It seemed like an hour before the lookout challenged from the crag that overhung the gate—­before the would-be English words rang out; and all Asia and its jackals seemed to wait in silence for the answer.

“Howt-uh!  Hukkums-thar!”

“Ma—­hommed—­Gunga—­hai!”

“Hurrah!”

The cheer broke bonds from the depth of Cunningham’s being, and Mahommed Gunga heard it on the plain below.  There was a rush to man the wheels and sweat the gate up, and Cunningham started to run down the zigzag pathway.  He thought better of it, though, and waited where the path gave out onto the courtyard, giving the signal with the cords for the gate to lower away again.

“Evening, Mahommed Gunga!” he said, almost casually, as the weary charger’s nose appeared above the rise.

“Salaam, bahadur!”

He dismounted and saluted and then leaned against his horse.

“I wonder, sahib, whether the horse or I be weariest!  Of your favor, water, sahib!”

Cunningham brought him water in a dipper, and the Rajput washed his horse’s mouth out, then held out the dipper again to Cunningham for fresh charge for himself.

“I would not ask the service, sahib, but for the moment my head reels.  I must rest before I ride again.”

“Is all well, Mahommed Gunga?”

“Ay, sahib!  More than well!”

“The men are ready?”

“Horsed, armed, and waiting, they keep coming—­there were many when I left—­there will be three squadrons worthy of the name by the time we get there!  Is all well at your end, sahib?”

“Yes, all’s well.”

“Did the padre people go to Howrah?”

“They started and they have not returned.”

“Then, Allah be praised!  Inshallah, I will grip that spectacled old woman of a priest by the hand before I die.  He has a spark of manhood in him!  Send me this good horse to the stables, sahib; I am overweary.  Have him watered when the heat has left him, and then fed.  Let them blanket him lightly.  And, sahib, have his legs rubbed—­that horse ever loved to have his legs rubbed.  Allah!  I must sleep four hours before I ride!  And the Miss-sahib—­went she bravely?”

“Went as a woman of her race ought to go, Mahommed Gunga.”

“Ha!  She met a man first of her own race, and he made her go!  Would she have gone if a coward asked her, think you?  Sahib—­women are good—­at the other end of things!  We will ride and fetch her.  Ha!  I saw!  My eyes are old, but they bear witness yet!—­Now, food, sahib —­for the love of Allah, food, before my belt-plate and my backbone touch!”

“I wonder what the damned old infidel is dreaming of!” swore Cunningham, as Mahommed Gunga staggered to the chamber in the rock where a serving-man was already heaping victuals for him.

“Have me called in four hours, sahib!  In four hours I will be a man again!”

CHAPTER XXXI