Yes, I oversaw the work of sweepers--a _jemadar_ of _mehtars_
(headman of a refuse-gang) was I, and Kurban Sahib little better, for five
months. Evil months! The war went as Kurban Sahib had said. Our new men
were slain and no vengeance was taken. It was a war of fools armed with
the weapons of magicians. Guns that slew at half a day's march, and men
who, being new, walked blind into high grass and were driven off like
cattle by the Boer-log! As to the city of Eshtellenbosch, I am not a
Sahib--only a Sikh. I would have quartered one troop only of the Gurgaon
Rissala in that city--one little troop--and I would have schooled that
city till its men learned to kiss the shadow of a Government horse upon
the ground. There are many _mullahs_ (priests) in Eshtellenbosch. They
preached the Jehad against us. This is true--all the camp knew it. And
most of the houses were thatched! A war of fools indeed!
At the end of five months my Kurban Sahib, who had grown lean, said, "The
reward has come. We go up towards the front with horses to-morrow, and,
once away, I shall be too sick so return. Make ready the baggage." Thus we
got away, with some Kaffirs in charge of new horses for a certain new
regiment that had come in a ship. The second day by _terain_, when we were
watering at a desolate place without any sort of a bazaar to it, slipped
out from the horse-boxes one Sikander Khan, that had been a _jemadar_ of
_saises_ (head-groom) at Eshtellenbosch, and was by service a trooper in a
Border regiment.
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