To all of this a senior officer of the Intelligence Department listened with both ears, and presently he and the captain talked together.
The long and short of that was that Ranjoor Singh was sent for; and when he returned to the trench after two days' absence it was to work independently of us--from our trench, but irrespective of our doings.

Even Colonel Kirby now had no orders to give him, although they two talked long and at frequent intervals in the place Colonel Kirby called his funk-hole.

It was now that the squadron's reawakening love for Ranjoor Singh received the worst check of any.
We had almost forgotten he knew German.

Henceforward he conversed in German each day with the enemy.
It is a strange thing, sahib,--not easy to explain--but I, who have achieved some fluency in English and might therefore have admired his gift of tongues, now began to doubt him in earnest--hating myself the while, but doubting him.

And Gooja Singh, who had talked the most and dropped the blackest hints against him, now began to take his side.
And Ranjoor Singh said nothing.