"Yes, if you are willing to be cowards and faithless. Must I believe that you will sneak off and leave your comrades to face danger alone?" The man was silent, plucking his beard. Bob offered him a cigarette, which the man accepted mechanically, lighting it at the match with which Bob lit his own. "Is it a great army, sahib?" he said at length. "A very great one. Very likely we shall find it impossible to save the mine. It is true that the huzur is gone: Nurla Bai shot him; he fell from the machine into the river, and I have no hope that he is yet alive. But his loss only leaves the more for us to do. We must first save Lawrence Sahib and your friends. When we are all met again, we can decide what is best. Perhaps we shall have to abandon the mine; but then, you see, we shall form one large party, with plenty of provisions and cartridges; and you will have a much better chance of reaching your homes than if you go as you are, hungry, with no food, and little hope of defending yourselves if attacked by enemies in the hills." The Pathan puffed away gravely. "There is truth in what the sahib says. He has a very big mind, and sees very far. We Pathans are not cowards, as the sahib knows; Fyz Ali is a good man, and the chota sahib will be a great man when his beard is grown. But how can we go back? As the sahib says, we are but a handful against the pack of dogs yonder, and the sahib has no more little boxes." "I didn’t say so. As a matter of fact, I have several." "Inshallah!" cried the man joyfully. "Why did not the sahib say so before? If the sahib will go up in his machine, and drop the little boxes upon the heads of the Kalmucks, we will charge home upon them with great fury, and there shall not be left one man alive to tell the tale." Bob knew that it would be useless to attempt to make the man understand why he could not consent to this wholesale butchery. He merely pointed out that, flying swiftly overhead, he could only drop one or perhaps two bombs that would certainly hit the enemy. The survivors would be goaded to desperation, and before the aeroplane could return and the manoeuvre be repeated, there would be a terrible fight, in which the Pathans, even if successful, would lose heavily. "What I want to do is to gather all the loyal men safely at the mine," he said. "I do not want to lose one of you. I can do this, I believe, if you obey my orders: otherwise who knows how many of you will be left alive?" "As the sahib commands," said the Pathan. "This is what I command. You will remain here with your men while I drive the Kalmucks away. You will not fire upon them unless you are yourselves attacked. Impress that upon the men. When the Kalmucks are out of sight, you may march up towards the mine, but halt if you come in sight of them again." "I will give the sahib’s orders to the men," said the Pathan. "I hope the sahib will drive the dogs away quickly, for we are very hungry."