Not susceptible of proof or disproof, it certainly explains three things:

1. Whence the warning telegram came.

2. Why the Commissioner received information before a man a good mile nearer the source.

3. Why the Collector _at once_ sought for military aid.)]

[Footnote 4: From the account in the native papers.]

[Footnote 5: From a contemporaneous account.]

[Footnote 6: Chicken broth.]

[Footnote 7: 61st, 1st Fusiliers, 2d Punjabees.]

[Footnote 8: His widow died last year, having spent thirty-eight years of her fifty-four in cheris.h.i.+ng the memory of a saint upon earth.]

[Footnote 9: (Hodson in his diary says that the promise was virtually given _two_ days before the capture. This was the 21st. It must therefore have been given on the 19th. _Most likely_ in Elahi Buksh's house. If so, on Hodson's own authority. Query. Was he there in person?)]

[Footnote 10: Every statement in this supposed report has been gleaned from a real one, or from official papers published at the time. I am responsible for nothing but occasionally the wording.]