“The sons obeyed, and helped the wolves out of the trap.  And instantly the wolves fell on all six sons, and slew and devoured them.  Then they came and stood round Abdul with their jaws dripping with blood.

“‘Oh, wolves,’ said he, trembling with fear and anger, ’ye are traitors!  Ye are forsworn!  Ye are faithless ones!’

“But they answered him, ’Oh, Abdul, shall he who knows not false from true judge treason?’ and forthwith they slew him and devoured him, and went about their business.

“Now, which had the right of that—­Abdul or the wolves?”

“We are no wolves!” said Gooja Singh in a whining voice.  “We be true men!”

“Then I will tell you another story,” Ranjoor Singh answered him.  And we listened again, as men listen to the ticking of a clock.  “This is a story the same old woman, my mother’s aunt, told me when I was very little.

“There was a man—­and this man’s name also was Abdul—­who owned a garden, and in it a fish-pond.  But in the fish-pond were no fish.  Abdul craved fish to swim hither and thither in his pond, but though he tried times out of number he could catch none.  Yet at fowling he had better fortune, and when he was weary one day of fishing and laid his net on land he caught a dozen birds.

“‘So-ho!’ said Abdul, being a man much given to thought, and he went about to strike a bargain.  ‘Oh, birds,’ said he, ’are ye willing to be fish?  For I have no fishes swimming in my pond, yet my heart desires them greatly.  So if ye are willing to be fish and will stay in my good pond and swim there, gladdening my eyes, I will abstain from killing you but instead will set you in the pond and let you live.’

“So the birds, who were very terrified, declared themselves willing to be fish, and the birds swore even more oaths than he insisted on, so that he was greatly pleased and very confident.  Therefore he used not very much precaution when he came to plunge the birds into the water, and the instant he let go of them the birds with feathers scarcely wet flew away and perched on the trees about him.

“Then Abdul grew very furious.  ‘Oh, birds,’ said he, ’ye are traitors.  Ye are forsworn!  Ye are liars—­breakers of oaths—­ deceitful ones!’ And he shook his fist at them and spat, being greatly enraged and grieved at their deception.

“But the birds answered him, ’Oh, Abdul, a captive’s gyves and a captive’s oath are one, and he who rivets on the one must keep the other!’ And the birds flew away, but Abdul went to seek his advocate to have the law of them!  Now, what think ye was the advocate’s opinion in the matter, and what remedy had Abdul?”

Has the sahib ever seen three hundred men all at the same time becoming conscious of the same idea?  That is quite a spectacle.  There was no whispering, nor any movement except a little shifting of the feet.  There was nothing on which a watchful man could lay a finger.  Yet between one second and the next they were not the same men, and I, who watched Ranjoor Singh’s eyes as if he were my opponent in a duel, saw that he was aware of what had happened, although not surprised.  But he made no sign except the shadow of one that I detected, and he did not change his voice—­as yet.