I even began to doubt.
Then a trooper of ours was murdered in the bazaar, and Ranjoor Singh's servant disappeared.

Within an hour Ranjoor Singh was gone, too.
Then came news of war.

Then our officers came among us to ask whether we are willing or not to take a hand in this great quarrel.
Perhaps in that hour if they had not asked us we might have judged that we and they were not one after all.
But they did ask, and let a man, an arrow, and an answer each go straight, say we.

Our Guru tells us Sikhs should fight ever on the side of the oppressed; the weaker the oppressed, the more the reason for our taking part with them.

Our officers made no secret about the strength of the enemy, and we made none with them of our feeling in the matter.