He had hardly finished the words when I saw him give a quick look and seize one of the guns, for the six horsemen had suddenly ridden back, to make for the rajah's elephant, followed by a mounted sowar, who passed between them as they opened out, and came close up to the side of the elephant. "Well?" cried the rajah, fiercely, and speaking in Hindustani. "News?" My heart gave a bound as the sowar announced the approach of the enemy, and I glanced at Ny Deen, in whose face I saw astonishment and disbelief for the moment. But it was only for the moment. Directly after, he gave several orders in a quick, decisive manner, and the officer to whom he spoke dashed off to obey his instructions. Then he turned to me. "You heard?" he said. I bowed. "Will you help me--will you take charge of the guns at once?" I looked full in the fierce, questioning face, and in those anxious moments I could not help feeling the danger of my position; but I had to speak. To refuse, now that he was driven to bay, might mean an order for immediate execution, and, cowardly or no, I could not speak. I suppose that I ought to have been brave, and exclaimed boldly, "Kill me, if you like; I will not fight against my countrymen." But I was very young; I had been badly wounded, and was just recovering and beginning to feel how beautiful, in spite of all my sufferings, life was, so I remained silent. "You refuse, then?" he cried fiercely. I was still silent, and he turned from me in a rage, making a fierce motion for me to descend from the elephant, which I obeyed, while Ny Deen gave a short, sharp order in an angry tone, whose result was that one of his men seized me on either side, and I was more a prisoner than ever, with six men in front and six behind, fresh summoned from the guard-house, to march me away. It was to my death, so it seemed in those terrible moments; while I had but to raise my voice and give my promise to the rajah, to be at once his honoured and trusted friend, commissioned with great power. But I could not say the necessary words, any more than I could speak a minute before, and in the silence of despair I walked as firmly as I could in the direction taken by the men, feeling giddy with excitement, and as if all this were not real, but part of some terrible trouble befallen another. I did not see what was about to happen, and was so wrapped up in my position, that I did not hear the huge elephant from which I had just descended shuffling after me, till the rajah's voice called to my guard to halt. Then, leaning down from the howdah, he said to me-- "This is blind obstinacy. Come, say you will be my friend, and help me now that I want your services." "I cannot," I said huskily.