"Go to the house; I will tell you all there," said Bob. "Havildar, silence those noisy ruffians on the other side. Tell them nothing. Chunda Beg, get me some brandy: I am half dead. All of you, don’t talk. I want Gur Buksh, and you, Ditta Lal, to come to the house in a quarter of an hour. I shall be all right then, and I’ve a great deal to say to you. You, Fazl, go back to the aeroplane, give it a thorough cleaning, and fill the tanks. Thanks for your thoughtfulness in lighting the fire." "Ah, sir, he stole a march on me," said the Babu. "If I had not been lapped in slumber, inspiration would have made me busy. But Fazl did very well--very well, that is, for a man without a degree, hall-mark of acumen, sir." CHAPTER THE TENTH A FATEFUL DISCOVERY It was an oddly assorted conclave that met in Mr. Appleton’s dining-room a little later. Bob had had a hot bath and a large bowl of coffee, which, Chunda Beg--not partial to stimulants--assured him, would do him more good than brandy. He sat now muffled in his dressing-gown in an armchair before the stove, his legs and feet swathed in blankets. On one side stood the tall dignified old Sikh Gur Buksh, straight as a dart, his face grave, his hands clasped upon the hilt of his sword, whose point was on the floor. Between Bob and the havildar sat Ditta Lal, who had requested permission to seat himself, on the ground that he was one of those "who fardels bear." "In other words, sir," he said, "I turn scale at eighteen stone, and too much standing on pins is one of many causes of varicosity according to little homoeopathic vade-mecum." Bob was apt to be impulsive, but he had determined to give no information on his side until he had learnt how things had gone at the mine during the day. He asked Gur Buksh to report. "I have done what the huzur said, sahib," declared the havildar in deep measured tones. "No work has been done to-day. We have kept the Pathans and the Kalmucks apart. They have reviled each other; blood has been hot, and I feared they would use their guns upon each other; but some of my men have patrolled the ground between them, and kept the peace." "You have done well," said Bob; "though if the men had been kept at work they could not have got into mischief." Gur Buksh pointed out, however, that it would not have been safe to allow the miners to cross the bridge. They would certainly have come into collision, and with guns, picks and hammers in their possession they could have overwhelmed the little garrison if it had come to fighting at close quarters. "Very well," said Bob. "Now I have grave news for you. We overtook Nurla Bai and his man nearly fifty miles down the river. As we flew over them one of them fired and hit the Burra Sahib, who fell into the stream." "Hai! hai!" ejaculated the Babu. Gur Buksh was mute.