'I have much to thank you for, Gambier Singh,' he says, in the Oordoo dialect. 'You have been a brother to me. I wonder when we shall meet again.' 'I think we shall meet before long,' says the young soldier, whose dark eyes gleam triumphantly in the morning light. 'My masters think that our help may be called for down below there. If it is so, I shall be given a command. We Ghoorkas will stand face to face with the proud Brahmin warriors who despise us and defeat them. Then my brother will seek me out, and we will tell over again the dreams we have dreamed in our valley.' 'They may not always be dreams,' says the young Indian, and, after a pause, 'You are sure my disguise is good?' 'It is no disguise. This is your true dress. This is your true character. If my brother had heard his own words when the fever was in his blood he would hesitate no longer. But the morning is advancing. Let us eat together before we part.' 'You will eat with me!' says the other in surprise. 'I am not a Brahmin,' answers the soldier. 'Have I not told you, besides, that you are one of us?' They retrace their steps in silence, and, while the laden camels move off, partake together of the rice and kecheri, and chupatties which Hoosanee has been preparing for them, pledging one another, after the English fashion, in a glass of Persian sherbet. Then Gambier Singh rises. 'I would I could go with you,' he says, 'but I know it cannot be. Before we part tell me plainly what you will do.' 'Yes; I will tell you,' says Tom. 'I have been thinking all night, and it is only this morning that I have made up my mind. I intended to spend this summer in travelling. I wished to be more fully informed about the country before I presented myself to the people in Gumilcund as the successor of Byrajee Pirtha Raj. Then, again, I thought I would go to Meerut, warn my people there, and pass on the advice which Jung Bahadoor has given to me. But it has come to me that my words will be, in their ears, as empty tales. Beside, there are many of our soldiers there, so that they could surely hold their own in any rising. It would be well also, in case of the crisis you fear, that I should be in Gumilcund and should have made the acquaintance of her people beforehand. In this way, I shall be better able to guide her safely, and it is just possible that her loyalty may be of service to the State. Therefore I have decided to go to Gumilcund at once, trying by the way to pick up what intelligence I can. Hoosanee, who knows the road, will guide me. The people, I believe, will accept me for the sake of him who has gone from them. If it is so, I will stay in their city watching the course of events.' 'Should it be as we fear,' said Gambier Singh, 'what will you do?' 'I cannot tell yet. I must be guided by circumstances.' 'Promise me not to expose yourself unnecessarily.' 'Unnecessarily? No!' 'But----'