"Tough, certainly; but we get all that is good for us." "If not more," added Shakespere, pithily; "for this is feeding like savages--or Toorkomans, who drink the blood of their horses." "At a halt, when marching up country, I always used, if possible, like a knowing bachelor, to tiff with a married man." "Why?" "You will be sure to find that he has some daintily made sandwiches, cold fowl, or so forth, in his haversack: the women, God bless them, always look after these little things. But that is all over now; we are no longer in Hindostan. A little time must solve all this--the safety of our friends----" added Waller, looking thoughtfully to the distant landscape; and as if repenting of a momentary lightness of heart, "I would give all I have in the world----" "Say all you owe," suggested Shakespere, smiling. "Well, Sir Richmond, that would be a round sum perhaps--to see them all within musket shot of us. As for ransom, I have but my sword at their service. I can't do even a bill on a Hindoo schroff, or raise money on a whisker, as John de Castro did at Goa; but I can polish off a few of those savages, as they deserve to be." The dawn of a second day saw them descending the mighty ridges of the Indian Caucasus, and a picturesque body they were, with their bright particoloured garments floating backward on the wind; their black fur caps with scarlet bags, their dark, keen visages and sable beards, their polished weapons and tall tasselled lances flashing in the uprisen sun, as they galloped, without much order certainly, at an easy but swinging pace, over green waste and grey rocky plateau, up one hill-side and down another, now splashing merrily, and more than girth deep, through the clear, sparkling current of some brawling mountain nullah whose waters had been imbridged since Time was born--their horses light in body, with high withers, fine and muscular limbs, square foreheads, small ears, and brilliant eyes, and to all appearance fall of speed, spirit, and a strength that seemed never to flag. And sooth to say, the gallant Kuzzilbashes took every care to preserve those qualities so desirable alike for pursuit or flight.