"The boats lay here below the temple. And one--a Mahomedan--came with them, promising safety. So they begun to get into the boats, and one moved off, the crowd looking on. Then suddenly, God knows why! it ceased looking on, and began to kill. They were half in, half out of the boat; the _sahib-logue_ and some cried to stop, some to go on. But the _mems_ made no noise; only you could see their faces white out of the shadows. "And his, the young _sahib's_, was whiter than any, glittering, it seemed, with a white fire. The _mem_ was in the boat, and Broon-_sahib_ on the bottom step, the baby in his arms. But he, the boy, was above him facing the crowd--making time. "Then, just as the mem stretched her hands for the child, a bullet--they were firing from the top steps--hit Broon-_sahib_, and he fell half in, half out of the water, pushing the boat out in his fall. So it began to slide down stream. "Some in it would have stopped it, but the _mem_ gave a look at those other _mems_, those other babies, and laid her hand on one that would have gone back. "'No!' "That was the cry she gave--a great cry; but a greater one rang out through the shadows and the lights, from the boy who had caught up the child as it fell upon the steps. "I know not what it was, but it was great, and it echoed out as the boat slipped fast to safety. And he held the child to his breast and waved his sword, so that the _mem's_ white face rose from her hands, where she had hidden it, and she looked back. That was the last thing I saw out of the shadows as the boat slipped to safety; but it held me, so that when I looked round, the boy was no longer on the steps. "He had leaped to the plinth of the temple, and his arms were empty of his burden. Only he stood in front of the doorway with his glittering white face--his glittering white face, his glittering white sword! "' Come on, you devils!' he shouted in our tongue. 'Come on! Mai Kâli shall have blood to-night if she wants it.'" "And she had, brothers! "It ran from the plinth and trickled to the river; for none could touch him from behind, and his sword was in front. "There was a method in its hackings and hewings. At least so it seemed to me, watching helpless for good or evil, from my place in the shadow. For ever, as its keenest stroke fell, so another body fell blocking the plinth, until he had to stand almost in the arch itself. "Then a burly Mahomedan trooper challenged him, and I knew not which way the fight was going, till, with a shout that was almost a laugh, the white face and the white sword showed, lunging back at the big body as they broke past. And it fell sidelong, blocking the doorway quite. "But none thought of that, of it. None thought of anything save the glittering face and the glittering sword that had burst through the circling crowd, and now, facing it again, was backing up the steps, fighting grimly as it backed.