Shere Ali peopled the empty slopes which ran down from the tower to the river and the high crags beyond the tower with the hordes of white-clad Swatis, all in their finest robes, like men who have just reached the goal of a holy pilgrimage, as indeed they had.

He saw their standards, he heard the din of their firearms, and high above them on the wall of the tower he saw the khaki-clad figure of a single Sepoy calmly flashing across the valley news of the defenders' plight.
"Didn't he get the Victoria Cross ?" he asked.
"No," returned the Doctor with a certain awkwardness.

But still Shere Ali did not notice.
"And what was the exception ?" he asked eagerly.

"What was the other brave deed you have seen fit to rank with this ?" "That, too, happened over there," said the Doctor, seizing upon the question with relief.

"During the early days of the siege we were able to send in to the tower water and food.