lingo,—‘Neither god nor devil but a man!’
I was all taken aback, for a priest cut at me
in front, and the Army behind began firing
into the Bashkai men.

“‘God A-mighty!’ says Dan. ‘What is
the meaning o’ this?’

“‘Come back! Come away!’ says Billy
Fish. ‘Ruin and Mutiny is the matter.
We’ll break for Bashkai if we can.’

“I tried to give some sort of orders to my
men—the men o’ the regular Army—but it
was no use, so I fired into the brown of ’em
with an English Martini and drilled three
beggars in a line. The valley was full of
shouting, howling creatures, and every soul
was shrieking, ‘Not a god nor a devil but
only a man!’ The Bashkai troops stuck to
Billy Fish all they were worth, but their
matchlocks wasn’t half as good as the Kabul
breech-loaders, and four of them dropped.
Dan was bellowing like a bull, for he was
very wrathy; and Billy Fish had a hard job
to prevent him running out at the crowd.

“‘We can’t stand,’ says Billy Fish.
‘Make a run for it down the valley! The
whole place is against us.’ The matchlock-men