full information about the fort, its garrison, and its defences, which
it was of such vital importance to gain. He had, however, secured a
footing, and, while with apparent readiness he prepared to rejoin his
men outside, he politely insisted that he must leave his own sentry to
guard the prisoners; "for," as he jocularly remarked to the Commandant,
"if I don't, you will be saying that you captured these villains, and,
sending them off to Lahore, will secure the reward my men have earned!"
The Commandant laughed heartily at this blunt pleasantry, and partly out
of good nature, and partly to avoid all blame should the prisoners
escape, agreed to the proposal of the diplomatic subadar. During the
course of the day the utmost cordiality was maintained, the Sikhs coming
out and freely fraternising with the Guides, who, in their casual
wanderings round, had at any rate got hold of a fairly shrewd notion of
what the outside of the fort was like. But this was not enough for Rasul
Khan, and he laid his further plans accordingly.

The cordial interchange of rough soldierly amenities had borne its
fruit, and the suspicions of the Sikhs were completely lulled. To an
alert and resourceful soldier like Rasul Khan, a man whom nothing in
warlike strategy escaped, it occurred amongst other things that only a
single sentry with his reliefs, under a non-commissioned officer,
guarded the main entrance. As night fell, with engaging candour he
pointed out the weakness of this arrangement to the Commandant, and, to
avoid imposing additional guard duties on the Sikh garrison, offered,
now that his men were well rested, to place a double sentry on the cells
of the prisoners. Further, he made the obvious suggestion that it would
be unsound, when once the drawbridge was up, to let it down each time
that a relief of sentries was required, and that therefore it would
probably be more convenient for all parties, as well as safer, if the
reliefs for the double sentry also slept in the fort. With a whole