The Ravi Lancers Read Online Free PDF

down the steep bank to a final plunge, then he was out, the horse swimming strongly, his white hair gleaming under his turban. By then his leading troops were in the water, three abreast, all swimming, the sowars leaving the reins loose, holding to the horses’ manes with one hand. At Warren’s side the prince watched them go, smiling. ‘My uncle’s a wonderful man. He’s my great-uncle, actually ... He doesn’t hold his rank because he’s the Rajah’s brother, you know. He’s the best officer we’ve got.’
    Warren nodded--’One of the old school. And a terrific polo player--rides as hard as anyone I’ve ever seen.’
    Bholanath’s horse was kicking up out of the water, the major turning in the saddle, his arm waving in the twilight.
    ‘Here we go,’ Krishna Ram said. He edged his horse, a beautifully paced hunter, towards the bank. His orderly, a squat sturdy dark-skinned ape-like man, rode behind him, and two sowars who carried sabres instead of lances rode close, one on each side. Warren followed close, with his orderly, and almost together they all plunged into the river. The current carried them downstream and they reached the sandbank at the same place as C Squadron had; but by then C was entering the second channel, wider but shallower, where every now and then the horses’ flailing hoofs found bottom. Behind, D Squadron were coining across, the horses’ teeth bared in apparent snarls, as their powerful legs thrashed the water.
    The prince and his group followed C Squadron into the second channel. There were no others, Warren was relieved to see, for some of the horses were stumbling as they struggled out on to the far bank. They looked tired--and the force was going to cross the river again, back to the right bank, ten miles farther downstream. As the rissaldar at the tail of D Squadron urged his horse up the bank and reported, ‘All across, sahib,’ the Yuvraj said, ‘We’ll rest here an hour, and take the evening meal.’
    Warren dismounted. No cookers were accompanying the force so the men would be eating cold chupattis and dal from their mess tins. He himself would be eating the same, for when Colonel Hanbury had offered him mutton sandwiches he had decided to take the sowars’ food instead.
    The Yuvraj came towards him, holding a bottle, ‘Whisky, Captain Bateman?’
    Warren said, ‘What about you?’
    ‘I don’t drink. I had my bodyguards bring it for you.’
    Warren took the bottle. ‘Well, that’s very thoughtful of you. Wouldn’t Sher Singh and your uncle like a drop?’
    ‘They have their own.’ He sat down beside Warren on a dried tree trunk half-buried in the sand. ‘Do you think we did that all right?’
    ‘Very good,’ Warren said. ‘You may have a little more trouble at the next crossing, but... no regiment could have done it better.’
    ’Thank you ... We’re really good, you know. Not like most States Forces.’
    ‘So I can see,’ Warren agreed. One of the prince’s bodyguards handed him a collapsible silver cup and poured some whisky into it. ‘Hanuman, pani ,’ the prince said, and the ape-like orderly poured water from a large silver flask into the whisky.
    Warren raised the cup. ‘Your good health.’ He drank appreciatively. He had half expected to be served the whisky brewed in the Simla hills, but this was genuine Scotch, and a good one.
    ‘I am really so sorry that you and your sister cannot come to visit us in Basohli,’ the Yuvraj said, ‘and Mrs. Bateman, of course.’
    ‘So am I,’ Warren said.
    ‘I told my grandfather about you. He said he hopes you can come another year. Your regiment will still be in Lahore when you return from furlough, will it not?’
    ‘Probably not,’ Warren said. ‘We’ve spent three years here, earmarked for divisional troops of an infantry division, and the powers-that-be think it’s time we were put into a cavalry brigade--probably Secunderabad. But I’ll remember your kind invitation.’
    ‘Please!