The night passed undisturbed. Bob was almost sorry. As the slow hours crept towards midnight, when Lawrence would relieve him, he would have welcomed an opportunity for action. It was bitter cold. He dared not kindle a watch-fire, and so enlighten the enemy about his arrangements. Remembering Lawrence’s similar vigil forty miles down, he said to himself: "The kid’s a good plucked one. He’d have made a first-rate soldier, or political officer, or anything. Pity we’re both so hard up!" Suddenly he bethought himself of the mass of ore which had been tumbled into the cavity in the bank just above the Pathan miners’ compound. It must weigh many tons, and according to Mr. Appleton’s calculations, sixty per cent. of it was pure silver. Bob did not know the market price of the metal, but the quantity that had been mined must represent a considerable sum of money. The exciting incidents of the last few days had kept his thoughts engrossed with strategy and tactics; and the notion that the mine was itself a valuable property, worth defending for its own sake, came almost with a shock of surprise. "Who is the owner now?" he thought. "Did Uncle leave a will? I suppose we are his heirs, but what’s the law of inheritance in these parts?" And then the recollection of his uncle’s recent death caused a revulsion of feeling. It was quite unreasonable to shrink from the thought of benefiting by Mr. Appleton’s decease; but affection and high-minded instinct sometimes get the better of reason, and he dismissed the subject, still with a vague hope that his uncle would even yet return to his own. At midnight Lawrence came with a squad of men to relieve him. "All’s well then?" he said. "Yes; I haven’t heard a murmur." "Well, cut off and get a sleep. I’m good for a spell till daylight. Shan Tai has given me a splendid feed. We’re lucky in our men, Bob. As I was eating I overheard Shan Tai talking with Chunda Beg. ’What you tinkee?’ says Shan Tai. They’d evidently been discussing the situation. ’I say not one of the dogs will ever poke his nose within our walls,’ said the khansaman. ’When the huzur told me that two boys were coming to live here I was sick in mind. Some of the Feringhi boys call us niggers, and speak to us as if we were mud. Our sahibs are not so. They do not sniff and curse and use us as if we were beasts and not men. What say you, cook man?’ ’Say what you say allo lighto,’ says Shan Tai. ’Likee young massa plenty muchee. Big lot fightee men come all-same. No can fightee big lot long time.’ ’Wah!’ says Chunda. ’The two sahibs are worth thousands of those dogs of Kalmucks, and if Allah keeps them alive we shall smite and smite until the Sirkar sends help. Only give them good food, cook man.’ ’Makee chow-chow first-chop,’ says Shan Tai, and the old chap gave a chuckle. He’s a jolly good sort."