primed, and their stories made us think, but not as the Germans would have had us think
Week after week until the spring came we listened to their tales by day and talked theht; and thewith them in Berlin, thedragged along into sueance on hi had not coh was really playing traitor, then he was going a tedious way about it Yet it was equally clear that if I should dare to say one word in his behalf that would be to pass sentence on myself I kept silence when I could, and was evasive when they pressedwith new conviction in ht at last, when men's hearts burned in them too terribly for sleep, that so froht to us Let the excuse be that he was our rightful leader, and that therefore he ought to advise us e should do Let us proh should order Then, when he should have been brought to us, should he talk treason ould tear hireed to I also agreed It was I who asked the next day that Ranjoor Singh be brought The Gerain, and he went away sht We repeated it at dawn We whispered it above the bread at breakfast After breakfast we stood in groups, confir one another to fulfillment-I no less than all the others Like the others I was blinded now by the sense of our high purpose and I forgot to consider what h take any other line than that expected of hi of the fourth day after our decision, e had all groeary of threats of vengeance and of argument as to what each individual man should do to our major's body, that there was soate and a ain behind him
He strode forward to the middle of our coathered round hi
”Fall in, two deep!” commanded he And we fell in, two deep, just as he ordered
”'Ten-shun!” commanded he And we stood to attention
Sahib, he was Ranjoor Singh!
He stood within easy reach of the nearest man, clothed in a new khaki German uniform He wore a German saber at his side Yet I swear to you the saber was not the reason why no h to have rescued him We, whose oath to murder him still tre knees now that he had come at last
We stood before hi at his face I have heard the English say that our eastern faces are impossible to read, but that can only be because western eyes are blind We can read theh's that day It dawned on us as we stared that we did not understand, but that he did; and there is no ather our wits he began to speak to us, and we listened as in the old days when at least a squadron of us had loved him to the very death A very unexpected as the first he used
”Simpletons!” said he
Sahib, our jaws dropped Siht ourselves On the contrary, we thought ourselves astute to have judged his character and to have kept our er so sure of ourselves that any lanced over his shoulder to left and right There were no Gerh to overhear him, even if he raised his voice So he did raise it, and we all heard
”I come from Berlin!”
”Ah!” said we-as oneto see whether any man would speak
”We be honest men!” said a trooper who stood not far from me, and several others ,” said I ”Let us listen first and pass judgh treachery!” said the trooper who had spoken first, but the others growled him down and presently there was silence
”You have eyes,” said Ranjoor Singh, ”and ears, and nose, and lips for nothing at all but treachery!” He spoke very slowly, sahib ”You have listened, and s else, and what you have sought you think you have found! To argue withwind into baskets My business is to lead, and I will lead Your business is to follow, and you shall follow” Then, ”Si said that he was silent, as if to judge what effect his words were having
No h there was a wondrous ht by way of explanation that Iagainst my will self-accusation, self-condemnation, self-conteh to be corrupted by er evidence If I had not been his enemy, I had not been true to hiht with a sense of shaer All the teachings of our Holy One accused h's face accused me I remembered that for more than twenty years he had stood to all of us for an example of what Sikh honor truly is, and that he had been aware of it