Hira Singh | Page 7

did not because I trusted Ranjoor Singh. I reasoned he
would never have dared be seen by us if he truly were a traitor. It
seemed to me I knew how his heart must burn to be riding with us.
They did not because they would not willingly have borne the shame. I
tell no secret when I say there has been treason in the Punjab; the whole
world knows that. Yet few understand that the cloak under which it all
made headway was the pride of us true ones, who would not own to
treason in our midst. Pride and the shadow of shame are one, sahib, but
who believes it until the shame bears fruit?

Before the last squadron had ridden by, Captain Warrington, our
adjutant, also caught sight of Ranjoor Singh. He spurred after Colonel
Kirby, and Colonel Kirby came galloping back; but before he could
reach Delhi Gate Ranjoor Singh had disappeared and D Squadron was
glad to the last man.
"Let us hope he may die like a rat in a hole and bring no more shame
on us!" said Gooja Singh, and many assented.
"He said he will be with us before the blood shall run!" said I.
"Then we know whose blood shall run first!" said the trooper nearest
me, and those who heard him laughed. So I held my tongue. There is
no need of argument while a man yet lives to prove himself. I had
charge of the party that burned that trooper's body. He was one of the
first to fall after we reached France.
Colonel Kirby, looking none too pleased, came trotting back to us, and
we rode on. And we entrained. Later on we boarded a great ship in
Bombay harbor and put to sea, most of us thinking by that time of
families and children, and some no doubt of money-lenders who might
foreclose on property in our absence, none yet suspecting that the
government will take steps to prevent that. It is not only the British
officer, sahib, who borrows money at high interest lest his shabbiness
shame the regiment.
We were at sea almost before the horses were stalled properly, and
presently there were officers and men and horses all sick together in the
belly of the ship, with chests and bales and barrels broken loose among
us. The this-and-that-way motion of the ship caused horses to fall down,
and men were too sick to help them up again. I myself lay amid dung
like a dead man--yet vomiting as no dead man ever did--and saw
British officers as sick as I laboring like troopers. There are more
reasons than one why we Sikhs respect our British officers.
The coverings of the ship were shut tight, lest the waves descend
among us. The stench became worse than any I had ever known,
although I learned to know a worse one later; but I will speak of that at

the proper time. It seemed to us like a poor beginning and that thought
put little heart in us.
But the sickness began to lessen after certain days, and as the
movements grew easier the horses were able to stand. Then we became
hungry, who had thought we would never wish to eat again, and double
rations were served out to compensate for days when we had eaten
nothing. Then a few men sought the air, and others--I among them--
went out of curiosity to see why the first did not return. So, first by
dozens and then by hundreds, we went and stood full of wonder,
holding to the bulwark for the sake of steadiness.
It may be, sahib, that if I had the tongue of a woman and of a priest and
of an advocate--three tongues in one--I might then tell the half of what
there was to wonder at on that long journey. Surely not otherwise.
Being a soldier, well trained in all subjects becoming to a horseman but
slow of speech, I can not tell the hundredth part.
We--who had thought ourselves alone in all the sea--were but one ship
among a number. The ships proceeded after this manner--see, I draw a
pattern--with foam boiling about each. Ahead of us were many ships
bearing British troops--cavalry, infantry and guns. To our right and left
and behind us were Sikh, Gurkha, Dogra, Pathan, Punjabi,
Rajput--many, many men, on many ships. Two and thirty ships I
counted at one time, and there was the smoke of others over the
sky-line!
Above the bulwark of each ship, all the way along it, thus, was a line of
khaki. Ahead of us that was helmets. To our right and left and behind
us it was turbans. The men of each ship wondered at all the others. And
most of