"It is impossible," he said coldly. "The men would rise against you after what they know." A flush of anger rose to my brow, and I felt my throat hot, as I cried angrily-- "They would not. There is not a man amongst them who would believe me such a scoundrel as you and Haynes do." Then my voice broke, and I turned to him appealingly. "Brace," I cried; "indeed you are wrong. I would not stoop to beg of you like this, but you are going to their help. My mother and my sister are there, and I seem to see them holding out their hands to us to come and help them. I must come with you. If you say no, I shall gallop on by myself, and if they cut me down, well, I shall have tried to help those I love." He had turned from me, but as my words, which I suppose were full of passionate excitement, fell upon his ears, he faced round and stared at me fixedly, as he raised his hand, hesitated, and then dropped it again. "Gil," he cried, "swear to me on your honour as a soldier and a gentleman that you had not joined the rajah's men." The moment before I was humble and pleading, but these words, this tone of doubt, this demand for an oath drove humility to the winds, and I felt as if I would die sooner than degrade myself as he wished. "I will not," I cried hotly. "I'll swear nothing. I don't want you to believe me. I thought you were a gentleman, and my friend." "Then tell me as a brother-officer that I am really wrong." "I tell you that you are a coward and blind," I cried; "and sooner than humble myself, I'd do as I said, and die." "Gil," he said hoarsely, "you are right. I can't go down on my knees to you here, but I do believe you, lad. I was blind and miserable, and disappointment made me doubt you more and more. Forgive me, lad; I own it. You couldn't have been such a miserable hound." I wanted to speak, but the words would not come for long enough. When they did, I could only whisper huskily-- "May I go to my guns?" He nodded, for he could not speak either for a time. "Like this?" I said, making a sign towards my uniform. "Anyhow, as long as it is the lad I believed in from the first," he half whispered; and then, in quite his old tone, "but we must ride and fire as we never rode and fired before. Now then, come and have a few words with the men." I went with him, and he spoke three words, the men answering with a cheer, and I saw Dick Dobbs raise the trumpet, and Sergeant Craig take a run toward his horse, while Denny seemed to try and catch my eye. Then Haynes and Danby came up, and both shook hands, or, rather, asked me to shake hands with them, in a deprecating way, and soon after, as if it were once more a dream, I was in the saddle by the guns, listening to my father's advice to Brace. He was to try and hold the rajah's people engaged with the help of the cavalry, harassing them till the infantry could come up, but he was not to risk losing the guns.