“It is well you came!” said I.  “Thus I am saved the necessity of sending one to bring you.  Our sahib is asleep,” I said, “and has made over the command to me until he shall awake again.”

“He sleeps very suddenly!” said Gooja Singh, and he stood eying me with suspicion.

“Well he may!” said I, thinking furiously—­as a man in a burning house—­yet outwardly all calm.  “He has done all our thinking for us all these days; he has borne alone the burden of responsibility.  He has enforced the discipline,” said I with a deliberate stare that made Gooja Singh look sullen, “and God knows how necessary that has been!  He has let no littlest detail of the march escape him.  He has eaten no more than we; he has marched as far and as fast as we; he has slept less than any of us.  And now,” said I, “he is weary.  He kept awake until I came, and fell asleep in my arms when he had given me his orders.”

Gooja Singh looked as if he did not believe me.  But my words had been but a mask behind which I was thinking.  As I spoke I stepped sidewise, as if to prevent our voices from disturbing the sleeper, for it seemed wise to draw Gooja Singh to safer distance.  Now I sat down at last on the summit of the rock exactly where Ranjoor Singh was sitting when I spied him first, hoping that perhaps in his place his thoughts would come to me.  And whether the place had anything to do with it or not I do not know, but certainly wise thoughts did come.  I reached a decision in that instant that was the saving of us, and for which Ranjoor Singh greatly commended me later on.  Because of it, in the days to come, he placed greater confidence in my ability and faithfulness and judgment.

“What were his orders?” asked Gooja Singh.  “Or were they secret orders known only to him and thee?”

“If you had not come,” said I, “I would have sent for you to hear the orders.  When he wakes,” I added, “I shall tell him who obeyed the swiftest.”

I was thinking still.  Thinking furiously.  I knew nothing at all yet about Abraham, and that was good, for otherwise I might have decided to wait there for him to overtake us.

“Have the men finished eating?” I asked, and he answered he was come because they had finished eating.

“Then the order is to proceed at once!” said I.  “Send a cart here under the rock and eight good men, that we may lower our sahib into it.  With the exception of that one cart let the column proceed in the same order as before, the Turk and his men leading.”

“Leading whither?” asked Gooja Singh.

“Let us hope,” said I, “to a place where orders are obeyed in military manner without question!  Have you heard the order?” I asked, and I made as if to go and wake our officer.