1 ASSASSINATION OF SHERE SING AND DEHAN SING. 77
2 by keeping him in conversation on indifferent subjects. Still
3 by his tone and manner the Minister knew that there was
4 something wrong; but he was conscious that it would
5 do no good to manifest anything like fear. He could not,
6 however, refrain from asking Ajeet Sing who the men were
7 whom he saw on the battlements of the fort ; to which enquiry
8 the Scindawalla replied that they were all friends, being his
9 own followers. At this moment, while the Minister's attention
10 was directed to these men on the walls of the fort, he received
11 a shot from behind, discharged from a large rifle, and fired on
12 a signal being given by Ajeet Sing with his finger. Immediately
13 he received another shot from a blunderbuss, and then he was
14 cut and hacked with swords. But he was a corpse at the
15 first fire. A Mahomedan, one of the few attendants with
16 the Minister, was the only one who made any resistance,
17 and he was immediately cut down, and his body with that
18 of his master thrown into the rubbish pit of the gun-foundry
19 in the fort.
20 All this was just over when Lena Sing and his party arrived.
21 On learning what had been done, Lena Sing reproved his brother
22 for his hasty conduct. His own plan was to entice the son
23 and brother of the Minister, Rajahs Heera Sing and Suchet
24 Sing, into the fort, and then to destroy them all at once.
25 Now he found that things would go against them, as Heera
26 Sing and Suchet Sing were at large, and, taking the alarm,
27 would raise the whole body of the troops for their defence, and
28 to punish the murderers of the Maharajh and his Wuzeer.
29 The Scindawallas, however, were not disheartened, and they
30 resolved to do what they could to complete the business
31 which they had begun. They therefore sent an express to
32 Buddhoo ko ava, where the Rajahs were with the troops,
33 informing them that the Minister and the Scindawallas were in
34 the fort in close consultation on state affairs, and politely re-
35 questing their attendance. This message was first sent in the