CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FOURTH
Nikalsain
Ahmed's return to the corps set his comrades' tongues wagging.
"Why, where hast thou been, Ahmed-ji?" cried Sherdil, when they met."Verily the sight of thee is as ointment to sore eyes."
There was now no reason why the men should not know the errand on whichhe had been, saving such particulars as were confidential with HodsonSahib. So Ahmed related to Sherdil and a group of Guides his adventuressince he had first left them. Two facts he omitted: his disguise, andhis share in the fight with the rebels as they returned from Alipur. Themen listened with amazement, and Sherdil frankly declared his envy.
"Though Allah has been good to me too," he added; "am I not now adafadar? He who has patience wins. Thou canst not now be a dafadarbefore me."
Ahmed congratulated him warmly on his promotion. Then he asked what theGuides had been doing during his absence, and heard of almost dailyencounters with the enemy. He learnt also that Hodson Sahib was nolonger in command of the corps. He had raised a new body of horsemen, ofwhom the Guides were somewhat jealous.
"There goes one of them," cried Sherdil, pointing to a tall figure inkhaki, with a scarlet sash over the shoulder and a huge scarlet turban."We call them flamingoes, for they are very like. Thou shouldst see themon horseback, some of them who have ridden little; it is a sight to makeyou crack your sides."
"And who is now our commander, then?"
"Shebbeare Sahib, a good man: has he not been twice wounded? But itseems as though our commanders change with the moon, so short a time dothey abide with us."
And then he told of what men had been killed, and what wounded. Hehimself had been incapacitated for a week through a sabre cut. Ahmedasked if any new men had joined the corps.
"None, though there was a man of good promise who came with us into thatfight I told you of towards Alipur; a silent man, with a noble beard.Some of us thought he was a candidate; some, a sahib--thou knowest howthe sahibs love strange adventures; but I have never looked upon himsince."
"Of what sort was he, Sherdil?"
"A straight man, with a grave face, and a good seat on horseback."
"Was he anything like me?"
"Hai! Thou art a stripling: he was a _man_, I say. Maybe if thou livelong enough thou wilt have a beard like his. Truly thou wouldst haverejoiced to see him that day. Did he not smite, Rasul? Did he not cleavehis way through the Purbiyas with clean thrust and stroke? I would fainlook on him again."
"Thou hast seen him this day, Sherdil."
"Sayest thou? Where? I knew it not."
"Thou seest him now."
Sherdil stared.
"Dost thou not remember how thou didst thyself give me a moustache thatday we went as traders to Mandan? Even so I got for myself the beard, inKarnal."
The men laughed, and chaffed Sherdil uproariously on his failure torecognize his prize pupil.
"Wah!" cried the new dafadar; "but those who said the man was asahib----"
He stopped, checked by a look from Ahmed. Then they talked of theprospects of the siege, and the merits of the new general, ArchdaleWilson, who had succeeded General Reed. In common with the rest of thelittle force on the Ridge, they were restive under the long delay inassaulting the rebel city.
"But we shall see something soon," said Sherdil. "Nikalsain is here."
"Who is Nikalsain?"
"Dost thou not know Nikalsain? Wah! He is a man! There is not one in thehills that does not shiver in his pyjamas when he hears the name ofNikalsain. Thou couldst hear the ring of his grey mare's hoofs fromAttock even to the Khaibar, and the folk of Rawal Pindi wake in thenight and tremble, saying they hear the tramp of Nikalsain's war-horse.There are many sahibs, but only one Nikalsain."
"Hast thou not heard of what he did to Alladad Khan?" asked one of themen.
"Tell it, good Rasul," said Ahmed.
"Why, Alladad Khan, being guardian to his nephew--a boy--seized upon hisinheritance and drove him from the village. By and by, when the boy'sbeard was grown, he went to Nikalsain and besought him that he would dohim right. But Alladad was a great man, and mightily feared, so thatwhen Nikalsain sent to his village to seek witnesses of the truth of thematter, no man durst for his life speak for the boy. One morn, ere thesun was up, a man of the village went forth to his fields, and lo! therewas Nikalsain's grey mare grazing just beyond the gate. The man shookwith amaze and fear, and when his trembling had ceased, ran back againto tell Alladad Khan. And soon all the men of the village flocked to thegate to see the sight, and they marvelled greatly. Alladad also was indread, for his conscience pricked him, and he bade some to drive themare to the grass of some other village, lest evil should come uponthem. And as they went forth to do his bidding, in a little space theycame to a tree, and lo! tied to it, was Nikalsain himself. Some fledaway in great fear; others, thinking to win favour with the hazur, wentforward to loose him. But Nikalsain cried to them in a loudvoice--verily his voice is like thunder--and bade them stand and say onwhose land they were. In their fear none could speak, but they liftedtheir fingers and pointed to Alladad Khan, and he came out from amongthem with trembling knees and said in haste: 'Nay, hazur, the land isnot mine, but my nephew's.' Then Nikalsain bade him swear by the Prophetthat what he said was true, and when Alladad had sworn, the hazurpermitted the cords to be loosed. And next day in his court he decreedthat the nephew should receive his inheritance, since his uncle hadsworn it was his; and Alladad, shamefaced at the manner of hisdiscomfiture, and at the laughter of the people, went straightway on apilgrimage to Mecca, and the place knew him no more."
"Nikalsain is just, and very terrible," said Sherdil.
"Is he not like one of the heroes of old? A tall man, with a face asgrave as a mullah's, and a black beard thicker than mine, and he holdshis head high in the air as if he scorned to see the ground. Jan Larrenssent him to us; his troops are yet on the way; and when they come therewill be hot work in the gates of Delhi."
A few days later Nicholson rode out to meet the movable column of whichhe was in command, and which had been raised by the energy of JohnLawrence in the Panjab. It was an inspiriting sight when, on thefourteenth of August, the column, 3,000 strong, British and natives,marched into camp behind their stately leader, amid the blare of bandsand the cheers of the weary holders of the Ridge. Their arrival infusedthe hearts of the besiegers with new courage and cheerfulness; everyman, from the general down to the meanest bhisti, hailed Nicholson'scoming as the beginning of the end.
About three weeks before, the siege-train for which General Wilson hadbeen for weeks anxiously waiting, left Firozpur. It stretched for fivemiles along the Great Trunk Road, and was furnished with aninconsiderable escort. On the twenty-fourth of August, General Wilsonlearnt that a large force of rebels, with sixteen guns, had left Delhifor Najafgarh, with the object of intercepting the siege-train andcutting off supplies from the Ridge. Nicholson, ever eager for activework, was given the task of dealing with the mutineers.
Early on the morning of August 25, in pouring rain, Nicholson left campat the head of two thousand five hundred men, consisting of horse andfoot, British and native, and three troops of horse artillery underMajor Tombs. To their great delight, Sherdil and Ahmed were among thesquadron of Guides that formed part of the force. The march remindedthem of the former expedition to Alipur. For nine miles they struggledthrough swamp and quagmire, the mud so deep that the guns often sank upto the axles and stuck fast, the rain falling in torrents all the time.Some of the artillery officers despaired of getting their guns through,but when they saw Nicholson's great form riding steadily on as ifnothing was the matter, they took courage, feeling sure that all wasright. A short halt was made at the village of Nanghir, and while thetroops were resting, two officers rode forward to reconnoitre a nullahthat crossed the road about five miles away. They found that a crossingwas practicable, and from its bank they descried the enemy's outposts.
It was five o'clock before the column had forded the
nullah, under fireof the rebels. Darkness would soon fall, and if the enemy was to berouted no time could be lost. Nicholson himself rode forward toreconnoitre their position. It extended for two miles, from the town ofNajafgarh on the left to the bridge over the Najafgarh canal on theright. The strongest point was an old serai at their left centre, wherethey had four guns; nine other guns lay between this and the bridge.This serai he resolved to attack with his infantry, the guns coveringthe flanks, and the 9th Lancers and Guides to support the line.
As soon as the line was formed, Nicholson ordered the infantry to liedown while the guns made an attempt to silence those of the enemy. Herode along the line, addressing each regiment in turn, aptly suiting hiswords to what he knew of their previous achievements in war. One orderhe gave to them all: to reserve their fire until they came within fortyyards of the serai, then to pour in one volley and charge home.
The bugles sounded the advance. The eager men--British riflemen, Bengalfusiliers, Panjab infantry--sprang to their feet with a cheer, andfollowed Nicholson amid a storm of shot over the oozy swamp that dividedthem from the enemy. They reached the serai, dashed into it, swept thedefenders away, and seized the guns, the sepoys resisting with thedesperate bravery they almost always displayed behind defences. Theserai cleared, the cheering infantry formed up on the left, and withirresistible dash fell on the rebels as they fled toward the canalbridge in mad haste to save their guns.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Lumsden, brother of Lumsden of the Guides, haddriven the enemy out of Najafgarh itself. But just as the sun wassetting on the brief battle, Nicholson learnt that a band of mutineershad halted in a cluster of houses between the serai and the canal.Determined not to leave his victory incomplete, he ordered Lumsden todrive them out at the point of the bayonet. The Panjabis followed theirgallant leader into the hamlet; but the rebels were well defended, andfought with the stubborn valour of despair. Lumsden fell, shot throughthe heart; many of his men were killed with him; and it was not untilthe 61st Foot came up that the last position was won.
This was the only shadow on the brilliance of the victory. Nicholson hadrouted a force of trained sepoys, double the number of his own men,after a long day's march in the worst of conditions. He had capturedtwelve of their sixteen guns, and all their stores and baggage. Theirslaughter had been great; the demoralized survivors were in full flightfor Delhi. On the British side, the casualties were less than a hundredkilled and wounded.
The troops bivouacked on the field. Sherdil, lying that night besideAhmed on a horse-rug, said--
"What will happen to thee, Ahmed-ji, when the city is taken?"
"What indeed, save that I go back with thee and the Guides toHoti-Mardan!"
"But that cannot be the end of things for thee. Thou art of the sahibs:the secret cannot be kept for ever. The Guides notice something in theethat is different from the rest, and they ask me about it, and I tellthem thou art the son of a chief; but they are not satisfied. Dost thounot yearn to be among thy true people?"
"What wouldst thou, Sherdil? I have had such thoughts, but now that Ihave seen the sahibs, who am I that I should claim kinship with them? Icannot speak their speech; I know nothing of their learning. It werebetter, maybe, to remain a Guide and in due time become a dafadar likethee; and then some day go back to Shagpur, and do unto that fat Dilasahas he deserves. I came thence to win freedom for my father; and he isnow free, and needs not my help. Him I know, and his people; among thesahibs I am but as an ignorant little child."
"Thou sayest true; yet a stone does not rot in water, and though thouremain among Pathans a thousand years thou wilt never be other than asahib. Well, what must be, will be. Small rain fills a pond:peradventure when thou hast been a little longer with the sahibs the cupof thy desire will run over."