The point about the powder-magazine which most appealed to Brown—­next after his knowledge of its contents, mineral and human—­was the fact that the little platform at its summit overlooked the city-wall, and that the side of the granary actually touched the wall on the side of the city farthest from where he sat and spied it out.  Ten men on that protected platform, he thought, might suffer from the sun, but they could hold the building and command a good-sized section of the city ramparts against all comers.

He noticed too, though that seemed immaterial at the time, that one well-aimed shot from heavy ordnance might crash through the upper dome and set off the powder underneath.  There was no artillery that could be brought against the place, either with the British force or with the mutineers, but the thought set him to wondering how much powder there might be stored on the huge round floor below, and what would happen should it become ignited.  It was a sanguinary, interesting, subtle kind of thought, that suited the condition of his brain exactly!  He climbed down from the tree, feeling almost good-natured.

At the bottom he met Juggut Khan, waiting for him patiently.

“What have you seen, sahib?” he asked him.  “Have you formed a plan?”

“I’ve been wishing I was Joshua!” said Brown.  “I’d like to make my men march round the city and blow trumpets, and then see the walls fall down.  I can think of several things to do, if we could only get inside.  But I can’t think how to get there.”

“I have found a way in!” said Juggut Khan.  “I have cross-questioned that fakir of ours as well, with a little assistance from a cleaning-rod wielded by one of your men.  He knows the way too.  He says he is the only man who knows it—­in which he lies, since I too have discovered it.  But his knowledge may help as well.”

“What’s that about a cleaning-rod?” asked Brown.

“It was used on him to help him forget his vow of silence.”

“When?”

“When you were up that tree, sahib!”

“Have you been giving my man orders?”

“Nay, sahib!”

“How did he come to beat the fakir, then?”

“We both arrived at the same conclusion at the same moment, and the fakir received the benefit!”

“Who held him, you?”

“Nay, sahib!  God forbid!  I am a clean man.  I listened to his conversation.  The Beluchi held him.”

“Oh!  Well, I like you well enough, Juggut Khan, but there are things about you that I don’t like.  You’re too fond of doing things on your own responsibility, and you’re much too fond of using oaths.  Y our soul is none o’ my business; you’re a heathen anyhow, and no longer in the Service.  But, I’ll trouble you not to use those disgraceful oaths of yours in the presence of the men!  Do you understand me?”

“I understand you, sahib.  If my respect for all your other qualities were not so profound, I would laugh at you!  As it is, if your honor should see fit to turn the bullocks loose, and tie the fakir fast between two men and follow me, it seems to me dark enough by now, and I know the way.  Might I furthermore suggest that the ammunition-box would make a reasonable load for another two men?”