Two Sikh troopers were placed under my command, and I was instructed if anything went wrong to fire my musket, when I might rely upon help coming at once from the central guard.

As the guard was a good two hundred paces away, however, and as the space between was cut up into a labyrinth of passages and corridors, I had great doubts as to whether they could arrive in time to be of any use in case of an actual attack.
"Well, I was pretty proud at having this small command given me, since I was a raw recruit, and a game-legged one at that.

For two nights I kept the watch with my Punjaubees.

They were tall, fierce-looking chaps, Mahomet Singh and Abdullah Khan by name, both old fighting-men who had borne arms against us at Chilian-wallah.

They could talk English pretty well, but I could get little out of them.