Murtiza Khan turned his head for a second and shouted a sharp order to the grooms, which made them bestir themselves to get the horses ready, then asked some other question of the boy, who answered with more frenzied gesticulations than ever. When the trooper seemed to persist, he ran to a convenient tree and climbed up it like a monkey, and from a lofty branch shouted and pointed wildly, then slid down, and abandoning any further attempt at conversation, took to his heels and ran at his utmost speed along the edge of the swamp towards the east, where the sky was still clear. “What is it, Murtiza Khan?” asked Lady Haigh breathlessly, as the trooper hurried up the bank towards her. “Highness, the forest is on fire. Will the Presences be graciously pleased to mount at once? We must ride eastwards.” “But the camp? the servants? We must warn them!” cried Lady Haigh. “They will have seen the fire coming, Highness, for they are nearer it than we. They will stand in the lake, and let the flames sweep over them, and so save themselves. But we cannot go back, for we should meet the fire before we reached the lake.” “But the Sahib!” cried Lady Haigh frantically. “He will be cut off. I will not go on and leave him. We must go back.” “Highness, the Sahib is wise, and has with him the _shikari_ Baha-ud-Din, who knows the forest well. He will protect himself, but the care of the Presences falls to me.” “I tell you I won’t go,” cried Lady Haigh. “Take the Miss Sahib on, and I will go back alone.” “It must not be, Highness. The Sahib gave me a charge, and I swore to carry it out at the risk of my own life. ‘Guard the Mem Sahib and the Miss Sahib,’ he said; and I will do it. Be pleased to mount, Highness,” as she still hesitated. “Sir Dugald would tell you to come, Elma,” urged Penelope. “If we could do anything, I would say go back at once; but we don’t even know exactly where he is, and delay now will sacrifice the men’s lives as well as ours.”