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the earth into an throw it away faith i m not i tis the the raw that don t know a an t care they did that the work they re crammed till they fairly good and thin they don t fight they blow each others bids off tis the i m you they be kept on an ri in the hot weather but there d be a ny twas done did ye hear how the town i thought not twas the lift got the credit but twas me planned the a little before i was from me an four an twenty young a lift was our to catch an such double ended i knew i tis only a an a that makes a he s a an for to shoot we hunted an we hunted an fever an now an again but no we wan man him the lift so i him away into the the r an my rod i to the man my i you on your an to my here where o r are they re at home that i him to the rod and he to the r in an me the my rod he man op to i learnt that the river about nine miles away was a town just an an arrows an an xi good i this office will now close that night i went to the lift an my information i never thought much of lift till that night he was books an an all manner s no manner use town did ye say he to the war we wait for faith thinks i we d dig our graves thin for the nearest was up to their in the out way but says the lift since tis a case i ll make an we ll visit this to night the was fairly i em an by this an that they through the like buck about midnight we come to the which i had forgot to to my i was on ahead four an i thought that the lift might want to ihe r i to the an in where glory waits i but i can two to think i should live to hear that from a a board school l take a lump an me an here will ye over ye young ladies we got an ould tree trunk an pushed off the an the on it the night was an just as we was fairly embarked i heard the lift behind me out there s a bit a ah here i but i can feel the bottom already so i for i was not a yard from the bank bit a bit an the lift lo the op go on ye mad i j i heard him laugh an the begun an a log into the to put their on so me an out through the warm our log an the rest come on behind that was miles i on the rear rank log whispers we had got into the thames below by mistake on ye little i an don t go your dirty jokes at the sings out the lift so we on into the black our on the logs in the saints an the luck the british army we hit ground a bit sand an a man i put my heel on the back him he an ran now we ve done it i lift where the is en there was about a minute and a half to wait the laid a their an some to put their on we was fixed thin we knew where was for we had hit the river wall it in the an the whole town blazed an like a cat s back on a frosty night they was all ways at but over our bids into the have you got your got em i i ve got that thief s for all my back pay an she ll kick my heart sick that long hers go on i his sword out go on an take the town an he lord have mercy on our i thin the gave wan howl an into the for the town an an of like cavalry masters the grass pricked their bare legs i the butt at some thing that felt wake an the rest come an while the was an from inside was our ears we was too dose under the wall for to hurt us the thing whatever ut was an the six and us tumbled wan the other naked as we was into the town of there was a a kind for a but whether they us all white an wet for a new breed or a new kind i don t know they ran as though we was both an we into an butt there was in the an i saw little his time he my long an into the gang his sword like the golden collar he hadn t a on him we under their an what wan thing an another we was busy till possession the town of thin we halted an formed up the in the houses an lift pink in the light the sun twas th most p i a hand in and twenty an a the line in review an not as much as dust a em all in the way of eight us had their an on but the rest had gone in a an the skin god gave him they was as as number off from the right i the lift odd numbers fall out to dress even numbers the town till relieved by the dressing party let me tell ite the taking of you a town nothing on is an i for tin minutes an t ad before twas over i blushed the women laughed so i blushed before or since but i blushed all	39
over my thin didn t he only an the ard a sunday i thin he lay down an when we was all we counted the dead besides wounded we five a an two nd a lot other not a man us was hurt may be the lift an he from the shock to his the who d himself asked the r the english bt like tiiat their es of what in the do they do their es on began his eyes an his fingers an a step dance for to impress ttie he ran to his house an we the test the day the lift on our round the town an the babies fat uttle brown as pretty as pictures i was for the to india i i you ve the at a great man but let an ould re too fond of he hands me and sex hit high hit low s no you you ve seen me through pen live a red m the war paint an you say i m too fond the i for i loved the i you in that through an so the rest the men thin i in the flat an left him my the taking op i may the saints carry ut where ut go for he was a fine young to ive said shows the use three year fifty have taken in the that way no they d know the risk fever an chill let alone the two might have done ut but the three know little an care less an where there s no fear there s no danger catch young feed high an by the honor that great little man behind a good t only they d es tis con ti ar r r they an they d take st in b d they would that i here s your pipe her honey dew letting the the die away but tis no good thanks to you all the same my your s like the army it a man s taste for things so saying took up his net and returned to a a it is for the little tin gods when great jove but little tin gods make their little mistakes in missing the hour when great jove wakes as a general rule it is to witb questions of state in a land where men are highly paid to work them out for you this tale is a exception once in every five years as you know we for a new and each with the test of his baggage a private secretary who may or may not be the real just as fate fate looks after the indian empire because it is so big and so there was a once who brought out with him a turbulent private secretary a hard man with a soft manner and a morbid passion for work this secretary was called wonder john wonder the possessed no name nothing but a string of and two thirds of the after them he said in confidence that he was the figure head of a golden administration and he watched in a dreamy amused way wonder s attempts to draw matters which were entirely outside his province into his own hands when we are all together said his once my dear good friend wonder will head the a conspiracy for out tail feathers or stealing peter s keys then shall report him but though the did nothing to check wonder s other people said unpleasant things may be the members of council began it but finally all agreed that there was too much wonder and too little in that r g z we wonder was always quoting his it was his this his that in the opinion of his and so on the smiled but he did not heed he said that so long as his old men with his dear good wonder they might be induced to leave the east in peace man has a policy said the a policy is the on the fool by the i am not the former and i do not believe in the latter i do not quite see what this means unless it to an policy perhaps it was the s way of saying lie low that season came up to one of these crazy people with only a single idea these are the men who make things move but they are not nice to talk to this man s name was and he had lived for fifteen years on land of his own in lower studying he held that was a that itself as it flew through a atmosphere and stuck in the branches of trees like a the could be rendered he said by s own invincible a heavy violet black powder the result of fifteen years scientific investigation sir i seem very much alike as a caste they talk loudly especially about of lists they beat upon the table with their fists and they fragments of their inventions about their persons said that there was a medical ring at headed by the surgeon general who was in league apparently with all the hospital in the empire i forget exactly how he proved it but it had something to do with up to the hills and what wanted was the independent evidence of the steward of our most gracious majesty the queen sir so went up to with eighty four pounds of in his trunk to speak to the and to show him the merits of the invention but it is easier to see a than to talk to him unless you chance to be as important as of he was a six thousand man so great that his daughters never married they contracted he himself was not paid he received and his journeys about the country were of observation	39
his business was to stir up the people in with a long pole as you stir up in a pond and the people had to come up out of their comfortable old ways and gasp this is and progress isn t it fine then they gave and in the hope of getting rid of him came up to to confer with the that was one of his the knew nothing of except that he was one of those middle class who seem necessary to the spiritual comfort of this of the middle classes and that in all probability he had suggested designed founded and endowed all the public ia a which proves that his though dreamy had experience of the ways of six men s name was and s was e s and they were both staying at the same hotel and the fate that looks after the indian empire ordained that wonder should blunder and drop the final that the should help him and that the note which ran dear mr can you set aside your other engagements and lunch with us at two to morrow his has an hour disposal then should be given to with the he nearly wept with pride and delight and at the appointed hour to a big paper bag full of the in his coat tail pockets he had his chance and he meant to make the most of it of had been so solemn about his conference that wonder had arranged for a private no a d c s no wonder no one but the who said that he feared being left alone with like the great of but his g est did not bore the on the contrary he amused him was nervously anxious to go straight to his and talked at random was over and his asked him to smoke the was pleased with because he did not talk shop as soon as the were lit spoke like a man beginning with his theory his fifteen years scientific labors the of the ring and the excellence of his while the watched him between half shut eyes and thought evidently this is the wrong tiger but it is an original animal s hair was standing on il a t end with excitement and he stammered he groping in his coat tails and before the knew what was about to happen he had tipped a of his powder into the big silver ash tray j j judge for yourself sir said shall judge for yourself i absolutely on my honor he plunged the lighted end cigar into the powder which began to smoke like a and send up fat greasy wreaths of copper colored smoke in five seconds the room was filled with a most and sickening a that took fierce hold of the trap of your and shut it the powder then and and sent out blue and green sparks and the smoke rose you could neither see nor breathe nor gasp however was used to it of he shouted bone thousand feet smoke per inch not a could live not a y i but his had fled and was at the foot of the stairs while all like a hive red came in and the head who speaks english came in and came in and ladies ran down stairs screaming fire for the smoke was drifting through the house and out of the windows and along the and and across the gardens no one could enter the room where was on his till that unspeakable powder had burned itself out then an de camp who desired the v c rushed through the rolling clouds and hauled into the hall the was prostrate with laughter and a f could only his hands feebly at who was shaking a fresh of powder at him glorious i glorious i sobbed his not a as you justly observe could exist i i can swear it a magnificent success i he laughed till the tears came and wonder who j d caught the real on the entered and was deeply shocked at the scene but the was delighted because he saw that wonder would presently depart with the was also pleased for he felt that he had smashed the medical ring few men could tell a story like his when he took the trouble and the account of my dear good wonder s with the powder went the round of and folk made wonder unhappy by their remarks but his told the tale once too often wonder as he meant to do it was at a wonder was sitting just behind the and i really thought for a moment wound up his that my dear good wonder had hired an to clear his way to the throne every one laughed but there was a delicate in the s tone which wonder understood he found that his health was giving away and the allowed him to go and presented him with a flaming character for use at home among big people my fault entirely said his in after seasons with a twinkling in his eye my must always have been distasteful to such a master ly man mj m there is a tide in the affairs of men which taken any way you please is bad and them in forsaken and no decent soul would think of visiting you cannot stop the tide but now and then you may arrest some rash adventurer who h m will hardly thank you for your pains are a high caste and enlightened race and is very shocking and the consequences are sometimes peculiar but nevertheless the which is the continental notion which is the notion of arranging marriages of the personal inclinations of the married is sound think for a minute and you will see that it must be so unless of course you believe	39
in in which case you had better not read this tale how can a man who has never married who cannot be trusted to pick up at sight a sound horse whose head is hot and upset with visions of domestic felicity go about the choosing of a wife he cannot see straight or think straight if he tries and the same exist in the case of a girl s fancies but when mature married and discreet people arrange a match between a boy and a girl they do it sensibly with a view to the future and the young couple live happily ever afterwards as everybody knows properly speaking government should establish a matrimonial department with a of a judge of the chief court a senior and an awful warning in the shape of a that has gone wrong chained to the trees in the court yard all marriages should be made through the department which might be subordinate to the department under the same penalty as that to the transfer of land without a stamped document but government won t take suggestions it that it is too busy however i will put my notion on record and explain the example that the theory once upon a time there was a good young man a first class officer in his own department a man with a career before him and possibly a k c i e at the end of it all his spoke well of him because he knew how to hold his tongue and his pen at the proper times there are to day only eleven men in india who possess this secret and they have all with one exception attained great honor and enormous this good young man was quiet and self tain ed too old for his years by far which always carries its own punishment had a or a tea s assistant or anybody who life and has no care for to morrow done what he tried to do not a soul would have cared but when the virtuous economical quiet hard working young fell there was a flutter through five the manner of his fall was in this way he met a miss d it was originally but the family dropped the d for reasons and he fell in love with her even more than he worked understand clearly that there was not a breath of a word to be said against miss not a shadow of a breath she was good and very lovely possessed what innocent people at home call a spanish complexion with thick blue black hair growing low down on the forehead into a widow s peak and big violet eyes under eyebrows as black and as straight as the of a extraordinary when a big man dies but but but well she was a w ry sweet girl and very pious but for many reasons she was impossible quite so all good know what impossible means it was obviously absurd that should marry her the little tinted at the base of her finger nails said this as plainly as print further marriage with miss meant marriage with several other lieutenant her papa mrs her mamma and all the of the family on from rs to rs u month and their wives and connections again it would have been cheaper for to have a with a dog whip or to have burned the records of a s office than to have contracted an alliance with the it would have his after career less even under a government which never forgets and never everybody saw this but he was going to marry miss he was being of age and drawing a good income and woe the house that would not afterwards receive mrs with the deference due to her husband s rank that was s and any remonstrance drove him frantic these sudden most the men there was a case once but i will tell you of that later on you cannot account for the except under a theory directly the one about the place wherein marriages are made was anxious to put a round his neck at the outset of his career and argument had not the effect on him he was going to marry miss and the business was his own business he would thank you to keep your advice to yourself with a man in this condition mere words only fix him in his purpose of course he cannot see that marriage out here does not concern the individual but the government he serves do you remember mrs the most wonderful woman in india she saved es from mrs won his appointment in the foreign office and was defeated in open field by mrs she heard of the lamentable condition of and her struck out the plan that saved him she had the wisdom of the serpent the logical of the man the of the child and the triple of the woman never no never as long as a down the dip or the couples go a riding at the back of summer hill will there be such a genius as mrs she attended the consultation of three men on s case and she stood up with the lash of her riding whip between her lips and three weeks later dined with the three men and the of india came in found to his surprise that he had been a month s leave don t ask me how this was managed i believe firmly that if mrs gave the order the whole great indian administration would stand on its head the three men had also a month s leave each put the down and said bad words then there tj came from the compound the soft of thieves the breed that don t and howl when they sit down	39
did not actually melt away where it presently the and the green stuff made a sort of which ran over in several directions down his back and bosom for choice the color ran too it was really bad and sections of were brown and patches were violet and were and streaks were ruddy red and were nearly white according to the nature and peculiarities of the when he took out his handkerchief to wipe his face and the green of the hat and the purple stuff that had soaked through on to his neck from the tie became thoroughly mixed the was amazing near the rain stopped and the evening sun came out and dried him up slightly it fixed the colors too three miles from the last pony fell dead lame and was forced to walk he pushed on into to find his servants he did not know then that his had stopped by the roadside to get drunk and would come on the next day saying that he had his ankle when he got into he couldn t find his servants his boots were stiff and with mud and there were large quantities of dirt about his body the blue tie had run as much as the so he took if off with the collar and threw it away then he said something about servants generally and tried to get a he paid eight for the drink and this revealed to him that he had only six more in his pocket or in the world as he stood at that hour he went to the station master to lor a first class ticket to where he was stationed tho the arrest of lieutenant y i tf clerk said something to the station master the station master said something to the telegraph clerk and the three looked at him with curiosity they asked him to wait for half an hour while they to for authority so he waited and four came and themselves round him just as he was preparing to ask them to go away the station master said that he would give the a ticket to if the would kindly come inside the office stepped inside and the next thing he knew was that a was attached to each of his legs and arms while the station master was trying to a mail bag over his head there was a very fair all round the and received a nasty cut over his eye through falling against a table but the were too much for him and they and the station master him securely as soon as the mail bag was slipped he began expressing his opinions and the said without doubt this is the soldier englishman we required listen to the abuse i then asked the station master what the this and the that the proceedings meant the station master told him he was private john of the regiment ft in fair hair gray eyes and a dissipated appearance no marks on the body who had deserted a fortnight ago began explaining at great length and the more he explained the less the station master believed him he said that no lieutenant could look such a as did and that his instructions were to send his capture under proper escort to was feeling very damp and uncomfortable and the language he used was not fit for publication even in an form the four the arrest of lieutenant l y saw him safe to in an and he spent the four hour journey in them as as his knowledge of the allowed at he was out on the platform into the arms of a and two men of the regiment drew himself up and tried to carry off matters he did not feel too in with four behind him and the blood from the cut on his forehead on his left cheek the was not either got as far as this is a very absurd mistake my men when the told him t his lip and come along did not want to come along he desired to stop and explain he explained very well indeed until the cut in with vou a it s the like o you as brings disgrace on the likes of us fine you are i know your regiment the rogue s march is the where you come from you re a black shame to the service kept his temper and began explaining all over again from the beginning then he was marched out of the rain into the refreshment room and told not to make a qualified fool of himself the men were going to run him up to fort and running up is a performance almost as as the march was nearly hysterical with rage and the chill and the mistake and the and the headache that the cut on his forehead had given him he really laid himself out to express what was in his mind when he had quite finished and his throat was feeling dry one of the men said i ve a few beggars in the click blind stiff and crack on a bit but j ve never any the arrest of lieutenant it one to touch this ere officer they were not angry with him they rather admired him they had some beer at the refreshment room and offered some too because he had swore won they asked him to tell them all about the adventures of private john while he was loose on the country side and that made than ever if he had kept his wits about him he would have kept quiet until an officer came but he attempted to run now the butt of a in the small of your back hurts a great deal and rotten rain soaked tears easily when two men are at your collar rose from the floor feeling very	39
on the shoulders a muscle that had nothing to do with any man s regular breathing away steadily the whole thing was a careful of the egyptian that one reads about sometimes and the voice was as clever and as appalling a piece of as one could wish to hear all this time the head was lip lip against the side of the basin and speaking it told on his face again of his son s illness and of the state of the illness up to the evening of that very night i always shall respect the seal for keeping so faithfully to the time of the it went on to say that skilled doctors were night and day watching over the man s life and that he would eventually recover if the fee to the potent whose servant was the head in the basin were doubled here the mistake from the artistic point of view came in to ask for twice your fee in a voice that might have used when he rose from the dead is absurd who is really a woman of masculine w the house of saw this as quickly as i did i heard her say ass i scornfully under her breath and just as she said so the light in the basin died out the head stopped talking and we heard the room door on its hinges then struck a match lit the lamp and we saw that head basin and seal were gone was wringing his hands and explaining to any one who cared to listen that if his chances of eternal salvation depended on it he could not raise another two hundred was nearly in in the comer while sat down on one of the beds to discuss the of the whole thing being si or make up i explained as much as i knew of the seal s way but her argument was much more simple the magic that is always demanding gifts is no true magic said she my mother told me that the only potent love are those which are told you for love this seal man is a liar and a devil i dare not tell do anything or get anything done because i am in debt to the for two gold rings and a heavy i must get my food from his shop the seal is the friend of and he would poison my food a has been going on for ten days and has cost many each night the seal used black and and man before he never showed us anything like this till to night is a fool and will be a soon has lost his strength and his wits see now i had hoped to get from many while he lived and many more after his death and behold he is spending everything on that offspring of a devil and a she ass the seal here i said but what induced to drag me w the house op into the business of course i can speak to the seal and he shall the whole thing is child s talk shame and senseless is an old child said he has lived on the roofs these seventy years and is as senseless as a goat he brought you here to assure himself that he was not breaking any law of the whose salt he ate many years ago he the dust off the feet of the seal and that cow has forbidden him to go and see his son what does know of your laws or the lightning post i have to watch his money going day by day to that lying beast below stamped her foot on the floor and nearly cried with vexation while was under a blanket in the comer and was trying to guide the pipe stem to his foolish old mouth now the case stands thus i have laid myself open to the chaise of and the seal in obtaining money under false which is forbidden by section of the indian code i am helpless in the matter for these reasons i cannot inform the police what witnesses would support my statements refuses and is a veiled woman somewhere near lost in this big india of ours i dare not again take the law into my own hands and speak to the seal for certain am i that not only would me but this step would end in the of who is bound hand and foot by her debt to the is an old and whenever we meet my joke that the rather the black art than otherwise his son is well now but is com iv the house of under the influence of the seal by whose advice he the affairs of his life watches daily the money that she hoped to out of taken by the seal and becomes daily more furious and sullen she will never tell because she dare not but unless something happens to prevent her i am afraid that the seal will die of the white kind about the middle of may and thus i shall have to be to a murder in the house of ms wipe his wedded wife murder in the market place and each turn upon his neighbor anxious eyes that ask art thou the man we hunted some centuries ago across the world that bred the fear our own maintain to day shakespeare says something about worms or it may be giants or turning if you tread on them too severely the safest plan is never to tread on a even on the last new from home with his buttons hardly out of their paper and the red of english beef in his cheeks this is the story ot the worm that turned for the sake of we will call henry the worm although he really was an exceedingly pretty boy without a	39
hair on his face and with a waist like a girl s when he came out to the second and was made unhappy in several ways the are a regiment and you must be able to do things well play a or ride more than little or sing or act to get on with them the worm did nothing except fall off his pony and knock out of gate posts with his trap even that became monotonous after a time he objected to cut the cloth at sang out of tune kept very much to himself and wrote to his mamma and sisters at home four of these five things were vices which his wedded the objected to and set themselves to knows how are by brother softened and not permitted to be ferocious it is good and wholesome and does no one any harm unless are lost and then there is trouble there was a man once but that is another story the the worm very much and he bore everything without he was so good and so anxious to learn and flushed so pink that his education was cut short and he was left to his own devices by except the senior who continued to make life a burden to the worm the senior meant no harm but his was coarse and he didn t quite understand where to stop he had been waiting too long for his company and that always a man also he was in love which made him worse one day after he had borrowed the worm s trap for a lady who never existed had used it himself all the afternoon had sent a note to the worm to come from the lady and was telling the mess all about it the worm rose ki his place and said in his quiet lady like voice that was a very pretty sell but lay you a month s pay to a month s pay when you get your step that i work a sell on you that you ll remember for the rest of your days and the regiment after you when you re dead or broke the worm wasn t angry in the least and the rest of the mess shouted then the senior looked at the worm from the boots upwards and down again and said done baby the worm took the rest of the mess to witness that the bet had been taken and retired into a book with a sweet smile two months passed and the senior educated the worm who began to move about a little mom as the hot weather came on i have said that th his wedded wife i senior was in love the curious thing is that a girl was in love with the senior though the colonel said awful things and the and married captains looked unutterable wisdom and the those two were engaged the senior was so pleased with getting his company and his acceptance at the same time that he forgot to bother the worm the girl was a pretty girl and had money of her own she does not come into this story at all one night at beginning of the hot weather all the mess except the worm who had gone to his own room to write home letters were sitting on the platform outside the mess house the band had finished playing but no one wanted to go in and the captains wives were there also the folly of a man in love is unlimited the senior had been holding forth on the merits of the girl he was engaged to and the ladies were approval while the men yawned when there was a rustle of skirts in the dark and a tired faint voice lifted itself where s my husband i do not wish in the least to reflect on the morality ot the but it is on record that four men jumped up as if they had been shot three of them were married men perhaps they were afraid that their wives had come fix m home the fourth said that he had acted on the impulse of the moment he explained this afterwards then the voice cried oh was the senior s name a woman came into the little circle of light by the candles on the tables stretching out her hands to the dark where the senior was and sobbing we rose to our feet feeling that things were going to happen and ready to believe the worst in his wedded wife this bad small world of ours one knows so little of the life of the next man which after all is entirely his own concern that one is not when a crash comes anything might turn up any day for anyone perhaps the senior had been in his youth men are crippled that way occasionally we didn t know we wanted to hear and the captains wives were as anxious as we if he had been he was to be excused for the woman from nowhere in the dusty shoes and gray travelling dress was very lovely with black hair and great eyes full of tears she was tall with a fine figure and her voice had a running sob in it pitiful to hear as soon as the senior stood up she threw her arms round his neck and called him my darling and said she could not bear waiting alone in england and his letters were so short and cold and she was his to the end of the world and would he forgive her this did not sound quite like a lady s way of speaking it was too things seemed black indeed and the captains wives peered under their eyebrows at the senior and the colonel set like the day of judgment framed in gray and no one spoke for a	39
while next the colonel said very shortly well sir and the woman sobbed afresh the senior was half choked with the arms round his neck but he gasped out it s a d d lie i never had a wife in my life don t swear said the colonel come into the mess we must this clear somehow and he sighed to for he believed in his did the colonel we into the room under the full lights and there we saw how beautiful the woman was she stood up in the middle of us all sometimes choking with ms wedded wife crying then hard and proud and then holding out her arms to the senior it was like the fourth act of a tragedy she told us how the senior had married her when he was home on leave eighteen months before and she seemed to know all that we knew and more too of his people and his past life he was white and gray trying now and again to break into the torrent of her words and we noting how lovely she was and what a criminal he looked esteemed him a beast ot the worst kind we felt sorry for him i shall never forget the of the senior by his wife nor will he it was so sudden rushing out of the dark into our dull lives the captains wives stood back but their eyes were alight and you could see that they had already convicted and the senior the colonel seemed five years older one major was his eyes with his hand and watching the woman from underneath it another was his moustache and smiling quietly as if he were witnessing a play full in the open space in the centre by the tables the senior s was hunting for i remember all this as clearly as though a photograph were in my hand i remember the look of horror on the senior s face it was rather like seeing a man hanged but much more interesting finally the woman wound up by saying that the senior carried a double f m in on his left shoulder we all knew that and to our innocent minds it seemed to the matter but one of the bachelor said very politely i presume that your would be more to the purpose that roused the woman she stood up and sneered at the senior for a cur and abused the lo his wedded wife and the colonel and all the rest then she wept and then she pulled a paper from her breast take that and let my husband my wedded husband read it aloud if he dare i there was a hush and the men looked into each other s eyes as the senior came forward in a dazed and dizzy way and took the paper we were wondering as we stared whether there was anything against any one of us that might turn up later on the senior s throat was dry but as he ran his eye over the paper he broke out into a hoarse of relief and said to the woman you young but the woman had fled through a door and on the paper was written this is to that i the worm have paid in full my debts to the senior and further that the senior is my by agreement on the rd of february as by the mess to the extent of one month s captain s pay in the lawful of the india empire then a set off for the worm s quarters and found him and between his stays with the hat wig dress ac on the bed he came over as he was and the shouted till the mess sent over to know if they might have a share of the fun i think we were all except the colonel and the senior a little disappointed that the scandal had come to nothing but that is human nature there could be no two words about the worm s acting it leaned as near to a nasty tragedy as anything this side of a joke can when most of the sat upon him with sofa cushions to find out why he had not said that acting was his strong point he answered very quietly i don t think you ever asked me i used to act at home with my wedded wife sisters but no acting with girls could account for the worm s display that night personally i think it was in bad taste besides being dangerous there is no sort of use in playing with fire even for fun the made him president of the dramatic club and when the senior paid up his debt which he did at once the worm sank the money in scenery and dresses he was a good worm and the are proud of him the only is that he has been mrs senior and as there are now two mrs senior in the station this is sometimes to strangers later on i will tell you of a case something like this but with all the jest left out and nothing in it but real trouble the broken the broken link the holds or the long neck while the big beam or the last rings while horses are horses to train and to race then women and wine take a second place for me for me while a short ten three has a field to or fence to face i song of the g r there are more ways of running a horse to suit book than pulling his head off in the straight some men forget this understand clearly that all racing is as everything connected with losing money must be out here in addition to its inherent it has the merit of being two thirds	39
sham looking pretty on paper only knows else far too well for business purposes how on earth can you rack and harry and post a man for his when you are fond of his wife and live in the same station with him he says on the monday following i can t settle just yet you say all right old man and think yourself lucky if you pull nine hundred out of a two thousand debt any way you look at it indian racing is and which is much worse if a man wants your money he ought to ask for it or send round a list instead of about the country with an a with as much breed as the boy a brace of in caps three or four with and a of a mare called the because she has a in her flag racing leads to the quicker than anything else but if you have no conscience and no sentiments and good hands and some knowledge of pace and ten years experience of horses and several thousand a month i believe that you can occasionally contrive to pay your did you ever know b w g coarse loose mule like ears barrel as long as a tough as a telegraph wire and the brute that ever looked through a bridle he was of no brand being one of an ear mob taken into the at a head to make up freight and sold raw and out of condition at for rs people who lost money on him called him a but if ever any horse had s shoulders and the gin s temper was that horse two miles was his own particular distance he trained himself ran himself and rode himself and if his insulted him by giving him hints he shut up at once and the boy off he objected to two or three of his owners did not understand this and lost money in consequence at last he was bought by a man who discovered that if a race was to be won and only would win it in his own way so long as his sat still this man had a riding boy called a lad from west and he taught with a s whip the hardest thing a can learn to sit still to sit still and to keep on sitting still when fairly grasped this truth the country no weight could stop him at his own distance and the fame of spread from in the south to in the north there was no horse like so long as he was allowed to do his work in the his own way but he was beaten in the end and the story of his fall is h to make angels weep at the lower end of the race course just before the turn into the straight the track passes close to a couple of old brick a shaped hollow the big end of the is not six feet from the on the off side the peculiarity of the course is that if you stand at one particular place about half a mile away inside the course and speak at ordinary pitch your voice just the of the brick and makes a curious echo there a i man discovered this one morning by accident while out training with a friend remarked the place to stand and speak from with a couple of bricks and he kept his knowledge to every peculiarity of a course is worth remembering in a country where rats play the mischief with the elephant litter and build to suit their own stables this man ran a very country bred a long high mare with he temper of a and the paces of an airy wandering a stretch the mare was as a delicate tribute to mrs called the lady or for short was a quiet well behaved boy but his nerve had been shaken he began his career by riding jump races in where a few want and was one of the who came through the awful perhaps you will recollect it of the plate the walls were logs of into with wings as strong as church once in his stride a horse had to jump or fall he couldn t run out in the plate twelve horses were at the second wall red hat leading fell this side and threw the broken link out the and the came up behind and the space between wing and wing was one struggling screaming kicking four were taken out dead three were very badly hurt and was among the three he told the story of the plate sometimes and when he described how on red hat said as the mare fell under him god ha mercy i m done for and how next instant there and white had crushed the life out of poor and the dust hid a small hell of men and horses no one that had dropped jump races and together s owner knew that story by heart never varied it in the telling he had no education came to the autumn races one year and his owner walked about insulting the of generally till they went to the secretary in a body and said and arrange a race which shall break and humble the pride of his owner the districts rose against and sent up of their best who was supposed to be able to do his mile in the bred trained by a cavalry regiment who knew how to train the lamb of the th the pride of and many others they called that race the broken link because it was to and the piled on the and the fund gave eight hundred and the distance was round the course for all horses owner said you can arrange the race with	39
which begins can a man stand upright in the ce of the naked sun or a lover in the presence of his beloved if my feet me o heart of my heart am i to blame being blinded by the glimpse of your beauty there came the faint of a woman from behind the grating and a little voice went on with the song at the fifth verse alas alas can the moon tell the of her love when the gate of heaven is shut and the clouds gather for the rains they have taken my beloved and driven her with the pack horses to the north there are iron chains on the feet that were set on my heart call to the to make ready the voice stopped suddenly and walked out of s wondering who in the world could have the love song of so neatly next morning as he was driving to office an old woman threw a packet into his dog cart in the packet was the half of a broken glass one flower of the blood red a pinch of or cattle food and that packet was a letter not a clumsy letter but an unintelligible lover s beyond the pale knew far too much about these things as i have said no englishman should be able to object letters but spread all the trifles on the lid of his office box and began to puzzle them out a broken glass stands for a widow all india over because when her husband dies a woman s are broken on her wrists saw the meaning of the little bit of the glass the flower of the means desire come write or danger according to the other things with it one means jealousy but when any article is in an object letter it loses its meaning and stands merely for one of a number indicating lime or if incense or be sent also place the message ran then a widow flower and at eleven o clock the pinch of r a enlightened he saw this kind of letter leaves much to instinctive knowledge that the referred to the big heap of cattle food over which he had fallen in s and that the message must come from the person behind the grating she being a widow so the message ran then a widow in the in which is the heap of desires you to come at eleven o clock threw all the rubbish into the fire place and laughed he knew that men in the east do not make love under windows at eleven in the nor do women fix a week in advance so he went that very night at eleven into s clad in a which a man as well as a woman directly the in the city made the hour the little voice behind the grating took up the love song of at the verse where the pan than girl calls upon to the song is pretty in tb ver beyond the pale in english you miss the wail of it it something like this alone upon the to the north i turn and watch the in the sky the of thy footsteps in the north co ne back to ne beloved or i diet below my feet the still is laid far su below the weary lie the and the of thy come back to me beloved or i die i my s wife is old and with years and of all my other s house am i my bread is sorrow and my drink is tears come back to me or i die as the song stopped stepped up under grating and whispered i am here was good to look upon that night was the beginning of many strange things and of a double life so wild that to day sometimes wonders if it were not all a dream or her old who had thrown the object letter had detached the heavy grating from the brick work of the wall so that the window slid inside leaving only a square of raw into which an active man might climb in the day time drove through his routine of office work or put on his calling clothes and called on the ladies of the station wondering how long they would know him if they knew of poor little at night when all the city was still came the walk under the the through s the quick turn into s between the sleeping cattle and the dead walls and then last of all nd the deep even breathing of the old woman who slept beyond the pale i outside the door of the bare little room that allotted to his sister s daughter who or what was never inquired and why in the world he was not discovered and never occurred to him till his madness was over and but this comes later was an endless delight to she was as ignorant as a bird and her distorted of the from the outside world that had reached her in her room amused almost as much as her attempts to pronounce his name the first syllable was always more than she could manage and she made funny little gestures with her hands as one throwing the name away and then kneeling before asked him exactly as an english woman would do if he were sure he loved her swore that he loved her more than any one else in the world which was true alter a month of this folly the of his other life compelled to be especially attentive to a lady of his acquaintance you may take it for a fact that anything of this kind is not only noticed and discussed by a man s own race but by some hundred and fifty natives	39
every night of the l m error the week that he was taking steps to that reputation with l l l and and little of and of that kind he had a sound constitution and a great brain or else he would have broken down and died like a sick in the district as better men have done before him government ordered him to after he had come out of the desert and he went up meaning to try for a post then vacant that season mrs perhaps you will remember her was in the height of her power and many men lay under her yoke everything bad that could be said has already been said about mrs in another tale was heavily built and handsome very quiet and nervously anxious to please his neighbors when he wasn t sunk in a brown study he started a good deal at sudden noises or if spoken to without warning and when you watched him drinking his glass of water at dinner you could see the hand shake a little but all this was put down to and the quiet steady fill and again that went on in his own room when he was by himself was never known which was miraculous seeing how everything in a man s private life is public property out here was drawn not into mrs s set because they were not his sort but into the power of mrs and he fell down in front of her and made a goddess of her this was due to his coming fresh out of the to a big town he could not scale things properly or see who was what because mrs was cold and hard he said she was stately and dignified because she had no brains and could not talk cleverly he said she was reserved and shy mrs shy because she was unworthy of in error honor or reverence from any one he her from a distance and her with all the virtues in the bible and most of those in shakespeare this big dark abstracted man who was so nervous when a pony behind him used to moon in the train of mrs blushing with pleasure when she threw a word or two his way his admiration was strictly even other women saw and admitted this he did not move out in so he heard nothing against his idol which was satisfactory mrs took no special notice of him beyond seeing that he was added to her list of admirers and going for a walk with him now and then just to show that he was her property as such must have done most of the talking for mrs couldn t talk much to a man of his stamp and the little she said could not have been profitable what believed in as he had good reason to was mrs s influence over him and in that belief set himself seriously to try to do away with the vice that only he himself knew of his experiences while he was fighting with it must have been peculiar but he never described them sometimes he would hold off from everything except water for a week then on a rainy night when no one had asked him out to dinner and there was a big fire in his room and everything comfortable he would sit down and make a big night of it by adding little to little planning big schemes of meanwhile until he threw himself on his bed hopelessly drunk he suffered next morning one night the big crash came he was troubled in his own mind over his attempts to make himself worthy of the friendship of mrs the past ten days bad b very ba ones and nd of it u wi s m error that he received the of two and three quarter years of in one attack of delirium of the subdued kind beginning with depression going on to fits and starts and and ending with downright as he sat in a chair in front of the fire or walked up and down the room picking a handkerchief to pieces you heard what poor really thought of mrs for he about her and his own fall for the most part though he some p w d accounts into the same of thought he talked and talked and talked in a low dry whisper to himself and there was no stopping him he seemed to know that there was something wrong and twice tried to pull himself together and confer with the doctor but his mind ran out of control at once and he fell back to a whisper and the story of his troubles it is terrible to hear a big man like a child of all that a man usually locks up and puts away in the deep of his heart read out his very soul for the benefit of any one who was in the room between ten thirty that night and two forty five next morning from what he said one gathered how immense an influence mrs held over him and how thoroughly he felt for his own lapse his cannot of course be put down here but they were very instructive as showing the errors of his when the trouble was over and his few acquaintances were pitying him for the bad attack of fever that had so pulled him down swore a big oath to himself and went abroad again with mrs till the end of the season her in a quiet and way as an angel from heaven later on be took to riding not but honest riding which was good proof that he was improving and you could doors behind him without his jumping to his feet with a gasp that again was hopeful how he kept his oath and what it cost him in the beginning nobody	39
knows he certainly managed to compass the hardest thing that a man who has drunk heavily can do he took his and wine at dinner but he never drank alone and never let what he drank have the least hold on him once he told a bosom friend the story of his great trouble and how the influence of a pure honest woman and an angel as well had saved him when the man startled at anything good being laid to mrs s door laughed it cost him s friendship who is married now to a woman ten thousand times better than mrs a woman who believes that there is no man on earth as good and clever as her husband will go down to his grave and protesting that mrs saved him from ruin in both worlds that she knew anything of s weakness nobody believed for a moment that she would have cut him dead thrown him over and acquainted all her friends with her discovery if she had known of it nobody who knew her doubted for an instant thought her something she never was and in that belief saved himself which was just as good as though she had been everything that he had imagined but the question is what claim will mrs have to the credit of s salvation when her day of reckoning comes l a bank a bank fraud he drank strong waters and his speech was he purchased and to pay he struck a trusting junior with a horse and won in a doubtful way then a vice and folly turned aside to do good deeds and straight to cloak them lied the mess room if were in india now he would resent this tale being told but as he is in and won t see it the telling is safe he was the man who worked the big fraud on the and bank he was manager of an up country branch and a sound practical man with a large experience of native loan and work he could combine the of ordinary life with his work and yet do well rode anything that would let him get up danced as neatly as he rode and was wanted for every sort of amusement in the station as he said himself and as many men found out rather to their surprise there were two both very much at your service between four and ten ready for anything from a hot weather to a riding and between ten and four mr manager of the and branch bank you might play with him one afternoon and hear him express his opinions when a man crossed and you might call on him next morning to raise a two thousand loan on a five hundred pound a bank ud eighty pounds paid in he would recognize you but you would have some trouble in him the of the bank it had its head quarters in and its general manager s word carried weight with the government picked their men well they had tested up to a fairly severe breaking strain they trusted him just as much as ever trust you must see for yourself whether their trust was s branch was in a big station and worked with the usual one manager one both english a and a of native clerks besides the police at nights outside the bulk of its work for it was in a district was and accommodation of all kinds a fool has no grip of this sort ot business and a clever man who does not go about among his and know more than a little of their affairs is worse than a fool was young looking clean shaved with a twinkle in his eye and a head that nothing short of a of the could make any impression on one day at a big dinner he announced casually that the had shifted on to him a natural curiosity from england in the line he was perfectly correct mr was a most curious animal a long full of the savage self conceit that blossoms only in the best county in england was a mild word for the mental attitude of mr s he had worked himself up after seven years to a s position in a bank and all his experience lay among the of the north perhaps he would have done better on the side where they are i jo bank ud happy with one half profits and money is cheap he was useless for upper india and a wheat province where a man wants a large head and a touch of imagination if he is to turn out a satisfactory balance sheet he was wonderfully narrow minded in business and being new to the country had no notion that indian is totally distinct from home work like most clever self made men he had much simplicity in his nature and somehow or other had the ordinarily polite terms of his letter of engagement into a belief that the had chosen him on account of his special and brilliant talents and that they set great store by him this notion grew and thus adding to his natural north country conceit further he was delicate suffered from some trouble in his chest and was short in his temper you will admit that had reason to call his new a natural curiosity the two men failed to hit it off at all considered a wild idiot given to heaven only knew what in low places called and totally unfit for the serious and solemn of he could never get over s look of youth and you be damned air and he couldn t understand s friends careless men in the army who rode over to big sunday at the bank and told stories till got up and left the room was always showing how the	39
business ought to be conducted and had more than once to remind him that seven years limited experience between and did not a man to steer a big up country business then and referred to himself as a pillar of the bank and a cherished friend of the and tore his hair if a man s english him in this country he comes to a hard time indeed for native help has strict in the winter went sick for weeks at a time with his complaint and this threw more work on but he preferred it to the everlasting when was well one of the travelling of the bank discovered these and reported them to the now had been on the bank by an m p who wanted the support of s father who again was anxious to get his son out to a warmer climate because of those lungs the m p had interest in the bank but one of the wanted to advance a of his own and after s father had died he made the rest of the board see that ah who was sick for half the year had better give place to a healthy man if had known the real story of his appointment he might have behaved better but knowing nothing his stretches of sickness with restless persistent irritation of and all the hundred ways in which conceit in a subordinate situation can find play used to call him striking and names behind his back as a relief to his own feelings but he never abused him to his face because he said is such a frail beast that half of his conceit is due to pains in the chest late one april went very sick indeed the doctor him and him and told him he would be better before long then the doctor went to and said do you know how sick your is no said the worse the better confound him i he s a nuisance when he s well til let you take away the bank safe if you can him silent for this hot weather but the doctor did not laugh man i m not joking he said give him another three months in his bed and a week or so more to die in on my honor and reputation that s all the grace he has in this world consumption has hold of him to the s face changed at once into the face of mr and he answered what can i do nothing said the doctor for all practical purposes the man is dead already keep him quiet and cheerful and tell him he s going to recover that s all look after him to the end of course the doctor went away and sat down to open the evening mail his first letter was one from the for his information that mr was to resign under a month s notice by the terms of his agreement telling that their letter to would follow and of the coming of a new a man whom knew and liked lit a and before he had finished smoking he had the outline of a fraud he put away the letter and went in to talk to who was as as usual and himself over the way the bank would run during his illness he never thought of the extra work on s shoulders but solely of the damage to his own prospects of advancement then assured him that everything would be well and that he would confer with daily on the management of the bank was a little soothed but he hinted in as many words that he did not think much of s business capacity was humble and he had letters in his desk from the that a or a might have been proud of i the days passed in the big darkened house and the letter of dismissal to came and was put away by who every evening brought the books a ba ic pr a ud to s room and showed him what had been going forward while did his best to make statements pleasing to but the was sure that the bank was going to rack and ruin without him in june as the lying in bed told on his spirit he asked whether his absence had been noted by the and said that they had written most sympathetic letters hoping that he would be able to resume his valuable services before long he showed the letters and said that the ought to have written to him direct a few days later opened s mail in the half light of the room and gave him the sheet not the envelope of a letter to from the said he would thank not to interfere with his private papers specially as r knew he was too weak to open his own letters then s mood changed and he on his evil ways his horses and his bad friends of course lying here on my back mr i can t keep you straight but when i m well i do hope you ll pay some heed to my words who had dropped and dinners and and all to attend to said that he was penitent and settled s head on the pillow and heard him fret and contradict in hard dry whispers without a sign of impatience this at the end of a heavy day s office work doing double duty in the latter half of june when the new came told him the facts of the case and announced to that he had a guest staying with him said that he might have had more consideration than to entertain his doubtful friends at such a time made the new sleep at the club in bank fraud s arrival took some of the heavy off his shoulders and he had time to	39
attend to s to explain soothe invent and settle and the poor wretch in bed and to complimentary letters from at the end of the first month wished to send some money home to his mother sent the at the end of the second month s salary came in just the same paid it out of his own pocket and with it wrote a beautiful letter from the was very ill indeed but the flame of his life burnt now and then he would be cheerful and confident about the future plans for going home and seeing his mother listened patiently when the office work was over and encouraged him at other times insisted on reading the bible and grim tracts to him out of these tracts he pointed morals directed at his manager but he always found time to worry about the working of the bank and to show him where the weak points lay this in door sick room life and constant strains wore down a good deal and shook his nerves and lowered his play by forty points but the business of the bank and the business of the sick room had to go on though the glass was in the shade at the end of the third month was sinking fast and had begun to realize that he was very sick but the conceit that made him worry kept him from believing the worst he wants some sort of mental if he is to drag on said the doctor keep him interested in life if you care about his living so contrary to all the laws of business and the received a per cent rise of salary from the a bank fraud i the mental succeeded beautifully was happy and cheerful and as is often the case in consumption in mind when the body was he lingered for a full month and about the bank talking of the future hearing the bible read on sin and wondering when he would be able to move abroad but at the end of september one hot evening he rose up in his bed with a little gasp and said quickly to mr i am going to die i know it in my chest is all hollow inside and there s nothing to breathe with to the best of my knowledge i have done he was returning to the talk of his boyhood to lie heavy on my conscience god be thanked i have been preserved from the forms of sin and i counsel mr here his voice died down and stooped over him send my salary for september to my mother done great things with the bank if i had been spared mistaken policy no fault of mine then he turned his face to the wall and died drew the sheet over its face and went out into the with his last mental a letter of and sympathy from the unused in his pocket if i d been only ten minutes earlier thought i might have him up to pull through another day its the hath set its heavy yoke upon the old white bearded who strive to please the king god s mercy is upon the young god s wisdom in the baby ue that fears not anything th now mamma was a singularly charming woman and every one in knew most men had saved him from death on occasions he was beyond his control altogether and his life daily to find out what would happen if you pulled a mountain battery mule s tail he was an utterly fearless young pagan about six years old and the only baby who ever broke the holy calm of the supreme council it happened this way pet kid got loose and fled up the hill off the road after it until it burst into the lodge lawn then attached to the council were sitting at the time and the windows were open because it was warm the red in the porch told to go away but knew the red and most of the members of council personally moreover he had firm hold of the kid s collar and was being dragged all across the flower beds give my to the long and ask him to help me take back gasped the council heard the noise through the open windows and after an interval wa seen the shocking spectacle of a legal member and a lieutenant governor helping under the direct patronage of a commander in chief and a one small and very dirty boy in a sailor s suit and a of brown hair to a lively and rebellious kid they headed it down the path to the and went home in triumph and told his mamma that au the had been helping him to catch his mamma for interfering with the administration of the empire but met the legal member the next day and told him in confidence that if the legal member ever wanted to catch a goat he would give him all the help in his power thank you said the legal member was the idol of some eighty and half as many he saluted them all as brother it never entered his head that any living human being could his orders and he was the between the servants and his mamma s wrath the working of that household turned on who was adored by every one from the to the dog boy even the from displeasure for fear his co mates should look down on him so had honor in the land from to and ruled justly according to his lights of course he spoke but he had also mastered many queer side speeches like the choice of the women and held grave converse with and hill he was for his age and his mixing with natives had taught him some of the more bitter truths of	39
life the meanness and the of it he used over his bread and milk to deliver solemn and serious translated from the into the english la that made his mamma jump and vow that home next hot weather just when was in the bloom of his power the supreme were out a bill for the sub tracts a of the then act smaller than the land bill but affecting a few hundred thousand people none the less the legal member had built and and and that bill till it looked beautiful on paper then the council began to settle what they called the minor details as if any englishman for natives knows enough to know which are the minor and which are the major points from the native point of view of any measure that bill was a triumph of safe guarding the interests of the tenant one provided that land should not be on longer terms than five years at a stretch because if the landlord had a tenant bound down for say twenty years he would squeeze the very life out of him the notion was to keep up a stream of independent in the sub tracts and and the notion was correct the only was that it was altogether wrong a native s life in india the life of his son wherefore you cannot for one generation at a time you must consider the next firom the native point of view curiously enough the native now and then and in northern india more particularly hates being over protected against himself there was a village once where they lived on dead and but that is another story for many reasons to be explained later the people concerned objected to the bill the native member in council knew as much about as he knew about cross he had said in that the bill was entirely in accord with the desires of that large and t important class the and so on and so on the legal member s knowledge of natives was limited to english speaking and his own red the sub tracts concerned no one in particular the were a good deal too driven to make representations and the measure was one which dealt with small only nevertheless the legal member prayed that it might be correct for he was a nervously conscientious man he did not know that no man can tell what natives think unless he with them with the off and not always then but he did the best he knew and the measure came up to the supreme council for the final touches while the in his morning rides and played with the monkey belonging to the and listened as a child to all the stray talk about this new of the la s one day there was a dinner party at the house of mamma and the legal member came was in bed but he kept awake till he heard the bursts of laughter from the men over the coffee then he out in his little red flannel dressing gown and his and took refuge by the side of his father knowing that he would not be sent back see the miseries of having a family said father giving three some water in a glass that had been used for and telling him to sit still sucked the slowly knowing that he would have to go when they were finished and the pink water like a man of the world as he listened to the conversation presently the legal member talking shop to the head of a department mentioned his bill by its full name the sub tracts i o am caught the one native word and lifting up his small voice said oh i know all about that has it been yet how much said the legal member mended put you know made nice to please the legal member left his place and moved up next to what do you know about little man be said i m not a little man tm and i know oi about it and and and oh of my friends tell me about it in the when i talk to them oh they do they what do they say tucked his feet under his red flannel gown and said i must the legal member waited patiently then with infinite compassion you don t speak my talk do you no i am sorry to say i do not said the legal member very well said i must in english he spent a minute putting his ideas in order and began very slowly in his mind from the to english as many indian children do you must remember that the legal member helped him on by questions when he halted for was not equal to the sustained flight of that follows says this thing is the talk of a child and was made up by fools but don t think you are a fool said hastily you caught my goat this is what says i am not a fool and why should the say i am a child i can see if the land is good and if the landlord is good if i am a fool the sin is upon my own head for five years i take my ground for which i have saved money and a wife i take too and a little son is born has one daughter now but he says he will have a son soon and he says at the end of five years by this new i must go if i do not go i must get fresh and s on the papers perhaps in the middle of the harvest and to go to the law courts once is wisdom but to go twice is that is explained gravely all my friends say so and says always fresh and paying	39
money to and and law courts every five years or else the landlord makes me go why do i want to go am i a fool if i am a fool and do not know after forty years good land when i see it let me die i but if the new says for ji years that it is good and wise my little son is a man and i am burnt and he takes the ground or another ground paying only once for the d on the papers and his h son is bom and at the end of fifteen years is a man too but what profit is there in five years and fresh papers nothing but trouble we are not young men who take these lands but old ones s but with a little money and for fifteen years we shall have peace nor are we children that the should treat us so here stopped short for the whole table were listening the legal member said to is that au all lean remember said but you should see s big monkey it s just like a w l l go to bed said his father gathered up his dressing gown tail and departed the legal member brought his hand down on the table with a crash by jove i said the legal member i believe the boy is right the short is the weak point he left early thinking over what had said now it was obviously impossible for the legal member to play with a monkey by way of getting understanding but he did better he made inquiries always bearing in mind the fact that the real native not the university trained mule is as timid as a and little by little he some of the men whom the measure concerned most intimately to give m their views which very closely with s evidence so the bill was in that and the legal member was filled with an uneasy suspicion that native members represent very little except the orders they on their but he put the thought from him as he was a most liberal man after a time the news spread through the that had got the bill in the and if mamma had not interfered would have made himself sick on the baskets of fruit and nuts and grapes and that crowded the till he went home some few degrees before the in popular estimation but for the little life of him could not understand why in the legal member s private paper box still lies the rough of the sub tracts and opposite the twenty second in blue chalk and signed by the legal member are the word the daughter of the regiment the daughter of the regiment was a s wife a s wife she she married of in an the sea chorus ave you never card tell o tain ain ave you never tell o the pride o uie f ballad a gentleman who t the circle ought not to stand up for it everybody out that was what miss said and the who was my a looked the same thing i was afraid of miss she was six feet high all yellow and red hair and was simply clad in white satin shoes a pink muslin dress an apple green stuff and black silk gloves with yellow roses in her hair wherefore i fled from miss and sought my friend private who was at the cant refreshment table so you ve been with little she that s goin to marry ril you next your an your ladies tell you ve danced little tis a thing to be proud but i wasn t proud i was humble i saw a story in private s eye and besides if he stayed too long at the bar he would i knew for more pack the of the now to meet an esteemed friend doing pack outside the guard room is embarrassing especially if you happen to be walking with his commanding come on to the parade ground it s cooler there and tell me about miss what is she and who is she and why is she called d ye mane to say you ve never heard ould s daughter an you you know things i m ye in a me s lit we came out under the stars sat down on one of the bridges and began in the usual way his pipe between his teeth his big hands clasped and dropped between his knees and his cap well on the back of his head mrs that is was miss that was you were a younger than you are now an the army was in ril e have no call for to marry now a days an that s why the army has so few good hearted heavy wives as ut used to hav i was a ril i was afterwards but no i was a ril in times a man lived arc died his an by he married he was a man i was ril mother how the has died an been since that day my color was ould an a married man tu an his his first for he married three times did was from i ve her first name was but in b ny we called her ould by reason her figure which was entirely fe like the big i now that woman god rock her to rest in glory was for an the fifth the daughter of the or sixth come on to the roll swore he number them in future but ould she prayed him to after the names of the stations they was in so there was an an a whole other mc an little over yonder the children wasn t they was dying for our die like sheep in	39
these days they died like flies thin i lost me own little but no tis long ago and mrs had another i m wan shot summer there come an order from some mad whose name i for the to go up country may be they wanted to know how the new rail carried they knew on me they knew before they was done ould had just buried an the season bein only little who was four year ould thin was left on hand five children gone in fourteen months twas wasn t ut so we up to our new station in heat may the curse saint the man who gave the will i forget that move they gave us two wake to the an we was eight and strong there was a b c an d companies in the twelve women no ladies an thirteen we was to go six miles an was new in days we had been a night in the belly the the men in their shirts an anything they find an bad fruit stuff they for we t stop em i was a ril thin the out the the day to the saints you may see in a l the of the tis like the god down from the sky i we run into a rest as lit might have been but not by any means so comfortable the sent a up the line three mile up for help faith we wanted ut for the followers ran for the dear life as soon as the stopped an by the time that was writ there wasn t a in the station the clerk an he only he was held down to his chair by the his black neck thin the day began the noise in the an the rattle the men on the platform over arms an all as they for to answer the ny muster roll before goin over to the camp t for me to say what like the was like maybe the doctor ha he hadn t dropped on to the platform from the door a carriage where we was out the dead he died the rest some had died in the night we out and twenty more was as we the women was huddled up any ways fear the whose name i take the women over to that trees yonder get out the camp tis no place for ould was on her to little quiet go off to that the go out the men s way i be damned i do ould an little by her mother s side out be damned i do tu thin ould turns to the women an she are ye goin to let the die while you re ye she tis they want come on an help the daughter of the that she turns up her sleeves an steps out for a well behind the rest camp little behind a an string an the other women like horse and all the things was full ould back into camp twas like a all the glory at the hid the women me man she a voice on her like grand s challenge tell the to be quiet ould s to look free thin we cheered and the in the lines was louder than the noise the poor the sickness on but not much you see we was a new an raw in those days an we make neither head nor tail the sickness an so we was useless the men was goin an about like dumb sheep for the man to fell over an their is ut in the name god what is ut twas horrible but through ut all up an down an down an up ould an little all we see the baby a dead man s the chin about her little up an down the and brandy there was now an thin ould the tears down her fat red face me me poor dead i but for the most she was to put heart into the men an and little was all they be in the twas a she d picked up from hearing ould was bum in out fever in the twas the at st peter s gate the for n n twenty good m n an the daughter of the twenty more was sick to the death in that bitter sun but the women worked like as i ve said an the men like till two doctors come down from above an we was rescued but just before that ould on her knees over a in my right cot man to me he was in the him the the church that failed a man yet me up i m bloody sick twas the sun not the did ut she she was only her ould black bonnet an she died me man her up an the howled they buried her that night a big wind blew an blew an blew an blew the tents flat but it blew the away an another case there was all the while we was ten days in you will me the of the sickness in the camp was for all the the of a man four times in a eight through the tents they say tis the jew takes the him i believe ut an that said is the cause why little is she is she was brought up by the quarter master s wife died but she b to b ny an tliis tale i m te you a proper i ve into every the ny as he was faith twas me ril into the girl not really man i she s no beauty to look at but she s ould s daughter an tis my to provide for her just before got his	39
wan eight a day i to bim i to morrow thb daughter of the regiment me to you but by the ould who is now in glory you don t give me your to ask at the flesh off yer bones a brass to night tis a to b ny she s been single so long i i was i goin to let a three year ould to me my will bein set no i an asked her he s a good is wan these days he ll get into the com an a his s so i provided for ould s daughter an now you go along an dance her and i did i felt a respect for miss and i went to her wedding later on perhaps i will tell you about that one of these days the pride of his in the pride of his stopped m the straight when the race was his own t look at him cutting it cur to the bone ask ere the be and what did he carry and how was he ridden maybe they used him too much at the start maybe fate s weight are breaking his heart s when i was telling you of the joke that the worm played off on the senior i promised a somewhat similar tale but with all the jest left out this is that tale was in his early early neither by landlady s daughter nor cook but by a girl so nearly of his own caste that only a woman could have said she was just the least little bit in the world below it this happened a month before he came out to india and five days after his one birthday the girl was nineteen six years older than in the things of this world that is to say and for the time twice as foolish as he excepting always falling off a horse there is nothing more easy than marriage before the the ceremony costs less than fifty shillings and is remarkably like walking into a shop after the of residence have been put in four minutes will cover the rest of the proceedings and all then the the over the names and says grimly with his pen between his teeth now you re m n and wife and the couple in the pride of his youth walk out into the street feeling as if something were horribly somewhere but that ceremony holds and can drag a man to his just as thoroughly as the long as ye both shall curse from the altar rails with the behind and the voice that breathed o er lifting the roof ofl in this manner was and he considered it vastly fine for he had received an appointment in india which carried a magnificent salary from the home point of view the marriage was to be kept secret for a year then mrs was to come out and the rest of life was to be a glorious golden mist that was how they it under the road station lamps and after one short month came and steaming out to his new life and the girl crying in a thirty shillings a week bed and living room in a back street off square near the but the country that came to was a hard land where men of twenty one were reckoned very small boys indeed and life was expensive tlie salary that loomed so large six thousand miles away did not go far particularly when divided it by two and more than the fair half at i to square one hundred and thirty five out of three hundred and thirty is not much to live on but it was absurd to suppose that mrs could exist forever on the held back by from his allowance saw this and at once always remembering that rs were to be paid twelve months later for a passage out for a lady when you add to these trifling details the natural instincts of a boy beginning a new life in a new country and longing to go about and enjoy himself and the necessity for with strange tn the pride of his youth work which properly speaking should take up a boy s attention you will see that started he saw it himself for a breath or two but he did not guess the full beauty of his future as the hot weather began the settled on him and ate into his flesh first would come big crossed seven sheet letters from his wife telling him how she longed to see him and what a heaven upon earth would be their property when they met then some boy of the wherein lodged would pound on the door of his bare little room and tell him to come out to look at a pony the very thing to suit him could not afford he had to explain this could not afford living in the modest as it was he had to explain this before he moved to a single room next the office where he worked all day he kept house on a green oil cloth table cover one chair one one photograph one tooth glass very strong and thick a seven and by contract at thirty seven a month which last item was he had no for a costs fifteen a month but he slept on the roof of the office with all his wife s letters under his pillow now and again he was asked out to dinner where he got both a and au drink but this was seldom for people objected to a boy who had evidently the instincts of a scotch and who lived in such a nasty fashion could not to any amusement so he found no amusement except the pleasure of turning over his bank book and reading what it	39
said about on approved security that cost nothing he through a bank by the way and the station knew nothing of his private affairs in the pride of his youth j every month he sent home all he could possibly spare for his wife and for another reason which was expected to explain itself shortly and would require more money about this time was overtaken with the nervous haunting fear that married men when they are out of sorts he had no to look to what if he should die suddenly and leave his wife for the thought used to lay hold of him in the still hot nights on the roof till the shaking of his heart made him think that he was going to die then and there of heart disease now this is a frame of mind which no boy has a right to know it is a strong man s trouble but coming when it did it nearly poor mad he could tell no one about it a certain amount of screw is as necessary for a man as for a ball it makes them both do wonderful things needed money badly and he worked for it like a horse but naturally the men who owned him knew that a boy can live very comfortably on a certain income pay in india is a matter of age not merit you see and if their particular boy wished to work like two boys business forbid that they should stop him i but business forbid that they should give him an increase of pay at his present age i so won certain rises of salary ample for a boy not enough for a wife and a child certainly too little for the seven hundred passage that he and mrs had discussed so lightly once upon a time and with this he was forced to be content somehow all his money seemed to fade away in home and the crushing exchange and the tone of the home letters changed and grew the pride of his youth why wouldn t have his wife and the baby out surely he had a salary a fine salary and it was too bad of him to enjoy himself in india but would he make the next a little more elastic here followed a list of baby s as long as a s bill then whose heart to his wife and the little son he had never seen which again is a feeling no boy is entitled to enlarged the and wrote queer half boy half man letters saying that life was not so after all and would the little wife wait yet a little longer but the little wife however much she j approved of money objected to waiting and there was a strange hard sort of ring in her letters that didn t understand how could he poor boy later on still just as had been told a of another who had made a fool of himself as the saying is that matrimony would not only ruin his further chances of advancement but would lose him his present appointment came the news that the baby his own little little son had died and behind this forty lines of an angry woman s saying the death might have been averted if certain things all money had been done or if the mother and the baby had been with the letter struck at s naked heart but not being entitled to a baby he could show no sign of trouble how won through the next four months and what hope he kept alight to force him into his work no one dare say he on the seven hundred passage as far away as ever and his style of living unchanged except when he launched into a new there was the strain of his office work and the strain of his and the knowledge of his boy s death which touched the boy more perhaps than it would have in the pride of his youth touched a man and beyond all the enduring strain of his daily life gray headed who approved of his and his fashion of denying himself everything pleasant reminded him of the old saw that says if a youth would be distinguished in his art art art he must keep the girls away from his heart heart heart and who fancied he had been through every trouble that a man is permitted to know had to laugh and agree with the last line of his balanced bank book in his head day and night but he had one more sorrow to before the end there arrived a letter from the little wife the natural of the others if had only known it and the burden of that letter was gone with a man than you it was a rather curious production without stops something like this she was not going to wait forever and the baby was dead and was only a boy and he would never set eyes on her again and why hadn t he waved his handkerchief to her when he left and god was her judge she was a wicked woman but was worse enjoying himself in india and this other man loved the ground she trod on and would ever forgive her for she would never forgive and there was no address to write to instead of thanking his stars that he was free discovered exactly how an injured husband feels again not at all the knowledge to which a boy is entitled for his mind went back to his wife as he remembered her in the thirty shilling in square when the dawn of his last morning in england was breaking and she was crying in the bed he rolled about on his bed and bit	39
his fingers he never stopped to think whether if he had met mrs after those two years he would have discovered that he and she had grown in the pride of his youth quite and new persons this h ought to have done he spent the night after the english mail came in rather severe pain next morning felt to work he argued that he had missed the pleasure of youth he was tired and he had tasted all the sorrow in life before three and twenty his honor was gone that was the man and now he too would go to the was the boy in him so he put his head down on the green oil cloth table cover and wept before his post and all it offered but the reward of his services came he was given three days to himself and the head of the establishment after some said that it was a most unusual step but in view of the ability that mr had displayed at such and such a time at such and such he was in a position to offer him an infinitely superior post first on and later in the natural course of things on confirmation and how much does the post carry said six hundred and fifty said the head slowly expecting to see the young man sink with gratitude and joy and it came then the seven hundred passage and enough to have saved the wife and the little son and to have allowed of assured and open marriage came then burst into a roar of laughter laughter he could not check nasty merriment that seemed as if it would go on forever when he had recovered himself he said quite seriously tm tired of work i m an old man now it s about time i retired and i will the boy s mad said the head i think he was right but never reappeared to settle the question pig pig go stalk the rod deer o er the ride follow the fox if you can but for pleasure and together allow me the hunting of man the chase of the human the search for the soul to its ruin the hunting of man the old i believe the difference began in the matter of a horse with a twist in his temper whom sold to and by whom was nearly slain there may have been other causes of offence the horse was the official horse was very angry but laughed and said that he had never g the beast s manners laughed too though he vowed that he would write off his fall against if he waited five years now a from beyond will forgive an injury when the lets a man live but a south man is as soft as a you can see from their names that had the race advantage of he was a peculiar man and his notions of humor were cruel he taught me a new and fascinating form of he from to and from to up and across the a large province and in places remarkably dry he said that he had no intention o assistant to him fo in the shape of screaming without making their lives a burden to them most assistant develop a bent for some special work after their first hot weather in the country the boys with hope to write their names large on the frontier and struggle for dreary places like the ones climb into the which is very bad for the liver others are bitten with a for district work or poetry while some who come of farmers stock find that the smell of the earth after the rains gets into their blood and calls them to develop the resources of the province these men are belonged to their class he knew a great many facts bearing on the cost of and temporary wells and and what happens if you bum too much rubbish on a field in the hope of used up soil all the come of a breed and so the land only took back her own again unfortunately most unfortunately for he was a as well as a farmer watched him and thought about the horse said see me chase that boy till he drops i said you can t get your knife into an assistant told me that i did not understand the administration of the province our government is rather peculiar it on the agricultural and general information side and will supply a respectable man with all sorts of if he speaks to it prettily for instance you are interested in gold washing in the sands of the you pull the string and find that it wakes up half a dozen and finally say with a friend of yours in the telegraph who once wrote some notes on the customs of the gold when he was on construction work in their part of the empire he may or may not be pleased at being ordered to write out everything he knows for your benefit this depends on his temperament the bigger man you are the more information and the greater trouble can you raise was not a big man but he had the reputation of being very earnest an earnest man can do much with a government there was an earnest man once who nearly wrecked but all india knows story i am not sure what real earnestness is a very fair imitation can be by to dress decently by about in a dreamy misty sort of way by taking office work home after staying in office till seven and by receiving crowds of native gentleman on sundays that is one sort of earnestness cast about for a whereon to hang his earnestness and for a string that would communicate with he found both they were pig became an	39
compelled to believe ac ac there was a new man at the head of the department of the wretched was told that the service was made for the country and not the country for the service and that he had better begin to supply information about pigs answered that he had written everything that could be written about pig and that some was due to him got a copy of that letter and sent it with the essay on the pig to a down country paper which printed both in full the essay was rather but if the editor had seen the of paper in s handwriting on s table he would not have been so sarcastic about the and self of the modern competition a and his utter inability to grasp the practical issues of a practical question many friends cut out these remarks and sent them to i have already stated that came of a soft stock this last stroke frightened and shook him he could not understand it but he felt that he had been somehow betrayed by he real p d that he had wrapped himself up in the without need and that he could not well set himself right with his government all his acquaintances asked after his or his self and this made him miserable he took a train and went to whom he had not seen since the pig business began he also took the cutting from the paper and feebly and called names and then died down to a watery weak protest of the i say it s too bad you know order was very sympathetic vm afraid i ve given you a good deal of trouble haven t i said he trouble i don t mind the trouble so much though that was bad enough but what i resent is this showing up in print it will stick to me like a all my service and i do my best for your interminable swine it s too bad of you on my soul it is i don t know said have you ever been stuck with a horse it isn t the money i mind though that is bad enough but what i resent is the that follows especially from the boy who stuck me but i think we ll cry now found nothing to say save bad words and smiled ever so sweetly and asked him to dinner the of the white the of the white it was not in the open fight we away the sword but in the lonely watching in the darkness by the ford the waters the night wind blew full armed the fear was m and grew and we were flying ere we knew from panic in the night some people hold that an english cavalry regiment cannot run this is a mistake i have seen four hundred and thirty seven flying over the face of the country in abject terror have seen the best regiment that ever drew bridle wiped off the army list for the space of two hours if you repeat this tale to the white they will in all probability treat you severely they are not proud of the incident you may know the white by their side which is greater than that of all the cavalry on the if this is not a sufficient mark you may know them by their old brandy it has been sixty years in the mess and is worth going far to taste ask for the old brandy and see that you get it if the mess thinks that you are and that the genuine article will be lost on you he will treat you accordingly he is a good man but when you are at mess you must never talk to your hosts about forced or long distance rides the mess are very sen o the of the white and if they think that you are laughing at them will tell you so as the white say it was all the colonel s fault he was anew man and he ought never to have taken the command he said that the regiment was not smart enough this to the white who knew they could walk round any horse and through any guns and over any foot on the face of the earth i that insult was the first cause of offence then the colonel cast the drum horse the drum horse of the white perhaps you do not see what an unspeakable crime he had committed i will try to make it clear the soul of the regiment lives in the drum horse who carries the silver kettle drums he is nearly always a big that is a point of honor and a regiment will spend anything you please on a he is beyond the ordinary laws of casting his work is very light and he only at a foot pace wherefore so long as he can step out and look handsome his well being is assured he knows more about the regiment than the and could not make a mistake if he tried the drum horse of the white was only eighteen years old and perfectly equal to his duties he had at least six years more work in him and carried himself with all the pomp and dignity of a drum major of the guards the regiment had paid rs i for him but the colonel said that he must go and he was cast in due form and replaced by a bay beast as ugly as a mule with a neck rat tail and cow the detested that animal and the best of the band horses put back their ears and showed the of their eyes at the very sight of him they the of the white knew him for an and no gentleman i fancy that the colonel s ideas of extended to the band and	39
that he wanted to make it take part in the regular parade movements a cavalry band is a sacred thing it only turns out for commanding officers and the band master is one degree more important than the colonel he is a high priest and the raw is his holy song the row is the cavalry trot and the man who has never heard that tune rising high and shrill above the rattle of the regiment going past the base has something yet to hear and understand when the colonel cast the drum horse of the white there was nearly a the officers were angry the regiment were furious and the swore like the drum horse was going to be put up to public to be bought perhaps by a and put into a cart i it was worse than exposing the inner life of the regiment to the whole world or selling the mess plate to a jew a black jew the colonel was a mean man and a bully he knew what the regiment thought about his action and when the offered to buy the drum horse he said that their offer was and forbidden by the but one of the an bought the drum horse for rs at the sale and the colonel was professed repentance he was and said that as he had only made the purchase to save the horse from possible ill treatment and starvation he would now shoot him and end the business this appealed to soothe the colonel for he wanted the drum o the of the white disposed of he felt that he had made a mistake and could not of course acknowledge it meantime the presence of the drum horse was an annoyance to him took to himself a glass of the old brandy three and his friend and they all left the mess together and conferred for two hours in s quarters but only the bull who keeps watch over s boot trees knows what they said a horse and to his ears left s stables and was taken very unwillingly into the civil lines s groom went with him two men broke into the theatre and took several paint pots and some large scenery then night fell over the and there was a noise as of a horse kicking his loose box to pieces in s stables had a big old white trap horse the next day was a thursday and the men hearing that was going to shoot the drum horse in the evening determined to give the beast a regular funeral a finer one than they would have given the colonel had he died just then they got a and some and and of roses and the body under was carried out to the place where the cases were of the regiment following there was no band but they all sang the place where the old horse died as something respectful and appropriate to the occasion when the corpse was into the grave and the men began throwing down of roses to cover it the out an oath and said aloud why it the drum horse any more than it s me i the troop asked him whether he had left his head in the the said that h knew the drum s feet as well as he knew bis the of the white but he was silenced when he saw the number burnt in on the poor stiff near fore thus was the drum horse of the white buried the grumbling the that covered the corpse was in places with black paint and the drew attention to this fact but the troop major of e troop kicked him severely on the and told him that he was undoubtedly drunk on the monday following the burial the colonel sought revenge on the white unfortunately being at that time temporarily in command of the station he ordered a field day he said that he wished to make the regiment sweat for their damned insolence and he carried out his notion thoroughly that monday was one of the hardest days in the memory of the white they were thrown against a skeleton enemy and pushed forward and withdrawn and dismounted and handled in every possible fashion over dusty country till they their only amusement came late in the day when they fell upon the battery of horse and chased it for two miles this was a personal question and most of the had money on the event the saying openly that they had the legs of the white they were wrong a march past concluded the campaign and when the regiment got back to their lines the men were with dirt from spur to chin the white have one great and peculiar privilege they won it at i think many possess special rights such as wearing with uniform or a bow of ribbon between the shoulders or red and white roses in their on certain days of the year some rights are connected with saints and some with x a the of the white mental all are valued highly but none so highly as the right of the white to have the band playing when their horses are being watered in the lines only one tune is played and that tune never i don t know its real name but the white call it take me to london again it sounds very pretty the regiment would sooner be struck the than forego their distinction after the dismiss was sounded the officers rode off home to prepare for stables and the men filed into the lines riding easy that is to say they opened their tight buttons shifted their and began to joke or to swear as the humor took them the more careful slipping off and and a good his mount exactly as much as he himself	39
and believes or should believe that the two together are irresistible where women or men girls or guns are concerned then the orderly officer gave the order water horses and the regiment off to the which were in rear of the stables and between these and the there were four huge one for each arranged en so that the whole regiment could water in ten minutes if it liked but it lingered for seventeen as a rule while the band played the band struck up as the filed off the and the men slipped their feet out of the and each other the sun was just setting in a big hot bed of red cloud and the road to the civil lines seemed to run straight into the sun s eye there was a little dot on the road it grew and grew till it showed as a horse with a sort of thing on his back ttie red cloud glared through the bars of the some thb of the white i of the shaded their eyes with their hands and said what the mischief as that there got on in another minute they heard a that every soul and man in the regiment knew and saw heading straight towards the band the dead drum horse of the white i on his and the kettle drums draped in and on his back very stiff and sat a bare headed skeleton the band stopped playing and for a moment there was a hush then some one in e troop men said it was the troop major swung his horse round and no one can account exactly for what happened afterwards but it seems that at least one man in each troop set an example of panic and the rest followed like sheep the horses that had barely put their into the reared and but as soon as the band broke which it did when the ghost of the drum horse was about a distant all followed suit and the clatter of the quite different from the orderly throb and roar of a movement on parade or the rough of watering in camp made them only more terrified they felt that the men on their backs were afraid of something when horses once know thai all is over except the troop after troop turned from the and ran and everywhere like it was a most extraordinary spectacle for men and horses were in all stages of and the against their sides urged the horses on men were shouting and cursing and trying to pull clear of the band which was being chased by the drum ui tm op the white whose rider had fallen forward and seemed to be for a the colonel had gone over to the mess for a drink most of the officers were with him and the of the day was preparing to go down to the lines and receive the watering reports from the troop when take me to london d stopped after twenty bars every one in the mess said what on earth has happened a minute later they heard noises and saw far across the plain the white scattered and broken and flying the colonel was speechless with rage for he thought that the regiment had risen against him or was drunk the band a mob tore past and at its heels labored the drum horse the dead and buried drum horse with the skeleton whispered softly to no wire will stand that treatment and the band which had doubled like a hare came back again but the rest of the regiment was gone was all over the province for the dusk had shut in and each man was howling to neighbor that the drum horse was on his troop horses are far too tenderly treated as a rule they can on do a great deal even with seventeen stone on their backs as the found out how long this panic lasted i cannot say i believe that when the moon rose the men saw they had nothing to fear and by and and half troops crept back into very much ashamed of themselves meantime the drum horse disgusted at his treatment by old friends pulled up wheeled round and trotted up to the mess steps for bread no one liked to run but no one cared to go forward till the colonel made a movement and laid hold of the skeleton s foot op the white ll j the band had halted some distance away and now came back slowly the colonel called it and every evil name that occurred to him at the time for he had set his hand on the bosom of the drum horse and found flesh and blood then he beat the kettle drums with his clenched fist and discovered that they were but made of paper and next still swearing he tried to drag the skeleton out of the saddle but found that it had been into the the sight of the colonel with his arms round the skeleton s and his knee in the old drum horse s stomach was striking not to say amusing he worried the thing off in a minute or two and threw it down on the ground saying to the band here you that s what you re afraid of the skeleton did not look pretty in the twilight the band seemed to recognize it for he began to chuckle and choke shall i take it away sir said the band yes said the colonel take it to hell and ride there yourselves i the band saluted hoisted the skeleton across his saddle bow and led off to the stables then the colonel began to make inquiries for the of the regiment and the language he used was wonderful he would the regiment he would every soul	39
woman with heavy eyelids over weak eyes and hair that turned red or yellow as the lights fell on it was not nice in any way he had no respect for the pretty public and private lies that make life a little less nasty than it is his manner towards his wife was coarse there are many things including actual assault with the clenched fist that a wife will endure but seldom a wife can bear as mrs with a long course of brutal hard making light of her weaknesses her her small fits of her dresses her queer little attempts to make herself attractive to her husband when she knows that she is not what she has been and worst of all the love that on her children that particular sort of jest was specially dear to suppose that he had first slipped into it meaning no harm in the a the divorce case when folk find their ordinary stock of run short and so go to the other extreme to express their feelings a similar impulse makes a man say you old beast when a favorite horse his coat front when the reaction of marriage sets in the form of speech remains and the tenderness having died out hurts the wife more than she cares to say but mrs was devoted to her as she called him perhaps that was why he objected to her perhaps this is only a theory to account for his infamous behavior later on he gave away to the queer savage feeling that sometimes takes by the throat a husband twenty years married when he sees across the table the same same face of his wedded wife and knows that as he has sat facing it so must he continue to sit until day of its death or his own most men and all women know the it only lasts for three as a rule must be a throw back to times when men and women were rather worse than they are now and is too unpleasant to be discussed dinner at the s was an few men cared to undergo took a pleasure in saying things that made his wife when their little boy came in at used to give him half a glass of wine and naturally enough the poor little got first next miserable and was removed screaming asked if that was the way usually behaved and whether mrs could not spare some of her time to teach the little beggar decency mrs who loved the boy more than her own life tried not to cry her spirit seemed to have been broken by her marriage lastly used to say there that ll do that ll do for god s sake try to behave like a rational the divorce case woman go in to the drawing room mrs would go trying to it all off with a smile and the guest of the evening would feel and uncomfortable after three years of this cheerful life for mrs had no woman friends to talk to the station was startled by the news that had proceedings on the criminal county against a man called who certainly had been rather attentive to mrs whenever she had appeared in public the utter want of reserve with which treated his own helped us to know that the evidence against would be entirely and native there were no letters but said openly that he would rack heaven and earth until he saw the manufacture of carpets in the central jail mrs kept entirely to her house and let charitable folks say what they pleased opinions were divided some two thirds of the station jumped at once to the conclusion that was guilty but a dozen men who knew and liked him held by him was furious and surprised he denied the whole thing and vowed that he would within an inch of his life no jury we knew could a man on the criminal count on native evidence in a land where you can buy a including the corpse all complete for fifty four but did not care to scrape through by the benefit of a doubt he wanted the whole thing cleared but as he said one night he can prove anything with servants evidence and i ve only my bare word this was about a month before the case came on and beyond agreeing with we could do little all that we could be of was that the native evidence would the divorce case be bad enough to blast s character for the rest of his service for when a native begins he himself thoroughly he does not over details some genius at the end of the table the affair was being talked over said look here i don t believe lawyers are any good get a man to to and beg him to come down and pull us through was about a hundred and eighty miles up the line he had not long been married to miss but he scented in the a chance of return to the old work that his soul after and next night he came in and heard our story he finished his pipe and said we must get at the evidence bearer and i suppose are the pillars of the charge i am on in this piece but i m afraid tm getting rusty in my talk he rose and went into s bedroom where his trunk had been put and shut the door an hour later we heard him say i hadn t the heart to part with my old make when i married this do there was a o y in the doorway now lend me fifty said and give me your words of honor that you won t tell my wife he got all that he asked for and	39
left the house while the table drank his health what he did only he himself knows a hung about s compound for twelve days then a appeared and when heard of him he said that was an angel full whether the made love to mrs s is a question which concerns exclusively the divorce case i he came back at the end of three weeks and said quietly you spoke the truth the whole business is put up from beginning to end jove it almost me that beast isn t fit to live there was uproar and shouting and said how are you going to prove it you can t say that you ve been on s compound in disguise no said tell your lawyer fool whoever he is to get up something strong about inherent and of evidence he won t have to speak but it will make him happy fm going to run this business held his tongue and the other men waited to see what would happen they trusted as men trust quiet men when the case came off the court was crowded hung about in the of the court till he met the then he murmured s blessing in his ear and asked him how his second wife did the man spun round and as he looked into the eyes of his jaw dropped you must remember that before was married he was as i have told you already a power among natives whispered a rather coarse proverb to the effect that he was abreast of all that was going on and went into the court armed with a s whip the was the first witness and beamed upon him from the back of the court the man his lips with his tongue and in his abject fear of ihe went back on every detail of his evidence said he was a poor man and god was his witness that he had forgotten every thing that had told him to say the divorce case between his terror of the judge and he weeping then began the panic among the witnesses the behind her veil turned gray and the bearer left the court he said that his mamma was dying and that it was not wholesome for any man to lie in the presence of said politely to your witnesses don t seem to work haven t you any letters to produce but was swaying to and fro in his chair and there was a dead pause after had been called to order s counsel saw the look on his s face and without more pitched his papers on the little green table and something about having been the whole court applauded wildly like soldiers at a theatre and the judge began to say what he thought came out of the place and dropped a in the ten minutes later was cutting into ribbons behind the old court quietly and without scandal what was left of was sent home in a carriage and his wife wept over it and nursed it into a man again later on after had managed to hush up the counter charge against of false evidence mrs with her faint watery smile said that there had been a mistake but it wasn t her s fault altogether she would wait till her came back to her perhaps he had grown tired of her or she bad tried his patience and perhaps we wouldn t tee divorce case t cut her any more and perhaps the mothers would let their children play with little again he was so lonely then the station invited mrs everywhere until was fit to appear in public when he went home and took his wife with him according to the latest her did come back to her and they are happy though of course he can never forgive her the that she was the means of getting for him what wants to know is why didn t i press home the charge against the brute and have him run in what mrs wants to know is how did my husband bring such a lovely lovely from your station i know all his money affairs and i m certain he didn t buy it what i want to know is how do women like mrs come to marry men like and my is the most of the three ii and the years went on as the years must do but our great was always new fresh and blooming and and ur with eyes and with hair and all the folk as they came or went offered her praise to her heart s content of she had nothing to do with number eighteen in the of the between s and the god of the she was purely an indian deity an indian deity that is to say and we called her the to distinguish her from other of the same everlasting order there was a legend among the hills that she had once been young but no living man was prepared to come forward and say boldly that the legend was true men rode up to and stayed and went away and made their name and did their life s work and returned again to find the exactly as they had left her she was as as the hills but not quite so green all that a girl of eighteen could do in the way of riding walking dancing and over exertion generally the did and showed no sign of fatigue or trace of weariness besides perpetual youth she had discovered men said the secret of perpetual health and her fame spread about the land from a mere woman she grew to be an institution that no young man could be said to be properly formed who had not at some time or another worshipped at the shrine of	39
the there was no one like her though there were many six years in her eyes were no more than six months to ordinary women and ten made less visible impression on her than does a week s fever on an ordinary woman every one adored her and in return she was pleasant and courteous to nearly every one youth had been a habit of hers for so long that she could not part with it never realized in fact the necessity of parting with it and took for her more chosen associates young people among the of the was young very young he was called to distinguish him from his father young a who affected the customs as he had the heart of youth very young was not content to worship placidly and for form s sake as the other young men did or to accept a ride or a dance of a talk from the in a properly humble and thankful spirit he was and therefore the repressed him he worried himself nearly sick in a futile sort of way over her and his devotion and earnestness made him appear either shy or boisterous or rude as his mood might vary by the side of the older men who with him bowed before the she was sorry for him he reminded her of a lad who three and twenty years ago had professed a boundless devotion for her and for whom in return she had felt something more than a week s weakness but that lad had fallen away and married another woman less than a year after he had worshipped her and the had almost not quite forgotten his name very young had the same big blue eyes and the same way of his when he was excited or troubled but the checked him sternly none the less too much zeal was a thing that she did not approve of preferring instead a tempered and sober tenderness very young was miserable and took no trouble to conceal his wretchedness he was in the army a line regiment i think but am not and since his face was a looking glass and his forehead an open book by reason of his innocence his brothers in arms made his life a burden to him and his naturally sweet disposition no one except very young and he never told his views knew how old very young believed the to be perhaps he thought her five and twenty or perhaps she told him that she was this age very young would have the in flood to carry her word and had faith in her every one liked him and every one was sorry when they saw him so bound a slave of the every one too admitted that it was not her fault for the differed from mrs and mrs in this particular she never moved a finger to attract any one but like de all men were attracted to her one could admire and respect mrs despise and avoid mrs but one was forced to the very young s papa held a division or a or something in a particularly unpleasant part of full of who newspapers proving that young was a and a and a and in in addition to the there was a good deal of and abroad for nine months of the year young he was about five and forty rather liked they amused him but he objected to and when he could get away went to for the most part this particular season he fancied that he would come up to nd see his boy the boy was not altogether pleased he told the that his father was coming up and she flushed a little and said that she should be delighted to make his acquaintance then she looked long and thoughtfully at very young because she was very very sorry for him and he was a very very big idiot my daughter is coming out in a fortnight mr she said your what said he daughter said the she s been out for a year at home already and i want her to see a little of india she is nineteen and a very sensible nice girl i believe very young who was a short years old nearly fell out of his chair with astonishment for he had persisted in believing against all belief in the youth of the she with her back to the window watched the effect of her sentences and smiled very young s papa came up twelve days later and had not been in four and twenty hours before two men old acquaintances of his had told him how very young had been conducting himself young laughed a good deal and inquired the might be which proves that h had been living in where nobody knows anything except the rate of exchange then he said boys will be boys and spoke to his son about the matter very young said that he felt wretched and unhappy and young said that he repented of having helped to bring a fool into the world he suggested hat his son had better cut his leave short and go down to his duties this led to an answer and relations were strained until young demanded that they should call on the very young went with his papa feeling somehow uncomfortable and small the received them graciously and young said by jove it s very young would have listened for an explanation if his time had not been taken up with trying to talk to a large handsome quiet well dressed girl introduced to him by the as her daughter she was far older in manner style and repose than very young and as he realized this thing he felt sick presently he heard the saying do you know that your	39
knew liver and fever and for weeks past had felt out of sorts altogether he was disgusted and club dining room is built as all the world the bis ah a of knows in two sections with an arch arrangement ing them come in turn to your own left take the table under the window and you cannot see any one who has come in turned to the right and taken a table on the right side of the arch curiously enough every word that you say can be heard not only by the other but by the servants beyond the screen through which they bring dinner this is worth knowing an echoing room is a trap to be against half in fun and half hoping to be believed the man who knew told the story of the of at rather greater length than i have told it to you in this place winding up with a suggestion that might as well throw the little box down the hill and see whether all his troubles would go with it in ordinary ears english ears the tale was only an interesting bit of folk lore laughed said that he felt better for his and went out pack had been by himself to the right of the arch and had heard everything he was nearly mad with his absurd for miss that all had been laughing about it is a curious thing that when a man hates or loves beyond reason he is ready to go beyond reason to gratify his feelings which he would not do for money or power merely depend upon it solomon would never have built to and all those ladies with queer names if there had not been trouble of some kind in his and nowhere else but this is beside the story the facts of the case are these pack called on next day when was out left his card and stole the of from its place under the clock on the mantel piece stole it like the thief he was by nature days later all was j ob by the news that miss had accepted pack the rat pack do you desire clearer evidence than this the of had been stolen and it worked as it had always done when won by foul means there are three or four times in a man s life when he is justified in with other people s affairs to play providence the man who knew felt that he was justified but believing and acting on a belief are quite different things the insolent satisfaction of pack as he by the side of miss and s striking release from liver as soon as the of had gone decided the man he explained to and laughed because he was not brought up to believe that men on the government house list steal at least little things but the miraculous acceptance by miss of that tailor pack decided him to take steps on suspicion he vowed that he only wanted to find out where his silver box had vanished to you cannot accuse a man on the government house list of stealing and if you rifle his room you are a thief yourself prompted by the man who knew decided on if he found nothing in pack s room but it is not nice to think of what would have happened in that case pack went to a dance at was in those days and not an office and danced fifteen out of twenty two with miss and the man took all the keys that they could lay hands on and went to pack room in the hotel certain that his servants would be away pack was a cheap soul he had not a decent cash box to keep his papers in but one of those native that you buy for ten it opened to any sort of t e of key and there at the bottom under pack s policy lay the of i called pack names put the of in his pocket and went to the dance with the man at least he came in time for supper and saw the beginning of the end in miss s eyes she was hysterical after supper and was taken away by her mamma at the dance with the abominable in his pocket twisted his foot on one of the steps leading down to the old and had to be sent home in a grumbling he did not believe in the of any the more for this but he sought out pack and called him some ugly names and thief was the of them pack took the names with the nervous smile of a little man who wants both soul and body to resent an insult and went his way there was no public scandal a week later pack got his definite dismissal from miss there had been a mistake in the placing of her affections she said so he went away to where he can do no great harm even if he lives to be a colonel insisted upon the man who knew taking the of as a gift the man took it went down to the cart road at once found an with a blue bead fastened the of inside the with a piece of shoe string and thanked heaven that he was rid of a danger remember in case you ever find it that you must not destroy the of i have not time to explain why just now but the power lies in the little wooden fish or could tell you more about it than i you will say that all this story is made up very well if ever you come across a little silver studded box seven eighth of an inch long by three quarters wide with t op a t wooden fish wrapped in gold cloth inside it keep it keep it	39
for three years and then you will dis cover for yourself whether my story is true or false better still steal it as pack did and you be sorry dial yoa killed in tiie b the gate of the hundred the gate of a hundred sorrows if i can attain heaven for a why should you be envious s proverb this is no work of mine my friend the half caste spoke it all between and morning six weeks before he died and i took it down from his mouth as he answered my questions so it lies between the copper smith s and the quarter within a hundred yards too as the crow flies of the of i don t mind telling any one this much but i defy him to find the gate however well he may think he knows the city you might even go through the very it stands in a hundred times and be none the wiser we used to call the the of the black smoke but its native name is altogether different of course a loaded donkey couldn t pass between the walls and at one point just before you reach the gate a house front makes people go along all sideways it isn t really a gate though if s a house old had it first five years ago he was a boot maker in they say that he murdered his wife there when he was drunk that was why he dropped and took to the black smoke instead later on he came up north and opened the gate as a house where you could get your smoke in peace and quiet mind you it was respectable house and not one of the gate of the hundred those stifling that you can find all over the city no the old man knew his business thoroughly and he was most clean for a he was a one eyed little chap not much more than five feet high and both his middle fingers were gone all the same he was the man at rolling black i have ever seen never seemed to be touched by the smoke either and what he took day and night night and day was a caution i ve been at it five years and i can do my fair share of the smoke with anyone but i was a child to that way all the same the old man was keen on his money very keen and that s what i can t understand i heard he saved a good deal before he died but his nephew has got all that now and the old man s gone back to china to be buried he kept the big upper room where his best customers gathered as neat as a new pin in one comer used to stand s almost as ugly as and there were always sticks burning under his nose but you never smelt em when the pipes were going thick opposite the was s coffin he had spent a good deal of his on that and whenever a new man came to the gate he was always introduced to it it was black with red and gold writings on it and i ve heard that brought it out all the way from china i don t know whether that s true or not but i know that if i came first in the evening i used to spread my mat just at the foot of it it was a quiet comer you see and a sort of breeze from the came in at the window now and then besides the there was no other furniture in the only the coffin and the old all green and blue and purple with age and polish never told us why he called the place the gate of the hundred sorrows the gate of the hundred he was the only i know who used bad sounding fancy names most of them as you ll see in we used to find that out for ourselves nothing grows on you so much if you re white as the black smoke a yellow man is made different doesn t tell on him scarcely at all but white and black suffer a good deal of course there are some people that the smoke doesn t touch any more than tobacco would at first they just dose a bit as one would fall asleep naturally and next morning they are almost fit for work now i was one of that sort when i began but i ve been at it for five years pretty steadily and its different now there was an old aunt of mine down way and she left me a little at her death about sixty a month secured sixty isn t much i can recollect a time seems hundreds and hundreds of years ago that i was g my three hundred a month and when i was working on a big timber contract in i didn t stick to that work for long the black smoke does not allow of much other business and even though i am very little affected by it as men go i couldn t do a day s work now to save my life after all sixty is what i want when old was alive he used to draw the money for me give me about half of it to live on i eat very little and the rest he kept himself i was free of the gate at any time of the day and night and could smoke and sleep there when i liked so i didn t care i know the old man made a good thing out of it but that s no matter nothing matters much to me and besides the money always came fresh and fresh each month there was ten of us met at the gate when	39
the place was first opened me and two from a government the gate of the hundred sorrows office somewhere in but they got the sack and couldn t pay no man who has to work in the can do the black smoke for any length of time straight on a that was s nephew a that had got a lot of money somehow an english somebody i think but i have forgotten that smoked heaps but never seemed to pay anything they said he had saved s life at some trial in when he was a another like myself from a half caste woman and a couple of men who said they had come from the north i think they must have been or or something there are not more than five of us living now but we come regular i don t know what happened to the but the woman she died after six months of the gate and i think took her and for himself but i m not certain the englishman he drank as well as smoked and he dropped off one of the got killed in a row at night by the big well near the a long time ago and the police shut up the well because they said it was full of foul air they found him dead at the bottom of it so you see there is only me the the half caste woman that we call the she used to live with the other and one of the the looks very old now i think she was a young woman when the gate was opened but we are all old for the matter of that hundreds and hundreds of years old it is very hard to keep count of time in the gate and besides time doesn t matter to me i draw my sixty fresh and fresh every month a very very long while ago when i used to be getting three hundred and fifty a month and on a big timber contract at i had a wife of sorts but she s dead now people the gate of the hundred sorrows said that i killed her by taking to the black smoke per i did but it s so long since that it doesn t matter sometimes when i first came to the gate i used to feel sorry for it but that s all over and done with long ago and i draw my sixty fresh and fresh every month am quite happy not drunk happy you know but always quiet and soothed and contented how did i take to it it began at i used to try it in my own house just to see what it was like i never went very far but i think my wife must have died then anyhow i found myself here and got to know i don t remember rightly how that came about but he told me of the gate and i used to go there and somehow i have never got away from it since mind you though the gate was a respectable place in s time where you could be comfortable and not at all like the where the go no it was clean and quiet and not crowded of course there were others besides us ten and the man but we always had a mat apiece with a head piece all covered with black and red and things just like the coffin in the comer at the end of one s third pipe the used to move about and fight i ve watched em many and many a night through i used to my smoke that way and now it takes a dozen pipes to make em stir besides they are all torn and dirty like the and old is dead he died a couple of years ago and gave me the pipe i always use now a silver one with queer beasts crawling up and down the bottle below the cup before that i think i used a big stem with a copper cup a very small one and a green it was a little thicker than a walking stick stem and smoked sweet very sweet the gate of the hundred sorrows seemed to up the smoke silver doesn t and i ve got to clean it out now and then that s a great deal of trouble but i smoke it for the old man s sake he must have made a good thing out of me but he always gave me clean and pillows and the best you could get anywhere when he died his nephew ling took up the gate and he called it the temple of the three possessions but we old ones speak of it as the hundred sorrows all the same i he nephew does things very and i think the must help him she lives with him same as she used to do with the old man the two let in all sorts of low people and all and the black smoke isn t as good as it used to be i ve found burnt in my pipe over and over again the old man would have died if that had happened in his time besides the room is never cleaned and all the are torn and cut at the edges the coffin is gone gone to china again with the old man and two of smoke inside it in case he should want em on the way the doesn t get so many sticks burnt under his nose as he used to that s a sign of ill luck as sure as death he s all brown too and no one ever to him that s the s work i know because when ling tried to bum gilt paper before him she said it was a waste of money and if he kept	39
a stick burning very slowly the wouldn t know the difference so now we ve got the sticks mixed with a lot of and they take half an hour longer to burn and smell let alone the smell of the room by itself no business can get on if they try that sort of thing the doesn t like it i can see that late at night sometimes he turns all sorts of queer colors blue and green and just as he used to do when old the gate op the hundred sorrows j j was alive and he rolls his eyes and his feet like a i don t know why i don t leave the place and smoke quietly in a little room of my own in the most like ling would kill me if i went away he draws my sixty now and besides it s so much trouble and i ve grown to be very fond of the gate it s not much to look at not what it was in the old man s time but i couldn t leave it i ve seen so many come in and out and i ve seen so many die here on the that i should be afraid of dying in the open now i ve seen some that people would call strange enough but nothing is strange when you re on the black smoke except the black smoke and if it was it wouldn t matter used to be very particular about his people and never got in any one who d give trouble by dying and such but the nephew isn t half so careful he tells everywhere that he keeps a first chop house never tries to get men in quietly and make them comfortable like did that s why the gate is getting a little bit more known than it used to be among the of course the nephew t get a white or for matter of that a mixed skin into the place he has to keep us three of course me and the and the other we re but he wouldn t give us credit for a not for anything one of these days i hope i shall die in the gate the and the man are terribly now they ve got a boy to light their pipes for them i always do that myself most like i shall see them carried out before me i don t think i shall ever the or ling women last longer than men at the black smoke and ling has a deal sorrows of the old man s blood in him though he does smoke cheap stuff the woman knew when she going two days before her time and she died on a clean mat with a nicely pillow and the old man hung up her pipe just above the he was always fond of her i fancy but he took her just the same i should like to die like the woman on a clean cool mat with a pipe of good stuff between my lips when i feel i m going i shall ask ling for them and he can draw my sixty a month fresh and fresh as long as he pleases then i shall lie back quiet and comfortable and watch the black and red have their last big fight together and then well it doesn t matter nothing matters much to me only i wish ling wouldn t put into the black smoke the of private the madness of private oh where would i be when my was dry oh where would i be when the bullets iy oh where would i be when i come to die why m if e s liquor e ll give me some if i m e ll old my an e ll write em ome when i m dead send us a room ballad my friends and had gone on a shooting expedition for one day was still in hospital recovering from fever picked up in they sent me an to join them and were pained when i brought beer almost enough beer to satisfy two of the line and me t for thai we bid you said twas for the pleasure your ny came to the rescue with well e won t be none the worse for liquor with m we ain t a file o we re ye an ere s your very good we shot all the and killed two dogs four green sitting one by the burning one snake flying one mud and eight game was plentiful then we sat down to bull mate an bread called it by the side of the river and took pot shots at the in the intervals of cutting up the food with our only pocket knife thk p tr we drank up all the beer and threw the bottles into the water and fired at them after that we and stretched ourselves on the warm sand and smoked we were too lazy to continue shooting heaved a big sigh as he lay on his stomach with his head between his fists then he swore quietly into the blue sky s that for said have ye not drunk enough court road an a i fancied there s the good of me son said hastily tis more than likely you ve got in your inside with the beer i feel that way my liver gets rusty went on slowly not the interruption i m a a eight dog with a number instead of a decent name s the good o me if i ad a stayed at ome i might a married that and a a little in the s ti der with a stuff fox like they as in the in the an a little case of blue	39
and an a little wife to call when the door bell rung as it a s i m on y a a forsaken beer rest on your at verse right an slow march rest on your with blank load an that s the end o me he was quoting fragments from funeral parties orders shouted you ve fired into as often as me over a better man than your il you will not make a mock orders tis i the madness of private worse than the dead march in an you full as a an the sun cool an all an all i take shame for you you re no better than a you an your parties an your glass eyes won t you stop ut what could i do could i tell anything that he did not know of the pleasures of his life i was not a nor a and bad a right to speak as he thought fit let him run i said it s the beer no i the beer said i know s he s this way now an an it s bad it s bad for i m fond the indeed seemed anxious but knew that he looked after in a way let me talk let me talk said stop your of a ot day when the cage is a is pore little pink toes pink toes d ye mane to say you ve pink toes under your ye gathered himself together for a terrific school pink toes i how much bass the did that child tain t bass said it s a beer or that it s ome sickness hark to him i an he s goin home in the in the inside four months i don t care it s all one to me ow d you know i ain t o fore i gets my papers he in a sing song voice the funeral orders i had never seen this side of s character before but evidently had and attached serious importance to it while with his head on his arms whispered to me the madness of private he s always this way he s been checked by the they make now a days that an to do i can t make ut out well what does it matter let him talk himself through began singing a of the corps full of cheerful allusions to battle murder and sudden death he looked out across the river as he sang and his face was quite strange to me caught me by the elbow to attention it everything tis some sort fit that s on him i ve seen ul him all this night an in the middle it he ll get out his cot and go in the rack for his thin he ll come over to me an say i m goin to answer for me in the thin me an him will fight as we ve done before him to go an me to him an so we ll both come on the books for in i ve him an i ve his head an i ve talked to him but tis no manner use the fit s on him he s as good a as ever stepped his mind s clear i know s though this night in lord send he doesn t loose off i rise for to knock him down tis thai that s in my mind day an night this put the case in a much less pleasant light and fully accounted for s anxiety he seemed to be trying to out of the fit for he shouted down the bank where the boy was lying listen now you the pore pink toes an the glass eyes did you the at night me as a or were you under a bed as you was at the oe private this was at once a gross insult and a direct lie and meant it to bring on a fight but seemed shut up in some sort of trance he answered slowly without a sign of irritation in the same voice as he had used for his firing party orders f the the night know for to take the town of an without fear hand where i was at you know and four know too but that was to do an i didn t think o now i m sick to go ome go ome go ome no i ain t sick because my uncle me up but for london again sick for the sounds of er an the sights of er and the of er orange and an gas in over all bridge sick for the rail goin down to box with your g l on your knee an a new clay pipe in your face that an the lights where you knows ev an the copper that takes you up is a old friend that you up before when you was a boy lying loose the temple an the dark no no rotten stone nor an yourself your own master with a to take an see the dead out of the o sundays an i all that for to serve the beyond the seas where there ain t no women and there ain t no liquor worth and there ain t to see nor do nor say nor feel nor think lord love you but you re a bigger fool than the rest o the ment and together there s the at ome with a gold crown d on er and ere am hi the s property a fool i his voice rose at the end of the sentence and he wound up with a six shot oath madness op out said nothing but looked at me as if he expected that i could	39
bring peace to poor s troubled brain i remembered once at having seen a man nearly mad with drink by being made a fool o some may know what i mean i hoped that we might shake off in the same way though he was perfectly sober so i said what s the use of there and against the widow i didn t said s me i never said a word er an i wouldn t not if i was to desert this minute here was my opening well you meant to anyhow what s the use of on for nothing would you slip it now if you got the chance on y try me i said jumping to his feet as if he had been stung jumped too are you going to do said he help down to or whichever he likes you can report that he separated from you before and left his gun on the bank here i m to report that am i said slowly very well if to desert now and will desert now an you who have been a friend to me an to him will help him to ut i on my oath which i ve never yet will report as you say but here he stepped up to and shook the stock of the piece in his face your help you if ever i come across you i i don t care said i m sick o this s life give me a don t play with m le madness of te or t strip said i and change with me and then i ll tell you what to do i hoped that the absurdity of this would check but he had kicked off his boots and got rid of his almost before i had my shirt collar me by the arm the fit s on him the fit s on him still by my honour and we shall be to a yet only twenty eight days as you say or but think o the shame the black shame to him an me i had never seen so excited but was quite calm and as soon as he had exchanged clothes with me and i stood up a private of the line he said shortly now i come on what d ye mean fair what must i do to get out e this ere a hell i told him that if he would wait for two or three hours near the river i would ride into the station and come back with one hundred he would with that money in his pocket walk to the nearest side station on the line about five miles away and would there take a first class ticket for knowing that he had no money on him when he went out shooting his regiment would not immediately wire to the sea ports but would hunt for him in the native villages near the river further no one would think of seeking a in a first class carriage at he was to buy white clothes and ship if he could on a cargo steamer here he broke in if i helped him to he would arrange all the rest then i ordered him to wait where he was until it was dark enough for me to ride into the station without my dress being noticed now god in his wisdom has made the heart of the british soldier if ho is very often n a soft th heart the madness of private or the r is of a little child in order that he may believe in and follow his officers into tight and nasty places he does not so readily come to believe in a but when he does he believes and like a dog i had had the honor of the friendship of private at intervals for more than three years and we had dealt with each other as man by man consequently he considered that all my words were true and not spoken lightly and i left him in the high grass near the river bank and went away still keeping to the high grass towards my horse the shirt scratched me horribly we waited nearly two hours for the dusk to fall and allow me to ride oft we spoke of in whispers and strained our ears to catch any sound from the spot where we had left him but we heard nothing except the wind in the grass ive his head said earnestly time an i ve nearly him the belt v i can t knock fits out ov his soft head no an he s soft for he s reasonable an likely by is ut is ut his which is or his which he got you that think ye know things answer me that but i found no answer i was wondering how long in the bank of the river would hold out and whether i should be forced to help him to desert as i had given my word just as the dusk shut down and with a very heavy heart i was beginning to saddle up my horse we heard wild shouts from the river the devils had departed from private no b company the loneliness the dusk and the waiting had driven them out as i had hoped we set off the double at and found him plunging about wildly the madness of private through the grass with his coat off my coat off i mean he was calling for us like a madman when we reached him he was dripping with perspiration and trembling like a startled horse we had great difficulty in soothing him he complained that he was in and wanted to tear my clothes off his body i ordered him to strip and we made a second exchange as quickly as possible the of his own shirt	39
and the of his boots seemed to bring him to himself he put his hands before his eyes and said was it i mad i ain t an i ve bin an gone an said an bin an gone an done ave i bin an done i have you done said you ve yourself though that s no matter you ve b ny an worst all you ve me me that taught you how for to walk abroad like a man you was a little fish backed little little as you are now i said nothing for a while then he his belt heavy with the of half a dozen that his own had lain with and handed it over to i m too little for to mill you said he an you ve me before but you can take an cut me in two with this ere if you like turned to me lave me talk to him said i left and on my way home thought a good deal over in particular and my friend private thomas whom i love in general but i could not come to any conclusion of any kind whatever the story of the story of din who is the happy man he that sees in his own house at home little children crown with dust leaping and line and crying by professor the ball was an old one and it stood on the among the which din was cleaning for me does the heaven bom want this ball said din the heaven born set no particular store by it but of what use was a ball to a by your honors favor i have a little son he has seen this ball and desires it to play with i do not want it for myself no one would for an instant accuse old din of wanting to play with balls he carried out the battered thing into the and there followed a of joyful a of small feet and the of the ball rolling along the ground evidently the little son had been waiting outside the door to secure his treasure but how had he managed to see that ball next day coming back from office half an hour earlier than usual i was aware of a small figure in the dining room a tiny plump figure in a inadequate shirt which came perhaps half way down the stomach it wandered round room thumb in the story op to itself as it took stock of the pictures undoubtedly this was the little son he had no business in my room of course but was so deeply absorbed in his discoveries that he never noticed me in the doorway i stepped into the room and startled him nearly into a fit he sat down on the ground with a gasp his eyes opened and his mouth followed suit i knew what was coming and fled followed by a long dry howl which reached the servants quarters far more quickly than any command of mine had ever done in ten seconds din was in the dining room then despairing sobs arose and i returned to find din the small sinner who was using most of his shirt as a this boy said din is a a big he will without doubt go to the jail for his behavior renewed from the penitent and an elaborate apology to myself from din tell the baby said i that the is not angry and take him away din conveyed my forgiveness to the who had now gathered all his shirt round his neck and the yell subsided into a sob the two set oflf for the door his name said din as though the name were part of the crime is din and he is a freed from present danger din turned round in his father s arms and said gravely it is true that my name is din but i am not a i am a man from that day dated my acquaintance with din never again did he come into my dining room but on the ground of the compound we greeted each other with much state though our conversation was confined to from bis side and story of din from mine daily on my return from office the little white shirt and the fat little body used to rise from the shade of the covered where they had been hid and daily i checked my horse here that my salutation might not be over or given din never had any companions he used to trot about the compound in and out of the oil bushes on mysterious errands of his own one day i stumbled upon some of his far down the ground he had half buried the ball in dust and stuck six old flowers in a circle round it outside that circle again was a rude square traced out in bits of red brick with fragments of broken china the whole bounded by a little bank of dust the from the well put in a plea for the small saying that it was only the play of a baby and did not much my garden heaven knows that i had no intention of touching the child s work then or later but that evening a stroll through the garden brought me unawares full on it so that i trampled before i knew dust bank and fragments of broken soap dish into confusion past all hope of mending next morning i came upon din crying softly to himself over the ruin i had wrought some one had cruelly told him that the was very angry with him for the garden and had scattered his rubbish using bad language the while din labored for an hour at every trace of the dust bank and fragments and it was with a tearful and face that he said when i came home	39
from the office a hasty inquiry resulted in din informing din that by my singular favor he was permitted to t e himself as he pleased the child took heart and fell to tracing the ground plan of an edifice which was to the ball creation for some months the little in his humble among the oil bushes and in the dust always magnificent palaces from stale flowers thrown away by the bearer smooth water worn pebbles bits of broken glass and feathers pulled i fancy from my fowls always alone and always to himself a spotted sea shell was dropped one day close to the last of his little buildings and i looked that mad din should build something more than ordinarily splendid on the strength of it nor was i disappointed he meditated for the better part of an hour and his rose to a song then he began tracing in dust it would certainly be a wondrous palace this one for it was two yards long and a yard broad in but the palace was never completed next day there was no din at the head of the carriage drive and no to welcome my return i had grown accustomed to the greeting and its troubled me next day din told me that the child was suffering slightly from fever and needed he got the medicine and an english doctor they have no these said the doctor as he left din s quarters a week later though i would have given much to have avoided it i met on the road to the burying ground din accompanied by one other friend in his arms wrapped in a white cloth all that was left of little din ij om the of a on the strength of a likeness if your mirror be broken look into still water but have a care that you ao not u in proverb next to a attachment one of the most convenient things that a young man can carry about with him at th beginning of his career is an attachment it makes him feel important and and and cynical and whenever he has a touch of liver or suffers from want of exercise he can mourn over his lost love and be very happy in a tender twilight fashion s affair of the heart had been a to him it was four years old and the girl had long since given up thinking of it she had married and had many cares of her own in the beginning she had told that while she could never be anything more than a sister to him she would always take the deepest interest in his welfare this new and original remark gave something to think over for two years and his own vanity filled in the other twenty four months was quite different from but none the less had several points in common with that far too lucky man he kept his attachment by him as men keep a well smoked pipe for s sake and because it had grown dear in the using it brought him happily on the strength of a likeness through the season was not lovely there was a in his manners and a in the way in which he helped a lady on to her horse that did not attract the other sex to him even if he had cast about for their favor which he did not he kept his heart all to himself for a while then trouble came to him all who go to know the slope from the telegraph to the public works office was up the hill one september morning between calling hours when a came down in a hurry and in the sat the living breathing image of the girl who had made him so happily unhappy leaned against the and gasped he wanted to run down hill after the but that was impossible so he went forward with most of his blood in his temples it was impossible for many reasons that the woman in the could be the girl he had known she was he discovered later the wife of a man from or or some out of the way place and she had come up to early in the season for tile good of her health she going back to or wherever it was at the end of the season and in all would never return to ag in her proper hill station being that night raw and savage from the up of all old feelings took counsel with himself for one measured hour what he decided upon was this and you must decide for yourself how much genuine affection for the old love and how much a very natural inclination to go abroad and enjoy himself affected the decision mrs would never in all human cross his path again so whatever he did didn t much matter she was like the girl who took a deep interest and the rest of the all things o oat the strength of a considered it would be pleasant to make the acquaintance of mrs and for a little time only a very little time to make believe that he was with again every one is more or less mad on one point s particular was his old love he made it his business to get introduced to mrs and the introduction he also made it his business to see as much as he could of that lady when a man is in earnest as to the which are startling there are and parties and and at and rifle matches and dinners and balls besides rides and walks which are matters of private arrangement had started with the intention of seeing a likeness and he ended by doing much more he wanted to be deceived he meant to be deceived and he deceived himself very thoroughly not only w ere	39
the face and figure the face and figure of but th voice and lower tones were exactly the same and so were the turns of speech and the little that every woman has of gait and were absolutely and the same the turn of the head was the same the tired look in the eyes at the end of a long walk was the same the stoop and over the saddle to hold in a pulling horse was the same and once most marvellous of all mrs singing to herself in the next room while was to take her for a ride note for note with a quiver of the voice in the second line poor wandering one exactly as had it for in the dusk of an english drawing room in the actual woman herself in the soul of her there w not the least likeness she and bein o the strength of a cast in different but all that wanted to know and see and think about was this and likeness of face and voice and manner he was bent on making a fool of himself that way and he was in no sort disappointed open and obvious devotion from any sort of man is always pleasant to any sort of woman but mrs being a woman of the world could make nothing of s admiration he would take any amount of trouble he was a selfish man habitually to meet and if possible her wishes anything she told him to do was law and he was there could be no doubting it fond of her company so long as she talked to him and kept on talking about but when she launched into expression of her personal views and her wrongs those small social differences that make the of life was neither pleased nor interested he didn t want to know anything about mrs or her experiences in the he had travelled nearly all over the world and could talk cleverly he wanted the likeness of before his eyes and her voice in his ears anything outside that reminding him of another personality and he showed that it did under the new post office one evening mrs turned on him and spoke her mind shortly and without warning mr said she will you be good enough to explain why you have appointed yourself my special p i don t understand it but i am perfectly certain somehow or other that you don t care the least little bit in the world for me this seems to support by the way the theory that no man can act or tell lies to a woman without being found cot on the strength of a likeness was taken off his guard his defence never was a strong one because he was always thinking of himself and he out before he knew what he was saying this answer no more i do the of the situation and the reply made mrs laugh then it all came out and at the end of s explanation mrs said with the least little touch of scorn in her voice so fm to act as the lay figure for you to hang the rags of your tattered affections on am i didn t see what answer was required and he devoted himself generally and vaguely to the praise of which was unsatisfactory now it is to be thoroughly made clear that mrs had not the shadow of a ghost of an interest in only only no woman likes being made love through instead of to specially on behalf of a divinity of four years standing did not see that he had made any exhibition of himself he was glad to find a sympathetic soul in the arid of when the season ended went down to his own place and mrs to hers it was like making love to a ghost said to himself and it doesn t matter and now i ll get to my work but he found himself thinking steadily of the ghost and he could not be certain whether it was or that made up the greater part of the pretty phantom he got understanding a month later a peculiar point of this peculiar country is the way in which a heartless government men from one end of the empire to the other you can never be sure of on op a j getting rid of a friend or an enemy till he or she die there was a case once but that s another story s department ordered him up from to the frontier at two days notice and he went through losing money at every step from to his station he dropped mrs at to stay with some friends there to take part in a big ball at the and to come on when he had made the new home a little was station and mrs stayed a week there went to meet her and the train came in he discovered which he had been thinking of for the past month the of his conduct also struck him the week with two dances and an unlimited quantity of rides together matters and found himself pacing this circle of thought he adored at least he had adored her and i admired mrs because she was like but mrs was not in the least like being a thousand times more now was the bride of another and so was mrs and a good and honest wife too therefore he was here he called himself several hard names and wished that he had been wise in the beginning whether mrs saw what was going on in his mind she alone knows he seemed to take an interest in everything connected with her self as distinguished from the likeness and he said one or two things which if had been still to him	39
could scarcely have been excused even on the grounds of the likeness but mrs turned the remarks aside and spent a long time in making see what a comfort and i strength op a a pleasure she had been to him because of her strange resemblance to his old love groaned in his saddle and said yes indeed and busied himself with preparations for her departure to the frontier feeling very small and miserable the last day of her stay at came and saw her off at the railway station she was very grateful for his kindness and the trouble he had taken and smiled pleasantly and as one who knew the reason of that kindness and abused the with the luggage and the people on the platform and prayed that the roof might fall in and him as the train went out slowly mrs leaned out of the window to say good bye on second thoughts au mr i go home in the spring and perhaps i may meet you in town shook hands and said very earnestly and i hope to heaven i shall never see your face again f and mrs understood v on the foreign office a s of the foreign office i and drew for my love s sake that now is false to me and i the of moss and set free and ever give me praise and gold and ever i moan my loss for i struck the blow for my use love s sake and not for the men at the moss moss one of the many curses of our life out here is the t ant of atmosphere in the painter s sense are no half tints worth noticing men stand out all crude and raw with nothing to tone them down and nothing to scale them against they do their work and grow to think that there is nothing but their work and nothing like their work and that they are the real on which the administration turns here is an instance of this feeling a half caste was ruling forms in a pay office he said to me do you know what would happen if i added or took away one single line on this sheet then with the air of a it would the whole of the treasury throughout the whole of the circle i think of that if men had not this delusion as to the importance of their own particular i suppose that they would sit down and kill themselves but their weakness on the foreign office is wearisome particularly when the listener knows that he himself exactly the same sin even the believes that it does good when it asks an over driven officer to take a of wheat through a district of five thousand square miles there was a man once in the foreign office a man who had grown middle aged in the department and was commonly said by to be able to repeat s and backwards in his sleep what he did with his stored knowledge only the secretary knew and he naturally not publish the news abroad this man s name was and it was the in those days to say knows more about the central indian states than any living man if you did not say this you were considered one of mean understanding now a days the man who says that he knows the of the inter across the border is of more use but in s time much attention was paid to the central indian states they were called and and all manner of imposing names and here the curse of indian life fell heavily when lifted up his voice and spoke about such and such a succession to such and such a throne the foreign office were silent and heads of repeated the last two or three words of s sentences and yes yes on to them and knew that they were assisting the empire to with serious political in most big one or two men do the work while the rest sit near and talk till the ripe begin to fall was the working member of the foreign office firm and to keep him up to his duties when he showed signs of he was made much of by his and told what a fine fellow he was he did not require because he was of tough build but what he received confirmed him in the belief that there no one quite so absolutely and necessary to the of india as of the foreign office there might be other good men but the known honored and trusted man among men was of the foreign office we had a in those days v ho knew exactly when to gentle a big man and to up a collar little one and so keep all his team level he conveyed to the impression which i have just set down and even tough men are apt to be by a s praise there was a case once but that is another story all india knew s name and office it was in and s but who he was personally or what he did or what his special merits were not fifty men knew or cared his work filled all his time and he found no leisure to cultivate acquaintances beyond those of dead chiefs with in their would have made a very good clerk in the herald s college had he not been a upon a day between office and office great trouble came to overwhelmed him knocked him down and left him gasping as though he had been a little school boy without reason against prudence and at a moment s notice he fell in love with a frivolous golden haired girl who used to tear about on a high rough with a blue velvet cap crammed over her eyes	39
her name was and she was delightful she took s heart fit a hand gallop and found that it was not good for man to live alone even with half the foreign office records in his presses then laughed for r in love was ridiculous he did his best to interest the in himself that is to say his and she after the manner of women did her best to appear interested in what behind his back she called mr s for she very prettily she did not understand one little thing about them but she acted as if she did men have married on that sort of error before now providence however had care of he was immensely struck with miss s intelligence he would have been more impressed had he heard her private and confidential accounts of his calls he held peculiar notions as to the of girls he said that the best work of a man s career should be laid reverently at their feet writes something like this somewhere i think but in ordinary life a few kisses are better and save time about a month after he had lost his heart to miss and had been doing his work in consequence the first idea of his native rule in india struck and filled him with joy it was as he it a great thing the work of his life a really comprehensive survey of a most fascinating subject to be written with all the special and laboriously acquired knowledge of of the foreign office a gift fit for an he told miss that he was going to take leave and hoped on his return to bring her a present worthy of her acceptance would she wait certainly she would drew seventeen hundred a month she would wait a year for that her mamma would help her id on the foreign office so took one year s leave and all the available documents about a load that he could lay hands on and went down to central india with his notion hot in his head he began his book in the land he was writing o too much official correspondence had made him a workman and he must have guessed that he needed the white light of local color on his this is a dangerous paint for to play with heavens how that man worked i he caught his his and them up into the mists of time and beyond with their queens and their he dated and cross dated and triple compared noted strung selected inferred and counter for ten hours a day and because this sudden and new light of love was upon him he turned those dry bones of history and dirty records of into things to weep or to laugh over as he pleased his heart and soul were at the end of his pen and they got into the ink he was with sympathy humor and style for two hundred and thirty days and nights and his book was a book he had his vast special knowledge with him so to speak tut the spirit the woven in human touch the poetry and the power of the were beyond all special knowledge but i doubt whether he knew the gift that was in him then and thus he may have lost some happiness he was toiling for not for himself men often do their best work blind for some one else s sake also though this has nothing to do with the story in india where knows every one else you can watch men being driver by the women who govern them out of the rank and file and sent to take up points alone a good man once started goes forward but an man so soon as the woman loses interest in j o on the office success as a tribute to her power comes back to the bat aiid is no more heard o bore the first copy of his book to and blushing and presented it to miss she read a little of it i give her m oh your book it s all about those how didn t understand it foreign office was broken smashed i am not by this one frivolous little girl all that he could say feebly was but but it s my i the work of my life miss did not know what meant but she knew that captain had won three races at the last didn t press her to wait for him any longer he had sense enough for that then came the reaction after the year s strain and went back to the foreign office and his a report writing hack who would have been dear at three hundred a month he by miss s review which proves that the inspiration in the book was purely temporary and with himself nevertheless he had no right to sink in a hill five packing cases brought up at enormous expense from best book of indian history ever written when he sold before retiring some years later i was over his shelves and came across the only copy of a a r rule m india the ct l j tl m ss could not understand i read i f ts as long as the light a w nd oft his own price for it he looked j ny for a few pages and said to k on the foreign office now how in the world did i come to write such damned good stuff as that then to me take it and keep it write one of your penny about its birth perhaps perhaps the whole business may have been ordained to that end which knowing what of the foreign office was once struck me as about the bitterest thing that i had ever	39
tell him that i shall meet him next month at then i ran away because i was afraid what said or did i do not know ram declares that he said nothing but walked up and down the all the cold night waiting for the to come up the hill and stretching out his arms into the dark like a madman but no came and next day he went on to cross questioning the bearer every hour ram could only say that he had met mrs and that she had lifted up her veil and given him the message which he had faithfully repeated to to this statement ram he did not know where was had no friends at and would most certainly never go to even though his pay were doubled is in and has nothing whatever to do with a doctor serving in the it must be more than twelve hundred miles from m went through without halting and returned to there to take over charge from th t y oi man who had been for him during his tour there were some accounts to be explained and some recent orders of the general to be noted and altogether the over was a full day s work in the evening told his who was an old friend of his bachelor days what had happened at and the man said that ram might as well have chosen while he was about it at that moment a telegraph came in with a from ordering not to take over charge at but to go at once to on duty there was a nasty outbreak of at and the government being as usual had borrowed a surgeon from the threw the across the table and said well the other doctor said nothing it was all that he could say then he remembered that had passed through on his way from and thus might possibly have heard first news of the impending transfer he tried to put the question and he implied suspicion into words but stopped him with if i had desired that i should never have come back from i was shooting there i wish to live for i have things to do but i shall not be sorry the other man bowed his head and helped in the twilight to pack up s just opened trunks ram entered with the lamps where is the going he asked to said softly ram s knees and boots and begged him not to go ram wept and howled til he was turned out of the room then he wrapped up all his and came back to ask for a character he was not going to to see his die and perhaps to die so gave the his wages and went down to alone the other doctor bidding him good bye as one under sentence of death eleven days later he had joined his and the government had to borrow a fresh doctor to cope with that at the first lay dead in ji to r c to be filed for reference by the of the wild goat up tossed from the cliff where she in the sun fell the stone to the where the daylight is lost so she fell from the light of sun and alone now the fall vas ordained from the first with the goat and the and the but the stone knows only her life is accursed as she sinks in the depths of the and alone oh thou who hast the world oh thou who hast lighted the sun oh thou who hast darkened the i judge thou the sin of the stone that was hurled by the goat from the light of the sun k she sinks in the mire of the even now even now even now i f om the papers of say is it dawn is it dusk in thy bower thou whom i long for who longest for me oh be it be it here he fell over a little that was sleeping in the where the horse and the best of the from central asia live and because he was very drunk indeed and the night was dark he could not rise again till i helped him that was the beginning of my acquaintance with when a and drunk sings the song of the bower he must be worth he got off the s to be filed for reference j back and said rather thickly i i i m a bit but a dip in will put me right again and i say have you spoken to about the mare s knees now was six thousand weary miles away from us close to where you mustn t fish and is impossible and stable a half mile further across the it was strange to hear all the old names on a may night among the horses and of the then the man seemed to remember himself and sober down at the same time he leaned against the c and pointed to a comer of the where a lamp was burning i live there said he and i should be extremely obliged if you would be good enough to help my feet thither for i am more than usually drunk most most tight but not in respect to my head my brain cries out against how does it go but my head rides on the rolls on the hill i should have said and the i helped him through the of horses and he on the edge of the in front of the line of native quarters thanks a thousand thanks o moon and little little stars to think that a man should so infamous liquor too in exile drank no worse better it was frozen alas i had no ice good night i would introduce you to my wife were i	39
degradation little incidents which would vex a higher life are to you of no consequence last night my soul was among the gods but i make no doubt that my body was down here in the you were drunk if that s what you mean i said i was drunk drunk i who am the son of a man with whom you have no concern i who was once fellow of a college whose you have not seen i was drunk but consider how lightly i am touched it is nothing to me less than nothing for i do not even feel the headache which should be my portion now in a higher life how ghastly would have been my punishment how bitter my repentance believe me my friend with the neglected education the highest is as the lowest always supposing each degree extreme he turned round on the blanket put his head between his fists and continued on the soul which i have lost and on the conscience which i have killed i tell you that i cannot feel i i am as the gods knowing good and evil but untouched by either is this or is it not when a man has lost the warning of next morning s head he must be in a bad state i answered looking at on the blanket with his hair over his eyes and his lips blue white that i did not think the good enough l tv be filed for reference for pity s sake don t say that i i tell you it is good and most think of my have you so many then certainly your attempts at sarcasm which is essentially the weapon of a man are crude first my my classical and literary knowledge perhaps by drinking which reminds me that before my soul went to the gods last night i sold the you so kindly lent me the has it it fetched ten and may be for a but still infinitely superior to yours secondly the abiding affection of mrs best of wives a monument more enduring than brass which i have built up in the seven years of my degradation he stopped here and crawled across the room for a drink of water he was very and sick he referred several times to his treasure some great possession that he owned but i held this to be the of drink he was as poor and as proud as he could be his manner was not pleasant but he knew enough about the natives among whom seven years of his life had been spent to make his acquaintance worth having he used actually to laugh at as an ignorant man ignorant west and east he said his boast was first that he was an oxford man of rare and shining parts which may or may not have been true i did not know enough to check his statements and secondly that he had his hand on the pulse of native life which was a fact as an oxford man he struck me as a he was always throwing his education about as a as he was all that i wanted for my own ends he smoked several pounds of my tobacco to be filed for reference and taught me several of things worth knowing but he would never accept any gifts not even when the cold weather came and the poor thin chest under the poor thin coat he grew very angry and said that i had insulted him and that he was not going into hospital he had lived like a beast and he would die like a man as a matter of fact he died of and on the night of his death sent over a note asking me to come and help him to die the native woman was weeping by the side of the bed wrapped in a cotton cloth was too weak to resent a fur coat being thrown over him he v as very active as far as his mind was concerned and his eyes were blazing when he had abused the doctor who came with me so that the indignant old fellow left he cursed me for a few minutes and down then he told his wife to fetch out the book from a hole in the wall she brought a big bundle wrapped in the tail of a of old sheets of miscellaneous note paper all numbered and covered with fine cramped writing his hand through the rubbish and stirred it up lovingly this he said is my work the book of showing what he saw and how he lived and what him and others being also an account of the life and sins and death of mother what ah beg s book is to all other books on native ufe will my work be to beg s i this as will be by any one who knows beg s book was a sweeping statement the papers did not look specially valuable l to be filed for reference but handled them as if they were then said he slowly in despite the many weaknesses of your education you have been good to me i will speak of your tobacco when i reach the gods i owe you much thanks for many but i for this reason i to you now the monument more enduring than brass my one book rude and imperfect in parts but oh how rare in others i wonder if you will understand it it is a gift more honorable than i where is my brain rambling to you will it horribly you will knock out the gems you call latin you and you will butcher the style to into your own but you cannot destroy the whole of it i it to you my	39
brain again i mrs bear witness that i give the all these papers they would be of no use to you heart of my heart and i lay it upon you he turned to me here that you do not let my book die in its present form it is yours the story of which is not the story of but of a greater man than he and of a far greater woman listen now i am neither mad nor drunk i that book will make you famous i said thank you as the native woman put the bundle into my arms my only baby i said with a smile he was sinking fast but he continued to talk as long as breath remained i waited for the end knowing that in six cases out of ten the dying man calls for his mother he turned on his side and said say how it came into your possession no one will believe you but my at least will live you tv be filed for reference treat it i know you will some of it must go the public are fools and fools i was their servant once but do your gently very gently it is a great work and i have paid for it in seven years his voice stopped for ten or twelve and then he began a prayer of some kind in greek the native woman cried very bitterly lastly he rose in bed and said as loudly as slowly not guilty my lord i then he fell back and the stupor held him till he died the native woman ran into the among the horses and screamed and beat her breasts for she had loved him perhaps his last sentence in life told what had once gone through but saving the big bundle of old sheets in the cloth there was nothing in his room to say who or what he had been the papers were in a hopeless helped me to sort them and he said that the writer was either an extreme liar or a most wonderful person he thought the former one of these days you maybe able to judge for yourselves the bundle needed much and was full of greek nonsense at the head of the chapters which has all been cut out if the thing is ever published some one may perhaps remember this story now printed as a to prove that and not i myself wrote the book of mother i don t want the robe to come true in my the god from the machine the god mom the machine hit a man an help a woman an ye can t be wrong of private the gave a ball they borrowed a from the and it with and made the dancing plate glass and provided a supper the like of which had never been eaten before and set two at the door of the room to hold the of programme cards my friend private was one of the because he was the man in the regiment when the dance was fairly started the were released and private fled to with the mess in charge of the supper whether the mess gave or took i cannot say all that i am certain of is that at supper time i found with private two thirds of a ham a loaf of bread half a pat de and two of champagne sitting on the roof of my carriage as i came up i heard him saying praise be a doesn t come as often as ly room or by this an that me son i be the the the brightest in crown hand t colonel s pet said who was a but makes you curse your this ere good enough stuff ye tis champagne we re now t that i am set ag in tis this stuff the little bits black leather in it i i will be ly sick it in the is ut th god from the machine goose liver said climbing on the top of the carriage for i knew that it was better to sit out with than to dance many dances goose liver is ut said faith i m that makes it do to cut up the colonel he carries a power liver his right the days are warm an the nights chill he give tons an tons liver tis he so i m all liver to day he an that he me ten days c b for as a as a good his teeth that was when e wanted for to wash in the fort ditch explained said there was too much beer in the water for a god fearing man you was lucky in with you did you say so now i m i was cruel hard i ve done for the likes him in the days my eyes were wider than they are now man alive for the colonel to whip me on the in that way me that have saved the a ten times better man than him i twas ne an that a power evil never mind the i said whose reputation did you save more s the pity t my own but i more trouble ut than ut was twas just my way was no business mine hear now he settled himself at ease on the top of tlie carriage i ll tell you all about ut i will name no names for there s wan that s an s lady now that was in ut and no more will i name places for a man is by a place said lazily but this is a mixed story s upon a time as the books say i was a the god from the machine was you though said now that s said you lips yours again i will your take you by the slack your	39
trousers an heave you tm said when you was a i was a than you was or will be but that s neither here nor there thin i became a man an the of a man i was fifteen years ago they called me buck in days an i a woman s eye i did that ye are ye at do you me devil a doubt said but i ve like that before dismissed the impertinence with a lofty wave of his hand and continued an the the i was in in days was men a manner on em an away em such as is not made these days all but wan wan o the ns a bad a wake voice an a limp leg three things are the signs a bad man you bear that in your hid me son an the colonel the had a daughter wan pick me up an carry me or i ll die such as was made for the natural prey men like the n who was pay in to her though the colonel he said time an over out the brute s way my dear but he had the heart for to send her away from the bein as he was a an she their wan child stop a minute said i how in the world did you come to know these things how did i come said with a scornful i m turned the s pleasure to a the god from the lump wood out straight me a a in my hand for you to pick your cards out must i not see nor feel i du up my back an in my boots an in the short hair the neck that s where i my eyes i m on duty an the lar are fixed know take my word for it thing an a great more is known in a or be the use a mess or a s wife wet nurse to the major s baby to he was a bad was this n a rotten bad an first i ran me eye over him i to myself my i my cock a twas from he came to us there s to be cut i an by the grace god tis will cut so he and an an about the colonel s daughter an she poor at him like a looks at the ny cook he d a little a black an he twisted an turned he used as he found ut too sweet for to spit out he was a man an a liar by some are born so he was wan i knew he was over his belt in money borrowed from natives besides a lot other which in regard for your i will a little i knew the colonel knew for he have none him an that i m by happened the n knew wan day bein idle or they never ha ut the gave ladies you ve seen the likes time an an poor fun tis for them that sit in the back row an stamp their boots for the honor the i was told off for to the scenes up this an down that light work ut was beer and the that th l but she die l i twelve years the god from the machine gone an my tongue s the me they was a play thing called which you may ha heard an the colonel s daughter she was a lady s maid the n was a boy called spread was his name in the play thin i saw ut come out in the i saw before an that was that he was no gentleman they was too much together two a behind the scenes i shifted an some what they said i heard for i was death blue death an ivy on the he was ly her to fall in some his an she was to stand out against him but not as though she was set in her will i wonder now in days that my ears did not grow a yard on me head list but i looked straight me an hauled up this an dragged down that such as was my duty an the ladies one to another i was out listen reach an young man is this ril i was a ril then i was wards but no i was a ril a well x iv business on like more an i t till the that i saw for certain than two he the an she no wiser than she should ha been had put up an e a what said i e you an ladies call an e i calls it tis right an natural an proper tis wrong an to steal a man s wan child not her own mind there was a in the who set my face upon e i ll tell you about that stick to the captains said is low accepted the and went on now i knew that ihe colonel no fool any the god from the machine me for i was the man in the an the colonel was the best in asia so said ah i said was a truth we knew that the n was bad but for reasons which i have ah i knew more than me colonel i ha rolled out his face the butt my gun before him to steal the saints knew he ha married her and he didn t she be in great an the what you call a scandal but i raised me hand on my an that was a now i come to it the dawn s said an we re no nearer ome than we was at the lend me your mine s all dust	39
pitched his across and filled his pipe afresh so the came to an end an i was curious i stayed behind the scene was ended an ha been in as flat as a under a painted cottage thing they was in whispers an she was an like a fresh fish are you sure you ve got the hang the he or to that as the martial sure as death she but i tis cruel hard on my father damn your father he or twas he thought the arrangement is as clear as mud will drive the ge aft her all s over an you come to the station cool an in time for the two o clock where i ll be your faith thinks i to myself thin there s a in the business tu a powerful bad thing is a don t you have any wan thin he began her an all the an ladies left an they put out the lights to explain the theory the flight as they say at you must that ru non in e god from the machine ended there was another little bit a play called couples some kind couple or another the was in this but not the man i he d go to the station the s at the end the first piece twas the that me for i knew for a n to go about the the lord knew what a on his was an be worse than the so far as the talk old on s t said you re an man me son a s married all her an are which portion an tis the same she s away even the biggest on the list so i made my plan campaign the colonel s house was a good two miles away i to my color you love me lend me your for me heart is an me feet is sore to and from this foolishness at the an lent ut a red in the shafts they was all settled down to their for the scene which was a long wan i slips outside and into the mother but i made that horse walk an we came into the colonel s compound as the through in there was no one there the an i round to the back an found the girl s ye black brazen i your s honor for five pack up all the miss s an look s order i going to the station we are i an that i laid my finger to my nose an looked the sinner i was says she so i knew she was in the business an i piled up all the sweet talk i d learnt in the on to this she an prayed her to put all the quick she knew into the thing while she packed i outside an w for j wa wanted for to the second sc n i i tell the god from the machine a young s e as much baggage as a on the line march saints help s springs thinks i as i the stuff into the for i ll have no mercy i m too says the no you don t i t you where you are v come an bring you along with me you mind i called her thin i for the an by the special providence for i was work you will s springs now the n goes for that thinks i he ll be at the end off the n runs in his to the colonel s house an i sits down on the steps and laughs an again i slipped in to see how the little piece was goin an ut was near i stepped out all among the carriages an sings out very softly that a ge began to move an i waved to the river i an he till i judged he was at proper distance an thin i him fair an square the eyes all i knew for good or bad an he a like the beer engine ut s low thin i ran to the an out all the an piled it into the ge the sweat down my face in go home i to the you ll find a man close here very sick he is take him away an you say wan about you ve i ll you till your own wife won t who you are thin i heard the feet at the ind the play an i ran in to let down the curtain they all came out the to hide herself behind wan the pillars an in a voice that t ha scared a hare i run over to s ge an up the old horse blanket on the box wrapped my head an the rest me in ut an up to where she was miss i going to the station captain sa the god from the machine s order an a sign she jumped in all among her own i laid to an like steam to the colonel s house before the colonel was there an she screamed an i thought she was goin oft out comes the saying all sorts things about the n come for the an gone to the station take out the luggage you i or i ll you the lights the people from the was the parade ground an by this an that the way two women worked at the bundles an was a caution i was to help but i didn t want to be known i sat the blanket me an an thanked the saints there was no moon that night all was in the house again i asked for but in the site way from the other ge an put out my lights i saw a man in the road i slipped down before i got to him for i	39
providence was me all through that night twas his nose smashed in flat all dumb sick as you please s man must have him out the he came to i but he began to howl you black lump dirt i is this the way you your f that has been an all over the country this whole night an you as as s sow get up you i louder for i heard the wheels a in the dark get up an light your lamps or you ll be run into this was on the road to the railway station the s this the n s voice in the an i could judge he was in a rage x here i i ve found his about an now i ve found him the god from the machine oh the n s his name i stooped down an pretended to listen he his name s i my the n to his man an that he gets down the whip an lays into just mad rage an like the he was i thought a while he kill the man so i or you ll him that all his fire on me an he cursed me into an out again i to an saluted i man in this had his rights i m that more than wan be beaten to a for this night s work that never came off at all as you see now thinks i to myself you ve cut your own throat for he ll an you ll knock him down for the good his an your own but the n never said a single he choked where he an thin he went into his good night an i back to and then said and i together that was all said another word did i hear the whole thing all i know was that there was no e an that was i wanted now i put ut to you is ten days c b a fit an a proper for a man who has behaved as me well any ow said t this ere colonel s daughter an you was when you tried to wash in the fort ditch that said finishing the champagne is a an observation private s story private s story and he told a tale of far from the haunts of company officers who insist upon far from keen who the pipe stuffed into the roll two miles from the tumult of the lies the trap it is an old dry well by a twisted tree and with high grass here in the years gone by did private establish his and for such possessions living and dead as could not safely be introduced to the room here were gathered and fox of and more than doubtful for was an and pre eminent among a regiment of dog never again will the long lazy evenings return wherein whistling softly moved surgeon wise among the of his craft at the bottom of the well when sat in the giving sage counsel on the management of and from the of the overhanging waved his enormous boots in above our heads us with tales of love and war and strange experiences of cities and men landed at last in the little stuff bird shop for which your soul longed back again in the smoky stone north amid the of the tender and very wise on the of a central india line judge if i have forgotten old days in the trap private s story as thinks he more than other said she wasn t a real but a i don t as her was a bit like but she was a why she rode iv a carriage an good too an her air was that as you could see your in it an she wore rings an a chain an silk an satin dresses as man a cost a deal for it isn t a cheap shop as keeps enough o one pattern to fit a figure like hers her name was mrs an t i to be acquainted wi her was along of our colonel s s dog i ve seen a vast o dogs but was t prettiest of a fox at i set eyes on he could do you like but an t colonel s set more store by him than if he had been a christian she of her but they was i england and seemed to get all t and as belonged to a by good right but were a bit on a an a habit o out o like and round t as if he were t magistrate round the colonel him once or twice but didn t care an kept on his rounds wi his a as if he were to t world at large at he was on nicely thank yo and how s yo sen an then t colonel as was sort of a hand wi a dog him a real of a dog an it s wonder yon mrs should a fancy him s one o t ten says yo t your s ox nor his but it doesn t say about his dogs an happen s t reason why mrs tho she went to church lar along wi her husband who was so darker at if he t such a good his back yo might ha called him a black man and nut tell a lee they said he his y i an he d a rare lot on it well you seen when they up t poor lad didn t enjoy very good so t colonel s sends for private s story me as ad a for bein about a dog an what s wi him why says i he s t an what he wants is his an like t rest on us happen a rat or	39
two ud him it s low says i is rats but it s t nature of a dog an s round an another dog or two an t time o day an a bit of a turn up wi him like a christian so she says her dog fight an christians fought then what s a soldier for says i an i explains to her t qualities of a dog at when yo to think on t is one o t things as is for they lam to behave like gentlemen born fit for t o they tell me t herself is fond of a good dog and one when she sees it as well as body then on t other hand a round after cats an mixed i all manners o street rows an rats an like t colonel s says well i t agree wi you but you re right in a way o an i should like yo to out a wi you sometimes but yo t let him fight nor chase cats nor do an them was her very an me out a o s he bein a dog as did credit a man an i catches a lot o rats an we a bit of a match on in an dry bath at back o t an it was none so long afore he was as bright as a button again he a way o at them big dogs as if he was a a bow an though his weight were he em so like they rolled over like in a an when they he stretched after em as if he were rabbit with cats when he get t cat o one him an me was a compound private s story wall after one of them at he d started an we was busy round a bush an when we looks up there was mrs wi a her shoulder us oh my i she sings out there s that dog would he let me stroke him soldier ay he would i for he s fond o s here an to this kind an at t clean up like t gentleman he was a shy nor oh you beautiful you dog she says an her speech in a way them has o their i would like a dog like you you are so so an all sort o talk at a dog o sense thinks on tho he it by reason o his an then i him my cane an hands an beg an lie dead an a lot o them tricks as dogs though i t it for it s a fool o a good dog to do such like an at length it comes out at she d been sheep s eyes as t is at for many a day yo see her was grown up an e d to do an were fond of a dog she me if i d some thin to an we goes into t drawn room her a they a fuss t dog an i has a bottle o an he gave me a handful o cigars i away but t sings out oh soldier please again and bring that dog i didn t let on to t colonel s about mrs and he says an i again an time there was a good an a handful o good an i t a more about than i d ever how he t prize at dog show and cost pounds from t private s story man as bred him at his own brother t o t prince o an at he had a as long as a book s an she it all an were tired o him but when t took to me money an i seed at she were fair fond about t dog i began to suspicion body may give a soldier t price of a pint in a friendly way an s no arm done but when it comes to five into your hand sly like why it s what t fellows calls an corruption specially when mrs hints how t cold weather would soon be an she was goin to an we was goin to an she would see any more somebody she on would be kind her i tells an all t to end tis that wicked ould says t tis she is ye into my but i ll your i ll save ye from the wicked that wealthy ould woman an i ll go ye this and to her the truth an honesty but says he his twas not like ye to e all that good an fine cigars to while here an me have been round throats as dry as lime and to smoke but twas a to play on a comrade for why should you be yourself on the butt a satin chair as if was not the anybody who let alone me sticks in but that s like life them s really fitted to society get no show while a like you nay says i it s t she wants it s he s t gentleman this journey t next day an an me goes to mrs private s story s an t bein a she a bit shy at but yo ve talk an yo may believe as he fairly t she let out at she wanted to away wi her to then changes his tune an her solemn like if she d thought o t consequences o two poor but honest soldiers sent t islands mrs began to cry so turns round t other tack and her down at ud be a vast better off in t hills than down i and twas a pity he shouldn t go he was so well and he went on an an up t she felt as if her life warn t worth	39
if she didn t t dog then all of a he says but ye shall have him for i ve a heart not like this could blooded but cost ye not a penny less than three her don t yo believe him says i t colonel s wouldn t five hundred for him who said she would says it s not buy in him i mane but for the sake o this kind good i ll do what i to do in my life i ll stale him i don t say steal says mrs he shall have the happiest home dogs often get lost you know and then they stray an he likes me and i like him as i liked a dog yet an i must him if i got him at t last minute i could carry him off to and nobody would now an again looked at me an though i could o what he was after i concluded to take his well i says i to down to dog but if my comrade sees how it could be done to oblige a like yo sen i m nut t man to back tho it s a bad business i m an three hundred is a poor private s story set oft again t chance of them islands as talks on ril it three fifty says mrs only let me f dog i so we let her persuade us an she s measure an then an sent to s to order a silver collar again t time when he was to be her which was to be t day she set off for says i when we was outside you re goin to let her an would ye disappoint a poor old woman says he she shall have a an where s he to come through says i my man he sings out you re a pretty man your inches an a good comrade but your head is made isn t our friend a an a artist his white fingers an what s a but a who can do ye mind the white dog that belongs to the bad to him he that s lost half his time and the rest he shall be lost for good now an do ye mind that he s the very spit in shape an size the colonel s that his tall is an inch too long an he has none the color that the an his temper is that his an worse is an inch of a dog s tail an what to a professional like is a few black brown an white at all at all then we meets an that little man sharp as a needle seed his way through t business in a minute an he went to work a air the very next day on some white he had an then he all s s on t back of a white so as to get his and in an be sure of his colors off brown into black as as life if a fault it was too but it was lar an settled him private s story self to make a rate job on it when he got o t s dog was a dog as for bad temper an it did nut get no better when his tail to be an inch an a half shorter but they may talk royal as they like a bit o animal to beat t copy as made of s marks t itself was all t time an to get at to be copied as good as as conceit on as would lift a an he so wi his sham he for him to mrs before she went away but an me stopped s work though so was skin deep an at last mrs fixed t day for to we was to to t i a basket an hand him just when they was ready to start an then she d give us t brass as was agreed upon an my i it were time she were off for them air upon t cur s back took a vast of to keep t tho spent a matter o seven six i t best shops i an f was for is dog an wi bein tied up t beast s got nor ever it i t when t train started an we mrs wi about sixty boxes an then we gave her t basket for pride his work us to let him along wi us an he couldn t help t lid an t cur as he lay oh says t the how sweet he looks an just then t beauty an showed his teeth so down t lid and says ye ll be careful when ye him out he s to by t railway an he ll be sure to want his mistress an his friend so ye u make allowance for his feelings at o private s story she would do all an more for the dear good an she would nut t basket till they were miles away for fear anybody should recognize him an we were real good an kind soldier men we were an she bonds me a bundle o notes an then up a few of her relations an friends to say good by not more than seventy five there wasn t an we cuts away what to t three hundred and fifty s what i can tell you but we melted it it was share an share alike for said i got hold of mrs first sure twas i that the s dog just in the nick time an was the artist that made a work art out that ugly piece yet by way a thank that i was not led into by that wicked ould woman i ll send a to	39
father victor for the poor people he s always for but me an he bein an i bein pretty far north did nut see it i t way we d t brass an we to keep it an we did for a short time we a more o t our went to an t he got himself another o t one at got lost so lar an was lost for good at last the big drunk the big drunk we re goin ome we re goin ome our ship is at the shore an you pack your for we won t back no more ho don t you grieve for me my lovely mary ann for i ll marry you on a ny bit as a time expired ma a a n room ballad an awful thing has happened my friend private who went home in the time expired not very long ago has come back to india as a i it was all s fault she could not stand the little lodgings and she missed her servant more than words could tell the fact was that the had been out h e too long and had lost touch of england knew a on one of the new central india lines and wrote to him for some sort of work the said that if could pay the passage he would give him command of a gang of for old sake s sake the pay was eighty five a month and said that if did not accept she would make his life a therefore the came out as which was a great and terrible fall though tried to disguise it by saying that he was on the railway line an a man he wrote me an invitation on a tool form to visit him and i came down to the funny little construction at the side of the line had planted the big drunk peas about and about and nature had spread all manner of green stuff round the place there was no change in except the change of which was deplorable but could not be helped he was standing upon his a gang man and his shoulders were as well and his big thick chin was as clean shaven as ever fm a now said you tell that i was a martial man don t answer you re a an a lie there s no now she s got a house her own go inside an out in the room an thin we ll like christians the tree here ye folk there s a come to call on me an that s more than he ll do for you you run i get out an go on up the earth quick till when we three were comfortably settled under the big ham in front of the and the first rush of questions and answers about and and old times and places had died away said glory be there s no p to morrow an no headed ril to give you his lip an i don t know tis to be something ye were an meant to be an all the ould days shut up along papers i m rusty an tis the wi l god that a man t serve his for time an all he helped himself to a fresh and sighed furiously let your beard grow said i and then you won t be troubled with those notions you ll be a real had confided to me in the drawing room her desire to into letting his beard grow twas so like said poor who hated her s for his old life you re a to an man i said without replying to me the big drunk grow a beard on your own chin and leave my alone they re all that stand me and dis ability i didn t i be an for there s so to the throat as a big goat beard the chin ye t have me always by the same token you re me now let me look at that the was lent and returned but who had been just as eager as her husband in asking after old friends rent me with i take shame for you down here though the saints know you re as as the daylight you do come an s head you re nonsense about about s much better forgotten he bein a now an you was aught else can you not let the rest tis not good for i took refuge by for has a temper of her own let be let be said tis only in a way can talk about the ould days then to me ye say is well an his lady tu knew how i liked the gray till i was shut him an asia was the of the colonel commanding s old regiment will you be him again you will thin tell him s eyes began to twinkle tell him interrupted now the an all his angels an the fly away the an the sin me swear be on your confession i tell ye s best obedience that but for me the last time expired be still hair on their way to the ff the big he threw himself back in the chair chuckled and was silent mrs i said please take up the and don t let him have it until he has told the story whipped the bottle away saying at the same time tis nothing to be proud and thus captured by the enemy twas on week i was round the on the i ve taught the how to step an stop a head comes up to me about two inches shirt tail hanging round his neck an a light in his oi he there s a an a half soldiers up	39
at the red out an they to hang me in my cloth he an there will be murder an ruin an in the place before nightfall i they say they re down here to wake us up what will we do our women folk fetch my i my heart s sick in my ribs for a wink at anything the s uniform on ut fetch my an six the men and run me up in he his best coat said reproachfully twas to do honor to the i ha done no less you and your interfere the the narrative have you i look like me head shaved as well as my chin you bear that in your mind i was up six miles all to get a at that i knew twas a spring goin home for there s no more s the pity praise the virgin murmured but did not hear i was about three quarters a mile off the along fit to i heard the noise the the big drunk men an on my i catch the voice like a the belly ache you that was in d company a red hairy a on his jaw that cleared out the blue lights meeting the cook room last year thin i knew ut was a of the ould an i was sorrow for the that was in charge we was s at any time did i tell you how went into as the shirts the ril an file his an he was a man but i m both to the and the down little a strong men mad liquor an shut india an a punishment tha s fit to be given right down an to the dock i tis this i am my time i m the articles war an can be whipped on the for but i ve served my time i m a reserve man an the articles war haven t any on me an do to a time expired him to tis a wise a time expired does not have any bein on the move all the time tis a solomon a is that i like to be to the man who ut tis easier to get from a horse fair into than to take a bad over ten miles country that for fear that the men be hurt by the little no the nearer my came to the rest camp the was the shine an the louder was the voice tis good i am here thinks i to myself for alone is to two or three he bein i well knew as as a faith that rest camp was a sight the tent ropes was all an the looked as as the t the big drunk fifty the s an s an s the ould i tell you they were than any men you ve ever seen in your life how does a get how does a get fat they ut in through their there was on the in his shirt wan shoe off an wan on a tent over the head his boot an fit to wake the dead twas no song that he sung though twas the s mass what s that i asked a bad g is shut the army he sings the mass for a good an that at from the in chief down to the room ril such as you in your days heard some men can swear so as to make green turf crack have you heard the curse in an orange lodge the s mass is ten times worse an was ut the on the head his boot for each man that he cursed a powerful big voice had an a hard he was sober i stood him an twas not me oi alone that tell was as a good i he breath the tint gen i ve put on my best coat to see you i thin take ut off again away the boot take ut off an dance ye that he begins being so full he clean the major an the judge gen do you not know me i though me blood was hot in me being called a an him a decent married man i do not but or sober i ll tear the hide off your back a i ve stopped say you so i tis clear as mud the big drunk you ve forgotten me i ll assist your that stretched boot an all an into the camp an awful sight ut was where s the charge the i to the little worm that ever walked there s no ye ould cook we re a republic are you that i thin i m o the an by this you will lam to a civil tongue in your tliat i stretched an s tent twas a new little not wan i d seen before he was in his tent not to ave ear the i saluted but for the life me i to shake hands i went in twas the sword on the tent pole changed my will can t i help i tis a strong man s job they ve given you an you ll be help by he was a that child an a sit down he not before my i an i him my service was i ve heard you he you the town faith thinks i that s honor an glory for twas lift did that job i m ye i if i m use they ha sent you down the your tis only lift in the ould can manage a home i ve had charge of men like this before he the pens on the table an i see by the shut your oi to the i till the s into blue by the you ve got to the big drunk up for the night or they	39
ll be foul my an a half through the country can you trust your non yes he good i there ll be before the night are you to the next station he better still i there ll be big can t be too hard on a home he the great thing is to get in ship faith you ve the half your lesson i but you to the you ll get at all at all or there won t be a rag you do twas a dear little an by way his heart up i him i saw in a in egypt what was that said l an fifty men on the bank a canal at a poor little an that they d made into the an pitch the things out the boats for their lord high that made me indignation soft an i you ve had your in hand since you left wait till the night an your work will be ready to you your permission i will investigate the camp an talk to my ould tis no manner use to the now that i out into the camp an to man sober enough to me i was some wan in the ould days an the was glad to see me all a eye like a five days in the an a nose to they come round me an me an i i was in employ an income me own an a room fit to the s an me lies an me an gin rally i kept em quiet in wan the big drunk is way an another the camp twas bad even thin i was the peace i talked to me ould non they was sober an me an we wore the over into their tents at the proper time the little he comes round an civil spoken as might be rough quarters men he but you can t look to be as comfortable as in we must make the best things i ve shut my eyes to a dog s trick to day an now there must be no more ut no more we will come an have a where he me little his you re a sulky swine you are an at that the men in the tent began to laugh i you me had he cut as near as might be on the oi that i d we first met the tent him out i in a him out me up loud just as if twas p an he his from the the non a handful he was an in three he was out chin down on his a to each arm an leg fit to turn a white i a and ut into his ugly jaw bite on that i the night is frosty an you ll be before the but for the you d be on a bullet now at the i all the was out their tents bein tis tb he l the big drunk out who was always a lawyer an some of the men up the out that man says my bis an the non in and out by the side i could see that the was them en not to do get to your tents me put a over these two men the men back into the tints like an the rest the night there was no noise at all the the over the two an like a child twas a chilly night an faith ut just before my comes out an loose those men an send to their tents away a word but stiff the like a sheep to make his he was sorry for the goat there was no in the ut fell in for the march an a about i hear i to the ould color and i let me die in glory i i ve seen a man this day a man he is ould mother the as sick as a they ll all go down to the sea like that has the a gin i an good luck go him he be by land or by sea let me know how the gets clear an do you know how they v that so i was by letter from em down to the dock till they t call their their own from the time they left me oi till they was decks not wan was more than an by the holy articles war they aboard they cheered him till t an that mark you ha not about the big drunk a in the ry man you look to that httle he has tis not child that the to an stretch on a wink from a and ould like i d be proud to serve you re a said so i am so i am is ut likely i forget ut but he was a all the same an i m only a a on my the s in the heel your hand your good lave we ll to the ould three fingers up i and we drank l the solid the solid did ye see john his brand new hat did ye see now he walked like a grand there was flags an high an and were shown but the best all the company was john john this in the old days and as my friend private was specially careful to make clear the there had been a royal dog fight in the at the back of the rifle between s and s blue rot both hounds chiefly ribs and teeth it lasted for twenty happy howling minutes and then blue rot and paid three and we were all very thirsty a dog fight is a most entertainment quite apart from the shouting because fight over a couple of acres of ground later when the sound of belt	39
against the necks of beer bottles had died away conversation drifted from dog to man fights of all kinds resemble red deer in some respects any talk of fighting seems to wake up a sort of in their breasts and they bell one to the other exactly like this is noticeable even in men who consider themselves superior to of the line it shows the influence of civilization and the march of progress tale provoked tale and each tale more beer even dreamy s eyes began to and he himself of long history in trip im a girl the solid a himself and a pair of were mixed in n so ah s from t chin hair an he was for t matter o a month concluded came out of a reverie he was lying down and flourished his heels in the air you re a man said he but you ve only fought men an that s an day but i ve up to a ghost an that was not an day no said throwing a cork at him you up an address the you an you re is it a bigger one nor usual twas the answered stretching out a huge arm and catching by the collar now where are ye me son will ye the the out my mouth another time he shook him to the question no else though said making a dash at s pipe it and holding it at arm s length i ll it ditch if you don t let me go you in tis the only i loved handle her or i ll you the if that was ah give her back to me had passed the treasure to my hand it was an absolutely perfect clay as shiny as the black ball at pool i took it reverently but i was firm will you tell us about the ghost fight if i do i said is ut the that s you course i will i to all along i was only at ut my own way as said they found him to ram a down the fall away he released the little took back his pipe filled it and his eyes he has the most eloquent eyes of anyone that i know thi did i tell you he began that i a man you did said with a childish gravity that made l yell with laughter for was always upon us his merits in the old days did i tell you continued calmly that i was more a than i am now you don t mean it said i was ril i was but as i say i was ril i was a of a man he was silent for nearly a minute while his mind among old memories and his eye glowed he bit upon the pipe stem and charged into his tale they was great times i m ould now me hide s wore off in patches has me an i m a married man tu but i ve had my day i ve had my day an can take away the taste that oh my time past i put me foot through wan of the tin between and lights out blew the off a wiped me the back me hand an slept on ut all as quiet as a little child but ut s over ut s over an come back to me not though i prayed for a week sundays was there any wan in the ould to touch ril that same was turned out for i met him woman that was not a witch was worth the in those days an man was my dearest or i had stripped to him an we knew which was the the tu i was i not ha changed the colonel no nor yet the in chief i be a there was i not be mother look at me am i now f but no i must get to the other ghosts not the in my ould head we was in a big tis no manner use names for ut might give the the solid an r tion an i was the the earth to my own mind an wan or tu women thought the same small blame to we had lain there a year the color e ny an a wife that was lady s maid to some big lady in the station she s dead now is died in child bed at or ut may ha been seven nine years gone an he married but she was a pretty woman her to society she had eyes like the brown a s wing the sun catches ut an a waist no thicker than my arm an a little button a mouth i ha gone through all asia bay to get the kiss an her hair was as long as the tail the colonel s forgive me that in the same with but twas all gold an time was a look ut was more than di to me there was pretty woman yet an i ve had a few open the door to twas in the chapel i saw her first rolling round as usual to see was to be seen you re too good for my love thinks i to but that s a mistake i can put straight or my name is not now take my for ut you there an an out the married quarters as i did not no good comes ut an there s always the chance your bein found your face in the dirt a long in the back your head an your hands playing the on the tread another man s twas so we found o he that killed six years gone when he to his death his hair o teeth out the married	39
quarters i say as i did not tis tis dangerous an tis else that s bad but o my tis while ut lasts i was always about there i was off duty an wasn t but a sweet word did i the solid get from tis the the i to an gave my cap another cock on my head an straightened my back twas the back a major in those days an off as tho i did not care all the women in the married quarters i was most are i m that no woman bom woman stand against me i up me little finger i had reason for that way till i met time an i was in the dusk a man go past me as quiet as a cat that s thinks i for i am or i should be the only man in these parts now what can be up to thin i called myself a for such things but i thought all the same an that mark you is the way a man wan i said mrs no to you who is that ril man i had seen the though i get sight his face who is that ril man that comes in always i m goin away mother god she as white as my belt have you seen him too seen him i i have did ye want me not to see him for we were in the outside the s quarters you d tell me to shut me eyes i m mistaken he s come now an sure enough the ril man was to us his head down as though he was ashamed good night mrs i very cool tis not for me to interfere your a but you might manage these things more i m off to i i turned on my heel an away i give that man a that him about the married quarters for a month an a week i had not ten paces before was on to my arm an i feel that she was all over the solid stay me she you re flesh an blood at the least are ye not i m all that i an my anger away in a flash will i want to be asked twice that i slipped my arm round her waist for i fancied she had at discretion an the honors war were mine is this she up on the tips her dear little toes the mother s milk not on your mouth let go she did ye not say just now that i was flesh and blood i i have not changed since i an i my arm where ut was your arms to she an her eyes sure tis only human nature i an i my arm where ut was nature or no nature she you take your arm away or i ll tell an he ll alter the nature your head d you take me for she a woman i the prettiest in a w jf she the in that i dropped my arm fell back tu paces an saluted for i saw that she she said then you know something that some men would give a good deal to be certain of how could you tell i demanded in the interests of science watch the hand said she her hand tight thumb down over the take up your hat an go you ll only make a fool you but the hand lies on the lap or you see her to shut ut an she can t go on she s not past well as i was i fell back saluted an was goin away me she s z look he s again the solid she pointed to the an by impart the ril man was out s quarters he s done that these five s past oh will i do he ll not do ut again i for i was mad away from a man that has been a crossed in love till the fever s died down he like a brute beast i up to the man in the as sure as i sit to knock the life out him he slipped into the open are you in about here ye the i polite to give him his for i wanted him ready he lifted his head but all mournful an as if he thought i be sorry for him i can t find her he my i you ve lived too long you an your s an s in a married woman s quarters up your head ye frozen thief i an you ll find all you want an more but he up an i let go from the shoulder to where the hair is short over the eyebrows that ll do your business i but it nearly did mine i put my body weight behind the blow but i hit nothing at all an near put my out the ril man was not there an who had been from the throws up her heels an carries on like a cock his neck s wrung by the i back to her for a woman an a woman like is more than a p full ghosts i d seen a woman faint before an i like a calf her whether she was dead an pray in her for the love me an the love her husband an the love the virgin to her blessed eyes again an all the names the for her my miserable the solid a i ought to ha her an this ril man that had lost the number his mess i i said but i was not so far gone that i not hear a on the dirt outside twas in an by the same token was to i jumped to the far end the an	39
looked as if butter t melt in my mouth but mrs the quarter master s wife that was had about my round i m not pleased you his sword for he had been on duty that s bad i an i knew that the were in what for i come outside he an i ll show you why i m i but my are none so ould that i can afford to lose tell me now who do i go out i he was a quick man an a just an saw i be mrs s husband he he might ha known by me that favor that i had done him no wrong we to the back the an i stripped to him an for ten minutes twas all i do to prevent him himself against my he was mad as a dumb dog just rage but he had no me in reach or or anything else will ye hear reason i his first wind was out not i can see he that i gave him both one after the other through the low that he d been taught he was a boy an the shut down on the cheek bone like the wing a sick crow will you hear reason now ye brave man i not i can speak he up blind as a stump i was to do ut but i round an swung into the jaw side on an shifted ut a half pace to the the solid will ye hear reason now i i can t keep my much longer an tis like i will hurt you not i can stand he out one corner his mouth so i closed an threw him blind dumb an sick ah the jaw straight you re an ould fool i you re a young thief he an you ve my heart you an you thin he began like a child as he lay i was sorry as i had been before tis an awful thing to see a strong man cry i ll swear on the cross i i care for none your oaths says he come back to your quarters i an if you don t believe the you shall listen to the dead i i hoisted him an him back to his quarters mrs i here s a man that you can cure quicker than me you ve me before my wife he have i so i by the look on mrs s face i think i m for a down worse than i gave you an i was was indignation there was not a name that a woman use that was not given my way i ve had my colonel walk me like a a for fifteen in room i into the corner shop an but all that i from his a tongue was pop to me an that mark you is the way a woman ut was done for want breath an was over her husband i tis all an i m a an you re an honest woman but will you tell him of wan service that i did you as i finished the ril man came up to the an the was up an wc ce his face the solid i can t find her the ril an out like the puff a candle saints stand us an evil himself that s the who was he i for he has given me a fight in this day us that was a ril who lost his wife in those quarters three years gone an mad an walked they buried him for her well i to he s been out to company mrs for the last fortnight you may tell mrs my love for i know that she s been to you an you ve been that she ought to the differ a man an a ghost she s had three husbands i an j ve got a wife too good for you which you lave her to be by ghosts an an all manner evil i ll go in the way politeness to a man s wife again good night to you both i an that i away fought woman man and all in the heart an hour by the same token i gave father victor wan to say a mass for s soul me him by my fist into his system your ideas of politeness seem rather large i said that s as you look at ut said calmly cared for me for all that i did not want to leave anything me that could take to be angry her about an ha cleared all up there s nothing like ye let me put me oi to that bottle for my throat s as as i thought i get a kiss from an that s fourteen years gone cork s own city an the blue sky above ut an the times that was the times that was with the main guard with the main guard sit round open mouth while tell of in the south und moral lessons how before der battle take a little prayer to und a good long drink of s mary mother mercy the us to take an this answer me that it was who was speaking the hour was one o clock of a stifling hot june night and the place was the main gate of fort desolate and least desirable of all in india what i was doing there at that hour is a question which only concerns the of the guard and the men on the gate said is a necessity this ll lively till relieved he himself was stripped to the waist on the next was dripping from the of water which arrayed only in white trousers had just over his shoulders and a fourth private was muttering uneasily as he open mouthed in	39
the glare of the great guard lantern the heat under the was the night that i is all hell lose this tide said burning wind with the main guard lashed through the gate like a wave of the sea and swore are ye more he said to put yer between your legs it ll go in a minute ah don t care ah would not care but ma heart is on ma ribs let me die oh leave me die groaned the huge who was feeling the heat being of build the under the lantern roused for a moment and raised on his elbow die and be damned then he said m damned and i can t die who s that i whispered for the voice was new to me gentleman born said ril wan year red hot on his c mission but like a fish he ll be gone before the weather s here so he slipped his boot and with the naked toe just touched the of his misunderstood the movement and the next instant the s was dashed aside while stood before him his eyes blazing with reproof you said my you if it was you would we quiet little man said putting him aside but very gently tis not me nor will ut be me s here i was but something bowed on his groaned and the gentleman sighed in his sleep took s and we three smoked gravely for a space while while the dust devils danced on the and the plain without pop said wiping his forehead don t or i ll you into your own block an fire you with the main guard chuckled and from a in the produced six bottles of where did ye get ut ye said tis no pop ow do hi know the drink answered the mess man ye ll have a martial on ye yet mc son said but he opened a bottle i will not report ye this time s in the mess kid is for the belly as they say specially that mate is here s luck i a bloody war or a no we ve got the sickly season war thin he waved the innocent pop to the four quarters of heaven bloody war i north east south an west ye come an but half mad with the fear of death in the swelling veins of his neck was imploring his maker to strike him dead and fighting for more air between his prayers a second time the quivering body with water and the giant revived an ah t see a mon is i for on to live an ah t see there is for t for hear now lads ah m tired tired there s i ma bones let me die the hollow of the arch gave back s broken whisper in a bass boom looked at me hopelessly but i remembered how the madness of despair had once fallen upon that weary weary afternoon in the banks of the river and how it had been by the skilful talk i said or we shall have loose and he ll be worse than was talk he ll answer to your voice almost before had thrown all the of the guard on s the s voice was up the main guard lifted as that of one in the middle of a story and turning to me he said in or out of it say an is the an more tis only fit for a young man oh the is an an in the field war my first was an to the heart their was they an so they fought for the than most bein they was the black you ve heard heard of them i knew the black for the collection of dog robbers of hen of innocent citizens and daring heroes in the army list half europe and half asia has had cause to know the black good luck be with their tattered colors as glory has ever been they was hot an i cut a man s head tu deep my belt in the days my youth an some circumstance which i will i came to the ould the character a man hands an feet but as i was goin to tell you i fell the black wan day we wanted powerful bad me son was the name that place where they wan ny us an wan the a hill an down again all for to the something they d learned before twas don t know what the called it we called it silver s you know that sure i silver s theatre so twas a two hills as black as a bucket an as thin as a s waist there was over many for our in the an they called a reserve bein by our an was into some pa ments i think twas an are they re so an they get with the main guard together god well as i was they wan ny the ould an wan the to double up the hill an out the reserve was scarce in days an not care an we was out only wan for the ny but he was a man that had his feet beneath him an all his teeth in their who was he i asked captain o old na him that i ye that tale he was in he was a man the a little but a bit was he in command as i ll they came over the brow the hill wan on each side the an there was that reserve down below like rats in a pit on men who a mother s care us always some rocks on by way we hadn t more than an the was to swear the little the out the valley the devil an	39
all are you the fun for my men do ye not see they ll stand faith that s a rare wan mind the rocks men come along down an take there s damned little sugar in ut my rear rank man but heard have ye not all got he an down we as fast as we bein sick at the base he was not there s a lie said dragging his nearer ah gotten an you it he threw up his arms and from the right arm pit ran through the fell of his chest a thin white line the fourth left with the main guard my mind s goin said the ye were there i was of i twas another well you ll thin how we an the met a bang at the bottom an got past all among the ow it a tight hi was till i thought i d well bust said rubbing his stomach twas no place for a little man but wan little man put his hand on s shoulder saved the the life me there we for a bit did the an a bit dare we our business bein to clear em out an the most thing all was that we an they just rushed into each other s an there was no firing for a long time but knife an bay when we get our hands free that was not often we was breast on to an the was behind us in a way i didn t see the lean at first but i knew later an so did the knee to knee sings out a laugh the rush our into the an he was a hairy great pay than neither bein able to do anything to the other tho both was breast to breast he says as the was us forward closer an closer an hand over back a that was i saw a sword out past s ear like a snake s tongue an the pay than was in the apple his throat like a pig at fair thank ye brother inner guard cool as a salt i wanted that room an he forward by the thickness a man s body turned the under him the man bit the heel oflf s boot in his death bite push men i push ye paper backed beg with the main guard i he am i to pull ye through so we pushed an we kicked an we swung an we swore an the grass bein slippery our heels wouldn t bite an god help the front rank man that down that day ave you ever bin in the pit o the on a thick night interrupted it was worse nor that for they was goin one way an we wouldn t ave it hi t much to say faith me son ye said ut thin i the little man my knees as long as i but he was his bay an the devil of a man is in a aren t ye said don t make game said the i i wasn t no good then but i em from the flank when we opened out no he said bringing down his hand with a on the a bay ain t no good to a little man might as well ave a rod i ate a mess but a that swore out a bit an one year in store to let the powder kiss the bullet an put me where i ain t trod on by swine like you an s me i could bowl you over five times outer seven at height would yer try you no ye i ve seen ye do ut i say there s better than the bay a long reach a double twist can an a slow recover the bay said who had been listening intently look a here he picked up a rifle an inch below the foresight with an action and used it as a man would use a dagger said he softly s better than for a men can t wi an if he t he can t o t tis not i t books though me t butt does ut his own way like love said with the main guard quietly the butt or the bay or the bullet to the the man well as i was we there in each other s faces an powerful the mother that bore him he was not three inches taller he duck ye lump an i can get at a man over your you ll blow me head off i my arm clear go through under my my arm pit ye little i but don t me or i ll your ears round was ut ye gave the man me him that cut at me i t move hand or foot hot or was ut n cold said up an under the e come down flat best for you e did my son this jam thing that i m about lasted for five minutes good an thin we got our arms clear an in i exactly i did but i didn t want to be a at the thin after some we again an the was us dogs an an all manner names we their way the thinks i they ve the s a most fight here a man behind me an in a whisper let get at for the love mary give me room beside ye ye tall man an who are you that s so anxious to be i my head for the long knives was in front like the sun on bay ut s rough i we ve seen our dead he into me our dead that was men two days gone an me that was his cousin by blood could not bring tim off let me get on he	39
been the gallery have enjoyed the a thin i knew that man for the dock rat he was wan the that made the silver s theatre gray before his time out the the benches an t into the pit so i passed the that i knew when i was in the an we lay in i don t know who twas whispers an i don t care but i ll knock the face you tim the man was you there too we ll call ut silver s theatre half the the ould place ut up so we called ut silver s theatre the little the was an he had no heart for the that he talked with the main guard so big upon ye do well later very quiet foi not bein allowed to kill yourself for i m a man i the little put arrest if you will but by my i d do ut again sooner than face your mother you dead the that had sat on his head to attention an but the young wan only cried as tho his little heart was thin another man the came up the fog on him the what fog you know that like love ut takes each man now i can t help bein powerful sick i m in action here stops from ind to ind an the only time that opens his mouth to sing is he is other people s heads for he s a is sometime cry an sometime they don t know they do an sometime they are all for throats an such like but some men get heavy dead on the this man was he was an his eyes were half shut an we hear him breath yards away he sees the little an comes up thick an drowsy to blood the young he blood the young an that he threw up his arms an dropped at our feet dead as a an there was sign or scratch on him they said twas his heart was rotten but oh twas a thing to see thin we to bury our dead for we not lave to the an in among the we nearly lost that little he was for wan and him against a rock be careful i a wounded s worse than a live wan my before the words was out of ray mouth the on the ground fires at the over him an i saw the with the main guard fly i dropped the butt on the face the man an his pistol the little turned very white for the hair half his head was away i you so i an that he wanted to help a i the to the ear they dare not do but curse the was like dogs over a bone that has been taken away too soon for they had seen their dead an they wanted to kill on the ground that he d blow the hide off any man that himself but seeing that ut was the first time the had their dead i do not they were on the sharp tis a shameful sight i i first saw ut i ha given quarter to any man north of the no nor woman either for women used to come out well we buried our dead an away our wounded an come over the brow the hills to an the taking with the in we were a gang for the blood had the dust an the sweat had cut the cake an our bay was like ur legs an most us were marked one way or another a staff man clean as a new rifle rides up an what damned are you a ny her majesty s black an wan the ould very quiet our visitors the as twas oh the staff did you that reserve no an the laughed thin the have ye done ut an he took us on but not before that was in the aloud his voice somewhere in his in the name misfortune with the main guard does this a tail mane by the road his the staff blue an makes him pink by to the voice a woman an come an kiss me major dear for me husband s at the wars an i m all alone at the the staff away an i see s his ril lave me alone a wink i was his before he was married an he knows i mane you don t there s like in the society d you that hi do e died in next week it was cause i bought his an i remember after that turn out the relief had come it was four o clock i ll catch a for you said hastily into his come up to the top the fort an we ll l our into s the relieved guard strolled round the main on its way to the swimming bath and grew almost looked into the fort ditch and across the plain ho it s weary for ma he but i d like to kill some more before my time s up war bloody war north east south and west amen said slowly s here said checking at a of while by the foot of the old box he stooped and touched it it s i why are ye out your mother s bed at this lime the two year old child of must ha e wandered for a breath of cool air to the very verge of the of the fort ditch her tiny night shift was gathered into with the main guard a round her neck and she moaned in her sleep see there said poor lamb look at the heat rash on the skin her tis hard hard even for us must it be for these wake up your mother will be about you the	39
child might ha fallen into the ditch he picked her up in the growing light and set her on his shoulder and her fair curls touched the of his temples and followed snapping their fingers while smiled at them a sleepy smile then clear as a lark dancing the baby on his arm if any young man should marry you say about the joke that ye in a box wrapped up m a soldier s cloak though on my he said gravely there was not much cloak about you mind you won t like this ten years to come kiss your friends an run along to your mother set down close to the married quarters nodded with the quiet obedience of a soldier s child but ere she off over the path held up her lips to be kissed by the three wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and swore turned pink and the two walked away together the lifted up his voice and gave in thunder the chorus of the box while at his side bin to a sing song you two said the who was taking his down to the morning gun you re over merry for these dashed days i bid ye take care o the said he for it comes of a noble race the voices died out in the swimming bath with the guard oh i said dropping into s speech when we were alone it s you that have the tongue he looked at me wearily his eyes were sunk in his bead and his face was drawn and white said he i ve the night somehow but can that helps others help answer me that and over the of fort broke the jn the matter of a private in the matter of a private a soldier s life for shout boys shout for it makes you jolly and free the corps people who have seen state that one of the spectacles of human is an outbreak of in a girls school it starts without warning generally on a hot afternoon among the elder pupils a girl till the gets beyond her control then she throws up her head and cries like a wild goose and tears mix with the laughter if the mistress be wise she will say something severe at this point to check matters if she be and send for a drink of water the chances are largely in favor of another girl laughing at the afflicted one and herself thus the trouble and may end in half of what answers to the lower sixth of a boys school rocking and together given a week of warm weather two stately per a heavy mutton and rice meal in the middle of the day a certain amount of n from the teachers and a few other things some really amazing effects can be secured at least this is what folk say who have had experience now the mother superior of a and the colonel of a british regiment would be justly shocked at any comparison being made between their respective charges but it is a fact that under certain circumstances thomas in bulk can be worked up into rippling he does not weep but he shows his trouble and the con in the ma of a te get into the newspapers and all the good and virtuous people who hardly know a from a say take away the brute s i thomas isn t a brute and his business which is to look after the virtuous people demands that he shall have his to his hand he doesn t wear silk stockings and he really ought to be supplied with a new to help him to express his opinions but for all that he is a great man if you call him the heroic of the national honor one day and a brutal and the next you naturally him and he looks upon you with suspicion there is nobody to speak for thomas except people who have theories to work off on him and nobody understands thomas except thomas and he does not know what is the matter with himself that is the this is the story was engaged to be married to miss whose history is well known in the regiment and elsewhere he had secured his colonel s leave and being popular with the men every arrangement had been made to give the wedding what private called it fell in the heart of the hot weather and after the wedding was going up to the hills with the bride none the less s grievance was that the affair would be only a hired carriage wedding and he felt that the of that was meagre miss did not care so much the s wife was helping her to make her wedding dress and she was very busy was just then the only contented man in all the rest were more or less miserable and they had so much to make them happy too all their work was over at eight in the morning and for the rest of the day they could lie on their backs and smoke and swear at the they enjoyed a fine full flesh meal in the middle of the day and then threw themselves down on their and and slept till it was cool in the matter of a private j enough to go out with their whose contained less than six hundred words and the and whose views on every conceivable question they had heard many months before there was the of course and there was the room with the second hand papers in it but a man of any profession cannot read for eight hours a day in a temperature of or in the shade running up sometimes to o at midnight very few men even though they get a of flat stale muddy beer and	39
hide it under their can continue drinking for six hours a day one man tried but he died and nearly the whole regiment went to his funeral because it gave them something to do it was too early for the modified excitement of fever or the men could only wait and wait and wait and watch the shadow of the creeping across the blinding white dust that was a gay life they about it was too hot for any sort of game and almost too hot for vice and themselves in the evening and filled themselves to with the healthy food provided for them and the more they the less exercise they took and more they grew then the began to wear away and men fell a brooding over real or imaginary they had nothing else to think of the tone of the changed and instead of saying light til knock your silly face in men grew laboriously polite and hinted that the were not big enough for themselves and their enemy and that there would be more space for one of the two in a place which it is not polite to mention it may have been the devil who arranged the thing but the fact of the case is that had for a long time been worrying in an way it gave him occupation the two men had their side by side and would sometimes spend long afternoon w at but in the ma of a private was afraid of and dared not challenge him to a fight he thought over the words in the hot still nights and half the hate he felt towards he on the wretched bought a in the and put it into a little cage and lowered the cage into the cool darkness of a well and sat on the well shouting bad language down to the he taught it to say ye so which means swine and several other things entirely unfit for he was a big gross man and he shook like a when the caught the sentence correctly however shook with rage for all the room were laughing at him the was such a puff of green feathers and looked so human when it used to sit swinging his fat legs on the side of the cot and ask the what it thought of the would answer so good boy used to say scratching the s head ye ear that sim and used to turn over on his stomach and make answer ear take you don t hear something one of these days in the restless nights after he had been asleep all day its of blind rage came upon and held him till he trembled all over while he thought in how many different ways he would sometimes he would picture himself the life out of the man with heavy boots and at others in his face with the butt and at others jumping on his shoulders and dragging the head back till the neck bone cracked then his mouth would feel hot and and he would reach out for another sup of the beer in the bill the fancy that came to him most frequently and stayed with him longest was one connected with the great roll of fat under s right ear he noticed it first on a moonlight night and thereafter it was always before his eyes it was a fascinating roll of fat a man could get his hand upon it and n in the matter of a private tear away one side of the neck or he could place the of a rifle on it and blow away all the head in a flash had no right to be sleek and contented and well to do when he was the butt of the room some day perhaps he would show those who laughed at the ye so joke that he was as good as the rest and held a man s life in the of his forefinger when hated him more bitterly than ever why should ix be able to sleep when had to stay awake hour after hour tossing and turning on the with the dull pain into his right side and his head throbbing and aching after he thought over this for many many nights and the world became to him he even his naturally fine appetite with beer and tobacco and all the while the talked at and made a mock of him the heat continued and the wore away more quickly than before a s wife died of heat in the night and the ran abroad that it was men rejoiced openly hoping that it would spread and send them into camp but that was a false alarm it was late on a tuesday evening and the men were waiting in the deep double for last posts when went to the box at the foot of his bed took out his pipe and the lid down with a bang that echoed through the deserted like the crack of a rifle ordinarily speaking the men would have taken no notice but their nerves were fretted to fiddle strings they jumped up and three or four into the room only to find kneeling by his box owl it s you is it they said and laughed foolishly we thought twas rose slowly if the accident had so shaken his fellows what would not the reality do you thought it was did you and what makes you so in the matter of a private think he said himself into madness as he went on to hell with your thinking ye dirty ye so chuckled the in the a well known voice and that was absolutely all the snapped fell back on the arm rack deliberately the men were at the far end of the room and took out his rifle and packet of don t go	39
life come on now the temptation was more than could resist for the in his white clothes offered a perfect mark don t me shouted firing as he spoke the shot missed and the blind with rage threw his down and rushed at from the protection of the well within striking distance he kicked savagely at s stomach but the knew something of s weakness and knew too the deadly guard for that kick bowing forward and drawing up his right leg till the heel of the right foot was set some three inches above the inside of the left knee cap he met the blow standing on one leg exactly as stand when they and ready for the fall that would follow there was an oath the fell over to matter of a private his own left as met and the private his right leg broken an inch above the ankle pity you don t know that guard sim said out the dust as he rose then raising his voice come an take i ve is leg this was not strictly true for the private had accomplished his own since it is the special merit of that leg guard that the harder the kick the greater the s discomfiture walked to and hung over him with exaggerated solicitude while weeping with pain was carried away you in t badly sir said the major had fainted and there was an ugly ragged hole through the top of his arm knelt down and murmured s me i believe e s dead well if that ain t my blooming luck all over but major was destined to lead his battery for many a long day with nerve he was removed and nursed and into while the battery discussed the wisdom of and blowing him from a gun they their major and his on parade resulted in a scene nowhere provided for in the army great too was the glory that fell to s share the would have made him drunk thrice a day for at least a fortnight even the colonel of his own regiment him upon his coolness and the local paper called him a hero which things did not puff him up when the major proffered him money and thanks the virtuous took the one and put aside the other but he had a request to make and it with many a beg y pardon sir could the major see his way to letting the wedding be adorned by the presence of four battery horses to pull a hired the major could and so could the battery excessively so it was a gorgeous wedding in the matter of a private did i do it for said for the o course ain t a beauty to look at but i wasn t goin to ave a hired turn out if i t a wanted something sim might ha blooming into for aught i d a cared and they hanged private hanged him as high as in hollow square of the regiment and the colonel said it was drink and the was sure it was the devil and fancied it was both but he didn t know and only hoped his fate would be a warning to his companions and half a dozen intelligent wrote six beautiful leading articles on the of crime in the army but not a soul thought of comparing the bloody minded to the gaping with which this story opens that would have been too absurd black jack black jack to the wake tim o came company all st s alley was there to see the of tim o there is a writer called mr robert louis who makes most delicate work in black and white and out to the of a hair he has written a story about a suicide club wherein men for death because other amusements did not bite sufficiently my friend private knows nothing about mr but he once assisted at a meeting of almost such a club as that gentleman has described and his words are true as the three share their silver tobacco and liquor together as they protect each other in or camp and as they rejoice together over the joy of one so do they divide their sorrows when s irrepressible tongue has brought him into for a season or has run through his and or has indulged in strong waters and under their influence his commanding officer you can see the trouble in the faces of the untouched twain and the rest of the regiment know that comment or jest is generally the three avoid orderly room and the corner shop that follows leaving both to the young who have not sown their wild but there are occasions for instance was sitting on the of the main ate of fort with bi hands in bis pockets black jack his pipe bowl down in his mouth was lying at full length on the turf of the kicking his heels in the air and i came round the corner and asked for into the ditch and shook his head no good im now said e s a listen i heard on the flags of the opposite to the which are close to the guard room a measured step that i could have identified in the tramp of an army there were twenty paces a pause and then twenty that s im said my that s im all for a button you could see your face in an a bit o lip that a would a back was doing pack was compelled that is to say to walk up and down for certain hours in full marching order with rifle and overcoat and his offence was being dirty on parade i nearly fell into the fort ditch with astonishment and wrath for is the man thai ever mounted guard and would as soon think	39
of turning out as of with his trousers who was the that checked him i asked o course said there ain t no other man would whip im on the so but ain t a man e s a dirty little that s e is what did say he s not the make of man to take that quietly said bin better for im if e d shut is mouth lord ow we laughed e ye say i m dirty well e when your wife lets you blow your own nose for yourself perhaps you ll know dirt is you re e an then we fell in but after p e was up an was black in the face at ly room that ad chilled im win w i r black jack knows all you know e ll ave is broke in one o these days e s too big a liar for consumption three hours can an the colonel not for bein dirty on p but for said to tho i do not believe e you said e said you said an fell away say in you know e never speaks to the colonel for fear o fresh a very young and very much married whose manners were partly the result of innate and partly of imperfectly board school came over the bridge and most rudely asked what he was doing me said ow i m waiting for my seed it along turned purple and passed on there was the sound of a gentle chuckle from the where lay expects to get his c mission some day explained the mess that ave to put their into the same as im time d you make it sir be out in an hour you don t want to buy a sir do you a you can trust by the colonel s grey i answered sternly for i knew what was in his mind do you mean to say that i didn t mean to money o you any ow said i d a sold you the good an cheap but but i know want after we ve walked im an i ain t got nor e t neither i d sooner sell you the sir s i would a shadow fell on the and began to rise into the air lifted by a huge hand upon his collar thing but t said quietly as he held the over the ditch thing but t ma son ah ve got one eight of own he showed two and replaced on the rail very good i said where are you going to goin to walk im e comes out two miles or three or said the footsteps within ceased i heard the dull of a falling on a followed by the rattle of arms ten minutes later attired his lips compressed and his face as black as a stalked into the sunshine on the and sprang from my side and closed in upon him both leaning towards as horses lean upon the pole in an instant they had disappeared down the sunken road to the and i was left alone had not seen fit to recognize me wherefore i felt that his trouble must be heavy upon him i climbed one of the and watched the figures of the three grow smaller and smaller across the plain they were walking as fast as they could put foot to the ground and their heads were bowed they fetched a great compass round the parade ground skirted the cavalry lines and vanished in the belt of trees that the low land by the river i followed slowly and sighted them dusty but still keeping up their long swinging tramp on the river bank they through the forest reserve headed towards the bridge of boats and presently established themselves on the bow of one of the i rode cautiously till i saw three of white smoke rise and die out in the clear evening air and knew that peace had come again at the bridge head they waved me forward with gestures of welcome tie up your shouted an come on sir we re all goin ome in this ere boat from the bridge head to the forest officer s is but a step the mess was there and would see that a man held my horse did the require aught else a or beer had left half a dozen bottles of the o latter but since the was a friend of and he the mess man was a poor man i gave my order quietly and returned to the bridge had taken off his boots and was his toes in the water was lying on his back on the and was pretending to row with a big f i m an ould fool said you two out here i was the black dog like a child me that was when an be damned to him was on a for shillings a week an that not paid i ve took you miles out natural s the odds as long as you re said applying himself afresh to the as well ere as anywhere else held up a and an eight bit and shook his head sorrowfully five mile from t all along o s pride i know ut said why will ye come me an yet i be sorry if ye did not any time though i am ould enough to know but i will do penance i will take a the butler of the forest was standing near the with a basket uncertain how to down to the might a know d you d a got liquor out o desert sir said gracefully to me then to the easy with them there bottles they re worth their weight in gold ye long armed beggar get out o that an em down had the basket	39
on the in an instant and the three gathered round it with dry lips they drank my health in due and ancient form and thereafter tobacco tasted sweeter than ever tliey absorbed all the beer black jack and disposed themselves in picturesque attitudes to admire the setting sun no man speaking for a while s head dropped upon his chest and we thought that he was asleep what on earth did you come so far for i whispered to to walk im o course when e s been checked we walks im ain t fit to be spoke to those times nor e ain t fit to leave alone neither so we takes im till e is raised his head and stared straight into the sunset i had my rifle said he an i had my an came round the comer an he looked in my face an grinned you can t blow your own nose he now i cannot tell s may ha been but mother god lie was nearer to his death that than i have been to mine and that s less than the a hair yes said calmly you d look fine with all your buttons took an the band in front o you slow time we re both front rank men me an when the ment s in square fine you d look the lord an the lord with that there drop blessed be the o the lord he in a quaint and suggestive fashion i s said slowly ah d take a ny o ma hand behind me be a fool you were not checked for you did not do an made a mock twas for less than that the ha sent o to hell him go by his own shot him retorted and who stopped the from doing it i asked that ould fool who s sorry he didn t stick the pig his b ad dropped again when be raised it he black jack shivered and put his hands on the shoulders of his two companions ye ve walked the out me said he shot out the red hot of his pipe on the back of the hairy fist they say ell s than that said he as swore aloud you be warned so look yonder he pointed across the river to a ruined temple me an you an he indicated me by a jerk of his head was there one day when hi made a show o myself you an im stopped me such an hi was on y for to desert you are a bigger show o yourself now don t mind him i said won t let you hang yourself yet awhile and you don t intend to try it either let s hear about the and o shot him for with his wife what happened before that there s no fool like an ould fool you know you can do me i m did i say i like to cut s liver out i deny the for fear that here report me ah you tip me into the river you sit quiet little man is not worth the trouble an p an i will him the an o o an the ould days are hard to bring back into the mouth but they re always inside the head followed a long pause o was a though i saved him for the honor the from his death that time i say it now he was a a long black haired which way asked women then i know another not more than in reason if you mane me ye i have been young an for why should i not black jack have what i did i i was use the rise my rank wan step an that taken away mere s the sorrow an the fault me to a as o did did i i was ril lay my spite upon a man an make his life a dog s life from day to day did i lie as o lied till the young in the turned white the fear the judgment god all in a lump as ut killed the woman at i did not i have my sins an i have made my an father victor knows the worst me o was before he on s an no man knows the worst him but this much i know the was any fashion in the ould days a from a from a from an that was a bad here there and but the large was black now there are an the good are good as the best but the bad are than the tis this way they together in pieces as fast as thieves an no wan knows they will do till wan turns an the gang is but ut begins again a day later in holes an corners an bloody oaths an a man in the back an away an thin for the blood money on the reward to see if ut s worth enough those are the black an tis they that bring upon the name an i kill as i nearly killed wan but to my room twas before i was married was twelve the the earth the the mane men that neither laugh nor talk nor yet get as a man they some their dog s on me but i a line round my cot an the man that ut into hospital for three days good o had put his spite oh the room he was my color an we do to him i was younger than i am now an i what i got in the way dressing down and my tongue in my cheek but it was the others an why i cannot say that	39
some men are mane an go to where a fist is more than enough a they changed their to me an was ly all twelve o in chorus i o s a and i m not for ut but is he the only man in the let him go he ll get tired our foul an our we will not let him go they thin take him i an a dashed poor yield you will get for your is he not himself s wife s another she s common to the i made ye this lar on a has he not put his spite on the us can we do that he will not check us for another that s i will ye not help us to do aught another a big man like you i will break his head upon his he puts hand on me l i will give him the lie he says that i m an i not mind him in the if ut was not that i m for my is that all ye will do another have ye no more than that ye blood calf blood i may be says i back to my cot an my line round ut but ye know that the man who comes this mark will be more blood than me no man gives me the name in my mouth i i will have no part you in ye do nor black jack will i raise my fist to my is any man on l they made no move tho i gave full time but an together at wan ind the room i up my cap and out to no little an there i grew most in my legs my head was all reasonable i to a man in e ny that was by way bein a mine i m from the belt down do you give me the touch your to my formation an march me the ground into the high grass i ll sleep ut off there i an he s dead now but good he was while he lasted walked me me the touch i wide we came to the high grass an my faith the sky an the earth was fair me i made for where the grass was an there i off my liquor an easy ce i did not desire to come on books too my been for the good half a year i roused the was out in me an i felt as though a she cat had in my mouth i had not learned to my liquor comfort in days tis little i am now will get to pour a bucket over my head thinks i an i ha risen but i heard some wan say can take the blame ut for the hound he is r i an my head rang like a guard room is the blame that this young man must take to oblige tim for twas tim that i turned on my belly an crawled through the grass a bit at a time to where the came from there was the twelve my down in a little patch the grass above their heads an the sin black in their hearts i put the stuff aside to get clear view s that wan man up a dog says you re a nice hand to this job i as i said will take the blame ut comes to a pinch tis to swear a man s life away a young wan thank ye for that thinks i now the arc you against me tis as easy as your at seven or o will come to the married quarters goin to call on s wife the swine wan us ll pass the to the room an we the an all a shine an on an t our boots about thin will come to give us the to be quiet the more by token the room lamp will be knocked over in the he will take the straight road to the ind door where there s the lamp in the an that ll bring him clear against the light as be he will not be able to look into the wan us will loose off an a close shot ut will be an shame to the man that be s ride she that is at the head the rack there s no that long cross eyed even in the the thief my ould piece out jealousy i was that an ut made me more angry than all but goes on o will an by the time the light s lit again there ll be some six us on the chest an s cot is near the ind door an the rifle will be him we ve knocked him over we know an all the knows that has given o more lip than any man us will there be any doubt at the martial twelve swear away the life a dear quiet man such as is his line pipe clay his cot us we ut as we can truthful testify black jack mary mother mercy thinks i to it is this to have an an fit to use o the hounds the big ran down my face for i was wake the liquor an had not the full my wits about me i laid an heard themselves up to swear my life by tales time i had put my mark on wan or another an my faith they was few that was not so twas all in the way fair fight though for did i raise my hand they had provoked me to ut tis all well wan but who s to do this tis will do that at the martial he will so the man but whose hand is put to the	39
in the room f who ll do ut round but a man answered they began to till kiss that was always play in five the that he his an out the greasy an they all fell in the notion deal on a big oath an the black curse come to the man that will not do his duty as the say black jack is the kiss black jack i to you is the ace which from time has been intimately connect battle an death kiss dealt an there was no sign but the men was the s their sow is twice kiss dealt an there was a gray shine on their cheeks like the mess an three times kiss dealt an they was blue have ye not lost him the sweat on him let s ha done quick quick ut is kiss t him the an ut fell face up on his knee black jack black jack thin they all duty wan an damned cheap at that price i but i see they all a little away from an him playing the no word for a but licked his lips cat ways thin he threw up his head an made the men swear by oath known an unknown to stand by him not alone in the room but at the martial that was to set on me he off five the biggest to stretch me on my cot the shot was fired an another man he off to put out the light an yet another to load my rifle he not do that himself an that was for twas but a little thing thin they swore over again that they not wan another an out the grass in ways two by two a mercy ut was that they did not come on me i was sick fear in the pit my sick sick sick they was all gone i back to an called for a to put a thought in me was there heavy an to me beyond reason will i do will i do thinks i to away the arm comes in an on not pleased any wan the bein new to the in those days we used to play the mischief her twas a long time before i get out the way to pull back the back sight an her over firing as if she was a tailor men do they give me to work the arm here s his nose flat as a table laid by for a week an ny their in knocked to small s wrong i wrong the arm i showed him as though i had been his mother the way a l n he an easy i to put her w black jack again an fire a blank into the blow pit to show how the dirt hung on the he did that but he did not put in the pin the block an he fired he was by the block clear well for him twas but a blank a full charge ha cut his oi out i looked a trifle wiser than a boiled sheep s head how s that i this way ye man an don t you be ut he that he shows me a action the her all cut away to show the an so was he to that he had done twice over an that comes not the you re he thank ye i i will come to you again for further information ye will not he your rod away from the pin or you will get into i outside an i could ha danced delight for the grandeur ut they will load my rifle good luck to i m away thinks i and back i to the to give them their clear the was men at the ind the day i made to be far gone in an wan by wan all my came in i away thick and heavy but not so thick an heavy that any wan ha me sure and there was a gone from my an snug in my rifle i was hot rage against all and i worried the bullet out my teeth as fast as i the room bein empty then i my boot un the rod and knocked out the pin the block oh twas music when that pin on the i put ut into my an stuck a dirt on the holes in the plate the block back that ll do your business i easy on the cot come an sit on my the whole room you an i will take you to my bosom black jack for the biggest that cheated i have im mercy on his oi or his life little i cared at dusk they came back the twelve an they had all been i was sleep on the cot wan man outside in the he they began to rage the room an carry on but i want to hear men laugh as they did too i twas like mad that noise in the dark an pop goes the room lamp i hear o up an the my rifle in the rack an the men heavy as they my cot i see o in the light the lamp an thin i heard the crack my rifle she cried loud poor bein next men were me down go easy i s ut all about thin on the raised a howl you hear from wan ind to the other i m dead fm fm blind i he saints have mercy on my sinful for father constant oh for father constant an let me go clean by that i knew he was not so dead as i ha wished o up the lamp in the a hand as as a rest damned dog s is this yours he and turns the light on tim	39
that was in blood from top to toe the block had sprung free a full charge good care to bite down the brass out the bullet that there might be to give ut full worth an had cut tim from the lip to the corner the right eye the in an so up an along by the forehead to the hair twas more a plough if you will than a clean cut an did i see a man as did the an the that he was in the blood strong the the men on my chest heard o they each wan to his cot an cried out very is ut is ut o tim well an good do you know ut is ye ditch dogs get a an take this away there will be more heard ut than any you will care for sat up his head in his hand an for father constant be done i o him up by the hair you re none so dead that you cannot go fifteen years for to shoot me i did not i was that s o for the front my is black your he up the rifle that was still warm an began to laugh i ll make your life hell to you he for attempted an your rifle you ll be hanged first an thin put for four fifteen the rifle s done for he why tis my rifle i up to look ye were you her answer me that lave me alone i m i ll wait till you re i an thin we two will talk ut out o pitched tim into the none too but all the by their which was not the sign men i was for my block but not ut at all i found ut now will i do o swinging the light in his hand an down the room i had hate and o an i have now dead tho he is but for all that will i say he was a brave man he is in this tide but i wish he hear that he down the room an the shivered before the oi him i knew him for a brave man an i liked him so will i do o an we beard the voice a woman low an in the twas s wife come over at the shot on wan the benches an scarce able to walk oh dear she have they you o looked down the room again an showed his teeth to the then he on the you re not worth ul he light that lamp ye dogs an that he turned away an i saw off s wife she to wipe off the black on the front his her handkerchief a brave man you are thinks i a brave man an a bad woman no wan said a word for a time they was all ashamed past d you think he will do wan at last he knows we re all in ut are we so i from my cot the man that that to me will be hurt i do not know i you have but by what i ve seen i know that you cannot commit another man s rifle such you are i m goin to i an you can blow my head off i lay i did not though for a long time can ye wonder next mom the news was through all the an there was that the men did not tell o reports fair an easy that was come to grief through his rifle in all for to show the an by my he had the impart to say that he was on the at the time an that ut was an you might ha knocked my down a straw they heard that twas lucky for that the were s to find out how the new rifle was made an a lot had come up for the pull by bits grass an such in the part the lock that showed near the the first issues of the was not covered in an i have the pull mine time an a light pull is ten points on the range to me i will not have this foolishness the colonel i will twist the tail off he but he saw him all tied up an in hospital he changed his will make him an early he to the doctor an was made so for a his big bloody an face up to wan side did more to the from the their than any o gave no reason for he d said an all my were too glad to inquire tho he put his spite upon more than before wan day he me apart very polite for he be that at the you re a good tho you re a damned man he fair words i or i may be again tis not like you he to lave your rifle in the rack the pin for the pin she was fired i should ha found the break ut in the eyes the holes else he i your life ha been worth the pin had been in place for on my my life be worth just as much to me i you whether ut was or was not be thankful the bullet was not there i that s he pulling his but i do not believe that you for all your lip was in that business i i hammer the life out a man in ten minutes my if that man me for i am a good an i will be as such an my are my own they re strong enough for all work i have to do they do not fly back towards me i him the eyes it i you re a	39
good man he me the eyes an oh he was a built man to see you re a man he an wish for the pure ut that i was not a or that you were not a an you will think me no coward i say this thing i do not i i saw you the rifle but i take the from me now as man to man the off tho tis little right i have to talk me being i am by this time ye no harm an next time ye may not but in the ind so sure as s wife came into the so sure will ye take harm an bad harm have thought l is ut worth ut ye re a man he man but i am a man tu do you go your way an i will go mine we had no further thin or but wan by another he the twelve my room out into other rooms an got spread among the for they was not a good breed to live together an the ny saw ut they ha shot me in the night they had known i knew but that they did not an in the ind as i said o met his death from for his wife he his own way too well too well to that affair to the right or to the he an may the lord have mercy on his ear ear said pointing the moral with a wave of his pipe an this is im oo would be a all for the sake of an a button never went after a woman in his life mrs she saw im one day i said hastily for the of private are slightly too daring for publication look at the sun it s a quarter past six s oh lord three of an hour for five an a miles i we ll ave to run like o the three don to the bridge and departed hastily in the direction of the road when i overtook them i offered them two and a tail which they accepted held the tail and in this manner we trotted steadily through the shadows by an road at the turn into the we heard carriage wheels it was the and in it sat the colonel s wife and daughter i caught a suppressed chuckle and my beast sprang forward with a lighter step the three had vanished into the night l and they were stronger hands than mine the the earth more cunning brains made it worth the large desire of a king and bolder hearts that through the went down the perfect pearl to bring i have wrought in common clay rude figures of a race for pearls not the market place in this my town of where with the shifting dust i play and eat the bread of discontent yet is there life in that i oh thou who turn and see as thou hast power over me so have i power over these because i wrought them for thy sake and breathed in them mine agonies small mirth was in the making now i lift the cloth that the clay and wearied at thy feet i lay my wares ere go forth to sell the long will praise but heart of my heart have i done well only a only a not only to enforce by command but to encourage by example the energetic discharge of duty and the steady endurance of the difficulties and from military set vice at my they made pass an examination at he was a gentleman before he was so when the announced that gentleman robert was posted as second lieutenant to the tail at he became an officer a a gentleman which is an thing and there was joy in the house of where mamma and all the little fell upon their knees and offered incense to by virtue of his achievements papa had been a in his day holding authority over three millions of men in the division building great works for the good of the land and doing his best to make two blades of grass grow where there was but one before of course nobody knew anything about this in the little english village where he was just old mr and had forgotten that he was a companion of the order of the star of india he patted on the shoulder and said well done my boy there followed while the uniform was being prepared an interval of pure delight during which took rank as a man at the women parties and of the village and i dare say had his joining time been extended would have fallen in love with s girls at a once little country villages at home are very full of nice because all the young men come out here to make their fortunes india said papa is the place i ve had thirty years of it and i d like to go back again when you join the tail you ll be among friends if every one hasn t forgotten of and a lot of people will be kind to you for our the mother will tell you more about than i can but remember this stick to your regiment stick to your regiment you ll see men all round you going into the staff corps and doing every possible sort of duty but and you may be tempted to follow suit now so long as you keep within your allowance and i haven t you there stick to the line the whole line and nothing but the line be careful how you back another young fool s bill and if you fall in love with a woman twenty years older than yourself don t tell me about it that s all with these counsels and many others	39
awful bad and he leave the what at the what name leave the flock without shelter leave the corpse l ave the at the altar my faith it ll be more corpse than bride though this journey jump in f on the platform waited a of officers discussing the latest news from the stricken and it was here that learned the real condition of the tail they went into camp said an elderly major recalled from the tables at to a sickly native regiment they went into camp with two hundred and ten sick in carts two hundred and ten fever cases only and the balance looking like so many ghosts with sore eyes a regiment could have walked through em but they were as fit as be damned when i left them said then you d better make them as fit as be damned when you said the major pressed his forehead the rain window pane as the train across the and prayed for the health of the tail had sent down her with all speed the of the road staggered into to the full stretch of their strength while from cloudy the mail whirled up the last of the little army that was to fight a fight in which was neither nor honor for the winning against an enemy none other than the sickness that in the and as each man reported himself he said this is a bad business and went about his own forthwith for every only a and battery in the was under canvas the sickness bearing them company fought his way through the rain to the tail temporary mess and could have fallen on the boy s neck for the joy of seeing that ugly wholesome once more keep em amused and interested said they went on the drink poor fools after the first two cases and there was no improvement oh it s good to have you back is a never mind came over from the camp to attend a dreary mess dinner and contributed to the general gloom by nearly weeping over the condition of his beloved battery so far forgot himself as to that the presence of the officers could do no earthly good and that the best thing would be to send the entire regiment into hospital and let the doctors look after them was with fear nor was his presence of mind restored when said coldly oh the sooner you go out the better if that s your way of thinking any public school could send us fifty men in your place but it takes time time and money and a certain amount of trouble to make a regiment s pose you re the person we go into camp for eh whereupon was overtaken with a great and chilly fear which a in the rain did not and two days later quitted this world for another where men do fondly hope are made for the weaknesses of the flesh the major looked wearily across the mess tent when the news was announced there goes the worst of them he said it ll take the best and then please god it ll stop the were silent till one said it couldn t be him and all knew of whom was thinking through the tents of his company only a mildly as is consistent with the tions the faint hearted the sound into the watery sunlight when there was a break in the weather and bidding them be of good cheer for their trouble was nearly at an end on his pony round the outskirts of the camp and heading back men who with the innate of british soldiers were always wandering into villages or drinking deeply from rain comforting the panic stricken with rude speech and more than once tending the dying who had no friends the men without with and burnt cork which should allow the talent of the regiment full play and generally as he explained playing the giddy garden goat all round you re worth half a dozen of us said his in a moment of enthusiasm how the devil do you keep it up made no answer but had looked into the breast pocket of his coat he might have seen there a of badly written letters which perhaps accounted for the power that possessed the boy a letter came to every other day the was not above reproach but the sentiments must have been most satisfactory for on receipt s eyes softened and he was wont to fall into a tender abstraction for a while ere shaking his head he charged into his work anew by what power he drew after him the hearts of the and the tail counted in their ranks some rough diamonds indeed was a mystery to both and c o who learned from the that was considerably more in request in the hospital tents than the reverend john the men seem fond of you are you in the much said the colonel who did his daily round and only a ordered the men to get well with a that did not cover his bitter grief a little sir said shouldn t go there too often if i were you they say it s not but there s no use in running unnecessary risks we can t afford to have you down y know six days later it was with the utmost difficulty that the his way out to the camp with the mail bags for the rain was falling in torrents received a letter bore it off to his tent and the programme for the next week s sing song being satisfactorily disposed of sat down to answer it for an hour the pen toiled over the paper and where sentiment rose to more than normal tide level stuck out his tongue and breathed heavily he was not used to letter writing beg	39
y pardon sir said a voice at the tent door but s bad sir an they ve taken him sir damn private and you too said running the over the half finished letter tell him i ll come in the morning e s awful bad sir said the voice hesitatingly there was an of heavy boots well said impatiently before and for the liberty e says it would be a comfort for to assist im sir if loo here come in out of the rain till i m ready what you are that is brandy drink some you want it hang on to my and tell me if i go too fast strengthened by a four finger which he absorbed without a wink the hospital orderly kept up with the slipping mud stained and very disgusted pony as it to the hospital tent private was certainly b d he had all only a but reached the stage of and was not pleasant to look upon what s this said bending over the man you re not going out this time you ve got to come fishing with me once or twice more yet the blue lips parted and in the ghost of a whisper said beg y pardon sir of you now but would you my and sir sat on the side of the bed and the icy cold hand closed on his own like a vice forcing a lady s ring which was on the little finger deep into the flesh set his lips and waited the water dripping from the hem of his trousers an hour passed and the grasp of the hand did not nor did the expression of the drawn face change with infinite craft lit himself a with the left hand his right arm was to the elbow and resigned himself to a night of pain dawn showed a very white faced sitting on the side of a sick man s cot and a i in the doorway using language for publication have you been here all night you young ass said the doctor there or said he s frozen on to me s mouth shut with a click he turned his head and sighed the clinging hand opened and s arm fell useless at his side he ll do said the doctor quietly it must have been a toss up all through the night think you re to be congratulated on this case oh i said i thought the man had gone out long ago only only i didn t care to take my hand away rub my arm down there s a good chap what a grip the brute has i m chilled to the he passed out of the tent shivering only a private was allowed to his of l by strong waters four days later he sat on the side of his cot and said to the mildly td a to a spoken to im so i should but at that time was reading yet another he had the most persistent correspondent of any man in camp and was even then about to write that the sickness had and in another week at the outside would be gone he did not intend to say that the chill of a sick man s hand seemed to have struck into the heart whose for affection he dwelt on at such length he did intend to the illustrated programme of the sing song whereof be was not a little proud he also intended to write on many other matters which do not concern us and doubtless would have done so but for the slight feverish headache which made him dull and at mess you are it said his might give the rest of us credit for doing a little work you go on as is if you were the whole mess rolled into one take it easy i will said i m feeling done up somehow looked at him anxiously and said nothing there was a flickering of about the camp that night and a that brought men out o the tent doors a of the naked feet of and the rush of a galloping horse s up asked twenty tents and through twenty tents ran the answer e s down they brought the news to and he groaned any one but and i shouldn t have cared the major was right not going out this journey gasped as he was lifted from the not going out this journey then with an air of supreme conviction i you see not if i can do anything said the surgeon major who bad hastened over from the mess where he bad been dining only a he and the surgeon fought together with death for the life of their were interrupted by a hairy apparition in a blue gray dressing gown who stared in round eyed horror at the bed and cried ow my it can t be im until an indignant hospital orderly him away if care of man and desire to live could have done aught would have been saved as it was he made a fight of three days and the surgeon major s brow we u save him yet he said and the surgeon who though he with the captain had a very youthful heart went out upon the word and in the mud not going out this journey whispered gallantly at the end of the third day said the surgeon major that s the way to look at it as evening fell a gray shade gathered round s mouth and he turned his face to the tent wall wearily the surgeon major frowned awfully tired said very faintly what s the use of me with medicine i don t want it let me alone the desire for life had departed and was content to drift away	39
on the easy tide of death it s no good said the surgeon major he doesn t want to live he s meeting it poor child and he blew his nose half a mile away the band was playing the to the sing song for the men had been told that was out of danger the clash of the brass and the wail of the horns reached s ears is there a single joy or pain that i should never ow you do not love tis in vain i me good b and i only a an expression of hopeless irritation crossed the boy s face and he tried to shake his head the surgeon major bent down what is it not that muttered that s our own our very own dear with this sentence he sank into the stupor that gave place to death early next morning his eyes red at the and his nose very white went into s tent to write a letter to papa which should bow the white head of the ex of in the keenest sorrow of his life s little store of papers lay in confusion on the table and among them a half finished letter the last sentence ran so you see darling there is really no fear because as long as i know you care for me and i care for you nothing can touch me stayed in the tent for an hour when he came out his eyes were than ever private sat on a turned down bucket and ned to a not tune private was a and should have been tenderly treated ho said private there s another da ed the bucket shot from under him and his eyes filled with a of sparks a tall man in a blue gray bed gown was regarding him with deep you ought to take shame for yourself i ll learn you to the likes of im that s e is and the hospital orderly was so satisfied with the justice of the punishment that he did not even order private back to his cot for jealousy is the rage of a man therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance vii and grapes from or a pony of the if the will only come with me he is thirteen three plays goes in a cart carries a lady and holy and the blessed it is the himself my heart is made fat and my eye glad may you never be tired as is cold water in the so is the sight of a friend in a far place and what do you in this accursed land south of you know the saying rats are the men and the women it was an order an order is an order till one is strong enough to o my brother o my friend we have met in an hour is all well in the heart and the body and the house in a lucky day have we two come together again i am to go with you your favor is great will there be room in the compound i have three horses and the bundles and the horse boy moreover remember that the police here hold me a horse thief what do these know of horse thieves do you remember that time in when on the gates of that he was and lifted the colonel s horses all in one night is dead now but his nephew has taken up the matter and there will be more horses a missing if the do not look to it the peace of god and the favor of his prophet be upon this house and all that is in it rope the d mare under the tree and draw water the horses can stand in the sun but double the over the nay ray friend do not trouble to look them over they are to sell to the officer fools who know so many things of the horse the mare is heavy in the gray is a devil and the but you the trick of the when they are sold i go back to or it may be the valley of o friend of my heart it is good to see you again i have been bowing and lying all day to the officer in respect to those horses and my mouth is dry for straight talk before a meal tobacco is ood do not join me for we are not in our own country sit in the and i will spread my cloth here but i will drink in the name of god returning thanks thrice this is sweet water indeed sweet as the water of when it comes from the they are all well and pleased in the north and the others has come down with the horses from six and thirty head only and a full half and has said openly in the that you english should send guns and blow the into hell there are fifteen now on the road and at when he thought he was clear was stripped of all his by the governor i this is a great injustice and is hot with rage and of the others is still at writing god knows what is in jail for the business of the police post beg came down from ki with a belt for thee my brother at the closing of the year but none knew whither thou gone there was no news left behind the cousins have taken a new run near to breed for the government carts and there is a story in of a priest such a salt tale listen why do you ask that my clothes are because of the dust on the road my eyes are sad because of d	39
war a the glare of the sun my feet are swollen because i have washed them in bitter water and my cheeks are hollow because the food here is bad fire burn your money what do i want with it i am rich and i thought you were my friend but you are like the others a is a man sad give him money say the is he give him money say the hath he a wrong upon his head give him money say the such are the and such art thou even thou nay do not look at the feet of the pity it is that i ever taught you to know the legs of a horse foot sore be it so what of that the roads are hard and the foot sore she bears a double burden and now i pray you give me permission to depart great favor and honor has the done me and graciously has he shown his belief that the horses are stolen will it please him to send me to the to call a and have me led away by one of these men i am the s friend i have drunk water in the shadow of his house and he has blackened my face remains there anything more to do will the give me eight to make smooth the injury and complete the insult forgive me my brother i knew not i know not now what i say yes i lied to you i will put dust on my head and i am an i the horses have been marched from the valley to this place and my eyes are dim my body for the want of sleep and my heart is dried up with sorrow and shame but as it was my shame so by god the of justice by al it shall be my own revenge i we have spoken together with naked hearts before this and our hands have dipped into the same dish and thou has been to me as a brother therefore i pay thee back with lies and ingratitude as a listen now when the grief of the soul is too heavy for endurance it may be a little y s by speech and moreover the mind of a true man is as a well and the of confession dropped therein sinks and is no more seen from the valley have i come on foot league by league with a fire in my chest like the fire of the pit and why hast thou then so quickly forgotten our customs among this folk who sell their wives and their daughters for silver come back with me to the north and be among men once more come back when this matter is accomplished and i call for thee the bloom of the is upon all the valley and is only dust and a great there is a pleasant wind among the trees and the streams are bright with snow water and the go up and the go down and a hundred fires sparkle in the of the pass and tent answers and pack horse to pack horse across the drift smoke of the evening it is good in the north now come back with me let us return to our own people come whence is my sorrow does a man tear out his heart and make thereof over a slow fire for aught other than a woman do not laugh friend of mine for your time will also be a woman of the was she and i took her to wife to the between our and the men of i am no longer young the lime has touched my beard true i had no need of the wedding nay but i loved her what into whose heart love enters there is folly and naught else by a glance of the eye she hath blinded thee and by the eyelids and the fringe of the eyelids taken thee into the without and naught else dost thou remember that song at the sheep in the camp among the of the the are dogs and their women the servants of sin there was a lover of her own people but of that her father told me naught my friend curse for me in your prayers as i curse at each praying from the to the the name of ay vow whose head is still upon his neck whose hands are still upon his wrists who has done me who has made my name a laughing stock among the women of little i went into at the end of two months to i was gone twelve days only but i had said that i would be fifteen days absent this i did to try her for it is written trust not the incapable coming up the alone in the falling of the light i heard the voice of a man singing at the door of my house and it was the voice of and the song that he sang was all three are one it was as though a heel rope had been slipped round my heart and all the devils were drawing it tight past endurance i crept silently up the hill road but the of my was with the rain and i could not from afar moreover it was in my mind to kill the woman also thus he sang sitting outside my house and anon the woman the door and i came nearer crawling on my belly among the rocks i had only my knife to my hand but a stone slipped under my foot and the two looked down the and he leaving his fled from my anger because he was afraid for the life that was in him but the woman moved not till i stood in front of	39
her crying o woman what is this that thou hast done and she void of fear though she knew my thought laughed saying it is a little thing i loved him and thou art a dog and cattle thief coming by night strike and i being still blinded by her beauty for o my friend the women of the are very fair said hast thou no fear and she answered but only the fear that i do not die then said i have no fear and she bowed her head and i smote it off at the neck bone so that it leaped between my feet thereafter the rage of our people came upon me and i off the breasts that the men of little might know the and cast the body into the water di ay course that flows to the river i the body without the head the soul without light and my own heart all three are one all three are one that night making no halt i went to and demanded news of men said he is gone to for horses what thou of him there is peace between the villages i made answer ay the peace of treachery and the love that the devil bore to and i fired thrice into the gate and laughed and went my way in those hours brother and friend of my heart s heart the moon and the stars were as blood above me and in my mouth was the taste of dry earth also i broke no bread and my drink was the rain of the of upon my face at i found the writer sitting upon his and gave up my arms according to your law but i was not grieved for it was in my heart that i should kill with my bare hands as a man a bunch of said has even now gone hot foot to and he will pick up his horses upon the road to for it is said that the company are buying horses there by the load eight horses to the and that was a true saying then i saw that the hunting would be no little thing for the man was gone into your borders to save himself against my wrath and he save himself so am i not alive though he run northward to the and the snow or to the black water i will follow him as a lover follows the footsteps of his mistress and coming upon him i will take him tenderly so tenderly in my arms saying well hast thou done and well shalt thou be repaid and out of that embrace shall not go forth with the breath in his nostrils where is the i im as thirsty as a mother mare in the first month your law what is your law to me when the fight on the runs do they regard the boundary pillars or do the of all forbear because the lies under the shadow of the the matter began across the border it shall finish where god pleases here in my own country or in hell all three are one listen now of the sorrow of my heart and i will tell of the hunting i followed to from and i went to and fro about the streets of like a dog seeking for my enemy once i thought that i saw him washing his mouth in the in the big square but when i came up he was gone it may be that it was he and seeing my face he had fled a girl of the said that he would go to i said o heart s heart does visit thee and she said even so i said i would fain see him for we be friends parted for two years hide me i pray here in the shadow of the window and i will wait for his coming and the girl said o look into ray eyes and i turned leaning upon her breast and looked into her eyes swearing that i spoke the very truth of god but she answered never friend waited friend with such eyes lie to god and the prophet but to a woman ye cannot lie get hence there shall no harm befall by cause of me i would have that girl but for the fear of your police and thus the hunting would have come to naught therefore i only laughed and departed and she leaned over the window bar in the night and me down the street her name is when i have made my account with the man i will return to and her lovers shall desire her no more for her beauty s sake she shall not be but the among trees ho ho shall she be i at i bought the horses and grapes and the and dried fruits that the reason of my wanderings might be open to the government and that there might be no upon the road but when i came to he was gone and i knew not where to go i stayed one day at and in the night a voice spoke in my ears as i slept among the horses all night it flew round my head and would not cease from whispering i was upon my belly sleeping as the devils sleep and it may have been that the voice was the voice of a devil it said go south and thou shalt come upon listen my brother and among friends listen is the tale a long one think how it was long to me i have trodden every league of the road from to this place and from my guide was only the voice and the lust of vengeance to the i went but that was no to	39
me ho ho a man may turn the word twice even in his trouble the was no obstacle to me and i heard the voice above the noise of the waters beating on the big rock saying go to the right so i went to and in those days my sleep was taken from me utterly and the head of the woman of the was before me night and day even as it had fallen between my feet p ire ashes and my couch all three are one all three are one now i was far from the winter path of the who had gone to and so south by the rail and the big road to the line of but there was a in camp at who brought from me a white mare at a good price and told me that one had passed to with horses then i saw that the warning of the voice was true and made swift to come to the salt hills the was in flood but i could not wait and in the crossing a bay was washed down and drowned was god hard to me not in respect of the beast of that i had no care but in this while i was upon the right bank urging the horses into the water was upon co h the left for the hoofs of my mare scattered the hot ashes of his fires when we came up the hither bank in the light of morning but he had fled his feet were made swift by the terror of death and i went south from as the flies i dared not turn aside lest i should miss my vengeance which is my right from i skirted by the for i thought that he would avoid the desert of the but presently at i turned away upon the road to and till upon a night the mare the fence of the rail that runs to and that place was and the head of the woman of the lay upon the sand between ray feet thence i went to and they said that i was mad to bring starved horses there the voice was with me and i was not mad but only wearied because i could not find it was written that i should not find him at nor and i came into from the west and there also i found him not my friend i have seen many strange things in my wanderings i have seen devils across the as the riot in spring i have heard the calling to each other from holes in the sand and i have seen them pass before my face there are no devils say the they are very wise but they do not know all things about devils or horses ho ho i say to you who are laughing at my misery that i have seen the devils at high noon and leaping on the of the and was i afraid my brother when the desire of a man is set upon one thing alone he fears neither god nor man nor devil if my vengeance failed i would the gates of paradise with the butt of my gun or i would cut my way into hell with my knife and i would call upon those who govern there for the body of what love so deep as hate do not speak i know the thought in your heart is the h white of this eye clouded how does the blood beat at the wrist there is no madness in my flesh but only the vehemence of the desire that has eaten me up listen south of i knew not the country at all therefore i cannot say where i went but i passed through many cities knew only that it was laid upon me to go south when the horses could march no more i threw myself upon the and waited till the day there was no sleep with me in that and that was a heavy burden dost thou know brother of mine the evil of that cannot break when the bones are sore for lack of sleep and the skin of the temples with weariness and yet there is no sleep there is no sleep i ray i the eye of the sun the eye of the moon and my own eyes all three are one all three are one there was a city the name whereof i have and there the voice called all night that was ten days ago it has cheated me afresh i have come hither from a place called and behold it is my fate that i should meet with thee to my com fort and the increase of friendship this is a good omen by the joy of looking upon thy face the weariness has gone from my feet and the sorrow of my so long travel is forgotten also my heart is peaceful for i know that the end is near it may be that i shall find in this city going northward since a will ever head back to his hills when the spring and shall he see those hills of our country surely i shall overtake him i surely my vengeance is safe surely god hath him in the hollow of his hand against my claiming there shall no harm befall till i come for i would fain kill him quick and whole with the life sticking firm in his body a is sweetest when the break away unwilling from the let it be in the that i may see his face and my delight may be crowned and when i have accomplished the matter and my honor is made clean i shall return thanks unto god the of the scale of the law and i shall sleep from the night through the	39
day and into the night again i shall sleep and no dream shall trouble me and now o my brother the tale is all told the judgment of the judgment of see the pale martyr with his shirt on fire s error they tell the tale even now among the groves of the hill and for point to the and mission house the great god the god of things as they are most terrible one eyed bearing the red elephant did it all and he who refuses to believe in will assuredly be smitten by the madness of the madness that fell upon the sons and the daughters of the when they turned aside from and put on clothes so says who is high priest of the shrine and of the red elephant but if you ask the assistant and agent in change of the he will laugh not because he bears any malice against but because he himself saw the vengeance of executed upon the spiritual children of the reverend of the mission and upon his virtuous wife yet if ever a man good treatment of the gods it was the reverend one time of who on the faith of a call went into the wilderness and took the blue eyed with him we will these heathen now by so darkened better make said in the early days of his career yes he added with conviction they shall be good and shall with their hands to work learn for all good christians must work and upon a more modest even than that of an english kept house beyond and the the judgment of a r a of beyond the river close to the foot of the blue hill of on whose summit stands the temple of in the heart of the country of the the naked good tempered timid lazy do you know what life at a mission means try to imagine a loneliness exceeding that of the smallest station to which government has ever sent you that upon the waking eyelids and drives you headlong into the labors of the day there is no post there is no one of your own color to speak to there are no roads there is indeed food to keep you alive but it is not pleasant to eat and whatever of good or beauty or interest there is in your life must from yourself and the grace that may be planted in you in the morning with a of soft feet the the doubtful and the open troop up the you must be infinitely kind and patient and above all for you deal with the simplicity of childhood the experience of man and the of the savage your congregation have a hundred material wants to be considered and it is for you as you believe in your personal responsibility to your maker to pick out of the crowd any of that may lie therein if to the cure of you add tliat of bodies your task will be all the more difficult for the sick and the will profess any and every creed for the sake of healing and will laugh at you because you are simple enough to believe them as the day wears and the of the morning dies away there will come upon you an overwhelming sense of the of your toil this must be against and the only spur in your side will be the belief that you are playing against the devil for the living soul it is a great a joyous belief but he who can hold it for four and twenty hours must be blessed with an abundantly strong and nerve the judgment of ask the gray heads of the medical what manner of life their lead speak to the gospel agency those lean americans whose boast is that they go where no englishmen dare follow a of the mission to talk of his experiences if you can you will be referred to the printed reports but these contain no mention of the men who have lost youth and health all that a man may lose except faith in the of english maidens who have gone forth and died in the fever stricken of the hills knowing from the first that death was almost a certainty few will tell you of these things any more than they will speak of that young david of st bees who set ap art for the lord s work broke down in the utter desolation and returned half to the head mission crying there is no god but have walked with the devil the reports are silent here because heroism failure doubt despair and self on the part of a mere white man are things of no weight as compared to the saving of one half human soul from a fantastic faith in wood spirits of the rock and river and the assistant of the country side cared for none of these things he had been long in the district and the loved him and brought him of fish from the dim moist heart of the forests and as much game as he could eat in return he gave them and with the high priest controlled their simple when you have been some years in the country said at the table you grow to find one creed as good as another til give you all the assistance in my power of course but don t hurt my they are a good people and they trust me i will them the word of the lord teach said his round face beaming with enthusiasm and i will assuredly to the judgment of their prejudices no wrong hastily without thinking make but o my friend this in the mind of creed judgment is very bad ho said i have their bodies and the district to see to but you can	39
try what you can do for their souls only don t behave as your did or i m afraid that i can t your life and that said handing him a cup of tea he went up to the temple of to be sure he was new to the country and began old over the head with an umbrella so the turned out and him rather savagely i was in the district and he sent a to me with a note saying persecuted for the lord s sake send wing of regiment the nearest troops were about two hundred miles off but i guessed what he had been doing i rode to and talked to old like a father telling him that a man of his wisdom ought to have known that the had and was mad yoa never saw a people more sorry in your life sent wood and milk and fowls and all sorts of things and i gave five to the shrine and told that he had been he said tliat i had bowed down in the house of but if he had only just gone over the brow of the hill and insulted the idol of the he would have been on a long before i could have done anything and then i should have had to have hanged some of the poor brutes be gentle with them but i don t think you ll do much not i said but my master we will with the little children begin many of them will be sick that is so after the children the mothers and then the men but i would greatly that you were in internal sympathies with us prefer departed to risk his life in mending the rotten bam the judgment of bridges of his people in killing a too persistent tiger here or in sleeping out in the or in the who had taken a few heads from their brethren of the a knock young man was naturally devoid of creed or reverence with a longing for absolute power which his district gratified no one wants my post he used to say grimly and my only his nose in when he s quite certain that there is no fever i m monarch of all i survey and is my because himself on his supreme disregard of human life though he never extended the theory his own he naturally rode forty miles to the mission with a tiny brown baby on his here is something for you said he the leave their children to die don t sec why they shouldn t but you may rear this one i picked it up beyond the fork i ve a notion that the mother has been following me through the woods ever since it is the first of the fold said and caught up the screaming morsel to her bosom and hushed it while as a wolf hangs in the field who had borne it and in accordance with the law of her tribe had exposed it to die panted weary and in the watching the house with hungry mother eyes what would the assistant do would the little man in the black coat eat her daughter alive as said was the custom of all men in black coats waited among the through the long night and in the morning there came forth a fair white woman the like of whom had never seen and in her arms was s daughter clad in knew little of the tongue of the but when mother calls to speech is easy to understand by the hands stretched the judgment of timidly to the hem of her gown by the passionate and the longing eyes understood with whom she had to deal so took her child again would be a servant even a slave to this wonderful white woman for her own tribe would recognize her no more and wept with her after the german fashion which much blowing of the nose first the child then the mother and last the man and to the glory of god all said the hopeful and the man came with a bow and arrows very angry indeed for there was no one to cook for him but the tale of the mission is a long one and i have no space to show how forgetful of his smote the husband of for his how was startled but being released from the fear of instant death took heart and became the faithful ally and first convert of how the little gathering grew to the huge disgust of how the priest of the god of things as they are argued with the priest of the god of things as they should be and was how the of the temple of fell away in fowls and fish and how lightened the curse of eve among the women and how did his best to introduce the curse of adam how the at this saying that their god was an idle god and how partially overcame their scruples against work and taught them that the black earth was rich in other produce than pig nuts only all these things belong to the history of many months and throughout those months the white haired meditated revenge for the neglect of with savage cunning he feigned friendship towards even at his own but to the congregation he said darkly they of the s flock have put on clothes and worship a busy god therefore will them till they throw themselves the judgment of ing into the waters of the at night the red elephant and groaned among the hills and the faithful and said the god of things as they are revenge against the be merciful to us thy children and give us all their crops late in the cold weather the and his wife came into the country go	39
and look at s mission said he is doing good work in his way and i think he d be pleased if you opened the chapel that he has managed to run up at any rate you ll see a civilized great was the stir in the mission now he and the gracious lady will that we have done good work with their own eyes see and yes we will him our in all their new clothes by their own hands constructed exhibit it will a great day be for the lord always said and said amen had in his quiet way felt jealous of the weaving mission his own being but had induced some of them to the glossy of a plant that grew on the hill it yielded a cloth while and smooth almost as the of the south seas and that day the were to wear for the first time clothes made was proud of his work they shall in white clothes clothed to meet the and his well born lady come down singing now thank we all our god then he will the chapel open and yes even to believe will begin stand so my children two by two and why do they thus themselves it is not to my child the will be here and be pained the his wife and climbed the hill to the mission station the were drawn up in two lines a shining band nearly forty strong said the col io the judgment of whose bent of mind led him to believe that he had the institution from the first advancing i see by leaps and bounds never was truer word spoken the mission was advancing exactly as he had said at first by little and of shame faced uneasiness but soon by the leaps of fly stung horses and the bounds of from the hill of the red elephant delivered a dry and the ranks of the wavered broke and scattered with and shrieks of pain while and stood horror stricken it is the judgment of shouted a voice i bum i burn to the river or we die the mob wheeled and headed for the rocks that the stamping twisting and shedding its garments as it ran pursued by the thunder of the trumpet of and fled to the almost in tears i cannot understand yesterday panted they had the ten what is this praise the lord all good spirits by land or by sea oh shame with a bound and a scream there alighted on the rocks above their heads once the pride of the mission a maiden of fourteen good and virtuous now naked as the dawn and like a wild cat was it for this she her at was it for this i left my people and for the fires of your bad place blind little earth dried fish that you are you said that i should never burn o i bum now i burn now have mercy god of things as they are she turned and flung herself into the and the trumpet of the last of the the judgment of of the mission had put a quarter of a mile of rapid river between herself and her teachers yesterday she taught in the school a b c d oh it is the work of satan but was curiously regarding the maiden s where it had fallen at his feet he felt its texture drew back his shirt sleeve beyond the deep tan of his hand and pressed a fold of the cloth against the flesh a of angry red rose on the white skin ah said calmly i thought so what is it said i should call it the of but where did you get the fibre of this cloth from said he showed the boys how it should be the old fox i do you that he has given you the to work up no they why it even when they make bridge ropes of it unless it s soaked for six weeks the cunning brute it would take about half an hour to bum through their thick hides and then burst into laughter but was weeping in the arms of the s wife and had covered his face with his hands repeated why you tell me i could have saved you this woven fire anybody but a naked would have known it and if i m a judge of their ways you ll never get them back he looked across the river to where the were still and wailing in the and the laughter died out of his eyes for he saw that the mission to the was dead never again though they hung mournfully around the deserted school for three months could or n tb promising of tb ir no nd the judgment of of was the fire of the bad place fire that ran through the limbs and into the bones who dare a second time tempt the anger of let the little man and his wife go elsewhere the would have none of them an message to that if a hair of their heads were touched and the priests of would be hanged by at the temple shrine protected and from the poisoned arrows of the but neither fish nor fowl salt nor young pig were brought to their doors any more and alas man cannot live by grace alone if meat be wanting let us go mine wife said there is no good here and the lord willed that some other man shall the work take in good time in his own good time we will go away and i will yes some if any one is anxious to convert the afresh there lies at least the core of a mission house under the hill of but the chapel and school have	39
long since fallen back into at than a at his own shoe his own bead native proverb as a messenger if the heart of the presence be moved to so great favor and on six yes for i have three little children whose are always empty and corn is now but twenty pounds to the i will make so clever a messenger that you shall all day long be pleased with me and at the end of the year bestow a i know all the roads of the and things i i am clever give me service i was in the a bad character now without doubt an enemy has told this tale never was i a i am a man of clean heart and all my words are true they knew this when i was in the police they said is a true speaker in whose words men may trust i am a all are good men you have seen yes it is true that there be many among the how wise is the nothing is hid from his eyes and he will make me his messenger and i will take all his notes secretly and without nay is my witness that i meant no evil have long desired to serve under a true a virtuous many young are as devils with these i would take no service not though all the of my little children were crying for bread why am i not still in the police i will speak true talk ad evil came to the to ram the lu id and ut ram and and at ram is in the jail for a space and so also is it was at the of on the road that leads to wherein are many we were all brave men wherefore we were sent to that which was eight miles from the next all day and all night we watched for why does the laugh nay i will make a confession the were too clever and seeing this we made no further trouble it was in the hot weather what can a man do in the hot days is the who is so strong is he even vigorous in that hour we made an arrangement with the for the sake of peace that was the work of the who was fat ho ro he is now getting thin in the jail among the carpets the said give us no trouble and we will give you no trouble at the end of the send us a man to lead before the judge a man of mind against whom the up case will break down thus we shall save our honor to this talk the agreed and we had no trouble at the and could eat in peace sitting upon our all day long sweet as sugar cane are the of now there was an assistant a in that district called he was hard hard even as is the who without doubt will give me the shadow of his protection many eyes had and moved quickly through his district men called him the tiger of because he would arrive and make his kill and before sunset would be giving trouble to the thirty miles away no one knew the or the of he had no camp and when his horse was weary he rode upon a i do not know its name but the sat in the midst of three silver wheels that made no creaking and m witb bis le i pr fed a at than a shadow of a hawk upon the fields was not more without noise than the devil carriage of it was here it was there it was gone and the was made and there was trouble ask the of how the came to be known it fell upon a night that we of the slept according to custom upon our having eaten the evening meal and drunk tobacco when we awoke in the morning behold of our six not one remained also the big police book that was in the s charge was gone seeing these things we were very much afraid thinking on our parts that the regardless of honor had come by night and put us to shame then said ram be silent the business is an evil business but it may yet go well let us make the case complete bring a kid and my see you not now o fools a kick for a horse but a word is enough for a man we of the perceiving quickly what was in the mind of the and greatly fearing that the service would be lost made haste to take the kid into the inner room and attended to the words of the twenty came said the and we taking his words repeated after him according to custom there was a great fight said the and of us no man escaped the bars of the window were broken see thou to that and o men put speed into your work for a must go with the news to the tiger of leaning with his shoulder in the bars of the window and i beating her with a whip made the s mare among the beds till they were much trodden with prints these things being made i returned to the and the goat was slain and certain portions of the walls were blackened with fire and each man dipped his clothes a little into the blood of the goat know o that a wound made t at by man upon his own body can by those skilled be easily discerned from a wound wrought by another man therefore the taking his smote one of us lightly on the fore arm in the fat and another on the leg and a third on the back of the hand thus dealt	39
he with all of us till the blood came and more eager than the others took out much hair o never was so perfect an arrangement yea even i would have sworn that the had been treated as we said there was smoke and breaking and blood and trampled earth ride now said the to the house of the and carry the news of the do you also o run there and take heed that you are with sweat and dust on your in coming the blood will be dry on the clothes i will stay and send a straight report to the and we will catch certain that ye know of villagers so that all may be ready against the s arrival thus rode and i ran hanging on the and together we came in an evil plight before the tiger of in the our tale was long and correct for we gave even the names of the and the issue of the fight and him to come but the tiger made no sign and only smiled after the manner of when they have a wickedness in their hearts swear ye to the said he and we said thy servants swear the blood of the fight is but newly dry upon us judge thou if it be the blood of the servants of the presence or not and he said i see ye have done well but he did not call for his horse or his devil carriage and the land as was his custom he said rest now and eat bread for ye be wearied men i will wait the coming of the now it is the order that the of the should send a report of all to the at at l noon came he a fat man and an old and over bearing withal but we of the had no fear of his anger more the of the tiger of with him came the and the others guarding ten men of the village of all men evil affected towards the police of the as prisoners they came the irons upon their hands crying for mercy the farmer who had denied his wife to the and others ill against whom we of the bore spite it was well done and the was proud but the was angry with the for lack of zeal and said dam dam after the custom of the english people and the lay still in his long chair have the men sworn said ay and captured ten evil said the there be more abroad in your charge take horse ride and go in the name of the truly there be more evil abroad said but there is no need of a horse come all men with me i saw the mark of a string on the temples of does the presence know the torture of the cold draw i saw also the face of the tiger of the evil smile was upon it and i stood back ready for what might befall well it was that i did this thing unlocked the door of his bath room and smiled anew within lay the six and the big police book of the of he had come by night in the devil carriage that is noiseless as a and moving among us asleep had taken away both the guns and the book twice had he come to the taking each time three the liver of the was turned to water and he fell in the dirt about the boots of crying have mercy and i i am a and a young man with little children the s mare was in the compound i at i ran to her and rode the black wrath of the was behind me and i knew not whither to go till she dropped and died i rode the red mare and by the blessing of god who is without doubt on the side of all just men i escaped but the and the rest are now in jail i am a it is as the presence pleases god will make the presence a lord and give him a rich as fair as a to wife and many strong sons if he makes me his orderly the mercy of heaven be upon the yes i will only go to the and bring my children to these so palace like quarters and then the presence is my father and my mother and i am his slave ji i also am of the household of the great is the justice of the white man greater the power of a lie native proverb this is your english justice protector of the poor look at my back and which are beaten with sticks heavy sticks i am a poor man and there is no justice in courts there were two of us and we were bom of one birth but i swear to you that i was born the and ram is the younger by three full the said so and it is written in my the of but we alike and my brother who is a beast without honor so alike that none knew together or apart which was i am a of in and an honest man this is true talk when we were men we left our father s house in and went to the where all the people are mud heads and sons of we took shop together in i and my brother near the big well where the governor s camp draws water but ram who is without truth made quarrel with me and we were divided he took his books and his pots and his mark and became a a money in the long street of near the of the road that goes to it was not my fault that we pulled	39
the gave him a chair before all the why do you howl these things fell as i have said was it not so and said that is truth i was there and there was a red cushion in the chair and ram said great shame has come upon the because of this judgment and fearing his anger ram and all his house have gone back to ram told us that you also had gone first the enmity being healed between you to open a shop in indeed it were well for you that you go even now for the has sworn that if he catch any one of your house he will hang him by the heels from the well beam and swinging him to and fro will beat him with till the blood runs from his ears what i have said in respect to the case is true as these men here can testify even to the five hundred i said was it five hundred and ram the said five hundred for i bore witness also and i groaned for it had been in my heart to have said two hundred only then a new fear came upon me and my turned to water and running swiftly to the house of ram i sought for my books and my money in the great wooden chest under my there remained nothing not even a s value all had been taken by the devil who said he was brother i went to my own house also and opened the boards of the shutters but there also was nothing save the rats among the grain baskets in that hour my senses left me and tearing my clothes i ran to the well place crying out for the justice of the english on my brother ram and in my madness telling all that the books were lost when men saw that i would have jumped down the well they believed the truth of my talk more especially because upon my back and bosom were still the marks of the of the the carpenter me and turning me in his hands for he is a very strong man showed the upon my body and bowed down with laughter upon the well he cried aloud so that all heard him from the well square to the of the the have quarrelled and the gray one has been caught in the trap in truth this has been beaten and his brother has taken the money which the court oh this shall be told for years against you the have quarrelled and moreover the books are burned o people indebted to and i know that ye be many the books are burned then all took up the cry that the books were burned i that in my folly i had let that escape my mouth and they throughout the city they gave me the abuse of the which is a terrible abuse and very me also with sticks and cow till i fell down and cried for mercy ram the letter writer bade the people cease for fear that the news should get into and the might come down to inquire he said using many bad words this much mercy will i do to you though there was no mercy in your dealings with my sister s son over the matter of the has any man a pony on which he sets no store that this fellow may escape if the hears that one of the twain and god knows whether he beat one or both but this man is certainly beaten be in the city there will be a murder done and then will come the police making into each man s house and eating the sweet s stuff all day long ram said i have a pony very sick but with beating he can be made to walk for two miles if he dies the hide will have the body then the hide said i will pay three for the body and will walk by this man s side till such time as the pony dies if it be more than two miles i will pay two only ram said be it so men brought out the pony and i asked leave to draw a little water from the well because i was dried up with fear then ram said here be four god has brought you very low and i would not send you away empty even though the matter of my sister s son s be an open sore between us it is a long way to your own country go and if it be so willed live but above all do not take the pony s bridle for that is mine and i went out of amid the laughing of the and the hide walked by my side waiting for the pony to fall dead in one mile it died and being full of fear of the i ran till i could run no more and came to this place but i swear by the cow i swear by all things whereon and and even the swear that i and not my brother was beaten by the but the case is ni shut and the doors of the law courts are shut and god knows where the the mother s milk is not dry upon his lip is gone am i have no witnesses and the will heal and i am a poor man but on my father s soul on the oath of a from i and not my brother was beaten by the what can i do the justice of the english is as a great river having gone forward it does not return do you take a pen and write clearly what i have said that the may see	39
and the who is a yet by the mare so young is he i and net my brother was beaten and he is gone to the west i do not know where but above all things write so that may read and his disgrace be accomplished that ram my brother son of of is a swine and a a of life an of flesh a without beauty or faith or cleanliness or honor at at twenty two narrow as the deep as the pit and dark as the heart of a man s proverb a went out to reap but stayed to the ha ha ha is there any sense in a the never ending had glared at but as was blind was not impressed he had come to argue with and if chance favored to make love to the old man s beautiful young wife this was s grievance and he spoke in the name of all the five men who with composed the gang in no gallery of twenty two had been blind for the thirty years during which he had served the with pick and all through those thirty years he had regularly every morning before going down drawn from the his allowance of lamp oil just as if he had been an eyed what s gang resented as hundreds of had resented before was s selfishness he would not add the oil to the common stock of his gang but would save and sell it i knew these workings before you were born used to reply i don t want the light to get my coal out by and i am not going to help you the oil is mine and i intend to keep it a strange man in many ways was the hot tempered who had turned all day long except on sundays and when he was at usually drunk he worked in the twenty two shaft of the as cleverly as a man with all the senses at evening he went up in the great steam hauled cage to the and there called for his pony a rusty coal dusty beast nearly as old as the pony would come to his side would on to its back and be taken at once to the plot of land which he like the other received from the company the pony knew that place and when after six years the company changed all the to prevent the acquiring rights represented with tears in his eyes that were his holding shifted he would never be able to find his way to the new one my horse only knows that place pleaded and so he was allowed to keep his land on the strength of this concession and his accumulated took a second wife a girl of the main stock of the and singularly beautiful could not see her beauty wherefore he took her on trust and forbade her to go down the pit he had not worked for thirty years in the dark without knowing that the pit was no place for pretty women he loaded her with ornaments not brass or but real silver ones and she rewarded him by with of no gallery gang was really the gang head but insisted upon all the work being entered in his own name and chose the men that he worked with custom stronger even than the company dictated that by right of his years should manage these things and should also work despite his blindness in indian mines where they cut into the solid coal with the pick and clear it out from floor to ceiling he could come to no great harm at home where they the coal and bring it down in crashing from the roof he would never have been allowed to set foot in a pit he was not a popular man because of his oil but all the admitted that at twenty two knew all the or workings that had ever been sunk or worked since the company first started operations on the fields pretty little only knew that her old husband was a fool who could be managed she took no interest in the col except in so far as they swallowed up five days out of the seven and covered him with coal dust was a great workman and did his best not to get drunk because when he had saved forty was to steal everything that she could find in s house and run with over the hills and far away to countries where there are no mines and every one kept three fat and a while this scheme was it was his amiable custom to drop in upon and worry him about the oil sat in a corner and nodded approval on the night when had quoted that objectionable proverb about grew angry listen you pig said he blind i am and old i am but before ever you were born i was gray among the coal even in the days when the twenty two was and there were not two thousand men here i was known to have all knowledge of the what is there that i do not know from the bottom of the shaft to the end of the last drive is it the the oldest or the twenty two where s gallery runs up td number five hear the old fool talk said nodding to no gallery of twenty two will cut into five before the end of the rains we have a month s solid coal before us the says so what do these fat from know he draws and draws and draws and talks and talks and talks and his maps are all wrong i know that this is so when a man has been shut up in the dark for thirty years god gives him knowledge	39
the old at two gallery that s gang made is not six feet from number five without doubt god gives the blind knowledge said with a look at let it be as you say i for my do not know where lies the gallery of s gang but am not a withered monkey who needs oil to his joints with swung out of the hut laughing and turned his eyes towards his wife and swore i have land and i have sold a great deal of mused but i was a fool to marry this child a week later the rains set in with a vengeance and the about in coal at the pit banks then the big mine were made ready and the manager of the through the wet towards the river swelling between its banks lord send that this doesn t said the manager and he went and took counsel with his assistant about the but the very much indeed after a fall of three inches of rain in an hour it was obliged to do something it its bank and joined the flood water that was hemmed between two low hills just where the of the main line crossed when a good part of a rain fed river and a few acres of flood water make a dead set for a nine foot the may its finest but the water cannot get out the manager upon one leg with excitement and his language was improper he had reason to swear because he knew that one inch of water on land meant a pressure of one hundred tons to the acre and here were about five feet cf water forming behind the railway over the workings of twenty two you must understand that in a coal mine the coal nearest the surface is worked first from the central shaft that is to say the may clear out the stuff to within ten at twenty two twenty or thirty feet of the surface and when all is worked out leave only a skin of earth by some few pillars of coal in a deep mine where they know that they have any amount of material at hand men prefer to get all their out at on shaft rather make a number of little holes to tap the comparatively unimportant surface coal and the manager watched the flood the a nine foot but the water still formed and word was sent to clear the men out of twenty two the came up crammed and crammed again with the men nearest the pit eye as they call the place where you can see daylight from the bottom of the main shaft all away and away up the long black galleries the lamps were and dancing like so many fire flies and the men and the women waited for the rattling thundering to come down and fly up again but the out workings were very far off and the word could not be passed quickly though the heads of the and the assistant shouted and swore and and stumbled the manager kept one eye on the great troubled pool behind the and prayed that the would give way and let the water through in time with the other eye he watched the come up and saw the counting the roll of the with all his heart and soul he swore at the who controlled the iron drum that wound up the wire rope on which hung the in a little time there was a down draw in the water behind the a all yellow and the water had smashed through the skin of the earth and was pouring into the old shallow workings of twenty two deep down below a rush of black water caught the last gang waiting for the cage and as they in the whirl was about their the cage reached the pit bank and the manager called the roll the were all safe except gang gang and gang eighteen t twenty two men with perhaps ten basket women who loaded the coal into the little iron carriages that ran on the of the main galleries these were in the out workings three quarters of a mile away on the extreme fringe of the mine once more the cage went down but only two englishmen in it and dropped into a roaring current that had almost touched the roof of some of the lower side galleries one of the wooden with which they had propped the old workings shot past on the current just missing the cage if we don t want our ribs knocked out we d better go said the manager we can t even save the company s the cage drew out of the water with a splash and a few minutes later it was reported that there were at least ten feet of water in the pit s eye now ten feet of water there meant that all other places in the mine were except such galleries as were more than ten feet above the level of the bottom of the shaft the deep workings would be full the main galleries would be full but in the high workings reached by from the main roads there would be a certain amount of air cut off so to speak by the water and squeezed up by it the little science explain how water when you pour it down test the of twenty two was an illustration on a large scale a a by the holy grove what has happened to the air it was a of gang in no gallery and he was driving a six foot way through the coal then there was a rush from the other galleries and gang and gang stumbled up with their basket women water has come in the mine they said and there is no way of getting out i went down said down the	39
slope of my gallery and i felt the water at twenty two there has been no water in the cutting in our time the women why cannot we go away be silent said long ago when my father was here water came to ten no eleven cutting and there was great trouble let us get away to where the air is better the three and the basket women left no gallery and went further up no at one turn of the road they could see the black water on the coal it had touched the roof of a gallery that they knew well a gallery where they used to smoke their and conduct their seeing this they called aloud upon their gods and the who are thrice strove to recollect the name of the prophet they came to a great open square whence nearly all the coal had been extracted it was the end of the out workings and the end of the mine far away down the gallery a small used for keeping dry a deep working and fed with steam from above was faithfully throbbing they heard it cease they have cut off the steam said they have given the order to use all the steam for the bank they will clear out the water if the water has reached gallery said all the company s can do nothing for three days it is very hot moaned the basket woman there is a very bad air here because of the lamps put them out said why do you want lamps the lamps were put out amid and the company sat still in the utter dark somebody rose quietly and began walking over the coals it was who was touching the walls with his hands where is the ledge he murmured to himself sit sit said if we die we die the air is very bad but still stumbled and crept and tapped with his pick upon the walls the women rose to their feet at stay all where you are without the lamps you cannot see and i i am always seeing said then he paused and called out oh you who have been in the cutting more than ten years what is the name of this open place i am an old man and i have forgotten s room answered the who had complained of the of the air again said then i have found it said the name only had slipped my memory s gang s gallery is here a lie said there have been no galleries in this place since my day three paces was the depth of the ledge muttered without and oh my poor bones i have found it it is here up this ledge come all you one by one to the place of my voice and i will count you there was a rush in the dark and felt the first man s face hit his knees as the scrambled up the ledge who cried i sit you down said who next one by one the women and the men crawled up the ledge which ran along one side of s room degraded pig eating and wild ran his hand over them all now follow after said he catching hold of my heel and the women catching the men s clothes he did not ask whether the men had brought their with them a black or white does not drop his pick one by one leading they crept into the old gallery a six foot way with a scant four feet from to roof the air is better here said they could hear her heart beating in thick sick slowly slowly said i am an old man and i at tl two forget many things this is s gallery but where are the four bricks where they used to put their fire on when the never saw slowly slowly o you people behind they heard his hands disturbing the small coal on the of the gallery and then a dull sound this is one brick and this is another and another is a young let him come forward put a knee on this brick and strike here when s gang were at dinner on the last day before the good coal ended they heard the men of five on the other side and five worked their gallery two sundays later or it may have been one strike there but give me room to go back doubting drove the pick but the first soft crush of the coal was a call to him he was fighting for his life and for pretty little with rings on all her toes for and the forty the women sang the song of the pick the terrible slow swinging melody with the muttered chorus that the sliding of the loosened coal and to each smote in the black dark when he could do no more took the pick and struck for his life and his wife and his village beyond the blue hills over the river an hour the men worked and then the women cleared away the coal it is further than i thought said the air is bad but strike strike hard for the fifth time took up the pick as the crawled back the song had scarcely when it was broken by a yell from that echoed down the gallery par i par i we are through we are through the imprisoned air in the mine shot through the opening and the women at the far end of the gallery heard the water rush through the pillars of s room and roar against the ledge having fulfilled the law under which it worked it rose no farther the women screamed at twenty two and pressed forward the water has come we shall	39
be killed let us go crawled through the gap and found himself in a propped gallery by the simple process of his head against a beam do i know the or do i not chuckled this is the number five go you out slowly giving me your names ho count your gang now let us go forward each catching hold of the other as before they formed a line in the darkness and led for a pit man in a strange pit is only one degree less liable to than an ordinary mortal for the first time at last they saw a lamp and and of twenty two stumbled dazed into the glare of the draught furnace at the bottom of five feeling his way and the rest behind water has come into twenty two god knows where are the others i have brought these men from s gallery in our cutting making connection through the north side of the gallery take us to the cage said at the pit bank of twenty two some thousand people and wept and shouted one hundred men one thousand men had been drowned in the cutting they would all go to their homes to morrow where were their men little her with the rain stood at the pit mouth calling down the shaft for they had swung the clear of the mouth and her only answer was the of the flood in the pit s eye two hundred and sixty feet below look after that woman she ll herself down the shaft in a minute shouted the manager but he need not have troubled was afraid of death she wanted the assistant was watching the flood seeing how far he could into it there was a lull at twenty in the water and the had the mine was full and the people at the pit bank howled my faith we shall be lucky if we have five hundred hands in the place to morrow said the manager there s some chance yet of running a temporary dam across that water in anything and carts if you haven t enough bricks make them work now if they never worked before hi i you make them work little by little the crowd was broken into and pushed towards the water with promises of the dam making began and when it was fairly under way the manager thought that the hour had come for the there was no fresh into the mine the tall red pump beam rose and fell and the and and shrieked as the first water poured out of the pipe we must run here all to night said the manager wearily but there s no hope for the poor devils down below look here if you are proud of your engines show me what they can do now grinned and nodded with his right hand upon the and an oil can in his left he could do no more than he was doing but he could keep that up till the dawn were the company s to be beaten by the of troublesome river never never and the sobbed and panted never never the manager sat in the shelter of the pit bank trying to dry himself by the pump fire and in the dreary dusk he saw the crowds on the dam scatter and fly that s the end he groaned take us six weeks to persuade em that we haven t tried to drown their mates on purpose oh for a decent rational but the flight had no panic in it men had run over from five with news and the could not hold their together presently surrounded by a crew and and ten basket at twenty two women walked up to report themselves and pretty little stole away to s hut to prepare his evening meal alone i found the way explained and now will the company give me the simple pit folk shouted and leaped and went back to the dam reassured in their old belief that whatever happened so great was the power of the company whose salt they ate none of them could be killed but only his white teeth and kept his hand upon the and proved his to the i say said the assistant to the manager a week later do you recollect f yes queer thing i thought of it in the cage when that went by why oh this business seems to be down was in my all this morning telling me that had with his wife or i think her name was and those were the cattle that you risked your life to clear out of twenty two no i was thinking of the company s not the company s men sounds better to say so now but i don t believe you old fellow jn flood time in flood time said till what ye still till said though ye wi speed an i yet where ye ae man there is no getting over the river to night they say that a cart has been washed down already and the that went over a half hour before you came has not yet reached the far side is the in haste i will drive the ford elephant in to show him there in the shed bring out ram and if he will face the current good an elephant never lies and ram is separated from his friend he too wishes to cross to the far side well done well done my king i go half way across and see what the river says well done ram pearl among go into the river hit him on the head fool was the made only to scratch thy own fat back with strike strike i what are the to thee ram my my mountain of strength go in go	39
in no it is useless you can hear him trumpet he is telling that he cannot come over see he has swung round and is shaking his head he is no fool he knows what the means when it is angry indeed thou art no fool my child ram take him under the trees and see that in flood time he gets his well done thou among to the and go to sleep what is to be done the must wait till the river goes down it will shrink to morrow morning if god pleases or the day after at the latest now why does the get so angry i am his servant before god did not create this stream what can i do my hut and all that is therein is at the service of the and it is beginning to rain come away my lord how will the river go down for your throwing abuse at it in the old days the english people were not thus the fire carriage has made them soft in the old days when they behind horses by day or by night they said naught if a river barred the way or a carriage sat down in the mud it was the will of god not like a which goes and goes and goes and would go though all the devils in the land hung on to its tail the carriage hath spoiled the english people after all what is a day lost or for that matter what are two days is the going to his own wedding that he is so mad with haste ho ho ho i am an old man and see few forgive me if i have forgotten the respect that is due to them the is not angry his own wedding ho ho ho i the mind of an old man is like the fruit bud blossom and the dead leaves of all the years of the past flourish together old and new and that which is gone out of remembrance all three are there sit on the and drink milk or would the in truth care to drink my tobacco it is good it is the tobacco of my son who is in service there sent it to me drink then if you know how to handle the the takes it like a where did he learn that his own wedding ho ho ho the says that there is no wedding in the matter at all now is it likely that the would speak true talk to me who am only a black man small wonder in flood time then that he is in haste thirty years have i beaten the at this ford but never have i seen a in such haste thirty years that is a very long time thirty years ago this ford was on the track of the and i have seen two thousand pack cross in one night now the rail has come and the fire carriage says and a hundred of slide across that big bridge it is very wonderful but the ford is lonely now that there are no to camp under the trees nay do not to look at the sky without it will rain till the dawn listen the are talking to night in the bed of the river hear them they would be your bones had you tried to cross see i will shut the door and no rain can enter i thirty years on the banks of the ford an old man am i and where is the oil for the lamp your pardon but because of my years i sleep no than a dog and you moved to the door look then look and listen a full half from bank to bank is the stream now you can see it under the stars and there ar ten feet of water therein it will not shrink because of the anger in your eyes and it will not be quiet on account of your curses which is louder your voice or the voice of the river call to it perhaps it will be ashamed lie down and sleep afresh i know the anger of the when there has fallen rain in the foot hills i swam the flood once on a night worse than this and by the favor of god i was released from death when i had come to the very gates thereof may i tell the tale very good talk i will fill the pipe anew thirty years ago it was when i was a young man and had but newly come to the ford i was strong then and the b i id thi ford is clear i flood time have toiled all night up to my shoulder blades in running water amid a hundred mad with fear and have brought them across losing not a when all was done i fetched the shivering men and they gave me for reward the pick of their cattle the bell of the drove so great was the honor in which i was held but to day when the rain falls and the river rises i creep into my hut and like a dog the strength is gone from me i am an old man and the fire carriage has made the ford desolate they were wont to call me the strong one of the behold my face it is the face of a monkey and my arm it is the arm of an old woman i swear to you that a woman has loved this face and has rested in the hollow of this arm twenty years ago believe me this was true talk twenty years ago come to the door and look across can you see a thin fire very far away down the stream that is the temple fire in the shrine of of the	39
village of north under the big star is the village itself but it is hidden by a bend of the river is that far to swim would you take off your clothes and adventure yet i swam to not once but many times and there are in the river too love knows no caste else why should i a and the son of a have sought a a widow of the the sister of the of but it was even so they of the s household came on a pilgrimage to when she was but newly a bride silver were upon the wheels of the cart and silken curtains hid the woman i made no haste in their conveyance for the wind parted the curtains and i saw her when they returned from pilgrimage the boy that was her husband had died and i saw her again in the by god these are fools what was it to me whether she or or whole in flood time s i would have married her and made her a home by the ford the seventh of the nine bars says that a man may not marry one of the is that truth both and is say that a may not marry one of the is the a priest then that he knows so much i will tell him something that he does not know there is neither nor forbidden nor in love and the nine bars are but nine little that the flame of love utterly burns away in truth i would have taken her but what could i do the would have sent his men to break my head with i am not i was not afraid of any five men but against half a village who can prevail therefore it was my custom these things having been arranged between us twain to go by night to the village of and there we met among the cross no man knowing aught of the matter behold now i was wont to cross here the to the river bend where the railway bridge is and thence across the elbow of land to the light of the shrine was my guide when the nights were dark that near the river is very full of little that sleep on the sand and moreover her brothers would have slain me had they found me in the crops but none knew none knew save she and i and the blown sand of the covered the track of my feet in the hot months it was an easy thing to pass from the ford to and in the first rains when the river rose slowly it was an easy thing also i set the strength of my body against the strength of the stream and nightly i ate in my hut here and drank at yonder she had said that one a had sought her and he was of a village up the river but on the same bank all are dogs and they have refused in their folly that good gift of god tobacco i was ready to destroy that ever he had come nigh her and the more because he had sworn to her that she had a lover d that b would li in w it and give th to the he in flood time man unless she went away with him what are these after that news i swam always with a little sharp knife in my belt and evil would it have been for a man had he stayed me i knew not the face of but i would have killed any who came between me and her upon a night in the beginning of the rains i was minded to go across to the river was angry now the nature of the is this in twenty it comes down from the hills a wall three feet high and i have seen it between the lighting of a fire and the cooking of a grow from a to a sister of the when i left this bank there was a a half mile down and i made shift to fetch it and draw breath there ere going forward for i felt the hands of the river heavy upon my heels yet what will a young man not do for love s sake there was but little light from the stars and to the a branch of the tree brushed my mouth as i swam that was a sign of heavy rain in the foot hills and beyond for the is a strong tree not easily shaken from the i made haste the river me but ere i had touched the the pulse of the stream beat as it were within me and around and behold the was gone and i rode high on the crest of a wave that ran from bank to bank has the ever been cast into much water that fights and will not let a man use his limbs to me my head up on the water it seemed as though there were naught but water to the world s end and the river me with its a man is a very little thing in the belly of a flood and this flood though i knew it not was the great flood about which men talk still my liver was dissolved and i lay like a log upon my back in the fear of death there were living things in the water crying and howling beasts of the forest and cattle and once the voice of a man for help but the wn came nd the in flood time white and i heard no more save the roar of the below and the roar of the rain above thus i was whirled down stream for the breath in me it is very hard to die when one is young can standing here	39
see the railway bridge look there are the lights of the mail train going to i the bridge is now twenty feet above the river but upon that night the water was roaring against the work and against the came i feet first but much was piled there and upon the and i took no great hurt only the river pressed me as a strong man presses a weaker scarcely could i take hold of the work and crawl to the upper boom the water was foaming across the rails a foot deep judge therefore what manner of it must have been i could not hear i could not see i could but lie on the boom and for breath after a while the rain ceased and there came out in the sky certain new washed stars and by their light i saw that there was no end to the black water as far as the eye could travel and the water had risen upon the rails there were dead beasts in the on the and others caught by the neck in the work and others not yet drowned who strove to find a on the work and and wild pig and deer one or two and and past all counting their bodies were black upon the left side of the bridge but the smaller of them were forced through the work and whirled down stream thereafter the stars died and the rain came down afresh and the river rose yet more and i felt the bridge begin to stir under me as a man in his sleep ere he wakes but i was not afraid i swear to you that i was not afraid though i had no power in my limbs i knew that i should not die till i had seen her once more but i was very cold and i felt that the bridge must go there was a trembling in the water such a trembling as goes before the coming of a great wave and the bridge lifted in flood time its flank to the rush of that coming so that the right dipped under water and the left rose clear on my beard i am speaking god s truth as a ore to the wind so the bridge turned just thus and in no other manner i slid from the boom into deep water and behind came the wave of the wrath of the river i heard its voice and the scream of the middle part of the bridge as it moved from the and sank and i knew no more till i rose in the middle of the great flood i put forth my hand to swim and lo it fell upon the knotted hair of the head of a man he was dead for no one but i the strong one of could have lived in that race he had been dead full two da rs for he rode high and was an aid to me i laughed then knowing for a that i yet see her and take no harm and i twisted my fingers in the hair of the man for i was far spent and together we went down the stream he the dead and i the living lacking that help i should have sunk the cold was in my and my flesh was and on my bones but he had no fear who had known the of the power of the river and i let him go where he chose at last we came into the power of a side current that set to the right bank and i strove with my feet to draw with it but the dead man swung heavily in the whirl and i feared that some branch had struck him and that he would sink the tops of the brushed my knees so i knew we were come into flood water above the crops and after i let down my legs and felt bottom the ridge of a field and after the dead man stayed upon a under a fig tree and i drew my body from the water rejoicing does the know whither the back wash of the flood had borne me to the which is the eastern boundary mark of the village of no other place i drew the dead man up on the grass for the service that he had done me and also because i knew not whether i should need him again in flood time then i went crying thrice like a to the appointed place which was near the of the s house but my love was already there weeping upon her knees she feared that the flood had swept my hut at the ford when i came softly through the ankle deep water she thought it was a ghost and would have fled but i put my arms round her and i was no ghost in those days though i am an old man now ho ho dried corn in truth without ho ho i told her the story of the breaking of the bridge and she said that i was greater than mortal man for none may cross the in full flood and i had seen what never man had seen before hand in hand we went to the where the dead lay and i showed her by what help i had made the ford she looked also upon the body under the stars for the latter end of the night was clear and hid her face in her hands crying it is the body of i said the swine is of more use dead than living my beloved and she said surely for he has saved the dearest life in the world to my love none the less he cannot stay here for that would bring shame upon me the body was not a from her door	39
then said i rolling the body with my hands god hath judged between us that thy blood might not be upon my head now whether i have done thee a wrong in keeping thee from the burning do thou and the settle together so i cast him adrift into the flood water and he was drawn out to the open ever his thick black beard like a priest under the pulpit board and i saw no more of before the breaking of the day we two parted and i moved towards such of the as was not with the full light i saw what i had done in the darkness and the bones of i grieve to say that the of the ford is responsible here for two very in the j a in flood time my body were loosened in my flesh for there ran two of raging water between the village of and the trees of the far bank and in the middle the of the bridge showed like broken teeth in the jaw of an old man nor was there any life upon the waters neither birds nor boats but only an army of drowned things and horses and men and the river was than blood from the clay of the foot hills never had i seen such a flood never since that year have i seen the like r and o no man living had done what i had done there was no return for me that day not for all the lands of the would i venture a second time without the shield of darkness that danger i went a up the river to the house of a blacksmith saying that the flood had swept me from my hut and they gave me food seven days i stayed with the blacksmith till a boat came and i returned to my house there was no trace of wall or roof or floor naught but a patch of mud judge therefore how far the river must have risen it was written that i should not die either in my house or in the heart of the or under the wreck of the bridge for god sent down two days dead though i know not how the man died to be my and support has been in hell these twenty years and the thought of that night must be the flower of his torment listen the river has changed its voice it is going to sleep before the dawn to which there is yet one hour with the light it will come down afresh how do i know have i been here thirty years without knowing the voice of the river as a father knows the voice of his son every moment it is talking less angrily i swear that there will be no danger for one hour or perhaps two i cannot answer for the morning be quick i will call ram and he will not turn back this time is the tightly upon all the baggage with a mud bead in flood time the elephant for the and tell them on the far side that there will be no crossing after daylight money nay i am not of that kind no not even to give to the baby folk my house look you is empty and lam an old man ram i good luck go with you the sending of da the sending of da when the devil rides on your chest remember the native proverb once upon a time some people in india made a new heaven and a new earth out of broken tea cups a missing or two and a hair brush these were hidden under bushes or stuffed into holes in the and an entire civil service of subordinate gods used to find or mend them again and every one said there are more things in heaven and earth than are of in our philosophy several other things happened also but the religion never seemed to get much beyond its first though it added an and effects in order to keep abreast of the times and stall off competition this religion was too elastic for ordinary use it stretched itself and embraced pieces of every thing that medicine men of all ages have it approved of and stole from the of half their pet words took any of egyptian philosophy that it found in the as many of the been translated into french or english and talked of all the rest built in the german of what is left of the a encouraged white gray and black magic including fortune telling by cards hot double led nuts and would have adopted and had it known anything about them and showed itself in every way one of the sending of da the most arrangements that had ever been in since the birth of the sea when it was in thorough working order with all the machinery down to the complete da came from nowhere with nothing in his hands and wrote a chapter in its history which has hitherto been he said that his first name was and his second was da now setting aside of the new york sun is a name and da fits no native of india unless you accept the d as the original da is lap or and da was neither chin lap jew nor anything else known to he was simply da and declined to give further information for the sake of and as roughly indicating his origin he was called the native he have been the original old man of the mountains who is said to be the only head of the tea cup creed some said that he was but t ana da used to smile and deny any connection with the explaining that he was an independent as i have said he came from	39
nowhere with his hands behind his back and studied the creed for three weeks sitting at the feet of those best competent to explain its mysteries then he laughed aloud and went away but the laugh might have been either of devotion or derision when he returned he was without money but his pride was he declared that he knew more about the things in heaven and earth than those who taught him and for this was abandoned altogether his next appearance in public life was at a big in upper india and he was then telling fortunes with the help of three leaden a very dirty old cloth and a little tin box of he told better fortunes when he was allowed half a bottle of but the things which be sending of da invented on the were quite worth the money he was in reduced circumstances among other people s he told the fortune of an englishman who had once been interested in the creed but who later on had married and all his old knowledge in the study of babies and exchange the englishman allowed da to tell a fortune for s sake and gave him five a dinner and some old clothes when he had eaten da professed gratitude and asked if there were anything he could do for his host in the line is there any one that you love said da the englishman loved his wife but had no desire to drag her name into the conversation he therefore shook his head is there any one that you hate said da the englishman said that there were several men whom he hated deeply very good said da upon whom the and the were beginning to tell only give me their names and i will despatch a sending to them and kill them now a sending is a horrible arrangement first invented they say in it is a thing sent by a and may take any form but most generally about the land in the shape of a little purple cloud till it find the and him it by changing into the form of a horse or a cat or a man without a face it is not strictly a native patent though can if irritated despatch a sending which sits on the breast of their enemy by night and nearly him very few natives care to for this reason let me despatch a sending said da i am nearly dead now with want and drink and but i should like to kill a man before i die i can send a sending anywhere you choose and in any form except in the shape of a man the w be wished to kill but the sending of da partly to soothe da whose eyes were rolling and partly to see what would be done he asked whether a modified sending could not be arranged for such a sending as should make a man s life a burden to him and yet do him no harm if this were possible he his to give da ten for the job i am not what i was once said da and i must take the money because i am poor to what shall i send it send a sending to lone said the englishman a man who had been most bitter in him for his from the tea cup creed da laughed and nodded i could have chosen no better man myself said he i will see that he finds the sending about his path and about his bed he lay down on the hearth rug turned up the of his eyes shivered all over and began to this was magic or or the sending or all three when he opened his eyes he vowed that the sending had started upon the and was at that moment flying up to the town where lone lives give me my ten said da wearily and write a letter to lone telling him and all who believe with him that you and a friend are using a power greater than theirs they will see that you are speaking the truth he departed with the promise of some more if anything came of the sending the englishman sent a letter to lone in what he remembered of the of the creed he wrote i also in the days of what you held to be my have obtained and with has come power then he grew so deeply mysterious that the of the letter could make neither head nor tail of it and was impressed for he the sending of da fancied that his friend had become a fifth a man is a fifth he can do more than and combined lone read the letter in five different fashions and was beginning a sixth interpretation when his bearer dashed in with the news that there was a cat on the bed now if there was one thing that lone hated more than another it was a cat he the bearer for not turning it out of the house the bearer said that he was afraid all the doors of the bedroom had been shut throughout the morning and no real cat could possibly have entered the room he would prefer not to with the creature lone entered the room and there on the pillow of his bed and a white not a little beast but a like with its eyes barely opened and its lacking strength or direction a that ought to have been in a basket with its mamma lone caught it by the of its neck handed it over to he to be drowned and the bearer four that evening as he was reading in his room he fancied that he saw something moving about on the hearth rug outside the circle of light from his reading lamp when the thing began to he realized that	39
the most beautiful language and up all the credit of it for himself the englishman said the letter was not there at all he was a without power or who couldn t even raise a table by force of much less project an army of through space the entire arrangement said the letter was strictly worked and by the highest authorities within the pale of the creed there was great joy at this for some of the weaker brethren seeing that an who had been working on independent lines could create whereas the op da their own rulers had never gone beyond and broken at that were showing a desire to break line on their own trail in fact there was the promise of a a second round robin was to the englishman beginning o and ending with a selection of curses from the rites of and and the of who was a fifth upon whose name an third once a ex communication is a compared to the of the englishman had been proved under the hand and seal of the old man of the mountains to have appropriated virtue and pretended to have power which in reality belonged only to the supreme head naturally the round robin did not spare him he handed the letter to da to into decent english the effect on da was curious at first he was furiously angry and then he laughed for five minutes i had thought he said that they would have come to me in another week i would have shown that i sent the sending and they would have the old man of the mountains who has sent this sending of mine do you do nothing the time has come for me to act write as i dictate and i will put them to shame but give me ten more at da s the englishman wrote nothing less than a formal challenge to the old man of the mountains it wound up and if this be from your hand then let it go forward but if it be from my hand i will that the sending shall cease in two days time on that day there shall be twelve and none at all the people shall judge between us this was signed by da who added and and a and half a dozen y and a triple to his name just to show that he was all he laid claim to be the challenge was read out to the gentlemen and ladies and the sending of da they remembered then that da had laughed at them some years ago it was announced that the old man of the mountains would treat the matter with contempt da being an independent without a single round at the back of him but this did not his people they wanted to see a fight they were very human for all their ix ne who was really being worn out with submitted meekly to his fate he felt that he was being to prove the power of da as the poet says when the stated day dawned shower of began some were white and some were and all were about the same age three were on his three in his bath room and the other six turned up at intervals among the visitors who came to see the prophecy break down never was a more satisfactory sending on the next day there were no and the next day and all the other days were and quiet the people murmured and looked to the old man of the mountains for an explanation a letter written on a palm leaf dropped from the ceiling but every one except lone felt that letters were not what the occasion demanded there should have been cats there should have been cats full grown ones the letter proved that there had been a in the current which with a identity had interfered with the activity all along the main line the were still going on but owing to some failure in the developing they were not the air was thick with letters for a few days afterwards unseen hands played and on finger and clock shades but all men felt that life was a mockery without even lone shouted with the majority on this head da s letters were very insulting and if he had then offered to lead a new departure there is no knowing what might not have happened the sending of da but da was dying of and in the englishman s and had small heart for new they have been put to shame said he never was such a sending it has killed me nonsense said the englishman you are going to die da and that sort of stuff must be left behind til admit that you have made some queer things come about tell me honestly now how was it done give me ten said da faintly and if i die before i spend them bury them with me the silver was counted out while da was fighting with death his hand closed upon the money and he smiled a grim smile bend low he whispered the englishman bent mission school box pearl merchant all mine english education and made up name da england with american thought reading man and and you gave me ten several times i gave the s bearer two eight a month for cats little little cats i wrote and he put them about veiy clever man very few now in the ask lone s s wife so saying da gasped and passed away into a land where if all be true there are no and the making of new is discouraged but consider the gorgeous simplicity of it on the city wall on the city wall then she let them down by a	39
cord through the window for her house was upon the town wall and she dwelt upon the wall ii is a member of the most ancient profession in the world was her very great and that was before the days of eve as every one knows in the west people say rude things about s profession and write lectures about it and the lectures to young persons in order that morality may be preserved in the east where the profession is hereditary descending from mother to daughter nobody writes lectures or takes any notice and that is a distinct proof of the inability of the east to manage its own affairs s real husband for even ladies of s profession in the east must have husbands was a great big tree her mamma who had married a fig spent ten thousand on s wedding which was blessed by forty seven of mamma s church and distributed five thousand in charity to the poor and that was the custom of the land the advantages of having a tree for a husband are obvious you cannot hurt his feelings and he looks imposing s husband stood on the plain outside the city walls and s house was upon the east wall facing the river if you fell from the broad window seat you dropped thirty feet sheer into the city ditch but if you stayed where you should and looked forth you saw all the cattle of the city being driven down to water the students of the government on the city wall college playing the high grass and trees that fringed the river bank the great sand bars that the river the red of dead beyond the river and very far away through the blue heat haze a of the of the used to lie in the window seat for hours at a time watching this view he was a young who was suffering from education of the english variety and knew it his father had sent him to a mission school to get wisdom and had absorbed more than ever his father or the intended he should when his father died was independent and spent two years with the of the earth and reading books that are of no use to anybody after he had made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the roman catholic church and the fold at the same time the found him out and called him names but they didn t understand his trouble he discovered on the city wall and became the most constant of her few admirers he possessed a head that english artists at home would over and paint amid impossible surroundings a face that female would use with delight through nine hundred pages in reality he was only a clean bred young with eyebrows small cut nostrils little feet and hands and a very tried look in his eyes by virtue of his twenty two years he had grown a neat black beard which he with pride and kept delicately scented his life seemed to be divided between books from me and making love to in the window seat he composed songs about her and some of the songs are sung to this day in the city from the street of the mutton to the copper ward song the prettiest of all says that the beauty of was so great that it troubled the hearts of the british government and caused them to lose their peace of mind that is the on the city wall way the song is sung in the streets but if you examine it carefully and know the key to the explanation you will find that there are three in it on beauty heart and peace of mind so that it runs by the of the administration of the government was troubled and it lost such and such a man when wall sings that song his eyes glow like hot coals and back among the cushions and throws of at but first it is necessary to explain something about the supreme government which is above all and below all and behind all gentlemen come from england spend a few weeks in india walk round this great of the plains and write books upon its ways and its works or it as their own ignorance consequently all the world knows how the supreme government itself but no one not even the supreme government knows everything about the administration of the empire year by year england sends out fresh for the first fighting line which is called the indian civil service these die or kill themselves by or are worried to death or broken in health and hope in order that the land may be protected from death and sickness famine and war and may eventually become capable of standing alone it will never stand alone but the idea is a pretty one and men are willing to die for it and yearly the work of pushing and and scolding and the country into good living goes forward if an advance be made all credit is given to the native while the englishmen stand back and wipe their if a failure occurs the englishmen step forward and take the blame tenderness of this kind has bred a strong belief among many natives that the native is capable of the country and many devout englishmen believe this also because the theory is stated in beautiful english with all the latest political there be other men who though see visions on the city wall and dream dreams and they too hope to administer the country in their own way that is to say with a red such men must exist among two hundred million people and if they are not attended to may cause trouble and even break the great idol called which as the newspapers say lives between and cape where the day of doom to	39
dawn to morrow you would find the supreme government taking measures to popular excitement and putting guards upon the that the dead might troop forth orderly the youngest would arrest on his own responsibility if the could not produce a s permission to make music or other noises as the form says whence it is easy to see that mere men of the flesh who would create a must fare badly at the hands of the supreme government and they do there is no outward sign of excitement there is no confusion there is no knowledge when due and sufficient reasons have been given weighed and approved the machinery moves forward and the of dreams and the of visions is gone from his friends and following he the hospitality of government there is no upon his movements within certain limits but he must not confer any more with his brother once in every six months the supreme government itself that he is well and takes formal acknowledgment of his existence no one against his because the few people who know about it are in deadly fear of seeming to know him and never a single newspaper takes up his case or on his behalf because the newspapers of india have got behind that lying proverb which says the pen is than the sword and can walk delicately and with so now you know as much as you ought about the mixture and the supreme government has not yet been described she would need so on the city wall says a thousand pens of gold and ink scented with she has been compared to the moon the lake a spotted a the sun on the desert of the dawn the stars and the young these imply that she is beautiful exceedingly according to the native standards which are practically the same as those of the west her eyes are black and her hair is black and her eyebrows are black as her mouth is tiny and says witty things her hands are tiny and have saved much money her feet are tiny and have trodden on the naked hearts of many men but as sings is and when you have said that you have only come to the of knowledge the little house on the city wall was just big enough to hold and her maid and a cat with a silver collar a big pink and blue cut glass hung from the ceiling of the reception room a pretty had given the horror and she kept it for politeness sake the floor of the room was of polished white as a window of carved wood was set in one wall there was a profusion of cushions and fat carpets everywhere and s silver studded with had a special little carpet all to its shining self was nearly as permanent a as the as i have said he lay in the window seat and on life and death and specially the feet of the young men of the city tended to her and then retired for was a particular maiden slow of speech reserved of mind and not in the least inclined to which were nearly certain to end in strife if i am of no value i am unworthy of this honor said if i am of value they are unworthy of me and that was a crooked sentence in the long hot nights of latter april and may all the city seemed to in s little white room to smoke and to talk of the and most on the city wall persuasion who had lost all belief in the prophet and retained but little in god wandering priests passing southward on their way to the central india and other affairs in black gowns with spectacles on their noses and wisdom in their bearded of the wards with all the details of the latest scandal in the golden temple red eyed priests from beyond the border looking like wolves and talking like m a s of the university very superior and very all these people and more also you might find in the white room wall lay in the window seat and listened to the talk it is s said to me and it is is not that the word outside of a s lodge i have never seen such there i dined once with a jew a i he into the city ditch with apologies for allowing national feelings to overcome him though i have lost every belief in the world said he and try to be proud of my losing i cannot help a jew admits no jews here but what in the world do all these men do i asked the curse of our country said they talk it is like the always hearing and telling some new thing ask the pearl and she will show you how much she knows of the news of the city and the province knows everything i said at random she was talking to a gentleman of the persuasion who had come in from god when does the th regiment go to it does not go at all said without turning her head they have ordered the th to go in its stead that regiment goes to in three months unless they give a fresh order that is so said without a shade of doubt can you with your and your newspapers do bet on the city wall ter always hearing and telling some new thing he went on my friend has your god ever smitten a european nation for in the india has for centuries always standing in the until the soldiers go by therefore you are here to day instead of starving in your own country and i am not a i am a product a product that also i owe to you and yours that i	39
of him whether it was really true that a political prisoner had been added to the attractions of the fort the explained at great length for this was the first time that he had held command of the fort and his glory lay heavy upon him yes said he a man was sent in to me about a week ago from down the line a thorough gentleman whoever he is of course i did all i could for him he had his two servants and some silver cooking pots and he looked for all the world like a native officer i called him just as well to be on the safe side y know look here i said you re handed over to my authority and i m supposed to guard you now i don t want to make your life hard but you must make things easy for me all the fort is at your disposal from the to the dry ditch and i shall be happy to entertain you in any way i can but you mustn t take advantage of it give me your word that you won t try to escape and i ll give you my word that you shall have no heavy guard put over you i thought the best way of getting at him was by going at him straight y know and it was by jove the old man gave me his word and moved about the fort as contented as a sick crow he s a chap always asking to be told where he is and what the buildings about him are i had to sign a slip of blue paper when he turned up acknowledging receipt of his body on the city wall and all that and tm responsible y know that he doesn t get away queer thing though looking after a old enough to be your grandfather isn t it come to the fort one of these days and see him for reasons which will appear i never went to the fort while was then within its walls i knew him only as a gray head seen from s window a gray head and a harsh voice but natives told me that day by day as he looked upon the fair lands round his memory came back to him and with it the old hatred against the government that had been nearly in far off so he raged up and down the west face of the fort from morning till noon and from evening till the night vain things in his heart and war songs when sang on the city wall as he grew more acquainted with the he his old heart of some of the passions that had withered it he used to say tapping his stick against the when i was a young man i was one of twenty thousand who came out of the city and rode round the plain here i was the leader of a hundred then of a thousand then of five thousand and now he pointed to his two servants but from the beginning to to day i would cut the throats of all the in the land if i could hold me fast lest i get away and return to those who would follow me i forgot them when i was in but now that i am in my own country again i remember everything do you remember that you have given me your honor not to make your a hard matter said the sub yes to you only to you said to you because you are of a pleasant countenance if my turn comes again i will not hang you nor cut your throat thank you said the gravely as he looked along the line of guns that could pound the city to powder in on the city wall half an hour let us go into our own quarters come and talk with me after dinner would sit on his own cushion at the s feet drinking heavy scented seed brandy in great and telling strange stories of fort which had been a palace in the old days of and tortured to death ay in the very chamber that now served as a mess room would tell stories of that made the s cheeks flush and with pride of race and of the rising from which so much was expected and the of which was shared by a hundred thousand souls but he never told tales of because as he said he was the s guest and is a year that no man black or white cares to speak of once only when the seed brandy had slightly affected his head he said speaking now of a matter which lay between and the affair of the it was ever a wonder to us that you stayed your hand at all and chat having stayed it you did not make the land one prison now i hear from without that you do great honor to all men of our country and by your own hands are destroying the terror of your name which is your strong rock and defence this is a foolish thing will oil and water mix now in i was not born then said the and to his quarters the would tell me of these conversations at the club and my desire to see increased but sitting in the window seat of the house on the city wall said that it would be a cruel thing to do and pretended that i preferred the society of a old to hers here is tobacco here is talk here are many friends and all the news of the city and above all here is myself i will tell you stories and sing you songs and will talk his english nonsense in your ears is that worse than watching the animal yonder go to	39
s silver for mark of office all day the drums beat in the city and all day of tearful gentlemen the with assurances that they would be murdered ere next dawning by the which said the in confidence to the head of police pretty fair indication that the are going to make unpleasant i think we can arrange a little surprise for them i have given the heads of both fair warning if they choose to disregard it so much the worse for them there was a large gathering in s house that night but of men that i had never seen before if i except the fat gentleman in black with the gold lay in the window seat more bitterly scornful of his faith and its that i had ever known him s maid was very busy cutting up and mixing tobacco for the guests we could hear the thunder of the drums as the accompanying each marched to the central in the plain outside the city preparatory to their triumphant re entry and circuit within the walls all the streets seemed with and only fort was black and silent when the noise of the drums ceased no one in the white room spoke for a time the first has moved off said looking to the plain that is very early said the man with the it is only half past eight the company rose and departed some of them were men from i said when the last bad gone they brought me brick te such s the on the city wall sell and a tea urn from show me now how the english make tea the brick tea was abominable when it was finished suggested a descent into the streets i am nearly sure that there will be trouble to night he said all the city thinks so and is as the say now i tell you that at the corner of the gate you will find my horse all this night if you want to go about and to see things it is a most disgraceful exhibition where is the pleasure of saying twenty thousand times in a night all the there were two and twenty of them were now well within the city walls the drums were beating afresh the crowd were howling i and beating their breasts the brass bands were playing their and at every comer where space allowed were telling the lamentable story of the death of the it was impossible to move except with the crowd for the streets were not more than twenty feet wide in the quarters the shutters of all the shops were up and cross barred as the first a gorgeous ten feet high was borne aloft on the shoulders of a score of stout men into that semi darkness of the of the a through its and sides into thy hands o lord i murmured as a yell went up from behind and a native officer of police his horse through the crowd another followed and the staggered and swayed where it had stopped go on in the name of the go forward shouted the policeman but there was an ugly and of shutters and the crowd halted with oaths and before the house whence the had been thrown then without any warning broke the storm not only in o on the city wall the of the but in a half a dozen other place the rocked like ships at sea the long pole dipped and rose round them while the men shouted the are the i strike strike into their temples for the faith the six or eight with each drew their and struck as long as they could in the hope of forcing the mob forward but they were overpowered and as of poured into the streets the fight became general half a mile away where the were yet untouched the drums and the shrieks of continued but not for long the priests at the corners of the streets knocked the legs from the that supported their and smote for the faith while stones fell from the silent houses upon friend and foe and the packed streets din din din a caught fire and was dropped for a flaming barrier between and at the corner of the then the crowd forward and wall drew me close to the stone pillar of a well it wa intended from the beginning he shouted in my ear with more heat than blank should be guilty of the bricks were carried up to the houses beforehand these swine of we shall be in their temples to night after some burning others torn to pieces hurried past us and the mob howling shrieking and striking at the house doors in their flight at last we saw the reason of the rush the assistant district of police a boy of twenty had got together thirty and was forcing the crowd through the streets his old gray police horse showed no sign of uneasiness as it was breast on into the crowd and the long dog whip with which he had armed himself was never still they know we haven t enough police to hold em he cried as he passed me a cut on his face they on the city wall know we haven t aren t any of the men from the club coming down to help get on you sons of burnt fathers the dog whip cracked across the backs and the smote afresh with and gun butt with these passed the lights and the shouting and began to swear under his breath from fort shot up a single then two side by side it was the signal for troops the covered with dust and sweat but calm and gently smiling up the street in rear of the main body of the no one killed yet he shouted i ll keep em on	39
the run till dawn don t let em halt trot em about till the troops come the science of the defence lay solely in keeping the mob on the move if they had breathing space they would halt and fire a house and then the work of restoring order would be more difficult to say the least of it flames have the same effect on a crowd as blood has on a wild beast word had reached the club and men in evening dress were beginning to show themselves and lend a hand in heading off and breaking up the shouting masses with or chance found they were not very often attacked for the had sense enough to know that the death of a european would not mean one hanging but many and possibly the appearance of the thrice dreaded the in the city the had descended into the streets in real earnest and ere long the mob returned it was a strange sight there were no only their and there were no police here and there a city or was vainly imploring his co to keep quiet and behave themselves advice for which his white beard was pulled with then a native officer of police but still using his spurs with effect would be seen borne along in the throng warning all the world of the danger of insulting the government every i on the city wall where were men striking with sticks grasping each other by the throat howling and foaming with rage or beating with their bare hands on the doors of the houses it is a lucky thing that they are fighting with natural weapons i said to else we should have half the city killed i turned as i spoke and looked at his face his nostrils were his eyes were fixed and he was himself softly on the breast the crowd poured by with renewed riot a gang of hard pressed by some hundred left my side with an oath and shouting i plunged into the thick of the fight where i lost sight of him i by a side alley to the gate where i found s horse and thence rode to the fort once outside the city wall the tumult sank to a dull roar very impressive under the stars and reflecting great credit on the fifty thousand angry able men who were making it the troops who at the s instance had been ordered to quietly near the fort showed no signs of being impressed two companies of native a of native cavalry and a company of british were kicking their heels in the shadow of the east face waiting for orders to march in i am sorry to say that they were all pleased pleased at the chance of what they called a little fun the senior officers to be sure grumbled at having been kept out of bed and the english troops pretended to be sulky but there was joy in the hearts of all the and whispers ran up and down the line no what a shame d you think the beggars will really stand up to us hope i shall meet my money there i owe him more than i can afford oh they won t let us even swords up goes the fourth fall in there the garrison who to the last cherished a wild on the city wall hope that they might be allowed to the city at a hundred yards range lined the et above the e t and cheered themselves hoarse as the british doubled along the road to the main gate of the city the cavalry on to the i gate and the native marched slowly to the gate of the the surprise was intended to be of a distinctly unpleasant nature and to come on top of the defeat of the police who had been just able to keep the from firing the houses of a few leading the bulk of the riot lay in the north and wards the east and were by this time dark and silent and i rode hastily to i s house for i wished to tell her to send some one in search of the house was but the door was open and i climbed up stairs in the darkness one small lamp in the white room showed and her maid leaning half out of the window breathing heavily and evidently pulling at something that refused to come thou art late very late gasped without turning her head help us now o fool if thou hast not spent thy strength howling among the pull i and i can do no more o is it you the have been hunting an old round the ditch with clubs if they find him again they will kill him help us to pull him up i laid my hands to the long red silk waist cloth that was hanging out of the window and we three pulled and pulled with all the strength at our command was something very heavy at the end and it was swearing in an unknown tongue as it kicked against the city wall pull oh pull said at the last a pair of brown hands grasped the sill and a venerable tumbled upon the floor very much out of breath his jaws were tied up and his had fallen over one eye he w dusty and angry on the city wall hid her face in her hands for an instant and said something about that i could not catch then to my extreme gratification she threw her arms round my neck and murmured pretty things i was in no haste to stop her and being a hand maiden of tact turned to the big jewel chest that stands in the corner of the white room and among the contents the sat on the floor and	39
glared one service more since thou hast come so said wilt thou it is very nice to be thou ed by take this old man across the city the troops are everywhere and they might hurt him for he is old to the gate there i think he may find a carriage to take him to his house he is a friend of mine and thou art more than a friend therefore i ask this bent over the old man tucked something into his belt and i raised him up and led him into the streets in crossing from the east to the west of the city there was no chance of avoiding the troops and the crowd long before i reached the of the i heard the shouts of the british crying cheerily ye beggars ye devils get along go forward there then followed the ringing of rifle and shrieks of pain the troops were the bare toes of the mob with their not a had been fixed my companion and as we walked on until we were carried back by the crowd and had to force our way to the troops i caught him by the wrist and felt a the iron of the but i had no suspicions for had only ten minutes before put her arms round me thrice we were carried back by the crowd and when we won our way past the british it was to meet the cavalry driving another mob before them with the of their what are these dogs said the old man of the cavalry father i said and we edged our on the city wall way up the line of horses two abreast and found the his smashed on his head surrounded by a knot of men who had come down from the club as amateur and had helped the police we ll keep em on the run till dawn said who s your friend had only time to say the protection of the when a fresh crowd flying before the native carried us a hundred yards nearer to the gate and was swept away like a shadow i do not know i cannot see it is all new to me moaned my companion how many troops are there in the city perhaps hundred i said a of men beaten by five hundred and among them surely surely i am an old man but the gate is new who pulled down the stone lions where is the i am a very old man and alas i i cannot stand he dropped in the shadow of the gate where there was no disturbance a fat gentleman wearing gold came out of the darkness you are most kind to bring my old friend he said he is a land of he should not be in a big city when there is religious excitement but i have a carriage here you are quite truly kind will you help me to put him into the carriage it is very late we the old man into a hired victoria that stood close to the and i turned back to the house on the city wall the troops were driving the people to and fro while the police shouted to your houses get to your houses and the dog whip of the assistant district cracked terror stricken clung to the of the cavalry crying that their houses had been robbed which was a lie and the on the shoulder and bade them return to those e on the city wall lest a worse thing should happen parties of five or six british soldiers joining arms swept down the side their on their backs stamping with shouting and song upon the toes of and never was religious enthusiasm more and never were poor of the peace more utterly weary and foot sore they were out of holes and corners from behind and and to go to their houses if they had no houses to go to so much the worse for their toes on returning to s door i stumbled over a man at the threshold he was sobbing and his arms like the wings of a goose it was and and at the mouth the flesh on his chest bruised and bleeding from the vehemence with which he had smitten himself a broken lay by his side and his quivering lips murmured as i stooped over him i pushed him a few steps up the staircase threw a at s city window and hurried most of the streets were very still and the cold wind that comes before the dawn whistled down them in the centre of the square of the a man was bending over a corpse the skull had been smashed in by gun butt or it is expedient that one man should die for the people said grimly raising the head these brutes were beginning to show their teeth too much and from afar we could hear the soldiers singing two lovely black eyes as they e the remnant of the within doors of course you can guess what happened i was not so clever when the news went abroad that had escaped from the fort i did not since i was then living the story not writing it connect myself or or the fat of the gold with his disappearance on the city wall y g did it strike me that was j man who should have him across the city at s arms round my neck were put there to hide the money that gave to him and that used me and my white face as even a better than who proved himself so all that i knew at the time was that when fort was taken op with the by the confusion to get away and	39
that his two guards also escaped but later on i received full and so did he fled to those who knew him in the old days but many of them were dead and more were changed and all knew something of the wrath of the government he went to the young men but the of his name had passed away and they were entering native or government offices and could give them neither nor influence nothing but a glorious death with their backs to the mouth of a gun he wrote letters and made promises and the letters fell into bad hands and a wholly insignificant subordinate officer of police them down and gained promotion thereby moreover was old and seed brandy was scarce and he had left his silver cooking pots in fort with his nice warm and the gentleman with the gold was told by those who had employed him that as a popular leader not worth the money paid great is the mercy of these fools of english said when the situation was explained i will go back to fort of my own free will and gain honor give me good clothes to return in so upon a day knocked at the gate of the fort and walked to the captain and the who were nearly gray headed on account of correspondence that daily arrived from marked private on the city wall i have come happen parties of five i put no more guards is swept down the side i a week later i saw him for t with shouting and son r and he made as though there were au never was i i us never were it was well done said he and greatly i your in thus boldly facing the troops when i whom i they would have doubtless torn to pieces was with you now there is a man in fort whom a bold man could with ease help to escape this is the position of the fort as i draw it on the sand but i was thinking how i had become s after all the city wm i n l om iv and that a better the phantom may no ill dreams disturb my rest nor powers of darkness me evening hymn one of the few advantages that india has over england is a great after five years service a man is directly or indirectly acquainted with the two or three hundred in his province all the of ten or twelve and and some fifteen hundred other people of the non official caste in ten years his knowledge should be doubled and at the end of twenty he knows or knows something about every englishman in the empire and may travel anywhere and everywhere without paying hotel bills globe who expect entertainment as a right have within my memory this open but none the less to day if you belong to the inner circle and are neither a bear nor a black sheep all houses are open to you and our small world is very very kind and of stayed with of some fifteen years ago he meant to stay two nights but was knocked down by fever and for six weeks s establishment stopped s work and nearly died in s bedroom as though he had been placed under eternal obligation by and yearly sends the little a box of presents and toys it is the same everywhere the men who do not take the trouble to conceal from you their opinion that you are an ass and the women who your character and mis the phantom understand your wife s amusements will work themselves to the bone in your behalf if you fall sick or into serious trouble the doctor kept in addition to his regular practice a hospital on his private account an arrangement of loose boxes for his friend called it but it was really a sort of fitting up shed for craft that had been by stress of weather the weather in india is often and since the tale of bricks is always a fixed quantity and the only liberty allowed is permission to work and get no thanks men occasionally break down and become as mixed as the in this sentence is the dearest doctor that ever was and his invariable to all his is lie low go slow and keep cool he says that more men are killed by than the importance of this world he that who died under his hands about three years ago he has of course the right to speak and he laughs at my theory that there was a crack in s head and a little bit of the dark world came through and pressed him to death went off the handle says after the of long leave at home he may or he may not have behaved like a to mrs my notion is that the work of the settlement ran him off his legs and that he took to brooding and making much of an p o he certainly was to miss and she certainly broke off the engagement then he took a feverish chill and all that nonsense about ghosts developed started his illness kept it alight and killed him poor devil write him off to the system one man to take the work of two and a half men i do not believe this i used to sit up with sometimes when was called out to and i happened to be within claim the man would make me most unhappy by describing in a low even voice the procession that the phantom was always passing at the bottom of his bed he had a sick man s command of language when he recovered i suggest ed that he should write out the whole affair from beginning to end knowing that ink might assist him to ease his	39
mind when little boys have learned a new bad word they are never happy till they have it up on a door and this also is literature he was in a high fever while he was writing and the thunder magazine he adopted did not calm him two months afterwards he was reported fit for duty but in spite of the fact that he was needed to help an commission through a he preferred to die at the last that he was ridden i got his manuscript before he died and this is his version of the affair dated my doctor tells me that i need rest and change of air it is not improbable that i shall get both ere long rest that neither the red messenger nor the mid day gun can break and change of air far beyond that which any homeward bound steamer can give me in the mean time i am resolved to stay where i am and in defiance of my doctors orders to take all the world into my confidence you shall learn for yourselves the precise nature of my malady and shall too judge for yourselves whether any man born of woman on this weary earth was ever so tormented as i speaking now as a condemned criminal might speak ere the drop are drawn my story wild and improbable as it may appear demands at least attention that it will ever receive i utterly two months ago i should have a mad or drunk the man who had dared tell me the like two months ago i was the happiest man in india to day from to the sea there is no one more wretched my doctor and i are the only two who know this his explanation is that my brain and eye the phantom sight are all slightly affected giving rise to my frequent and persistent indeed call him a fool but he me still with the same smile the same bland professional manner the same neatly trimmed red whiskers till i begin to suspect that i am an ungrateful evil tempered invalid but you shall judge for yourselves three years ago it was my fortune my great misfortune to sail from to on return from long leave with one wife of an officer on the side it does not in the least concern you to know what manner of woman she was be content with the knowledge that ere the voyage had ended both she and i were desperately and in love with one another heaven knows that i can make the admission now without one of vanity in matters of this sort there is always one who gives and another who the first day of our attachment i was conscious that s passion was a stronger a more dominant and if i may use the expression a purer sentiment than mine whether she recognized the fact then i do not know afterwards it was bitterly plain to both of us arrived at in the spring of the year we went our respective ways to meet no more for the next three or four months when my leave and her love took us both to there we spent the season together and there my fire of straw burnt itself out to a pitiful end with the closing year i attempt no excuse i make no apology mrs had given up much for my sake and was prepared to give up all from my own lips in august she learnt was sick of her presence tired of her company and weary of the sound of her voice ninety nine women out of a hundred would wearied of me as i wearied of them seventy five of that number would have promptly themselves by active and with other men mrs was the on her neither my openly expressed aversion nor the phantom the cutting with which i our had the least effect jack darling was her one eternal cry fro sure it s all a mistake a hideous mistake and we ll be good friends again some day please forgive me jack dear i was the and i knew it that knowledge transformed my pity into passive endurance and eventually into blind hate the same instinct i suppose which a man to savagely stamp on the spider he has but half killed and with this hate in my bosom the season of came to an end next year we met again at she with her monotonous face and timid attempts at and i with of her in every fibre of my frame several times i could not avoid meeting her alone and on each occasion her words were the same still the wail that it was all a mistake and still the hope of eventually making friends i might have seen had i cared to look that that hope only was keeping her alive she grew more wan and thin month by month you will agree with me at least that such conduct would have driven any one to despair it was for childish i maintain that she was much to blame and again sometimes in the black fever stricken night watches i have begun to think that i might have been a little kinder to her but that really a delusion i could not have continued pretending to love her when i didn t could i it would have been unfair to us both last year we met again on the same terms as before the same weary appeals and the same answers from my lips at least i would make her see how wholly wrong and hopeless were her attempts at the old relationship as the season wore on we fell apart that is to s y she found it difficult to meet me for i had other and more absorbing interests to attend to when i	39
think it over quietly in my sick room the season of seems a confused nightmare wherein light phantom and shade were my courtship of little my hopes doubts and fears our long rides together my trembling of attachment her reply and now and again a vision of a white face flitting by in the with the black and white i once watched for so earnestly the wave of mrs s hand and when she met me alone which was but seldom the irksome monotony of her appeal i loved honestly heartily loved her and with my love for her grew my hatred for in august and i were engaged the next day i met those accursed x z t at the back of and moved by some passing sentiment of pity stopped to tell mrs everything she knew it already so i hear you re engaged jack dear then without a moment s pause i m sure it s all a mistake a hideous mistake we shall be as good friends some day jack as we ever were my answer might have made even a man it cut the dying woman before me like the blow of a whip please forgive me jack i didn t mean to make you angry but it s true it s true and mrs broke down completely i turned away and left her to finish her journey in peace feeling but only for a moment or two that i had been an mean hound i looked back and saw that she had turned her with the idea i suppose of me the scene and its surroundings were on my memory the rain swept sky we were at the end of the wet weather the dingy pines the muddy road and the black powder cliffs formed a gloomy background against which the black and white oi the yellow and mrs s down bowed golden head stood out clearly she was holding her handkerchief in her left hand and was leaning back exhausted against the phantom the cushions turned my horse up a near the and literally ran away once i fancied i heard a faint call of jack i this may have been imagination i never stopped to it ten minutes later came across on horseback and in the delight of a long ride with her forgot all about the interview a week later mrs died and the burden of her existence was removed from my life i went perfectly happy before three months were over i had all about her except that at times the discovery of some of her old letters reminded me of our relationship by january i had what was left of our correspondence from among my scattered and had burnt it at the beginning of april of this year i was at semi deserted once more and was deep in lover s talks and walks with it was decided that we should be married at the end of june you will understand therefore that loving as i did i am not saying too much when i pronounce myself to have been at that time the happiest man in india fourteen delightful days passed almost before i noticed their flight then aroused to the sense of what was proper among mortals as we were i pointed out to that an engagement ring was the outward and visible sign of her dignity as an engaged girl and that she must forthwith come to s to be measured for one up to that moment i give you my word we had completely forgotten so a matter to s we accordingly went on the th of april remember that whatever my doctor may say to the contrary i was then in perfect health enjoying a mind and an absolutely tranquil spirit and i entered s shop together and there regardless of the order of affairs i measured for the ring in the presence of the amused assistant the ring was a with two the phantom diamonds we then rode out down the slope that leads to the bridge and s shop while my was cautiously feeling his way over the loose and was laughing and chattering at my side while all that is to say as much of it as had then come from the plains was round the reading room ai d s i was aware that some one apparently at a vast distance was calling me by my christian name it struck me that i had heard the voice before but when and where i could not at once determine in the short space it took to cover the road between the path from s shop and the first plank of the bridge i had thought over half a dozen people who might have committed such t and had eventually decided that it must have been some singing in my ears immediately opposite s shop my eye was arrested by the sight in livery pulling a yellow cheap in a moment my mind flew back to the previous season and mrs with a sense of irritation and disgust was it not enough that the woman was dead and done with without her black and white to spoil the day s happiness whoever employed them now i thought i would call upon and ask as a personal favor to change her livery i would hire the men myself and if necessary buy their coats from ofl their backs it is impossible to say here what a flood of memories their presence i cried there are poor mrs s turned up again i wonder who has them now had known mrs slightly last season and had always been interested in the sickly woman what she asked i can t see them anywhere as she horse from a laden mule the phantom threw himself directly in front of the advancing i had	39
scarcely time to utter a word of warning when to my unutterable horror horse and rider passed through men and as if they had been thin air what s the matter cried what made you call out so foolishly jack if i am engaged i don t want all creation to know about it there was lots of space between the mule and the and if you think i can t ride there whereupon wilful set off her dainty little head in the air at a hand gallop in the direction of the band stand fully expecting as she herself afterwards told me that i should follow her what was the matter nothing indeed either that i was mad or drunk or that was haunted with devils i in my impatient and turned round the had turned too and now stood immediately facing me near the left railing of the bridge jack jack darling there was no mistake about the words this time they rang through my brain as if they had been shouted in my ear it s hideous mistake i m sure please forgive me jack and let s be friends again the hood had fallen back and inside as i hope and pray daily for the death i dread by night sat mrs handkerchief in hand and golden head bowed on her breast how long i stared motionless i do not know finally i was aroused by my taking the s bridle and asking whether i was ill from the horrible to the commonplace is but a step i tumbled off my horse and dashed half fainting into s for a glass of cherry brandy there two or three couples were gathered round the coffee tables discussing the gossip of the day their were more comforting to me just then than the of religion could have been i plunged into the midst of the conversation at once laughed and with a face when i caught a glimpse of it the phantom in a mirror as white and drawn as that of a corpse three or four men noticed my condition and evidently setting it down to the results of over many endeavored to draw me apart from the rest of the but i refused to be led away i wanted the company of my kind as a child rushes into the midst of the dinner party after a fright in the dark i must have talked for about ten minutes or so though it seemed an eternity to when i heard s clear voice outside inquiring for me in another minute she had entered the shop prepared to me for failing so in my duties something in my face stopped her why jack she cried what have you been doing what has happened are you ill thus driven into a direct lie i said that the sun had been a little too much for me it was close upon five o clock of a cloudy april afternoon and the sun had been hidden all day i saw my mistake as soon as the words were out of my mouth attempted to recover it hopelessly and followed in a rage out of doors amid the smiles of my acquaintances i made some excuse i have forgotten what on the score of my feeling faint and away to my hotel leaving to finish the ride by herself in my room i sat down and tried calmly to reason out the matter here was i jack a well educated in the year of grace sane certainly healthy driven in terror from my sweetheart s side by the apparition of a woman who had been dead and buried eight months ago these were facts that i could not nothing was further from my thought than any memory of mrs when and i left s shop nothing was more utterly commonplace than the stretch of wall opposite s it was broad daylight the road was full of people and yet here look you in defiance of every law of probability in direct outrage of nature s there had appeared to me a face from the grave the phantom s had gone through the so that ray first hope that some woman like mrs had hired the carriage and the with their old livery was lost again and again i went round this of thought and again and again gave up baffled and in despair the voice was as inexplicable as the apparition i had originally some wild notion of confiding it all to of begging her to marry me at once and in her arms the ghostly of the after all i argued the presence of the is in itself enough to prove the existence of a illusion one may see ghosts of men women but surely never and carriages the whole thing is absurd fancy the ghost of a next morning i sent a penitent note to imploring her to overlook my strange conduct of the previous afternoon my divinity was still very and a personal apology was necessary i explained with a born of night long pondering over a falsehood that i had been attacked with a sudden of the heart the result of this eminently practical solution had its effect and and i rode out that afternoon with the shadow of my first lie dividing us nothing would please her save a round with my nerves still from the previous night i feebly protested against the notion suggesting hill the road anything rather than the round was angry and a little hurt so i yielded from fear of provoking further misunderstanding and we set out together towards we walked a greater part of the way and according to our custom from a mile or so below the to the stretch of level road by the the wretched horses appeared to fly and my heart beat quicker and quicker as we the crest of the ascent my	39
mind had been full of mrs all the afternoon and every inch of the road bore witness to our old time the phantom walks and talks the were full of it the pines sang it aloud overhead the rain fed torrents and chuckled unseen over the shameful story and the wind in my ears the aloud as a fitting climax in the middle of the level men call the ladies mile the horror was awaiting me no other was in sight only the four black and while the yellow carriage and the golden head of the woman within all apparently just a i had left them eight months and one fortnight ago for an instant i fancied that must see what i saw we were so sympathetic in all things her next words me not a soul in sight come along jack and til race you to the buildings her little was off like a bird my following close behind and in this order we dashed under the cliffs half a minute brought us within fifty yards of the i pulled my and fell back a little the was directly in the middle of the road and once more the passed through it my horse following jack jack dear please forgive me rang with a wail in my ears and after an interval it s all a mistake a hideous mistake i my horse like a man possessed when i turned my head at the works the black and white were still waiting patiently waiting under the gray and the wind brought me a mocking echo of the words i had just heard me a good deal on my silence throughout the remainder of the ride i had been talking up till then wildly and at random to save my life i could not speak afterwards naturally and from to the church wisely held my tongue i was to dine with the that night and had barely time to home to dress on the road to hill i overheard two men talking together in the dusk it s a curious thing said one how completely all trace of it the phantom disappeared you know my wife was fond of the woman never could see anything in her myself and wanted me to pick up her old and if they were to be got for love or money morbid sort of fancy i call it but i ve got to do what the tells me would you believe that the man she hired it from tells me that all four of the men they were brothers died of on the way to poor devils and the has been broken up by the man himself told me he never used a dead s spoilt his luck queer notion wasn t it fancy poor little mrs any one s luck except her own i laughed aloud at this point and my laugh on me as i uttered it so there were ghosts of after all and ghostly in the other world how much did mrs give her men what were their hours where did they go and for visible answer to my last question i saw the infernal thing my path in the twilight the dead travel fast and by short cuts unknown to ordinary i laughed aloud a second time and checked my laughter suddenly for i was afraid i was going mad mad to a certain extent i must have been for i recollect that i in my horse at the head of the and politely wished mrs good evening her answer was one i knew only too well i listened to the end and replied that i had heard it all before but should be delighted if she had anything further to say some malignant devil stronger than i must have entered into me that evening for i have a dim recollection of talking the of the day for five minutes to the thing in front of me mad as a poor devil or drunk try and get him to come home surely that was not mrs s voice the two men had overheard me speaking to the empty air and had returned to look after me they were very kind and considerate and the phantom from their words evidently gathered that i was extremely drunk i thanked them and away to my hotel there changed and arrived at the ten minutes late i pleaded the darkness of the night as an excuse was by for my like and sat down the conversation had already become general and under cover of it i was addressing some tender small talk to my sweetheart when i was aware that at the further end of the table a short red man was describing with much his encounter with a mad unknown that evening a few sentences convinced me that he was repeating the incident of half an hour ago in the middle of the story he looked round for applause as professional story do caught my eye and straightway there was a moment s awkward silence and the red man muttered something to the effect that he had forgotten the rest thereby sacrificing a reputation as a good story which he had built up for six seasons past i blessed him from the bottom of my heart and went on with my fish in the fulness of time that dinner came to an end and with genuine regret i tore myself away from as certain as i was of my own existence that it would be waiting for me outside the door the red man who had been introduced to me as dr of volunteered to bear me company as far as our roads lay together i accepted his offer with gratitude my instinct had not deceived me it lay in readiness in the and in what seemed devilish	39
my assurance doubly sure the horses did their best but seemed all too slow to my impatient mind was astonished at my why jack she cried at last you arc like a child what are you doing we were just below the and from sheer wanton the phantom ness i was making my plunge and across the road as i it with the of my riding whip doing i answered nothing dear that s just it if you d been doing nothing for a week except lie up you d be as as i singing and murmuring in your mirth to feel yourself alive ix rd over nature lord of the visible earth lord of the senses five my quotation was hardly out of my lips before we had rounded the corner above the and a few yards further on could see across to in the centre of the level road stood the black and white the yellow and mrs i pulled up looked rubbed my eyes and i believe must have said something the next thing i knew was that i was lying face downward on the road with kneeling above me in tears has it gone child i gasped only wept more bitterly has what gone jack dear what does it all mean there must be a mistake somewhere jack a hideous mistake her last words brought me to my feet mad for the time being yes there is a mistake somewhere i repeated a hideous mistake come and look at it i have an indistinct idea that i dragged by the wrist along the road up to where it stood and implored her for pity s sake to speak to it to tell it that we were that neither death nor hell could break the tie between us and only knows how much more to the same effect now and again i appealed passionately to the terror in the to bear witness to all i had said and to release me from a torture that was killing me as i talked i suppose i must have told of my old relations with mrs the phantom ton for i saw her listen intently with white face and blazing eyes thank you mr she said that s quite enough the as always are had come up with the horses and as sprang into her saddle i caught hold of her bridle her to hear me out and forgive my answer was the cut of her riding whip across my face from mouth to eye and a word or two of farewell that even now i cannot write down so i judged and judged rightly that knew all and i staggered back to the side of the my face was cut and bleeding and the blow of the riding whip had raised a livid blue on it i had no self respect just then who must have been following and me at a distance up doctor i said pointing to my face here s miss s signature to my order of dismissal and i ll thank you for that as soon as convenient s face even in my abject misery moved me to laughter i ll stake my professional reputation he began don t be a fool i whispered lost s happiness and you d better take me home as i spoke the was gone then i lost all knowledge of what was passing the crest of seemed to heave and roll like the crest of a cloud and fall in upon me seven days later on the th of may that is to say i was aware that i was lying in s room as weak as a little child was watching me intently from behind the papers on his writing table his first words were not encouraging but i was too far spent to be much moved by them here s miss has sent back your letters you a good deal you young people here s a packet that and cheerful rt of a note from manner o the phantom ing papa which i ve taken the liberty of reading and burning the old gentleman s not pleased with you and i asked rather more drawn than her father from what she says by the same token you must have been letting out any number of queer reminiscences just before i met you says that a man who would have behaved to a woman as you did to mrs ought to kill himself out of sheer pity for his kind she s a hot headed little will have it too that you were suffering from d t when that row on the road turned up says she ll die before she ever speaks to you again i groaned and turned over on the other side now you ve got your choice my friend this engagement has to be broken off and the don t want to be too hard on you was it broken through d t or fits sorry i can t offer you a better exchange unless you d prefer hereditary insanity say the word and i ll tell em it s fits all knows about that scene on the ladies mile come i ll give you five minutes to think over it during those five minutes i believe that i thoroughly the lowest circles of the which it is permitted man to tread on earth and at the same time i myself was watching myself faltering through the dark of doubt misery and utter despair i wondered as in his chair might have wondered which dreadful alternative should adopt presently i heard myself answering in a voice that i hardly recognized they re particular about morality in these parts give em fits and my love now let me sleep a bit longer then my two selves joined and it was only i half devil driven i that tossed in	39
my bed tracing step by step the history of the past month but i am in i kept repeating to myself i the phantom jack am in and there are no ghosts here it s unreasonable of that woman to pretend there why couldn t have left me alone i never did her any harm it might just as well have been me as only td never have come back on purpose to kill her why can t i be left alone left alone and happy it was high noon when i first awoke and the sun was low in the sky before i slept slept as the tortured criminal sleeps on his rack too worn to feel further pain next day i could not leave my bed told me in the morning that he had received an answer from mr and that thanks to his s friendly offices the story of my affliction had travelled through the length and breadth of where i was on all sides much pitied and that s rather more than you deserve he concluded pleasantly though the lord knows you ve been going through a pretty severe mill never mind we ll cure you yet you perverse phenomenon declined firmly to be cured you ve been much too good to me already old man said i but i don t think i need trouble you further in my heart i knew that nothing could do would the burden that had been laid upon me with that knowledge came also a sense of hopeless impotent rebellion against the of it all there were scores of men no better than i whose had at least been reserved for another world and i felt that it was bitterly cruelly unfair that i alone should have been out for so hideous a fate this mood would in time give place to another where it seemed that the and i were the only realities in a world of shadows that was a ghost that and all the other men and women i knew were all ghosts and the great gray hills themselves but v in shadows devised to torture me from mood the phantom to mood i tossed backwards and forwards for seven weary days my body growing daily stronger and stronger until the bedroom looking glass told me that i had returned to life and was as other men once more curiously enough my face showed no signs of the struggle i had gone through it was pale indeed but as and commonplace as ever i had expected some permanent alteration visible evidence of the disease that was eating me away i found nothing on the th of may i left s house at eleven o clock in the morning and the instinct of the bachelor drove me to the club there i found that every man knew my story as told by and was in clumsy fashion kind and attentive nevertheless i recognized that for the rest of my natural life i should be among but not of my fellows and i envied very bitterly indeed the laughing on the below i at the club and at four o clock wandered down the in the vague hope of meeting close to the band stand the black and white joined me and i heard mrs s old appeal at my side i had been expecting this ever since i came out and was only surprised at her delay the phantom and i went side by side along the road in silence close to the and a man on horseback overtook and passed us for any sign she gave i might have been a dog in the road she did not even pay me the compliment of her pace though the rainy afternoon had served for an excuse so and her companion and i and my ghostly love crept round in couples the road was streaming with water the pines like roof pipes on the rocks below and the air was full of fine driving rain two or three times i found myself saying to myself almost aloud i m jack on leave at at every day ordinary i mustn t forget that i mustn t forget that then i would try to recollect some of the gossip i had the phantom i at the club the prices of so and so s horses anything in fact that related to the work a day indian world i knew so well i even repeated the table rapidly to myself to make quite sure that i was not taking leave of my senses it gave me much comfort and must have prevented my hearing mrs for a time once more i wearily climbed the slope and entered the level road here and the man started off at a and i was left alone with mrs said i will you put back your hood and tell me what it all means the hood dropped noiselessly and i was face to face with my dead and buried mistress she was wearing the dress in which i had last seen her alive carried the same tiny handkerchief in her right hand and the same card case in her left a woman eight months dead with a card case i had to pin myself down to the table and to set both hands on the stone of the road to assure myself that that at least was real i repeated for pity s sake tell me what it all means mrs leaned forward with that odd quick turn of the head i used to know so well and spoke if my story had not already so madly the bounds of all human belief i should to you now as i know that no one no not even for whom it is written as some sort of justification of my conduct will believe me i will	39
go on mrs spoke and i walked with her from the road to the turning below the chiefs house as i might walk by the side of any living woman s deep in conversation the second and most of my moods of sickness had suddenly laid hold upon me and like the prince in s poem i seemed to move amid a world of ghosts there had been a garden party at the commander in chiefs and we two joined the crowd of homeward bound folk as i saw them it seemed that they were the fantastic shadows the phantom that divided for mrs s to pass what we said during the course of that weird interview i cannot indeed i dare not tell s comment would have been a short laugh and a remark that i had been a brain eye and stomach it was a and yet in some way a dear experience could it be possible i wondered that i was in this life to a second time the woman i had killed by my own neglect and cruelty i met on the homeward road a shadow among shadows if i were to describe all the incidents of the next fortnight in their order my story would never come to an end and your patience would he exhausted morning after morning and evening after evening the ghostly and i used to wander through together wherever i went there the four black and white followed me and bore me company to and from my hotel at the theatre i found them amid the crowd of yelling outside the club after a long evening of at the birthday ball waiting patiently for my and in broad daylight when i went calling save that it cast no shadow the was in every respect as real to look upon as one of and iron more than once indeed i have had to check myself from warning some hard riding friend against over it more than once i have walked down the deep in conversation with mrs to the unspeakable amazement of the before i had been out and about a week i learned that the fit theory had been discarded in favor of insanity however i made no change in my mode of life i called rode and dined out as freely as ever i had a passion for the society of my kind which i had never felt before i to be among the realities of life and at the same time i felt vaguely unhappy when i had been separated too long from my the phantom ghostly companion it would be almost impossible to describe my varying moods from the th of may up to to day the presence of the filled me by turns with horror blind fear a dim sort of pleasure and utter despair i dared not leave and i knew that my stay there was killing me i knew moreover that it was my destiny to die slowly and a little every day my only anxiety was to get the penance over as quietly as might be alternately i for a sight of and watched her outrageous with my successor to speak more accurately my with amused interest she was as much out of my life as i was out of hers by day i wandered with mrs almost content by night i implored heaven to let me return to the world as i used to know it above all these varying moods lay the sensation of dull wonder that the seen and the unseen should mingle so strangely on this earth to hound one poor soul to its grave august has been in his attendance on me and only yesterday told me that i ought to send in an application for sick leave an application to escape the company of a phantom a request that the government would graciously permit me to get rid of five ghosts and an airy by going to england i s proposition moved me to almost hysterical laughter i told him that i should await the end quietly at and i am sure that the end is not far off believe me that i dread its advent more than any word can say and i torture myself nightly with a thousand speculations as to the manner of my death shall i die in my bed decently and as an english gentleman should die or in one last walk on the will my soul be from me to take its place for ever and ever by the side of that ghastly shall i return to my old lost in the next world or shall i meet the phantom her and bound to her side through all eternity shall we two over the scene of our lives till the end of time as the day of my death draws nearer the intense horror that all living flesh feels toward escaped spirits from beyond the grave grows more and more powerful it is an awful thing to go down quick among the dead with scarcely one half of your life completed it is a thousand times more awful to wait as i do in your midst for i know not what terror pity me at least on the score of my delusion for i know you will never believe what i have written here yet as surely as ever a man was done to death by the powers of darkness i am that man in justice too pity her for as surely as ever woman was killed by man i killed mrs and the last portion of my punishment is even now upon me own true ghost story my own true ghost story as i through the desert thus it was as i came through the desert the city of dreadful night somewhere in the other world	39
where there are books and pictures and plays and shop windows to look at and thousands of men who spend their lives in building up all four lives a gentleman who writes real stories about the real of people and his name is mr walter but he will insist upon treating his ghosts he has published half a of them with levity he makes his ghost talk familiarly and in some cases with the you may treat anything from a to a paper with levity but you must behave reverently toward a ghost and particularly an indian one there are in this land ghosts who take the form of fat cold and hide in trees near t he roadside till a traveller passes then they drop upon his neck and remain there are also terrible ghosts of women who have died in child bed these wander along the at dusk or hide in the crops near a village and call but to answer their call is death in this world and the next their feet arc turned backwards that all sober men may recognize them there are ghosts of little children who have been thrown into wells these haunt well and the of and wail under the stars or catch women by the wrist and beg to be taken up and carried these and the corpse ghosts however are only articles and do not attack no l own true native ghost has yet been reported to have frightened an englishman but many english ghosts have scared the life out of both white and black nearly every other station owns a ghost there are said to be two at not counting the woman who blows the at on the old road has a house haunted of a very lively thing a white lady is supposed to do night round a house in says that one of her houses on autumn evenings all the incidents of a horrible horse and accident has a merry ghost and now that she has been swept by will have room for a sorrowful one there are officers quarters in whose doors open without reason and whose furniture is to not with the heat of june but with the weight of who to in the chairs houses that none will willingly rent and there is something not fever wrong with a big in the older provinces simply with haunted houses and march phantom armies along their main some of the on the grand trunk road have handy little in their compound witnesses to the changes and chances of this mortal life in the days when men drove from to the these are objectionable places to put up in they are generally very old always dirty while the is as ancient as the he either or falls into the long of age in both moods he is useless if you get angry with him he to some dead and buried these thirty years and says that when he was in that s service not a in the province could touch him then he and and and among the dishes and you repent of your irritation in these ghosts are most likely to be found and when found they should be made a note of not long mv own true ghost ago it was my business to live in i never inhabited the same house for three nights running and grew to be learned in the breed i lived in government built ones with red brick walls and rail an of the furniture posted in every room and an excited snake at the threshold to give welcome i lived in converted ones old houses as where nothing was in its proper place and there wasn t even a fowl for dinner i lived in second hand palaces where the wind blew through open work marble just as as through a broken pane i lived in where the last entry in the visitors book was fifteen months old and where they off the kid s head with a sword it was my good luck to meet all sorts of men from sober travelling mis and flying from british to drunken who threw bottles at all who passed and my still greater good fortune just to escape a case seeing that a fair proportion of the tragedy of our lives out here acted itself in i wondered that i had met no ghosts a ghost that would voluntarily hang about a would be mad of course but so many men have died mad in that there must be a fair of lunatic ghosts in due time i found my ghost or ghosts rather for there were two of them up till that hour i had with mr s method of handling them as shown in the strange case of mr t and other stories i am now in the opposition we will call the but that was the smallest part of the horror a man with a sensitive hide has no right to sleep in he should marry was old and rotten and the floor was of worn brick the walls were filthy and the windows were nearly black with it stood on a largely used by native sub of all l own true ghost story kinds from to forests but real were rare the who was nearly bent double with old age said so when i arrived there was a fitful rain on the face of the land accompanied by a restless wind and every gust made a noise like the rattling of dry bones in the stiff palms outside the completely lost his head on my arrival he had served a once did i know that he gave me the name of a well known man who has been buried for more than a quarter of a century and showed me an ancient of that man in his youth i had seen	39

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