"Confound it!" he growled, "this is awkward, very awkward," and Malcolm felt bitterly that the extraordinary turn taken by events in the palace was in a fair way towards depriving his superiors of the facts they were so anxious to learn. Suddenly the big man's deep eyes fell on Chumru. "Here, you," he growled, "was aught said to thee whereby thou hast a scruple to tell me how many guns defend the Cashmere Gate?" "Huzoor," said Chumru, "there are but two things that concern me, my master's safety and the size of that jaghir your honor promised me." Nicholson laughed with an almost boyish mirth. "By gad," he cried, "you are fortunate in your friends, Malcolm." Then he turned to Chumru again. "The jaghir is of no mean size," he said, "but I shall see to it that a field is added for every useful fact you make known." Frank listened to his servant's enumeration of the guns and troops at the Lahore, Mori, and Cashmere Gates, and he was surprised at the accuracy of Chumru's mental note-taking. "I need not have gone at all, sir," he could not help commenting when the bearer had answered Nicholson's final question. "I seem to have a Napoleon for a valet." The brigadier laid a kindly hand on Frank's shoulder. "You forget that you have brought me the most important news of all," he said. "The enemy is defeated before the first ladder is planted against their walls. They know it, and, thanks to you, now we know it. My only remaining difficulty is not to take Delhi, but to screw up our Chief to make the effort." Then his voice sank to a deep growl. "But I'll bring him to reason, I will, by Heaven, even if I risk being cashiered for insubordination!" CHAPTER XVII THE EXPIATION Two hours after midnight--that is a time of rest and peace in most lands. Men have either ceased or not yet begun their toil. Even warfare, the deadliest task of all, slackens its energy, and the ghostly reaper leans on his scythe while wearied soldiers sleep. Wellington knew this when he said that the bravest man was he who possessed "two-o'clock-in-the-morning" courage, for shadows then become real, and dangers anticipated but unseen are magnified tenfold. Yet, soon after two o'clock in the morning of September 14, 1857, four thousand five hundred soldiers assembled behind the Ridge for the greatest achievement that the Mutiny had demanded during the four months of its wonderful history. They were divided into five columns, one being a reserve, and the task before them was to carry by assault a strongly fortified city, surrounded by seven miles of wall and ditch, held by forty thousand trained soldiers and equipped with ample store of guns and ammunition. Success meant the certain loss of one man among four--failure would carry with it a rout and massacre unexampled in modern war.