’Ah!  And has the Maharajah many soldiers, and have they good guns—­ new guns?’

Sunni looked into the Colonel’s face with eager pleasure to reply; but there he saw something that made him suddenly close his lips.  He had not lived ten years among the Rajputs without learning to read faces, and in Colonel Starr’s he saw that all this talk the Colonel desired about Lalpore was not for Lalpore’s good.  The boy thought for a minute, and tightened his lips, while a little firm line came on each side of his mouth.  He only opened them to say, ‘Burra sahib, I cannot tell you that.’

‘But you must tell me,’ said Colonel Starr firmly.

‘No,’ returned Sunni, ’not that, nor any more informations about the fort.’

The Colonel’s face grew stern.  He was not accustomed to disobedience.

‘Come,’ he said; ‘out with it, boy.  I have no time to waste.’  His tone was so serious that Sunni felt a little nervous thrill run all over him.

‘No,’ said he.

The Colonel tried another way: 

‘Come, my little chap,’ said he gently, ’you are English, are you not?’

Sunni nodded.

Then you must serve the English Queen.  She has sent me here to punish the Maharajah for killing the padre-sahib.  You must help me.’

‘The Maharajah did not kill ee-Wobbis,’ cried Sunni excitedly.  ’I have already once said that.  The Maharajah he like ee-Wobbis.  I am English, but the Maharajah is my father and my mother.  I cannot speak against the Maharajah, burra sahib.’

There came a light into the Colonel’s eyes which was not kindled by anger.  He found himself liking this slip of a ragged urchin with fair hair, who defied him—­liking him tremendously.  But the crisis was grave; he could not sacrifice his men to a child’s scruple; he could not let himself be defied.  He took out his watch, and made his face hard.

‘Then,’ said he coldly, ’you are either the Maharajah’s deserter or his spy.  If you have deserted, I am disposed to send you back to him, since you are of no use to us.  If you are his spy, it is my duty to have you shot.  I will give you five minutes to save your skin in.’

‘But—­but you are my countryman, burra sahib!’ There was a sob in his voice.

The only possible answer to that was a hug, so it went unanswered.  Colonel Starr set himself to think of his Midlanders.

Sunni lifted his blue eyes entreatingly to the Colonel’s face, but he had turned it away.  He was watching a little brown lizard sunning itself outside the tent door, and wondering how long he could keep his disciplinary expression.  You could hear nothing in the tent but the ticking of the watch.  Sunni looked down at the lizard too, and so the minutes passed.

Three of them passed.  Colonel Starr found himself hoping even more that the boy should stand firm than that he should speak.  Colonel Starr began to say softly within himself, ‘I am a brute.’  The fifth minute was up.  ‘Will you speak?’ asked the Colonel.