They were out of sight and sound in two minutes.

Then Ranjoor Singh turned to me.
"Send and gather fire-wood!" he ordered.
"Where shall dry wood be in all this rain ?" said I.
"Search!" said he.
"Sahib," said I, "a fire would only betray our whereabouts." "Are you deaf ?" said he.
"Nay!" I said.
"Then obey!" said he.

So I took twenty men, and we went stumbling through rain and darkness, hunting for what none of us believed was anywhere.

Yet within fifteen minutes we found a hut whose roof was intact, and therefore whose floor and inner parts were dry enough.
It was a little hut, of the length of perhaps the height of four men, and the breadth of the height of three--a man and a half high from floor to roof-beam.

It was unoccupied, but there was straw at one end--dry straw, on which doubtless guards had slept.