"It is the end!" he said, without a trace of discouragement.
"Nonsense!" said Byng, his face, too, turned upward.
"What, then, does it mean, sahib ?" "That--it means that God Almighty has relieved a picket! We're the picket.

We're relieved! We advance at dawn, and we'll get through somehow! Join your commands, gentlemen, and explain the details carefully to your men--let's have no misunderstandings." The dawn rose gold and beautiful upon a sleepless camp that reeked and steamed with hell-hot suffering.

It showed the rebels stationary, still in swarming lines, but scouts reported several thousand of them moving in a body from the flank toward the British rear.
"What proportion of the rebel force ?" asked Byng.

"New arrivals, or some of the old ones taking up a new position ?" "The same crowd, sir.

They're just moving round to hem us in completely." "So much the better for us, then! That leaves fewer for us to deal with in front." As he spoke another man came running to report the arrival of five gallopers, coming hell-bent-for leather, one by one and scattered, with the evident purpose of allowing one man to get through, whatever happened.
"That'll be relief at last!" said Byng-bahadur.