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NicholasSynovic
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a steel of him at the head of a double volume of a month before and i felt ancient beyond telling the day shut in and the went to get me food he did not go through the pretence of calling it a man s he said ra ud that means among other things dog s there was no insult in his choice of the term he had forgotten the other word i suppose while he was cutting up the dead bodies of animals i settled myself down after exploring the there were three rooms beside my own which was a corner each giving into the other through dingy white doors fastened with long iron bars the was a very solid one but the walls of the rooms were almost in their every step or bang of a trunk echoed from my room down the other three and every came back from the far walls for this reason i shut the door there were no lamps only candles in long glass shades an oil was set in the bath room for bleak misery that was the worst of the many that i had ever set foot in there was no fire place and the windows would not open so a of bi h ve been useless the rain and the my on n true ghost and and moaned round the house and the palms rattled and roared half a dozen went through the compound singing and a stood afar off and them a would convince a of the of the dead the worst sort of dead then came the a curious meal half native and half english in composition with the old behind my chair about dead and gone english people and the candles playing shadow bo peep with the bed and the curtains it was just the sort of dinner and evening to make a man think of every single one of his past sins and of all the others that he intended to commit if he lived sleep for several hundred reasons was not easy the lamp in the bath room threw the most absurd shadows into the room and the wind was beginning to talk nonsense just when the reasons were drowsy with blood i heard the regular let us take and heave him over of in the compound first one came in then a second and then a third i heard the on the ground and the in front of my door shook that s some one trying to come in i said but no one spoke and i persuaded myself that it was the wind the of the room next to mine was attacked flung back and the inner door opened that s some sub assistant i said and he has brought his friends with him now they ll talk and spit and smoke for an hour but there were no voices and no footsteps no one was put ting his luggage into the next room the door shut and i thanked providence that i was to be left in peace but i was curious to know where the had gone i got out of bed and looked into the darkness there was never a sign of a just as i was getting into bed again i heard in the next room the sound that no man in his senses can possibly mistake the of a ball down the length of the when the is for break no other sound own true ghost story is like it a minute afterwards there was another and i got into bed i was not frightened indeed i was not i was very curious to know what had become of the i jumped into bed for that reason next minute i heard the double click of a cannon and my hair sat up it is a mistake to say that hair stands up the skin of the head and you can feel a faint all over the that is the hair sitting up there was a and a click and both sounds could only have been made by one thing a ball i argued the matter out at great length with myself and the more i argued the less probable it seemed that one bed one table and two chairs all the furniture of the room next to mine could so exactly the sounds of a game of after another cannon a three cushion one to judge by the i argued no more i had found my ghost and would have given worlds to have escaped from that i listened and with each listen the game grew clearer there was on and click on click sometimes there was a double click and a and another click beyond any sort of doubt people were playing in the next room and the next room was not big enough to hold a table between the pauses of the wind i heard the game go forward stroke after stroke i tried to believe that i could not hear voices but that attempt was a failure do you know what fear is not ordinary fear of insult injury or death but abject quivering dread of something that you cannot see fear that the inside of the mouth and half of the throat fear that makes you sweat on the palms of the hands and in order to keep the at work this is a fine fear a great cowardice and must be felt to be appreciated the very of in a proved the reality of the thing no man drunk or sober could imagine a game at or invent the crack of a screw cannon own true ghost story a severe course of has this disadvantage it infinite if a man said to a confirmed d k there is a corpse in the	39
next room and s a mad girl in the next one and the woman and man on that have just from a place sixty miles away the would not because he would know that nothing is too wild grotesque or horrible to happen in a this unfortunately extends to ghosts a rational person fresh from his own house would have turned on his side and slept i did not so surely as i was given up as a bad by the scores of things in the bed because the bulk of my blood was in my heart so surely did i hear every stroke of along game at played in the echoing room behind the iron barred door my dominant fear was that the players might want a it was an absurd fear because creatures who could play in the dark would be above such i only know that that was my terror and it was real after a long long while the game stopped and the door i slept because i was dead tired otherwise i should have preferred to have kept awake not for everything in asia would i have dropped he door bar and peered into the dark of the next room when the morning came i considered that i had done well and wisely and inquired for the means of departure by the way i said what were those three doing in my compound in the night there were no said the i went into the next room and the daylight streamed through the open door i was immensely brave i would at that hour have played black pool with the owner of the big black pool down below has this place always been a i asked no said the ten or twenty years ago i have forgotten bow long it was a room my own true ghost story a how much a room for the who built the railway was then in the big house where all the railway lived and i used to come across with brandy these three rooms were all one and they held a big table on which the played every evening but the are all dead now and the railway runs you say nearly to do you remember anything about the it is long ago but i remember that one a fat and always angry was playing here one night and he said to me brandy and i filled the glass and he bent over the table to strike and his head fell lower and lower till it hit the table and his spectacles came off and when we the and i myself ran to lift him he was dead i helped to carry him out he was a strong but he is dead and i old am still living by your favor that was more than enough i had my ghost a first hand article i would write to the society for i would the empire with the news but i would first of all put eighty miles of crop land between myself and that before nightfall the society might send their regular agent to investigate later on i went into my own room and prepared to pack after noting down the facts of the case as i smoked i heard the game begin again with a miss in this time for the was a short one the door was open and i could see into the room click click that was a cannon i entered the room without fear for there was sunlight within and a fresh breeze without the unseen game was going on at a rate and well it might when a restless little rat was running to and fro inside the dingy ceiling cloth and a piece of loose window was making fifty off the bolt as it shook m the breeze i true ghost story impossible to mistake the sound of balls impossible to mistake the of a ball over the slate but i was to be excused even when i shut my enlightened eyes the sound was like that of a fast game entered angrily the faithful partner of my sorrows this is very bad and low caste no wonder the presence was disturbed and is three sets of came to the late last night when i was sleeping outside and said that it was their custom to rest in the rooms set apart for the english people what honor has the f they tried to enter but i told them to go no wonder if these have been here that the presence is sorely spotted it is shame and the work of a dirty man did not say that he had taken from each gang two for rent in advance and then beyond my had beaten them with the big green umbrella never before divine but has no notions of morality there was an interview with the but as he promptly lost his head wrath gave place to pity and pity led to a long conversation in the course of which he put the fat engineer s tragic death in three separate stations two of them fifty miles away the third shift was to and there the died while driving a dog cart if i had encouraged him the would have wandered all through with his corpse i did not go away as soon as i intended i stayed for the night while the wind and the rat and the and the played a hundred and fifty up then the wind ran out and the stopped and i felt that i had ruined my one genuine hall marked ghost story had i only stopped at the proper time i could have made anything out of it that was the bitterest thought of all the ride the strange ride of alive or dead there is no other way native there is as	39
peculiarities will be of material assistance in the reader to understand what follows imagine then as i have said before a shaped of sand with sand walls about thirty five feet high the slope i fancy must have been about this enclosed a level piece of ground about fifty yards long by thirty at its part with a rude well in the centre round the bottom of the about three feet from the level of the ground proper ran a series of eighty three semi circular square and holes all about three feet at the mouth each hole on inspection showed that it was carefully with drift wood and and over the mouth a wooden board projected like the peak of a s cap for two feet no sign of life was visible in these but a most sickening pervaded the entire a than any which my wanderings in indian villages have introduced me to having who was as anxious as i to get back to camp i rode round the base of the to find some place whence an exit would be practicable the inhabitants whoever they might be had not thought fit to put in an appearance so i was left to my own devices my first attempt to rush up the steep sand banks showed me that i had fallen into a trap exactly on the same model as that which the ant lion sets for its prey at each step the shifting sand poured down from above in tons and rattled on the of the holes like small shot a couple of ineffectual charges sent us both rolling down to the bottom half choked with the torrents of sand and i was constrained to turn my to the river bank the strange ride here everything seemed easy enough the sand hills ran down to the river edge it is true but there were plenty of and across which i could gallop and find my way back to by turning sharply to the right or the left as i led over the sands i was startled by the faint pop of a rifle across the river and at the same moment a bullet dropped with a sharp wa close to s head there was no the nature of the a henry about five hundred yards away a boat was in and a jet of smoke drifting away from its bows in the still morning air showed me whence the delicate attention had come was ever a respectable gentleman in such an f the treacherous sand slope allowed no escape from a spot which i had visited most involuntarily and a on the river was the signal for a from some insane native in a boat i m afraid that i lost my temper very much indeed another bullet reminded me that i had better save my breath to cool my and i retreated hastily up the sands and back to the where i saw that the noise of the rifle had drawn sixty five human beings from the holes which i had up till that point supposed to be i found myself in the midst of a crowd of spectators about forty men twenty women and one child who could not have been more than v years old they were all clothed in that salmon colored cloth which one associates with and at first sight gave me the impression of a band of a j the and of the assembly were beyond all description and i shuddered to think what their life in the holes must be even in these days when local self government has destroyed the greater part of a native s respect for a i have been accustomed to a amount of civility from my the strange ride and on approaching the crowd naturally expected that there would be some recognition of my presence as a matter of fact there was but it was by no means what i had looked for the ragged crew actually laughed at me such laughter i e i may never hear again they whistled and howled as i walked into their midst some of them literally throwing themselves down on the ground in of mirth in a moment i had let go s head and irritated beyond expression at the morning s adventure commenced those nearest to me with all the force i could the wretches dropped under my blows like nine pins and the laughter gave place to for mercy while those yet untouched clasped me round the knees imploring me in all sorts of uncouth tongues to spare them in the tumult and just when i was feeling very much ashamed of myself for having thus easily given way to my temper a thin high voice murmured in english from behind my shoulder do you not know me it the telegraph master i spun round quickly and faced the speaker i have of course no hesitation in mentioning the man s real name i had known four years before as a lent by the government to one of the states he was in charge of a branch there and when i had last met him was a jovial government servant with a marvellous capacity for making bad in english a peculiarity which made me remember him long after i had forgotten his services to me in his official capacity it is seldom that a makes english now however the man was changed beyond all recognition caste mark stomach slate colored and speech were all gone i looked at a withered skeleton and almost naked with long hair and deep set eyes but for a shaped on th the strange ride left cheek the result of an accident for which i was responsible i should never have known him but it was and for this i was thankful an native who might at least tell me	39
the meaning of all that i had gone through that day the crowd retreated to some distance as i turned towards the miserable figure and ordered him to show me some method of escaping from the he held a plucked crow in his hand and in reply to my question climbed slowly on a platform of sand which ran in front of the holes and commenced lighting a fire there in silence dried and drift wood bum quickly and i derived much consolation from the fact that he lit them with an ordinary match when they were in a bright glow and the crow was neatly in front thereof began without a word of there are only two kinds of men the alive and the dead when you are dead you are dead but when you are alive you live here the crow demanded his attention for an instant as it before the fire in danger of being burnt to a if you die at home and do not die when you come to the to be burnt you come here the nature of the village was made plain now and all that i had known or read of the grotesque and the horrible before the fact just communicated by the ex sixteen years ago when i first landed in i had been told by a wandering of the existence somewhere in india of a place to which such as had the misfortune to r from trance or were conveyed and kept and i recollect laughing heartily at what i was then pleased to consider a traveller s tale sitting at the bottom of the the memory of s hotel with its swinging white attendants and the sallow faced rose up in my mind as vividly as a photograph and i the strange ride s i burst into a loud fit of laughter the contrast was too absurd as he bent over the bird watched me curiously seldom laugh and his surroundings were not such as to move to any undue excess of he removed the crow solemnly from the wooden spit and as solemnly devoured it then he continued his story which i give in his own words in of the you are carried to be burnt almost before you are dead when you come to the the cold air perhaps makes you alive and then if you are only little alive mud is put on your nose and mouth and you die if you are rather more alive more mud is put but if you are too lively they let you go and take you away i was too lively and made with anger against the that they endeavored to press upon me in those days i was and proud man now i am dead man and eat here he eyed the well breast bone with the first sign of emotion that i had seen in him since we met and other things they took me from my sheets when they saw that i was too lively and gave me for one week and i survived successfully then they sent me by rail from my place to station with a man to take care of me and at station we met two other men and they conducted we three on in the night from station to this place and they me from the top to the bottom and the other two succeeded and i have been here ever since two and a half years once i was and proud man and now i eat there is no way of getting out none of what kind at all when i first came i made experiments frequently and all the others also but we have always to the sand which is upon our heads but surely i broke in at this point the river front is the strange ride open and it is worth while the bullets while at night i had already a rough plan of escape which a natural instinct of selfishness forbade me sharing with he however divined my thought almost as soon as it was formed and to my intense astonishment gave vent to a long low chuckle of derision the laughter be it understood of a superior or at least of an equal you will not he had dropped the sir completely after his opening sentence make any escape that way but you can try i have tried once only the sensation of nameless terror and abject fear which i had in vain attempted to strive against me completely my long fast it was now close upon ten o clock and i had eaten nothing since on the previous day combined with the violent and unnatural agitation of the ride had exhausted me and i verily believe that for a few minutes i acted as one mad i hurled myself against the pitiless i ran round the base of the and praying by turns i crawled out among the of the river front only to be driven back each time in an agony of nervous dread by the rifle bullets which cut up the sand round me for i dared not face the death of a mad dog among that hideous crowd and finally fell spent and at the of the well no one had taken the slightest notice of an exhibition which makes me blush hotly even when i think of it now two or three men trod on my panting body as they drew water but they were evidently used to this sort of thing and had no time to waste upon me the situation was humiliating indeed when he had the embers of his fire with sand was at some pains to throw half a of water over my head an attention for which i could have fallen on my knees and thanked him but he was laughing all the while	39
in the same key that the strange ride greeted me on my first attempt to force the and so in a semi condition i lay till noon then being only a man after all i felt hungry and intimated as much to whom i had begun to regard as my natural protector following the impulse of the outer world when dealing with natives i put my hand into my pocket and drew out four the absurdity of the gift struck me at once and i was about to replace the money however was of a different opinion give me the money said he all you have or i will get help and we will kill you all this as if it were the most natural thing in the world a s first impulse i believe is to guard the contents of his pockets but a moment s reflection convinced me of the of with the one man who had it in his power to make me comfortable and with whose help it was possible that i might eventually escape from the i gave him all the money in my possession rs nine eight and five pie for i y keep small change as when i am in camp clutched the and hid them at once in his ragged cloth hi changing to something as he looked round to assure himself that no one had observed us now i will give you something to eat said he what pleasure the possession of my money could have afforded him i am unable to say but inasmuch as it did give him evident delight i was not sorry that i had parted with it so readily for i had no doubt that he would have had me killed if i had refused one does not protest against the of a den of wild beasts and my companions were lower than any beasts while i devoured what had provided a coarse and a of the foul well water the people showed not the faintest sign of curiosity that curiosity which is so as a rule in an indian village j could even fancy that they despised me at all events strange ride they treated me with the most indifference and was nearly as bad i plied him with questions about the terrible village and received extremely unsatisfactory answers so far as i could gather it had been in existence from time whence i concluded that it was at least a century old and during that time no one had ever been known to escape from it i had to control myself here with both hands lest the blind terror should lay hold of me a second time and drive me round the took a malicious pleasure in this point and in watching me nothing that i could do would induce him to tell me who the mysterious they were it is so ordered he would reply and i do not yet know any one who has the orders only wait till my servants find that i am missing i retorted and i promise you that this place shall be cleared off the face of the earth and give you a lesson in civility too my friend your servants would be torn in pieces before they came near this place and besides you are dead my dear friend it is not your fault of course but none the less you are dead a i buried at irregular intervals supplies of food i was told were dropped down from the land side into the and the inhabitants fought for them like wild beasts when a man felt his death coming on he retreated to his and died there the body was sometimes dragged out of the hole and thrown on to the sand or allowed to rot where it lay the phrase thrown on to the sand caught my attention and i asked whether this sort of thing was not likely to breed a that said he with another of his you may see for yourself subsequently you will have much time to make observations to his great delight i once more and the strange ride hastily continued the conversation and how do you live here from day to day what do you do the question exactly the same answer as before coupled with the information that this place is like your european heaven there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage had been educated at a mission school and as he himself admitted had he only changed his religion like a wise man might have avoided the living grave which was now his portion but as long as i was with him i fancy he was happy here was a a representative of the dominant race helpless as a child and completely at the mercy of his native neighbors in a deliberate lazy way he set himself to torture me as a would devote a half hour to watching the agonies of an or as a in a blind might himself comfortably to the neck of a rabbit the burden of his conversation was that there was no escape of no kind whatever and that i should stay here till i died and was thrown on to the sand if it were possible to the conversation of the damned on the advent of a new soul in their abode i should say that they would speak as did to me throughout that long afternoon i was powerless to protest or answer all my energies being devoted to a struggle against the inexplicable terror that threatened to me again and again i can compare the feeling to nothing except the struggles of a man against the overpowering of the channel passage only my agony was of the spirit and infinitely more terrible as the day wore on the inhabitants began to appear in full strength to catch	39
the rays of the afternoon sun which were now sloping in at the mouth of the they assembled in little knots and talked among themselves without even throwing a glance in my direction about four o clock as far as i could judge rose and into his for a moment with a live crow in his hands the the strange ride wretched bird was in a most and deplorable condition but seemed to be in no way afraid of its master advancing cautiously to the river front stepped from to until he had reached a smooth patch of sand directly in the line of the boat s fire the occupants of the boat took no notice here he stopped and with a couple of turns of the wrist the bird on its back with outstretched wings as was only natural the crow began to shriek at once and beat the air with its claws in a few seconds the had attracted the attention of a of wild on a few hundred yards away where they were discussing something that looked like a corpse half a dozen flew over at once to see what was going on and also as it proved to attack the bird who had lain down on a to me to be quiet though i fancy this was a needless precaution in a moment and before i could see how it happened a wild crow who had with the shrieking and helpless bird was entangled in the latter s claws swiftly disengaged by and down beside its companion in curiosity it seemed overpowered the rest of the flock and almost before and i had time to withdraw to the two more were struggling in the claws of the so the chase if i can give it sc dignified a name continued until had captured seven five of them he at once two for further operations another day i was a good deal impressed by this to me novel method of securing food and on his skill it is nothing to do said he to morrow you must it for me you are stronger than i am this calm assumption of superiority upset me not a little and i answered indeed you old what do you think i have given you money for very well was the unmoved reply perhaps pot the ride to morrow nor the after nor r j but in the end and for many years you will catch and eat and you will thank your european god that yon to catch and eat i could have cheerfully him for this but judged it best under the circumstances to resentment an hour later i was eating one of the and as i ass had said thanking my god that i had a crow to eat never as long as i live shall i forget that evening meal the whole population were on the hard sand platform opposite their huddled over tiny fires of refuse and dried rushes death having once laid bis hand upon these men and to strike seemed to stand aloof from them now for most of our company were old men bent and worn and twisted with years and women aged to all appearance as the themselves they sat together in knots and talked god only knows what they found to discuss in low tones curiously in contrast to the with which natives are accustomed to make day hideous now and then an access of that sudden fury which had possessed me in the morning would lay hold on a man or woman and with and the sufferer would attack the steep slope until baffled and bleeding he fell back on the platform incapable of moving a limb the others would never even raise their eyes when this happened as men too well aware of the of their fellows attempts and wearied with their useless repetition i saw four such in the course of that evening took an eminently business like view of my situation and while we were dining i can afford to laugh at the recollection now but it was painful enough at the time the terms of which he would consent to do for me my nine eight he argued at the rate of three a day would provide me with food for fifty one day or about seven weeks that is to say he would be willing the strange ride to for me for that length of time at the end of it i was to look after myself for a further consideration my boots he would be willing to allow me to occupy the den next to his own and would supply me with as much dried grass for as he could spare very well i replied to the first terms i cheerfully agree but as there is nothing on earth to prevent my killing you as you sit here and taking everything that you have i thought of the two invaluable at the time i refuse to give you my boots and shall take whichever den i please the stroke was a bold one and i was glad when i saw that it had succeeded changed his tone immediately and all intention of asking for my boots at the time it did not strike me as at all strange that i a civil engineer a man of thirteen years standing in the service and i trust an average englishman should thus calmly threaten murder and violence against the man who had for a consideration it is true taken me under his wing i had left the world it seemed for centuries i was as certain then as i am now of my own existence that in the accursed settlement there was no law save that of the strongest that the living dead men had thrown behind them every of the world which had cast them out and	39
that i had to depend for my own life on my strength and vigilance alone the crew of the ill fated are the only men who would understand my frame of mind at present i argued to myself i am strong and a match for six of these wretches it is necessary that i should for my own sake keep both health and strength until the hour of my release comes if it ever does fortified with these resolutions i ate and drank as much as i could and made understand that i intended to be his master and that the least sign of on his part would be visited with the only punishment i had it in the strange ride my power to inflict sudden and violent death shortly after this i went to bed that is to say gave me a double of dried which i thrust down the mouth of the to the right of his and followed myself feet foremost the hole running about nine feet into the sand with a slight downward inclination and being neatly with from my den which faced the river front i was able to watch the waters of the flowing past under the light of a young moon and compose myself to sleep as best i might the horrors of that night i shall never forget my den was nearly as narrow as a coffin and the sides had been worn smooth and greasy by the contact of innumerable naked bodies added to which it sleep was altogether out of the question to one in my excited frame of mind as the night wore on it seemed that the entire was with of devils that up from the below the in their personally i am not of an imaginative temperament ve y few are but on that occasion i was a completely with nervous terror as any woman after half an hour or so however i was able once more to calmly review my chances of escape any exit by the steep sand walls was of course i had been thoroughly convinced of this some time before it was possible just possible that i might in the uncertain moonlight safely run the of the rifle shots the place was so full of terror for me that i was prepared to undergo any risk in leaving it imagine my delight then when after creeping stealthily to the river front i found that the infernal boat was not there my freedom lay before mc in the next few steps by walking out to the shallow pool that lay at the foot of the projecting left horn of the i could across turn the flank of the and make my way inland s the strange ride without a moment s hesitation i marched briskly past the where had the and out in the direction of the smooth white sand beyond my first step from the of dried grass showed me how utterly futile was any hope of escape for as i put my foot down i felt an indescribable drawing motion of the sand below another moment and my leg was swallowed up nearly to the knee in the moonlight the whole surface of the sand seemed to be shaken with devilish delight at my disappointment i struggled clear with terror and exertion back to the behind me and fell on my face my only means of escape from the was protected with a how long i lay i have not the faintest idea but i was roused at last by the chuckle of at my ear i would advise you protector of the poor the was speaking english to return to your house it is to lie down here moreover when the boat returns you will most certainly be at he stood over me in the dim light of the dawn and laughing to himself my first impulse to catch the man by the neck and throw him on to the i rose sullenly and followed him to the platform below the suddenly and as i thought while i spoke i asked what is the good of the boat if i can t get out anyhow i recollect that even in my deepest trouble i had been vaguely on the waste of in guarding an already well protected laughed again and made answer they have the boat only in it is for the reason that there is a way i hope we shall have the pleasure of your any for much longer time it is a pleasant spot when you have been here some years and eaten roast crow long enough i staggered and helpless towards the allotted to me and fell asleep an hour or so later i wa the strange ride awakened by a piercing scream the shrill high pitched scream of a horse in pain those who have once heard that will never forget the sound i found some little difficulty in out of the when i was in the open i saw my poor old lying dead on the sandy soil how they had killed him i cannot guess explained that horse was better than crow and greatest good of greatest number is political we are now republic and you are entitled to a fair share of the beast if you like we will pass a vote of thanks shall i propose yes we were a republic indeed a republic of wild beasts at the bottom of a pit to eat and fight and sleep till we died i attempted no protest of any kind but sat down and stared at the hideous sight in front of me in less time almost than it takes me to write this s body was divided in some way or other the men and women had dragged the fragments on to the platform and were preparing their morning meal cooked mine the almost irresistible	39
them down the note book first attracted my attention and i put it in my pocket with a view to studying it later on the rest of the articles i conveyed to my for safety s sake and there being a man i them i then returned to the corpse and ordered to help me to carry it out to the river front while we were engaged in this the exploded shell of an old brown dropped out of one of the pockets and rolled at my feet had not seen it and i fell to thinking that a man does not carry exploded cases especially which will not the strange ride s bear twice about with him when shooting in other words that case had been fired inside the consequently there must be a gun somewhere i was on the verge of asking but checked myself knowing that he would lie we laid the body down on the edge of the by the it was my intention to push it out and let it be swallowed up the only possible mode of burial that i could think of i ordered to go away then i put the corpse out on the in doing so it was lying face downward i tore the frail and rotten shooting coat open a hideous in the back i have already told you that the dry sand had as it were the body a moment s glance showed that the gaping hole had been caused by a wound the gun must have been fired with the almost touching the back the shooting coat being had been drawn over the body after death which must have been the secret of the poor s death was plain to me in a flash some one of the must have shot him with his own gun the gun that fitted the brown he had never attempted to escape in the face of the rifle fire from the boat i pushed the corpse out hastily and saw it sink from sight literally in a few seconds i shuddered as i watched in a dazed half conscious way i turned to the note book a stained and slip of paper had been inserted between the binding and the back and dropped out as i opened the pages this is what it contained four out from three left nine out right three back two left fourteen out two left seven out one left nine back two right six back four right seven back the paper had been burnt and at the edges what it meant i could not understand i sat down on the dried turning it over and over between my fingers until i was aware the strange ride of standing immediately behind me with glowing eyes and outstretched hands have you got it he panted will you not let me look at it also i swear that i will return it got what return what i asked that which you have in your hands it will help us both he stretched out his long bird like trembling with eagerness i could never find it he continued he had it about his person therefore i shot him but nevertheless i was unable to obtain it had quite forgotten his little fiction about the rifle bullet i received the information perfectly calmly morality is by with the dead who are alive what on earth are you about what is it you want me to give you the piece of paper in the note book it will help us both oh you fool you fool can you not see what it will do for us we shall escape his voice rose almost to a scream and he danced with excitement before me i own i was moved at the chance of getting away don t explain yourself do you mean to say that this slip of paper will help us what does it mean read it aloud read it aloud i beg and i pray to you to read it aloud i did so listened and drew an irregular line in the sand with his fingers see now it was the length of his gun barrels without the stock i have those barrels four gun barrels out from the place where i caught straight out do you follow me then three left ah how well i remember when that man worked it out night after night then nine out and so the strange ride on out is always straight before you across the he told me so before i killed him but if you knew all this why didn t you get out before i did not know it he told me that he was working it out a year and a half ago and how he was working it out night after night when the boat had gone away and he could get out near the safely then he said that we would get away together but i was afraid that he would leave me behind one night when he had worked it all out and so i shot him besides it is not advisable that the men who once get in here should escape only i and am a the prospect of escape had brought back to him he stood up walked about and violently eventually i managed to make him talk and he told me how this englishman had spent six months night after night in exploring inch by inch the passage across the how he had declared itself up to twenty yards of the river bank after turning the flank of the left horn of the this much he had evidently not completed when shot him with his own gun in my frenzy of delight at the possibilities of escape i recollect shaking hands with after we had decided that we were to make an attempt to get away that very night it was	39
weary work waiting throughout the afternoon about ten o clock as far as i could judge when the moon had just risen above the lip of the made a move for his to bring out the gun barrels whereby to measure our path all the other wretched had retired to their long ago the guardian boat drifted some hours before and we were utterly alone by the crow while carrying the gun barrels let slip the piece of paper which was to be our guide i stooped down hastily to recover it and as i did so i was aware that the was a violent blow at the back the strange ride of my head with the gun barrels it was too late to turn round i must have received the blow somewhere on the of my neck a hundred thousand fiery stars danced before my eyes and i fell forward senseless at the edge of the when i recovered consciousness the moon was going down and i was sensible of intolerable pain in the back of my head had and my mouth was full of blood i lay down again and prayed that i might die without more then the fury which i have before mentioned laid hold upon me and i staggered inland towards the walls of the it seemed that some one was calling to me in a whisper exactly as my bearer used to call me in the mornings i fancied that i was until a handful of sand fell at my feet then i looked up and saw a head peering down into the the head of my dog boy who attended to my as soon as he had attracted my attention he held up his hand and showed a rope i staggering to and fro the while that he should throw it down it was a couple of leather ropes knotted together with a at one end i slipped the over my head and under my arms heard urge something forward was conscious that i was being dragged face downward up the steep sand slope and the next instant found myself choked and half fainting on the sand hills overlooking the with his face gray in the moonlight implored me not to stay but to get back to my tent at once it that he had s foot prints fourteen miles across the sands to the had returned and told my servants who refused to with any one white or black once fallen into the hideous village of the dead whereupon had taken one of my and a couple of ropes returned to the and hauled m put as i have the strange ride to cut a long story short is now my personal servant on a gold a month a sum which i still think far too little for the services he has rendered nothing on earth will induce me to go near that devilish spot again or to reveal its whereabouts more clearly than i have done of i have never found a trace nor do i wish to do my sole motive in giving this to be published is the hope mat some one may possibly identify from the details and the which i have given above the corpse of the man in the olive green hunting suit the man who would be king the man who would be king brother to a prince and fellow to a beggar if he be found worthy the law as quoted lays down a fair conduct of life and one not easy to follow i have been fellow to a beggar again and again under circumstances which prevented either of us finding out whether the other was worthy i have still to be brother to a prince though i once came near to with what might have been a king and was promised the of a kingdom army law courts and policy all complete but to day i greatly fear that my king is dead and if i want a crown i must go and hunt it for myself the beginning of everything was in a railway train upon the road to from there had been a in the which travelling not second class which is only half as dear as first class but by which is very awful indeed there are no cushions in the class and the population are either which is or native which for a long night journey is nasty or which is amusing through do not refreshment rooms they carry their food in bundles and pots and buy sweets from the native and drink the road ride water that is why in the hot weather are taken out of the carriages dead and in all are most properly looked down upon my particular happened to be empty till i reached when a huge gentleman in shirt sleeves entered and following the custom of passed the who would king l the time of day he was a wanderer and a vagabond like myself but with an educated taste for he told tales of things he had seen and done of out of the way corners of the empire into which he had penetrated and of adventures in which he risked his life for a few days food if india was filled with men like you and me not knowing more than the where they d get their next day s it isn t seventy millions of the land would be paying it s seven hundred millions said he and as i looked at his mouth and chin i was disposed to agree with him we talked politics the politics of that sees things from the where the and plaster is not smoothed off and we talked arrangements because my friend wanted to send a back from the next station to which is the turning off place from the to the	39
line as you travel westward my friend had no money beyond eight which he wanted for dinner and i had no money at all owing to the in the before mentioned further i was going into a wilderness where though i should resume touch with the treasury there were no telegraph offices i was therefore unable to help him in any way we might threaten a station master and make him send a wire on said my friend but that d mean inquiries for you and for me and i ve got my hands full these days did you say you are travelling back along this line within any days within ten i said can t you make it eight said he mine is rather urgent business i can send your within ten days if that will serve you i said i couldn t trust the wire to fetch him now i think of it it s this way he leaves on the rd for that means he ll be running through about the night of the rd the man who would be king but i m going into the indian desert i explained well and good said he you ll be changing at to get into territory you must do that and he ll be coming through in the early morning of the th by the mail can you be at on that time t be you because i know that there s precious few to be got out of these central india states even though you pretend to he correspondent of the have you ever tried that trick i asked again and again but the find you out and then you get escorted to the border before you ve time to get your into them but about my friend here i must give him a word o mouth to tell him what s come to me or else he won t know where to go i would take it more than kind of you if you was to come out of central india in time to catch him at and say to him he has gone south for the week he ll know what that means he s a big man with a red beard and a great swell he is you ll find him sleeping like a gentleman with all his luggage round him in a second class but don t you be afraid slip down the window and say he has gone south for the week and he ll tumble it s only cutting your time of stay in those parts by two days i ask you as a stranger to the west he said with emphasis where have you come from said i from the east said he and lam hoping that you will give him the message on the square for the sake of my mother as well as your own englishmen are not usually softened by appeals to the memory of their mothers but for certain reasons which will be fully apparent i saw fit to agree it s more than a little matter said he and that s why i asked you to do it and now i know that i can depend on you doing it a second class carriage at the man who would be king and a red haired man asleep in it you ll be sure to remember i get out at the next station and i must hold on there till he comes or sends me what i want til give the message if i catch him i said and for the sake of your mother as well as mine til give you a word of advice don t try to run the central india states just now as the correspondent of the there s a real one knocking about here and it might lead to trouble thank you said he simply and when will the swine be gone i can t starve because he s my work i wanted to get hold of the down here about his father s widow and give him a jump what did he do to his father s widow then filled her up with red and her to death as she hung from a beam i found that out myself and i m the only man that would dare going into the state to get for it they ll try to poison me same as they did in when i went on the there but you ll give the man at my message he got out at a little roadside station and i reflected i had heard more than once of men of newspapers and bleeding small native states with threats of exposure but i had never met any of the caste before they led a hard life and generally die with great suddenness the native states have a wholesome horror of english newspapers which may throw light on their peculiar methods of government and do their best to choke with champagne or drive them out of their mind with four in hand they do not understand that nobody cares a straw for the internal administration of native states so long as oppression and crime are kept within decent limits and the ruler is not drunk or from one end of the year to the other native states were created by providence in order to supply scenery and tall writing they are the dark places of the earth full o ld be king of cruelty touching the railway and the telegraph on one side and on the other the days of al when i left the train i did business with divers kings and in eight days passed through many changes of life sometimes i wore dress clothes and with princes and drinking from crystal and eating from silver sometimes i lay out upon the ground and devoured what i could get	39
from a plate made of a and drank the running water and slept under the same rug as my servant it was all in the day s work then i headed for the great indian desert upon the proper date as i had promised and the night mail set me down at where a funny little happy go lucky railway runs to the mail from makes a short halt at she arrived as i got and i had just time to hurry to her platform and go down the carriages there was only one second class on the train i slipped the window and looked down upon a flaming red beard half covered by a railway rug that was my man fast asleep and i dug him gently in the ribs he woke with a and i saw his face in the light of the lamps it was a great and shining face tickets again said he no said i i am to tell you that he is gone south for the week he is gone south for the week the train had begun to move out the red man rubbed his eyes he has gone south for the week he repeated now that s just like his did he say that i was to give you anything cause i won t he didn t i said and dropped away and watched the red lights die out in the dark it was horribly cold because the wind was blowing off the sands i climbed into my own train not an carriage this time and went to sleep if the man with the beard had given me a i should have the man who would be king kept it as a of a rather curious affair but the consciousness of having done my duty was my only reward later on i reflected that two gentlemen like my friends could not do any good if they and of newspapers and might if they stuck up one of the little rat trap states of central india or southern get themselves into serious difficulties i therefore took some trouble to describe them as accurately as i could remember to people who would be interested in them and succeeded so i was later informed in having them headed back from the borders then i became respectable and returned to an office where there were no kings and no incidents except the daily manufacture of a newspaper a newspaper office seems to attract every conceivable sort of person to the prejudice of discipline mission ladies arrive and beg that the will instantly abandon all his duties to describe a christian in a back of a perfectly inaccessible village who have been for commands sit down and sketch the outline of a series of ten twelve or leading articles on selection wish to know why they have not been permitted to escape from their regular of abuse and swear at a under special patronage of the we theatrical companies troop up to explain that they cannot pay for their but on their return from new or will do so with interest of patent pulling machines carriage and swords and trees call with in their pockets and hours at their disposal tea companies enter and elaborate their with the office pens of ball to have the glories of their last dance more fully strange ladies rustle in and say i want a hundred lady s cards printed r please which is part of an editor s duty and every s the man who would be king that ever the d trunk road makes it his business to ask for employment as a reader and all the time the bell is ringing madly and kings are being killed on the continent and are saying you re another and is calling down upon the british and the little black copy boys are pi ha copy wanted like tired bees and most of the paper is as blank as s shield but that is the amusing part of the year there are other six months wherein none ever come to call and the walks inch by inch up to the top of the glass and the office is darkened to just above reading light and the press machines are red hot of touch and nobody writes anything but accounts of amusements in the hill stations or notices then the becomes a terror because it tells you of the sudden deaths of men and women that you knew intimately and the heat covers you as with a garment and you sit down and write a slight increase of sickness is reported from the district the outbreak is purely in its nature and thanks to the energetic efforts of the district authorities is now almost at an end it is however with deep regret we record the death etc then the sickness really breaks out and the less and the better for the peace of the but the and the kings continue to divert themselves as as before and the thinks that a daily paper really ought to come out once in twenty four hours and all the people at the hill stations in the middle of their amusements say good gracious why can t the paper be sparkling tm sure there s plenty going on up here that is the dark half of the moon and as the say must be experienced to be appreciated it was in that season and a remarkably evil season that the paper began running the last issue of the week on saturday the man who would be king js night which is to say sunday morning after the custom of a london paper this was a great convenience for immediately after the paper was put to bed the dawn would lower the from to almost for half an hour and in that chill	39
you have no idea how cold is on the grass until you begin to pray for it a very tired man could set off to sleep ere the heat roused him one saturday night it was my pleasant duty to put the paper to bed alone a king or or a or a community was going to die or get a new constitution or do something that was important on the other side of the world and the paper was to be held open till the latest possible minute in order to catch the it was a black night as stifling as a june night can be and the loo the red hot wind from the westward was among the dry trees and pretending that the rain was on its heels now and again a spot of almost boiling water would fall on the dust with the of a but all our weary world knew that was only pretence it was a shade cooler in the press room than the office so i sat there while the type and and the night at the windows and the all but naked wiped the sweat from their and called for water the thing that was keeping us back whatever it was would not come off though the loo dropped and the last type was set and the whole round earth stood still in the choking heat with its finger on its lip to wait the event i and wondered whether the telegraph was a blessing and whether this dying man or struggling people was aware of the inconvenience the delay was causing there was no special reason beyond the heat and worry to make but as the clock hands crept up to three o clock and the machines spun their fly wheels two and three times to see that all was in order before i said the word that would set them off i could have shrieked aloud then the roar and rattle of the wheels shivered the quiet s the man who would be king into little bits i rose to go away but two men in white clothes stood in front of me the first one said it s him the second said so it is and they both laughed almost as loudly as the machinery roared and their we see there was a light burning across the road and we were sleeping in that ditch there for coolness and i said to my friend here the office is open let s come along and speak to him as turned us back from the state said the smaller of the two he was the man i had met in the train and his fellow was the man of there was no the eyebrows of the one or the beard of the other i was not pleased because i wished to sleep not to with what do you want i asked half an hour s talk with you cool and comfortable in the office said the red bearded man we d like some drink the doesn t begin yet so you needn t look but what we really want is advice we don t want money we ask you as a favor because you did us a bad turn about i led from the press room t the stifling office with the maps on the walls and the red haired man rubbed his hands that s something like said he this was the proper shop to come to now sir let me introduce to you brother that s him and brother daniel that is me and the less said about our professions the better for we have been most things in our time soldier sailor proof reader street preacher and of the when we thought the paper wanted one is sober and so am i look at us first and see that s sure it will save you cutting into my talk we ll take one of your cigars apiece and you shall sec us light i watched the test the men were absolutely sober so i gave them each a the man who would be king well a good said of the eyebrows wiping the from his let me talk now dan we have been all over india mostly on foot we have been engine drivers petty and all that and we have decided that india isn t big enough for such as us they certainly were too big for the office s beard seemed to fill half the room and s shoulders the other half as they sat on the big table continued the country isn t half worked out because they that it won t let you touch it they spend all their blessed time in governing it and you can t lift a nor a rock nor look for oil nor anything like that without all the government saying leave it alone and let us govern therefore such as it is we will let it alone and go away to some other place where a man isn t crowded and can come to his own we are not little men and there is nothing that we are afraid of except drink and we have signed a on that therefore we are going away to be kings kings in our own right muttered yes of course i said you ve been in the sun and it s a very warm night and hadn t you better sleep over the notion come to morrow neither drunk nor said we have slept over the notion half a year and require to see books and and we have decided that there is only one place now in the world that two strong men can x z they call it by my reckoning it s the top right hand corner of not more than three hundred miles from they have two and thirty	39
heathen there and we ll be the thirty third it s a country and the women of those parts are very beautiful but that is provided against in the said neither woman nor or daniel and that s all we know except that no one has gone o the man who would be king there and they fight and in any place where they fight a man who knows how to men can always be a king we shall go to those parts and say to any king we find d you want to your foes and we will show him how to men for that we know better than anything else then we will that king and seize his throne and establish a nasty you ll be cut to pieces before you re fifty miles across the border i said you have to travel through to get to that country it s one mass of mountains and peaks and and no englishman has been through it the people are utter brutes and even if you reached them you couldn t do anything that s more like said if you could think us a little more mad we would be more pleased we have come to you to know about this country to read a book about it and to be shown maps we want you to tell us that we are fools and to show us your books he turned to the are you at all in earnest i said a little said sweetly as big a map as you have got even if it s all blank where is and any books you ve got we can read though we aren t very educated i the big thirty two miles to the inch map of india and two smaller frontier maps hauled down volume of the and the men consulted them see here said his thumb on the map up to and me know the road we was there with robert s army we ll have to turn off to the right at through territory then we get among the hills fourteen thousand feet fifteen thousand it will be cold work there but it don t look very far on the map i handed him wood on the sources of the ban was deep in the the man who would be king they re a mixed lot said and it won t help us to know the names of their tribes the more tribes the more they ll fight and the better for us from to h mm but all the information about the country is as and as can be i protested no one knows anything about it really here s the file of the united services read what says blow said dan they re an all fired lot of but this book here says they think they re related to us english i smoked while the men over the maps and the there is no use your waiting said politely it s about four o clock now we ll go before six o clock if you want to sleep and we won t steal any of the papers don t you sit up we re two harmless and if you come to morrow evening down to the we ll say good by to you you are two fools i answered you ll be turned back at the frontier or cut up the minute you set foot in do you want any money or a recommendation i can help you to the chance of work next week next week we shall be hard at work ourselves thank you said it isn t so easy being a king as it looks when we ve got our kingdom in going order we ll let you know and you can come up and help us to govern it would two make a like that said with subdued pride showing me a greasy half sheet of note paper on which was written the following i copied it then and there as a curiosity this contract between me and you in th name of god amen and so forth the man who would be king one that me and you will settle this matter together i e to be kings of two that you and me will not while this matter is being settled look at any liquor nor any woman white or brown so as to get mixed up with one or the other three that we conduct ourselves with dignity and discretion and if one of us gets into trouble the other will stay by him signed by you and me day daniel both gentlemen at large there was no need for the last article said blushing modestly but it looks regular now you know the sort of men that are we are dan until we get out of india and do you think that we would sign a like that unless we was in earnest we have kept away from the two things that make life worth having you won t enjoy your lives much longer if you are going to try this adventure don t set the office on fire i said and go away before nine o clock i left them still over the maps and making notes on the back of the be sure to come down to the to morrow were their parting words the is the great four square sink of humanity where the strings of and horses from the north load and all the of central asia may be found there and most of the folk of india proper and there meet and and try to draw you can buy cats saddle bags sheep and in the and get many strange things for nothing in the afternoon i the man who would be king went down to see whether my friends intended to keep their	39
word or were lying about drunk a priest attired in fragments of ribbons and rags stalked up to me gravely twisting a child s paper behind him was his servant bending under the load of a of mud toys the two were up two and the inhabitants of the watched them with shrieks of laughter the priest is mad said a horse dealer to me he is going up to to sell toys to the he will either be raised to honor or have his head cut off he came in here this morning and has been madly ever since the are under the protection of god stammered a flat in broken they future events would they could have foretold that my would have been cut up by the almost shadow of the pass the agent of a trading house whose goods had been diverted into the hands of other robbers just across the border and whose misfortunes were the laughing stock of the oh priest whence come you and whither do you go from have i come shouted the priest waving his from blown by the breath of a hundred devils across the sea o thieves robbers the blessing of on pigs dogs and who will take the protected of god to the north to sell charms that are never still to the the shall not the sons shall not fall sick and the wives shall remain faithful while they are away of the men who give me place in their who will assist me to the king of the with a golden with a silver heel the protection of be upon his labors he spread out the skirts of his and between the lines of horses there starts a from to in twenty t v r be king c r z my go z t it ns luck c tt priest i will in a ho i x lis the r r s i r z s as k knelt aiid r a i e x ar c i ii y l the two c x rs c ai i the t servant ing t z i ir z ye rs didn t i q i ik x i at the get ic ii o t am l i bags f a a tell j tbe liim oi s m l i twenty of cm twenty of em to correspond under the and the ir j s r c f i m if you are caught with those things i v i i her weight in silver among the v could s d the man who would be king have you got everything you want i asked overcome with astonishment not yet but we shall soon give us a of your kindness brother you did me a service yesterday and that time in half my kingdom shall you have as the saying is i slipped a small charm compass from my watch chain and handed it up to the priest good by said giving me hand cautiously it s the last time we ll shake hands with an englishman these many days shake hands with him he cried as the second passed me leaned down and shook hands then the passed away along the dusty road and i was left alone to wonder my eye could detect no failure in the the scene in the that they were complete to the native mind there was just the chance therefore that and would be able to wander through without detection but beyond they would find death certain and awful death ten days later a native friend of mine giving me the news of the day from wound up his letter with there has been much laughter here on account of a certain mad priest who is going in his estimation to sell petty and insignificant which he as great charms to h h the of he passed through and associated himself to the second summer that goes to the merchants are pleased because through superstition they imagine that such mad fellows bring good fortune the two then were beyond the border i would have prayed for them but that night a real king died in europe and demanded an notice the wheel of the world through the same phases again and again summer passed and winter thereafter and came and passed again the daily paper continued and i the man who would be king with it and upon the third summer there fell a hot night a night issue and a strained waiting for something to be from the other side of the world exactly as had happened before a few great men had died in the past two years the machines worked with more clatter and some of the trees in the office garden were a few feet taller but that was all the difference i passed over to the press room and went through just such a scene as i have already described the nervous was stronger than it had been two years before and i felt the heat more at three o clock i cried print off and turned to go when there crept to my chair what was left of a man he was bent into a circle his head was sunk between his shoulders and he moved his feet one over the other like a bear i could hardly see whether he walked or crawled this rag wrapped who addressed me by crying that he was come back can you give me a drink he for the lord s sake give me a drink i went back to the office the man following with groans of pain and i turned up the lamp don t you know me he gasped dropping into a chair and he turned his drawn face	39
and the were near dead so we killed them not having anything in special for them or us to eat we sat upon the boxes and played odd and even with the that was out then ten men with bows and arrows ran down that valley chasing twenty men with bows and arrows and the row was they was fair men fairer than you or me with yellow hair and remarkable well built says the guns this is the beginning of the business we ll fight for the ten men and with that he fires two at the twenty men and drops one of them at two hundred yards from the rock where he was sitting the other men began to run but and sits on the boxes picking them off at all up and down the valley then we up to the ten men that had run across the snow too and they fires a little arrow at us he shoots above their heads and they all falls down flat then he walks over them and them and then he lifts them up and shakes hands all the man who would be king round to make them friendly like he calls them and gives them the boxes to carry and waves his hand for all the world as though he was king already they takes the boxes and him across the valley and up the hill into a pine wood on the top where there was half a dozen big stone he goes to the biggest a fellow they call and lays a rifle and a at his feet rubbing his nose respectful with his own nose patting him on the head and in front ol it he turns round to the men and his head and says that s all right tm in the know too and all these old are my friends then he opens his mouth and points down it and when the first man brings him food he says no and when the second man brings him food he says no but when one of the old priests and the of the village brings him food he says yes very haughty and eats it slow that was how he came to our first village without any trouble just as though we had tumbled from the skies but we tumbled from one of those damned rope bridges you see and you couldn t expect a man to laugh much after that take some more and go on i said that was the first village you came into how did you get to be king i wasn t king said he was the king and a handsome man he looked with the gold crown on his head and all him and the other party stayed in that village and every morning sat by the side of old and the people came and worshipped that was s order then a lot of men came into the valley and them off with the before they knew where they was and runs down into the valley and up again the other side and finds another village came as the first one and the people all falls down flat on their faces and says now what is the trouble between you two villages and the people points to a woman as fair as you or me that was the man who would be king carried off and takes her back to the first village and counts up the dead eight there was for each dead man a little milk on the ground and waves his arms like a and that s all right says he then he and takes the big of each village by the arm and walks them down into the valley and shows them how to scratch a line with a spear right down the valley and gives each a sod of turf from both sides of the line then all the people comes down and shouts like the devil and all and says go and dig the land and be fruitful and which they did though they didn t understand then we asks the names of things in their bread and water and fire and and such and leads the priest of each village up to the idol and says he must sit there and judge the people and if anything goes wrong he is to be shot next week they was all turning up the land in the valley as quiet as bees and much prettier and the priests heard all the complaints and told in dumb show what it was about that s just the beginning says they think we re gods he and out twenty good men and shows them how to click off a rifle and form and advance in line and they was very pleased to do so and clever to see the hang of it then he takes out his pipe and his and leaves one at one village and one at the other and off we two goes to see what was to be done in the next valley that was all rock and there was a little village there and says send em to the old valley to plant and takes em there and gives em some land that wasn t took before they were a poor lot and we blooded em with a kid before letting em into the new kingdom that was to impress the people and then they settled down quiet and went back to who had got into another valley all snow and ice and most there was no people there and the army got afraid so them and goes on till he some people in a the man who would be king village and the army explains that unless the people wants to be killed they had better not shoot	39
their little for they had we makes friends with the priest and i stays there alone with two of the army teaching the men how to and a thundering big chief comes across the snow with kettle drums and horns because he heard there was a new god kicking about sights for the brown of the men half a mile across the snow and wings one of them then he sends a message to the chief that unless he wished to be killed he must come and shake hands with me and leave his arms behind the chief comes alone first and shakes hands with him and his arms about same as used and very much surprised that chief was and strokes my eyebrows then goes alone to the chief and asks him in dumb show if he had an enemy he hated i have says the chief so weeds out the pick of his men and sets the two of the army to show them and at the end of two weeks the men can about as well as so he with the chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain and the chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it we three firing into the brown of the enemy so we took that village too and i gives the chief a rag from my coat and says occupy till i come which was by way of a when me and the army was eighteen hundred yards away i drops a bullet near him standing on the snow and all the people falls flat on their faces then i sends a letter to wherever he be by land or by sea at the risk of throwing the creature out of train i interrupted how could you write a letter up yonder the letter oh the letter keep looking at between the eyes please it was a string talk letter that we d learned the way of it from a blind beggar in the i remember that there had once come to the office a blind x xi with i knotted and a piece of string which h the man who would be king round the according to some of his own he could after the lapse of days or hours repeat the sentence which he had up he had reduced the to eleven primitive sounds and tried to teach me his method but failed i sent that letter to said and told him to come back because this kingdom was growing too big for me to handle and then i struck for the first valley to see how the priests were working they called the village we took along with the chief and the first village we took r the priests at r was doing all right but they had a lot of cases about land to show me and some men from another village had been firing arrows at night i went out and looked for that village and fired four rounds at it from a thousand yards that used all the i cared to spend and i waited for who had been away two or three months and i kept my people quiet one morning i heard the devil s own noise of drums and horns and dan down the hill with his army and a tail of hundreds of men and which was the most amazing a great gold crown on his head my says daniel this is a business and we ve got the whole country as far as it s worth having i am the son of alexander by queen and you re my younger brother and a god too it s the biggest thing we ve ever seen i ve been marching and fighting for six weeks with the army and every little village for fifty miles has come in and more than that i ve got the key of the whole show as you ll see and i ve got a crown for you i told em to make two of em at a place called where the gold lies in the rock like in mutton gold i ve seen and i ve kicked out of the cliffs and there s in the sands of the river and here s a of that a man brought me call up all the priests and here take your crown one of the men opens a black hair bag and i slips the would be king crown on it was too small and too heavy but i wore it for the glory gold it was five pound weight like a of a barrel says we don t want to fight no more the craft s the trick so help me and he brings forward that same chief that i left at fish we called him afterwards because he was so like fish that drove the big engine at on the in the old days shake hands with him says and i shook hands and nearly dropped for fish gave me the grip i said nothing but tried him with the fellow craft grip he answers all right and i tried the master s grip but that was a slip a fellow craft he is i says to dan does he know the word he does says dan and all the priests know it s a miracle the chiefs and the priests can work a fellow craft lodge in a way that s very like ours and they ve cut the marks on the rocks but they don t know the third degree and they ve come to find out it s s truth i ve known these long years that the knew up to the fellow craft degree but this is a miracle a god and a grand master of the craft am i and a lodge in the third degree i	39
will open and we ll raise the head priests and the chiefs of the villages it s against all the law i says holding a lodge without warrant from any one aad we never held office in any lodge it s a master stroke of policy says it means running the country as easy as a four wheeled on a down grade we can t stop to inquire now or they ll turn against us i ve forty chiefs at my heel and passed and raised according to their merit they shall be these men on the villages and see that we run up a lodge of some kind the temple of will do for the lodge room the women must make as you show them i ll hold a of chiefs to night and lodge to morrow i was fair run off my legs but i wasn t such a fool as not the man who would be king to see what a pull this craft business gave us i showed the priests families how to make of the degrees but for s apron the blue border and marks was made of on white hide not cloth we took a great square stone in the temple for the master s chair and little stones for the officers chairs and painted the black pavement with white squares and did what we could to make things regular at the which was held that night on the with big gives out that him and me were gods and sons of alexander and past grand masters in the craft and was come to make a country where every man should eat in peace and drink in quiet and specially obey us then the chiefs come round to shake hands and they were so hairy and white and fair it was just shaking hands with old friends we gave them names according as they was like men we had known in india fish that was master when i was at and so on and so on the most amazing miracles was at lodge next night one of the old priests was watching us continuous and i felt uneasy for i knew we d have to the and i didn t know what the men knew the old priest was a stranger come in from beyond the village of the minute puts on the master s apron that the girls had made for him the priest a and a howl and tries to the stone that was sitting on it s all up now i says that comes of with the craft without warrant never winked an eye not when ten priests took and over the grand master s chair which was to say the stone of the priests begins rubbing the bottom end of it to clear away the black dirt and presently he shows all the other priests the master s mark same as was on s apron cut into the stone not even the priests of the temple of knew it was there the old chap falls the man who would be king flat on his face at s feet and kisses em luck again says across the lodge to me they say it s the missing mark that no one could understand the why of we re more than safe now then he the butt of his gun for a and says by virtue of the authority in me by my own right hand and the help of i declare myself grand master of all in in this the mother lodge o the country and king of equally with at that he puts on his crown and i puts on mine i was doing senior and we opens the lodge in most ample form it was a amazing miracle the priests moved in lodge through the first two degrees almost without telling as if the memory was coming back to them after that and raised such as was worthy high priests and chiefs of far off villages fish was the first and i can tell you we scared the soul out of him it was not in any way according to but it served our turn we didn t raise more than ten of the biggest men because we didn t want to make the degree common and they was to be raised in another six months says we ll hold another communication and see how you are working then he asks them about their villages and that they was fighting one against the other and were fair sick and tired of it and when they wasn t doing that they was fighting with the you can fight those when they come into our country says tell off every tenth man of your tribes for a frontier guard and send two hundred at a time to this valley to be nobody is going to be shot or any more so long as he does well and i know that you won t cheat me because you re white people sons of alexander and not like common black you are my people and by god says he running off into english at the end i ll make a damned fine nation of you or i ll die in the making the man who would be king i can t tell all we did for the next six months because did a lot i couldn t see the hang of and he learned their in a way i never could my work was to help the people plough and now and again go out with some of the army and see what the other villages were doing and make em throw rope bridges across the which cut up the country horrid was very kind to me but when he walked up and down in the pine wood pulling that bloody red beard of his	39
with both fists i knew he was thinking plans i could not advise him about and i just waited for orders but never showed me before the people they were afraid of me and the army they loved dan he was the best of friends with the priests and the chiefs but any one could come across the hills with a complaint and would hear him out fair and call four priests together and say what was to be done he used to call in fish from and from and an old chief we called it was like enough to his real name and hold with em when there was any fighting to be done in small villages that was his council of war and the four priests of and was his council between the lot of em they sent me with forty men and twenty and sixty men carrying into the country to buy those hand made that come out of the s at from one of the s that would have sold the very teeth out of their mouths for i stayed in a month and gave the governor there the pick of my baskets for hush money and the colonel of the regiment some more and between the two and the tribes people we got more than a hundred hand made a hundred good that ll throw to six hundred yards and forty man loads of very bad for the i came back with what i had and distributed em among the men that the chiefs sent in to me to the man who would be king was too busy to attend to those things but the old army that we first made helped me and we turned out five hundred men that could and two hundred that knew how to hold pretty straight even those cork hand made guns was a miracle to them talked big about powder shops and walking up and down in the pine wood when the winter was coming on i won t make a nation says he i ll an empire these men aren t they re english look at their eyes look at their mouths look at the way they stand up they sit on chairs in their own houses they re the lost tribes or something like it and they ve grown to be english i ll take a in the spring if the priests don t get frightened there must be a fair two million of em in these hills the villages are full o little children two million people two hundred and fifty thousand fighting men nd all english they only want the and a little two hundred and fifty thousand men ready to cut in on russia s right flank when she tries for india man he says his beard in great we shall be of the earth will be a to us i ll treat with the on equal terms i ll ask him to send me twelve picked english twelve that i know of to help us govern a bit there s at many s the good dinner he s given me and his wife a pair of trousers there s the of jail there s hundreds that i could lay my hand on if i was in india the shall do it for me i ll send a man through in the spring for those men and i ll write for a from the grand lodge for what i ve done as grand master and all the that ll be thrown out when the native troops in india take up the they ll be but they ll do for fighting in these hills twelve english a hundred thousand run through the s country in the man who would be king g rd be content with twenty thousand in one year and we d be an empire when everything was i d hand over the crown this crown tm wearing now to queen victoria on my knees and she d say rise up sir daniel oh it s big it s big i tell you i but there s so much to be done in every place and everywhere else what is it i says there are no more men coming in to be this autumn look at those fat black clouds they re bringing the snow it isn t that says daniel putting his hand very hard on my shoulder and i don t wish to say anything that s against you for no other living man would have followed me and made me what i am as you have done you re a commander in chief and the people know you but it s a big country and somehow you can t help me in the way i want to be helped go to your priests then i i said and i was sorry when i made that remark but it did hurt me sore to find daniel talking so superior when i d all the men and done all he told me don t let s quarrel says daniel without cursing you re a king too and the half of this kingdom is yours but can t you see we want men than us now three or four of em that we can scatter about for our it s a great state and i can t always tell the right thing to do and i haven t time for all i want to do and here s the winter coming on and all he put half his beard into his mouth and it was as red as the gold of his crown i m sorry daniel says i i ve done all i could i ve the men and shown the people how to their better and i ve brought in those from	39
but i know what you re driving at i take it kings always feel oppressed that way another thing too says walking up and the man who would be king down the winter s coming and these people won l be giving much trouble and if they do we can t move about i want a wife for s sake leave the women alone i says we ve both got all the work we can though fool remember the and keep clear o women the only lasted till such time as we was kings and kings we have been these months past says weighing his crown in his hand you go get a wife too a nice plump girl that ll keep you warm in the winter they re prettier than english girls and we can take the pick of em boil em once or twice in hot water and they ll come as fair as chicken and ham don t tempt me i i says i will not have any dealings with a woman not till we are a dam side more settled than we are now i ve been doing the work o two men and you ve been doing the work o three let s lie off a bit and see if we can get some better tobacco from country and run in some good liquor but no women who s talking o women says i said wife a queen to breed a king s son for the king a queen out of the strongest tribe that ll make them your blood brothers and that ll lie by your side and tell you all the people thinks about you and their own affairs that s what i want do you remember that woman i kept at when i was a plate says i a fat lot o good she was to me she taught me the and one or two other things but what happened she ran away with the station master s servant and half my month s pay then she turned up at in tow of a half caste and had the to say i was her husband all among the in the running shed we ve done with that says these women are than you or me and a queen i will have for the winter months the man who would be king for the last time o asking dan do not i says it ll only bring us harm the bible says that kings ain t to waste their strength on women specially when they ve got a new raw kingdom to work over for the last time of answering i will said and he went away through the pine trees looking like a big red devil the low sun hit his crown and beard on one side and the two blazed like hot coals but getting a wife was not as easy as dan thought he put it before the council and there was no answer till fish said that he d better ask the girls damned them all round what s wrong with me he shouts standing by the idol am i a dog or am i not enough of a man for your haven t i put the shadow of my hand over this country who stopped the last it was me really but was too angry to remember who bought your guns who repaired the bridges who s the grand master of the sign cut in the stone and he his hand on the block that he used to sit on in lodge and at council which opened like lodge always fish said nothing and no more did the others keep your hair on dan said i and ask the girls that s how it s done at home and these people are quite english the marriage of the king is a matter of state says dan in a white hot rage for he could feel hope that he was going against his better mind he walked out of the and the others sat still looking at the ground fish says i to the chief of what s the difficulty here a straight answer to a true friend you know says fish how should a man tell you who know everything how can daughters of men marry gods or devils it s not proper i remembered something like that in the bible but if after seeing us as long as they had they still believed we were gods it n t for mc to them the man who would be king a god can do anything says i if the king is fond of a girl he ii not let her die she ll have to said fish there are all sorts of gods and devils in these mountains and now and again a girl one of and isn t seen any more besides you two know the mark cut in the stone only the gods know that we thought you were men till you showed the sign of the master i wished then that we had explained about the loss of the genuine secrets of a master at the first go off but i said nothing all that night there was a blowing of horns in a little dark temple half way down the hill and i heard a girl crying fit to die one of the priests told us that she was being prepared to marry the king have no nonsense of that kind says dan i don t want to interfere with your customs but i ll take my own wife girl s a little bit afraid says the priest thinks she s going to die and they are a of her up down in the temple her very tender then says or i ll you with the butt of a gun so that you ll never want to be again	39
he licked his lips did dan and stayed up walking about more than half the night thinking of the wife that he was going to get in the morning i wasn t any means comfortable for i knew that dealings with a woman in foreign parts though you was a crowned king twenty times over could not but be i got up very early in the morning while was asleep and i saw the priests talking together in whispers and the chiefs talking together too and they looked at me out of the corners of their eyes what is up fish i say to the man who was wrapped up in his and looking splendid to behold i can t rightly say says he but if you can induce the king to drop all this nonsense about marriage you ll be doing him and me and yourself a great service tb t i do b says i but sure you know the man who would be king as well as me having fought against and for us that the king and me are nothing more than two of the finest men that god almighty ever made nothing more i do assure you that maybe says fish and yet i should be sorry if it was he sinks his head upon his great fur cloak for a minute and thinks king says he be you man or god or devil i ll stick by you to day i have twenty of my men with me and will follow me we ll go to until the storm blows over a little snow had fallen in the night and everything was white except the greasy fat clouds that blew down and down from the north came out with his crown on his head swinging his arms and stamping his feet and looking more pleased than punch for the last time drop it dan says i in a whisper fish here says that there will be a row a row among my people says not much you re a fool not to get a wife too where s the girl says he with a voice as loud as the of a call up all the chiefs and priests and let the emperor see if his wife suits him there was no need to call any one they were all there leaning on their guns and round the clearing in the centre of the pine wood a of priests went down to the little temple to bring up the girl and the horns blew up fit to wake the dead fish round and gets as close to daniel as he could and behind him stood his twenty men with not a man of them under six feet i was next to and behind me was twenty men of the regular army up comes the girl and a she was covered with silver and but white as death and looking back every minute at the priests she ll do said dan looking her over what s to be afraid of come and kiss me he puts his arm round the man who would be king her she her eyes gives a bit of a and down goes her face in the side of dan s flaming red beard the s bitten me says he clapping his hand to his neck and sure enough his hand was red with blood fish and two of his men catches hold of dan by the shoulders and him into the lot while the priests in their neither god nor devil but a man i was all taken for a priest cut at me in front and the army behind began firing into the men god a mighty says dan what is the meaning o this come back come away says fish ruin and is the matter we ll break for if we can i tried to give some sort of orders to my men the men o the regular army but it was no use so i fired into the brown of em with an english and three beggars in a line the valley was full of shouting howling creatures and every soul was shrieking not a god nor a devil but only a man the troops stuck to fish all they were worth but their wasn t half as good as the and four of them dropped dan was like a bull for he was very and fish had a hard job to prevent him running out at the crowd we can t stand says fish make a run for it down the valley the whole place is against us the men ran and we went down the valley in spite of s he was swearing horribly and crying out that he was a king the priests rolled great stones on us and the regular army fired hard and there wasn t more than six men not counting dan fish and me that came down to the bottom of the valley alive then they stopped firing and the horns in the temple blew again come away for s sake come away says fish they ll send out to all the villages the man who would be king before ever we get to i can protect you there but i can t do anything now my own notion is that dan began to go mad in his head from that hour he stared up and down like a stuck pig then he was all for walking back alone and killing the priests with his bare hands which he could have done an emperor am says daniel and next year i shall be a knight of the queen all right dan says i but come along now while there s time it s your fault says he for not looking after your army better there was in the midst and you didn	39
t know you damned engine driving plate laying missionary hunting hound he sat upon a rock and called me every foul name he could lay tongue to i was too heart sick to care though it was all his foolishness that brought the i m sorry dan says i but there s no for natives this business is our fifty seven maybe we ll make something out of it yet when we ve got to let s get to then says dan and by god when i come back here again i ll sweep the valley so there isn t a in a blanket left we walked all that day and all that night dan was up and down on the snow his beard and muttering to himself there s no hope o getting clear said fish the priests will have sent to the villages to say that you are only men why didn t you stick on as gods till things was more settled i m a dead man says fish and he throws himself down on the snow and begins to pray to his gods next morning we was in a cruel bad country all up and down no level ground at all and no food either the six men looked at fish hungry wise as if they wanted to ask something but they said never a word at noon the man who would be king we came to the top of a flat mountain all covered with snow and when we climbed up into it behold there was an army in position waiting in the middle the have been very quick says fish with a little bit of a laugh they are waiting for us three or four men began to fire from the enemy s side and a chance shot took daniel in the calf of the leg that brought him to his senses he looks across the snow at the army and sees the that we had ht into the country we re done for says he they are englishmen these people and it s my nonsense that has brought you to this get back fish and take your men away you ve done what you could and now cut for it says he shake hands with me and go along with maybe they won t kill you i ll go and meet em alone it s me that did it me the king go says i go to hell dan i m with you here fish you clear out and we two will meet those folk i m a chief says fish quite quiet i stay with you my men can go fellows didn t wait for a second word but ran off and dan and me and fish walked across to where the drums were and the horns were it was cold awful cold i ve got that cold in the back of my head now there s a lump of it there the had gone to sleep two lamps were blazing in the office and the perspiration poured down my face and on the as i leaned forward was shivering and i feared that his mind might go i wiped my face took a fresh grip of the hands and said what happened after that the momentary shift of my eyes had broken the dear current what was you pleased to say they took them without any sound not a little whisper all the man who would be king along the snow not though the king knocked down the first man that set hand on him not though old fired his last into the brown of em not a single solitary sound did those make they just closed up tight and i tell you their there was a man called fish a good friend of us all and they cut his throat sir then and there like a pig and the king up the bloody snow and says we ve had a dashed fine run for our money what s coming next but i tell you sir in confidence as two friends he lost his head sir no he didn t neither the king lost his head so he did all along o one of those cunning rope bridges kindly let me have the paper sir it this way they marched him a mile across that snow to a rope bridge over a with a river at the bottom you may have seen such they him behind like an ox damn you eyes says the king d you suppose i can t die like a gentleman he turns to that was crying like a child i ve brought you to this says he brought you out of your happy life to be killed in where you was late commander in chief of the emperor s forces say you forgive me i do says fully and freely do i forgive you dan shake hands says he i m going now out he goes looking neither right nor left and when he was in the middle of those dizzy dancing ropes cut you beggars he shouts and they cut and old dan fell turning round and round and round twenty thousand miles for he took half an hour to fall till he struck the water and i could see his body caught on a rock with the gold crown close beside but do you know what they did to between two pine trees they him sir as s hand will show they used wooden for his hands and his feet and he didn t die he hung there and screamed and they took him down next day and said it was a miracle that be the mai who would ue king wasn t dead they took him down poor old that hadn t done them any harm that hadn	39
t done them any he rocked to and fro and wept bitterly wiping his eyes with the back of his hands and moaning like a child for some ten minutes they was cruel enough to feed him up in the temple because they said he was more of a god than old daniel that was a man then they turned him out on the snow and told him to go home and came home in about a year begging along the roads quite safe for daniel he walked before and said come along it s a big thing we re doing the mountains they danced at night and the mountains they tried to fall on s head but dan he held up his hand and came along bent double he never let go of dan s hand and he never let go of dan s head they gave it to him as a present in the temple to remind him not to come again and though the crown was pure gold and was starving never would sell the same you knew sir you knew right brother look at him now he in the mass of rags round his bent waist brought out a black bag embroidered with silver thread and shook on to my table the dried withered head of daniel the morning sun that had long been the lamps struck the red beard and blind sunken eyes struck too a heavy of gold studded with raw that placed tenderly on the battered temples you behold now said the emperor in his habit as he lived the king of with his upon his head poor old daniel that was a monarch once i shuddered for in spite of manifold i recognized the head of the man of rose to go i attempted to stop him he was not fit to walk the man who would be king abroad let me take away the and give me a little money he gasped i was a king once go to the and ask to set in the till i get my health no thank you i can t wait till you get a carriage for me i ve urgent private affairs in the south at he out of the office and departed in the direction of the s house that day at noon i had occasion to go down the blinding hot and i saw a ci man crawling along the white dust of the roadside his hat in his hand after the fashion of at home there was not a soul in sight and he was out of all possible of the houses and he sang through his nose turning his head from right to left the son of man goes forth to war a golden crown to hb blood red banner streams a r who follows in his train i waited to hear no more but put the poor wretch into my carriage and drove him off to the nearest missionary for transfer to the asylum he repeated the hymn twice while he was with me whom he did not in the least recognize and i left him singing it to the missionary two days later i inquired after his welfare of the of the asylum he was admitted suffering from sun stroke he died early yesterday morning said the is it true that he was half an hour in the sun at midday yes said i but do you happen to know if he had anything upon him by any chance when he died not to my knowledge said the and there the matter rests an officer and a gentleman his full name was william but he picked up the other name in a nursery book and that was the end of the titles his mother s called him but as he never paid the faintest attention to anything that the said her wisdom did not help matters his father was the colonel of the and as soon as was old enough to understand what military meant colonel put him under it there was no other way of managing the child when he was good for a week he drew good conduct pay and when he was bad he was deprived of his good conduct generally he was bad for india offers so many chances to little six of going wrong children resent familiarity from strangers and was a very particular child once he accepted an acquaintance he was graciously pleased to he accepted a of the th on sight was having tea at the and entered strong in the possession of a good conduct won for not chasing the round the compound he regarded with gravity for at least ten minutes and then delivered himself of his opinion i like you said he slowly getting off his chair and coming over to i like you i shall call you because of your hair do you w w being called it is because of ve hair you know here was one of the most embarrassing of s peculiarities he would look at a stranger for some time and then without warning or explanation would give him a name and the name stuck no could break of this habit he lost his good conduct for the s wife but nothing that the colonel could do made the station forego the and mrs remained mrs till the end of her stay so was and rose therefore in the estimation of the regiment if took an interest in any one the fortunate man was envied alike by the mess and the rank and file and in their envy lay no suspicion of self interest the son was on his own merits entirely yet was not lovely his face was permanently as his legs were permanently scratched and in spite of his mother s almost tearful he had insisted upon having his long yellow locks	39
man he strove to be drew himself up with a quivering under lip saluted and once clear of the room ran to weep bitterly in his nursery called by him my quarters in the afternoon and attempted to console the under said mournfully and i didn t ought to speak to you very early the next morning he climbed on to the roof of the house that was not forbidden and beheld miss going for a ride where are you going cried across the river she answered and trotted forward now the in which the th lay was bounded on the north by a river dry in the winter from his earliest years had been forbidden to go across the river and had noted that even the almost almighty had never set foot beyond it had once been read to out of a big blue book the history of the princess and the a most wonderful tale of a land where the were always with the children of men until they were defeated by one ever since that date it seemed to him that the bare black and purple hills across the river were inhabited by and in truth every one had said that there lived the bad men even in his own house the lower of the windows were covered with green paper on account of the bad men who might if allowed clear view fire into peaceful drawing rooms and comfortable certainly beyond the river which was the end of all the earth lived the bad men and here was major s big girl s property preparing to venture into their borders what would say if anything happened to her if the ran off with her as they did with s princess she must at all be turned back the house was still reflected for a moment on the very terrible wrath of his father and then broke his arrest it was a crime unspeakable the low sun threw his shadow very large and very black on the trim garden paths as he went down to the stables and ordered his pony it seemed to him in the hush of the dawn that all the big world had been to stand still and look at guilty of the drowsy groom handed him his mount and since the one great sin made all others insignificant said that he was going to ride over to and went out at a foot pace stepping on the soft mould of the flower borders the track of the pony s feet was the last that cut him off from all sympathy of humanity he turned into the road leaned forward and rode as fast as the pony could put foot to the ground in the direction of the river but the of twelve two can do little against the long of a miss was far ahead had passed through the crops beyond the police posts when all the guards were asleep and her mount was scattering the pebbles of the river bed as left the and british india behind him bowed forward and still shot into territory and could just see miss a black speck flickering across the stony plain the reason of her wandering was simple enough in a tone of too hastily assumed authority had told her over night that she must not ride out by the river and she had gone to prove her own spirit and teach a lesson almost at the foot of the hills saw the blunder and come down heavily miss struggled clear but her ankle had been severely twisted and she could not stand having thus her spirit she wept and was surprised by the apparition of a white wide eyed child in on a nearly spent pony are you badly badly shouted as soon as he was within range you didn t ought to be here h e tv i don t know said miss the reproof good gracious child what are you doing here you said you was going ve panted throwing himself off his pony and nobody not even must go ve and i came after you ever so hard but you wouldn t stop and now you ve yourself and will be me and i ve my aw west i ve my the future colonel of the th sat down and sobbed in spite of the pain in her ankle the girl was moved have you ridden all the way from little man what for you belonged to told me so i saw him kissing you and he said he was of you van bell or ve or me and so i came you must get up and come back you didn t ought to be here is a bad place and i ve my i can t move said miss with a groan i ve hurt my foot what shall i do she showed a readiness to weep afresh which who had been brought up to believe that tears were the depth of still when one is as great a sinner as even a man may be permitted to break down said miss when you ve rested a little ride back and tell them to send out something to carry me back in it hurts fearfully the child sat still or a little time and miss closed her eyes the pain was nearly making her faint she was roused by tying up the reins on his pony s neck and setting it free with a vicious cut of his whip that made it the little animal headed towards the oh what are you doing hush said s a man coming one of ve bad men i must stay you my says a man must always look after a girl jack will go home and ven ll come and look for us s why i let him	39
him and to his intense disgust kissed him openly in the presence of the men but there was for his dignity his father assured him that not only would the breaking of arrest be but that the good conduct would be restored as soon as his mother could it on his sleeve miss had told the colonel a story that made him proud of his son she belonged to you said indicating miss with a forefinger i she didn t ought to go ve and i knew ve would come to me if i sent jack home you re a hero said a hero i don t know what means said but you mustn t call me any no more i m wiu and in this manner did enter into his manhood black sheep black sheep black sheep have you any wool yes sir yes sir three bags full one for the master one for the dame s none for the little boy that cries down the lane nursery the bag when i was in my father s house i was in a better place they were putting punch to bed the and the and the big boy with the red and gold already tucked inside her curtains was nearly asleep punch had been allowed to stay up for dinner many privileges had been accorded to punch within the last ten days and a greater kindness from the people of his world had his ways and works which were mostly he sat on the edge of his bed and swung his bare legs punch a a going to bye lo said no said punch punch tf i wants the story about the that was turned into a tiger must tell it and the shall hide behind the door and make at the proper time but a tf will wake up said tf tf is waking a small voice from the curtains there was a that lived at c on and she fell fast asleep again while began the story black sheep never had punch secured the telling of that tale with so little opposition he reflected for a long time the made the tiger noises in twenty different keys top said punch why doesn t papa come in and say he is going to give me put put t punch tf tf is going away said the in another week there will be no punch a tf to pull my hair any more she sighed softly for the boy of the household was very dear to her heart up the in a train said punch standing on his bed all the way to where the tiger lives not to this year little said lifting him on his shoulder down to the sea where the are thrown and across the sea in a big ship will you take with you to f you shall all come said punch from the of s strong arms and the and the and in the garden and the captain there was no mockery in s voice when he replied great is the s favor and laid the little man down in the bed while the sitting in the moonlight at the doorway him to sleep with an such as they sing in the roman catholic church at punch curled himself into a ball and slept next morning shouted that there was a rat in the nursery and thus he forgot to tell her the wonderful news it did not much matter for was only three and she would not have understood but punch was five and he knew that going to england would be much than a trip to and papa and mamma sold the and the piano and stripped th and the for o b a black sheep the daily meals and took long council together over a bundle of letters bearing the post mark the worst of it is that one can t be certain of anything said papa pulling his the letters in themselves are excellent and the terms are moderate enough the worst of it is that the children will grow up away from me thought mamma but she did not say it aloud we are only one case among hundreds said papa bitterly you shall go home again in five years dear punch will be ten then and eight oh how long and long and long the time will be and we have to leave them among strangers punch is a cheery little chap he s sure to make friends wherever he goes and who could help loving my they were standing over the in the nursery late at night and think that mamma was crying softly after papa had gone away she knelt down by the side of s cot the saw her and put up a prayer that the might never find the love of her children taken away from her and given to a stranger mamma s own prayer was a slightly one it ran let strangers love my children and be as good to them as i should be but let me preserve their love ar d their confidence for ever and ever amen punch scratched himself in his sleep and moaned a little that seems to be the only answer to the prayer and next day they all went down to the sea and there was a scene at the ap when punch discovered that could not come too and learned that the must be left behind but punch found a thousand fascinating things in the rope block and steam pipe line on the big p and o steamer long before and the had dried their tears come back punch the come back said and be a black sheep yes said punch lifted up in his father s to wave good by yes i will come back and i will be a at	39
the end of the first day punch demanded to be set down in england which he was certain must be close at hand next day there was a merry breeze and punch was very sick when i come back to said punch on his recovery will come by the road in this is a very naughty ship the consoled him and he modified his opinions as the voyage went on there was so much to see and to handle and ask questions about that punch nearly forgot the and and the and with difficulty remembered a few words of the once his but was much worse the day before the steamer reached mamma asked her if she would not like to see the again s blue eyes turned to the stretch of sea that had swallowed all her tiny past and she said mamma cried over her and punch it was then that he heard for the first time mamma s passionate appeal to him never to let forget mamma seeing that was young young and that mamma every evening for four weeks past had come into the cabin to sing her and punch to sleep with a mysterious that he called my soul punch could not understand what mamma meant but he strove to do his duty for the moment mamma left the cabin he said to you mamma i do said then always mamma r else i won t give you the paper ducks that the red haired captain cut out for me so promised always to mamma many and many a time was mamma s command laid upon o black sheep punch and papa would say the same thing with an that awed the child you must make haste and learn to write punch said papa and then you ll be able to write letters to us in ril come into your room said punch and papa choked papa and mamma were choking in those days if punch took to task for not they choked if punch on the sofa in the lodging house and his future in purple and gold they choked and so they did if put her mouth for a kiss through many days all four were on the face of the earth punch with no one to give orders to too young for anything and papa and mamma grave distracted and choking where demanded punch wearied of a contrivance on four wheels with a mound of luggage where is our f this thing talks so much that can t talk where is our own when i was at before we away i asked why he was sitting in it and he said it was his own and i said i will give it you i like and i said can you put your legs through the wag by the windows and said no and laughed can put my legs through the wag i can put my legs through these wag look oh mamma s crying again i didn t know i wasn t not to do so punch drew his legs out of the of the four the door opened and he slid to the earth in a of at the door of an austere little villa whose gates bore the legend lodge punch gathered himself together and eyed the house with it stood on a sandy road and a cold wind his legs let us go away said thi is not a pretty place black sheep but mamma and papa and had quitted the cab and all the luggage was being taken into the house at the stood a woman in black and she smiled largely with dry lips behind her was a man big bony gray and lame as to one leg behind him a boy of twelve black haired and in appearance punch surveyed the and advanced without fear as he had been accustomed to do in when came and he happened to be playing in the how do you do said he i am punch but they were all looking at the luggage all except the gray man who shook hands with punch and said he was a smart little fellow there was much running about and of boxes and punch curled himself up on the sofa in the and considered things i don t like these people said punch but never mind we ll go away soon we have always went away soon from everywhere i wish we was gone back to the wish bore no fruit for six days mamma wept at intervals and showed the woman in black all punch s clothes a liberty which punch resented but p she s a new white he thought i m to call her but she doesn t call me she says just punch he confided to what is didn t know neither she nor punch had heard anything of an animal called an aunt their world had been papa and mamma who knew everything permitted everything and loved everybody even punch when he used to go into the garden at and fill his nails with mould after the weekly nail cutting because as he explained between two strokes of the to his sorely tried father his fingers felt so new at the ends in an way punch judged it advisable to keep both parents between himself and the woman in black and the boy o black s in black hair he did not approve of them he liked the gray man who had expressed a wish to be called they nodded at each other when they met and the gray man showed him a little ship with that took up and down she is a model of the brisk the little brisk that was sore exposed that day at the gray man the last words and fell into a reverie i ll tell you about	39
punch when we go for walks together and you mustn t touch the ship because she s the brisk i ng before that walk the first of many was taken they roused punch and in the chill dawn of a february morning to say good by and of all people in the wide earth to papa and mamma both crying this time punch was very sleepy and was cross don t forget us pleaded mamma oh my little son don t forget us and see that remembers too i ve told to said punch for his father s beard his neck i ve told ten forty thousand times but s so young quite a baby isn t she yes said papa quite a baby and you must be good to and make haste to learn to write and and and punch was back in his bed again was fast asleep and there was the rattle of a cab below papa and mamma had gone away not to that was across the sea to some place much nearer of course and equally of course they would return they came back after dinner parties and papa had come back after he had been to a place called the and mamma with him to punch and at mrs s house in marine lines assuredly they would come back again so punch fell asleep till the true morning when the black haired boy met him with the information that papa and mamma had gone to and that he and were to black sheep stay at lodge forever appealed to for a contradiction said that harry had spoken the truth and that it punch to fold up his clothes neatly on going to bed punch went out and wept bitterly with into whose fair head he had driven some ideas of the meaning of separation when a man that he has been deserted by providence deprived of his god and cast without help comfort or sympathy upon a world which is new and strange to him his despair which may find expression in evil living the writing of his experiences or the more satisfactory diversion of suicide is generally supposed to be impressive a child under exactly similar circumstances as far as its knowledge goes cannot very well curse god and die it till its nose is red its eyes are sore and its head punch and through no fault of their own had lost all their world they sat in the hall and cried the black haired boy looking on from afar the model of the ship availed nothing though the gray man assured punch that he might pull the up and down as much as he pleased and was promised free entry into the kitchen they wanted papa and mamma gone to beyond the seas and their grief while it lasted was without remedy when the tears ceased the house was very still had decided that it was better to let the children have their cry out and the boy had gone to school punch raised his head from the floor and mournfully was nearly asleep three short years had not taught her how to bear sorrow with full knowledge there was a distant dull boom in the air a repeated heavy punch knew that sound in in the it was the sea the sea that must be traversed before any one could get to quick he cried we re close to the sea i can hear it listen that s where they ve went p we can lo black sheep catch them if we was in time they didn t mean to go with out us they ve only forgot said they ve only i ess go to the sea the ball door was open and so was the garden gate it s very very big this place he said looking cautiously down the road and we will get lost but will find a man and order him to take me back to my house like i did in he took by the hand and the two fled in the direction of the sound of the sea villa was almost the last of a range of newly built houses running out through a chaos of brick to a heath where occasion ally and where the garrison of practised there were few people to be seen and the children might have been taken for those of the who ranged far half an hour the wearied little legs across heath field and sand i se so tired said and mamma will be angry mamma s never angry i suppose she is waiting at the sea now while papa gets tickets we ll find them and go along with you mustn t sit down only a little more and we ll come to the sea if you sit down i ll you said punch they climbed another and came upon the great gray sea at low tide hundreds of were about the beach but there was no trace of papa and mamma not even of a ship upon the waters nothing but sand and mud for miles and miles and found them by chance very muddy and very forlorn punch dissolved in tears but trying to divert with an and wailing to the pitiless horizon for mamma and again mamma black sheep ii the second bag ah well a day for we axe souls of all the creatures under heaven s wide scope we are most hopeless who had once most hope and most who had most believed the city of dreadful night all this time not a word about black sheep he came later and harry the black haired boy was mainly responsible for his coming who could help loving little passed by special permit into the kitchen and thence straight to s heart harry was s	39
one child and punch was the extra boy about the house there was no special place for him or his little affairs and he was forbidden to on and explain his ideas about the manufacture of this world and his hopes for his future was lazy and wore out and little boys were not expected to talk they were talked to and the talking to was intended for the benefit of their morals as the of the house at punch could not quite understand how he came to be of no account in this his new life harry might reach across the table and take what he wanted might point and get what she wanted punch was forbidden to do either the gray man was his great hope and stand by for many months after mamma and papa left and he had forgotten to tell to mamma this lapse was because in the interval he had been introduced by to two very impressive things an abstraction called god the intimate friend and ally of generally believed to live behind the kitchen range because it was hot there and a dirty brown book filled with unintelligible and marks punch was always anxious to oblige everybody he therefore the story of the creation on to what he could recollect of his indian fairy tales l black sheep and by repeating the result to it was a sin a sin and punch was talked to for a quarter of an hour he could not understand where the came in but was careful not to repeat the offence because told him that god had heard every word he had said and was very angry if this were true why didn t god come and say so thought punch and dismissed the matter from his mind afterwards he learned to know the lord as the only thing in the world more awful than as a creature that stood in the background and counted the strokes of the cane but the reading was just then a much more serious matter than any creed sat him upon a table and told him that a b meant ab why said punch a is a and b is bee why a b mean ab because i tell you it does said and you ve got to say it punch said it accordingly and for a month against his will stumbled through the brown book not in the least what it meant but uncle harry who walked much and generally alone was wont to come into the nursery and suggest to that punch should walk with him he seldom spoke but he showed punch all from the mud banks and the sand of the back bay to the great where ships lay at anchor and the where the were never still and the marine store shops and the shiny brass in the offices where uncle harry went once every three months with a slip of blue paper and received sovereigns in exchange for he held a wound punch heard too from his lips the story of the battle of where the sailors of the fleet for three days wards were deaf as posts and could only sign to each other that was because of the noise of the guns black sheep said uncle harry and i have got the of a bullet somewhere inside me now punch regarded him with curiosity he had not the least idea what was and his notion of a bullet was a cannon ball bigger than his own head how could uncle harry keep a cannon ball inside him he was ashamed to ask for fear uncle harry might be angry punch had never known what anger real anger meant until one terrible day when harry had taken his paint box to paint a boat with and punch had protested with a loud and lamentable voice then uncle harry had appeared on the scene and muttering something about strangers children had with a stick smitten the black haired boy across the shoulders till he wept and and came in and abused uncle harry for cruelty to his own flesh and blood and punch shuddered to the tips of his shoes it wasn t my fault he explained to the boy but both harry and said that it was and that punch had told tales and for a week there were no more walks with uncle harry but that week brought a great joy to punch he had repeated till he was thrice weary the statement that the cat lay on the mat and the rat came in now i can truly read said punch and now i will never read anything in the world he put the brown book in the cupboard where his lived and accidentally tumbled out a venerable volume without covers magazine there was the most picture of a on the first page with verses below the carried off one sheep a day from a german village till a man came with a and split the open goodness only knew what a was but there was the and his history was an improvement upon the eternal cat this said punch means things and i will know l black sheep all about everything in all the world he read till the light failed not understanding a of the meaning but by glimpses of new worlds hereafter to be revealed what is a what is a e lamb what is a base what is a ad he demanded with flushed cheeks at of the astonished say your prayers and go to sleep she replied and that was all the help punch then or afterwards found at her hands in the new and delightful exercise of reading only knows about god and things like that argued punch uncle harry will tell me the next walk proved that uncle harry could not help either but he allowed punch	39
to talk and even sat down on a bench to hear about the other walks brought other stories as punch ranged further for the house held large store of old books that no one ever opened from frank in numbers and the earlier poems of contributed to magazine to exhibition gay with colors and delightfully incomprehensible and odd leaves of s travels as soon as punch could a few pot hooks together he wrote to demanding by return of post all the books in all the world papa could not with this modest but sent s fairy tales and a that was enough if he were only left alone punch could pass at any hour he chose into a land of his own beyond reach of and her god harry and his and s claims to be played with me i m reading go and play in the kitchen punch lets you go there was cutting her second teeth and was she appealed to who descended on punch i was reading he explained reading a book i ip read black sheep you re only doing that to show off said but we ll see play with now and don t open a book for a week did not pass a very with punch who was consumed with indignation there was a at the bottom of the which puzzled him it s what i like to do he said and she s found out that and stopped me don t cry it wasn t your fault please don t cry or she ll say i made you up her tears and the two played in their nursery a room in the and half to which they were regularly sent after the midday dinner while slept she drank wine that is to say something from a bottle in the for her stomach s sake but if she did not fall asleep she would sometimes come into the nursery to see that the children were really playing now bricks wooden and cannot amuse forever especially when all is to be won by the mere opening of a book and as often as not punch would l e discovered reading to or telling her interminable tales that was an offence in the eyes of the law and would be off by while punch was left to play alone and be sure that i hear you doing it it was not a cheering employ for he had to make a playful noise at last with infinite craft he devised an arrangement whereby the table could be supported as to three legs on toy bricks leaving the fourth clear to bring down on the floor he could work the table with one hand and hold a book with the other this he did till an evil day when upon him unawares and told him that he was acting a lie if you re old enough to do that she said her temper was always worst after dinner you re old enough to be beaten but i m i m not a animal i said punch aghast he l black sheep remembered uncle harry and the stick and turned white had hidden a light cane behind her and punch was beaten then and there over the shoulders it was a revelation to him the room door was shut and he was left to weep himself into repentance and work out his own gospel of life he argued had the power to beat him with many it was unjust and cruel and mamma and papa would never have allowed it unless perhaps as seemed to imply they had sent secret orders in which case he was abandoned indeed it would be discreet in the future to but then again even in matters in which he was innocent he had been accused of wishing to show off he had shown off before visitors when he had attacked a strange gentleman harry s uncle not his own with for information about the the and the precise nature of the in which frank rode all points of interest which he was bursting to understand clearly it would not do to pretend to care for at this point harry entered and stood afar off punch a heap in the corner of the room with disgust you re a liar a young liar said harry with great and you re to have tea down here because you re not fit to speak to us and you re not to speak to again till mother gives you leave you ll corrupt her you re only fit to associate with the servant mother says so having reduced punch to a second agony of tears departed up stairs with the news that punch was still rebellious uncle harry sat uneasily in the dining room damn it all said he at last can t you leave the child alone he s a good enough little chap when i meet him he puts on his best manners with you henry said but i m afraid i m very much afraid that he is the black sheep of the family black sheep harry heard and stored up the name for future use cried till she was to stop her brother not being worth tears and the evening concluded with the return of punch to the upper regions and a private sitting at which all the blinding horrors of hell were revealed to punch with such store of as s narrow mind possessed most grievous of all was s round eyed reproach and punch went to bed in the depths of the valley of humiliation he shared his room with harry and knew the torture in store for an hour and a half he had to answer that young gentleman s question as to his motives for telling a lie and a grievous lie the precise	39
quantity of punishment inflicted by and had also to profess his deep gratitude for such religious instruction as harry thought fit to impart from that day began the of punch now black sheep in one thing in all said and harry felt that black sheep was delivered into his hands he would wake him up in the night to ask him why he was such a liar i don t know punch would reply then don t you think you ought to get up and pray to god for a new heart y get out and pray then and punch would get out of bed with raging hate in his heart against all the world seen and unseen he was always tumbling into trouble harry had a of cross examining him as to his day s doings which seldom failed to lead him sleepy and savage into half a dozen all duly reported to next morning but it a lie punch would begin charging into a labored explanation that landed him more hopelessly in the mire i said that i didn t say my prayers twice over in the day and that was on tuesday once did i know i did l black sheep but harry said i didn t and so forth till the brought tears and he was dismissed from the table in disgrace you t to be as bad as this said awe stricken at the catalogue of black sheep s crimes why are you so bad now i don t know black sheep would reply i m not if i only wasn t down i knew what i did and i want to say so but harry always makes it out different somehow and doesn t believe a word i say oh don you say i m bad too says you are said she told the so when he came yesterday why does she tell all the people outside the house about me it isn t fair said black sheep when i was in and was bad doing bad not made up bad like this mamma told papa and papa told me he knew and that was all outside people didn t too even didn t know i don t remember said wistfully i was all little then mamma was just as fond of you as she was of me wasn t she course she was so was papa so was everybody likes me more than she does you she says that you are a trial and a black sheep and i m not to speak to you more than i can help always not outside of the times when you mustn t speak to me at all nodded her head mournfully black sheep turned away in despair but s arms were round his neck never mind punch she whispered i wi speak to you just the same as ever and ever you re my own own brother though you are though says you re bad and harry says you re a little coward he says that if i pulled your hair hard you d cry pull then said punch aa black sheep pulled pull harder as hard as you can there i don t mind how much you pull it now if you ll speak to me same as ever i ll let you pull it as much as you like pull it out if you like but i know if harry came and stood by and make you do it i d cry so the two children sealed the compact with a kiss and black sheep s heart was cheered within him and by extreme caution and careful of harry he acquired virtue and was allowed to read undisturbed for a week uncle harry took him for walks and consoled him with rough tenderness never calling him black sheep it s good for you i suppose punch he used to say let us sit down i m getting tired his led him now not to the beach but to the of amid the fields for hours the gray man would sit on a while black sheep read and then with a sigh would stump home again i shall lie there soon said he to black sheep one winter evening when his face showed white as a worn silver coin under the lights of the you needn t tell a month later he turned sharp round ere half a morning walk was completed and back to the house put me to bed he muttered i ve walked my last the has found me out they put him to bed and for a fortnight the shadow of his sickness lay upon the house and black sheep went to and fro unobserved papa had sent him some new books and he was told to keep quiet he retired into his own world and was perfectly happy even at night his felicity was unbroken he could lie in bed and string himself tales of travel and adventure while harry was down stairs uncle harry s going to die said who now lived almost entirely with black sheep i m very sorry said black sheep he tne that a long time ago heard the conversation will nothing check your wicked tongue she said angrily there were blue circles round her eyes black sheep retreated to the nursery and read up as a flower with deep and interest he had been forbidden to read it on account of its but the bonds of the universe were crumbling and was in great grief i m glad said black sheep she s unhappy now it wasn t a lie though knew he told me not to tell that night black sheep woke with a start harry was not in the room and there was a sound of sobbing on the next floor then the voice of uncle harry singing the song of the	39
battle of out through the darkness our was the asia the and he s getting well thought black sheep who knew the song through all its seventeen verses but the blood at his little heart as he thought the voice an and rang shrill as a s pipe and next came on the lovely rose the her re ship closed and the brisk was sore exposed that day at that day at uncle harry shouted black sheep half wild with excitement and fear of he knew not what a door opened and screamed up the staircase hush for god s sake hush you little devil uncle harry is dead black sheep the third bag journeys end in lovers meeting every wise man s son doth know i wonder what will happen to me now thought black sheep when semi pagan rites peculiar to the burial of the dead in middle class houses had been accomplished and awful in black had returned to this life i don t think i ve done anything bad that she knows of i suppose i will soon she will be very cross after uncle harry s dying and harry will be cross too i ll keep in the nursery unfortunately for punch s plans it was decided that he should be sent to a day school which harry attended this meant a morning walk with harry and perhaps an evening one but the prospect of freedom in the interval was refreshing harry ll tell everything i do but i won t do anything said black sheep fortified with this virtuous resolution he went to school only to find that harry s version of his character had preceded him and that life was a burden in consequence he took stock of his associates some of them were some of them talked in dialect many dropped their h s and there were two jews and a negro or some one quite as dark in the assembly that s a hi said black sheep to himself even used to laugh at a i don t think this is a proper place he was indignant for at least an hour till he reflected that any on his part would be by into showing off and that harry would tell the boys how do you like school said at the end of the day think it is a very nice place said punch quietly suppose you warned the boys of black sheep s character said to harry h yes said the of black sheep s morals know all about him black sheep if i was with my father said black sheep stung to the quick i shouldn t to those boys he wouldn t let me they live in shops i saw them go into shops where their fathers live and sell things you re too good for that school are you said with a bitter smile you ought to be grateful black sheep that those boys speak to you at all it isn t every school that takes little harry did not fail to make much capital out of black sheep s ill considered remark with the result that several boys including the to black sheep the eternal equality of the human race by his head and his consolation from was that it served him right for being vain he learned however to keep his opinions to himself and by harry in carrying books and the like to secure a little peace his existence was not too joyful from nine till twelve he was at school and from two to four except on in the evenings he was sent down into the nursery to prepare his lessons for the next day and every night came the dreaded cross at harry s hand of he saw but little she was deeply religious at six years of age religion is easy to come by and sorely divided between her natural love for black sheep and her love for who could do no wrong the lean woman returned that love with interest and when she dared took advantage of this for the of black sheep s failures in lessons at school were punished at home by a week without reading other than and harry brought the news of such a failure with glee further black sheep was then bound to repeat his lessons at to harry who generally succeeded in making him break down and consoled him by for the morrow harry was at once spy practical and s he filled his many posts to admiration from his actions now that uncle black sheep harry was dead there was no appeal black sheep had not been permitted to keep any self respect at school at home he was of course u and grateful for any pity that the girls they changed frequently at lodge because t too were might show you re just fit to row in the same boat with black sheep was a sentiment that each new jane or might expect to hear before a month was over from s lips and black sheep was used to ask new girls whether they had yet been compared to him harry was master harry in their mouths was miss but black sheep was never anything more than black sheep court as time went on i the memory of papa and mamma became wholly by the unpleasant task of writing them letters under s eye each sunday black sheep forgot what manner of life he had led in the beginning of things even s appeals to try and remember about failed to him i can t remember he said i know i used to give orders and mamma kissed me will kiss you if you are good pleaded i don t want to be kissed by she d say i was doing it to get something more to	39
eat the weeks lengthened into months and the holidays came but just before the s black sheep fell into deadly sin among the many boys whom harry had to punch black sheep s head because he t hit back was one more than the rest who in an unlucky moment fell upon black sheep when harry was not near the blows stung and black sheep struck back at random with all the power at his command the boy dropped and black sheep was astounded at his own act but feeling the body under him shook it with both his hands in blind fury and then began to his enemy meaning honestly to him there was a and black sheep and was out black sheep tie of u ii u m a ui what him lu k m i then at a knife i x x su m r he s m always set on ti ki was a will ou leave mo alone until she ll beat t e if you tell her ought to be so it s all right it s all wrong said harry m you nearly him and i shouldn t i he dies will he die said black s i dare say said and then you ll be hanged all right said sheep possessing himself of the table knife then i ll kill you now you say things and do things and and don t know how things happen and you never leave me alone and i don t care happens he ran at the boy with the knife and harry fled upstairs to his room promising black sheep the finest in the world when returned black sheep sat at the bottom of the stairs the table knife in his hand and wept for that he had not killed harry the servant girl came up from the kitchen took the knife away and consoled him but black sheep was beyond consolation he would be badly beaten by then there would be another beating at harry s hands then would not be allowed to speak to him then the tale would be told at school and then there was no one to help and no one to care and the best way out of the business was by death a knife would hurt tut had told him a year ago that if he sucked black sheep he would die he went into the nursery the s ark and sucked the paint off as many as remained it tasted abominable but he had licked ah s dove clean by ttie time and returned le went up stairs and greeted them with please i believe i ve nearly killed a boy at school and i ve tried to kill harry and when you ve done all about god and hell will you beat me and get it over the tale of the assault as told by harry could only be explained on the ground of possession by the devil wherefore black sheep was not only most beaten once by and once when thoroughly down by harry but he was further prayed for at family prayers together with jane who had stolen a cold from the and audibly as her was brought before the throne of grace black sheep was sore and stiff but triumphant he would die that very night and be rid of them all no he would ask for no forgiveness from harry and at would stand no questioning at harry s hands even though addressed as young i ve been beaten said he and i ve done other things i don t care what i do if you speak to me to night harry i ll get out and try to kill you now you can kill me if you like harry took his bed into the spare room and black sheep lay down to die it may be that the makers of s know that their animals are likely to find their way into young mouths and paint them accordingly certain it is that the common weary next morning broke through the windows and found black sheep quite well and a good deal ashamed of himself but richer by the knowledge that he could in extremity secure himself against harry for the future when he descended to breakfast on the first day of the days he w s greeted with the news that harry black sheep and were going away to while black sheep to say in the house with the servant his latest outbreak suited s plans admirably it gave her good excuse for leaving the extra boy behind papa in who really seemed to know a young sinner s wants to the hour sent that week a of new books and with these and the society of jane on board wages black sheep was left alone for a month the books lasted for ten days they were eaten too quickly in long of four and twenty hours at a time then came days of doing absolutely nothing of dreaming dreams and marching imaginary armies up and down stairs of counting the number of and of measuring the length and breadth of every room in fifty down the side thirty across and fifty back again jane made many friends and after receiving black sheep s assurance that he would not tell of her went out daily for long hours black sheep would follow the rays of the sinking sun from the kitchen to the dining room and thence upward to his own bedroom until all was gray dark and he ran down to the kitchen fire and read by its light he was happy in that he was left alone and could read as much as he pleased but later he grew afraid of the shadows of window curtains and the flapping of doors and the creaking of shutters	39
he went out into the garden and the rustling of the laurel bushes frightened him he was glad when they all returned harry and full of news and laden with gifts who could help loving loyal little in return for all her merry black sheep confided to her that the distance from the hall door to the top of the first landing was exactly one hundred and eighty four he had found it out himself then the old life but with a difference and a new sin to his other black sheep had now black added a was as unfit to trust in action as he was in word he himself could not account for everything he touched glasses as he put his hand out and his head against doors that were shut there was a gray haze upon all his world and it month by month until at last it left black sheep almost alone with the flapping curtains that were so like ghosts and the nameless terrors of broad daylight that were only coats on after all holidays came and holidays went and black sheep was taken to see many people whose faces were all exactly alike was beaten when occasion demanded and tortured by harry on all possible occasions but defended by through good and evil report though she drew upon herself the wrath of the weeks were interminable and papa and mamma were clean forgotten harry had left school and was a clerk in a freed from his presence black sheep resolved that he should no longer be deprived of his allowance of pleasure reading consequently when he failed at school he reported that all was well and conceived a large contempt for as he saw how easy it was to deceive her she says tm a little liar when i don t tell lies and now i do she doesn t know thought black sheep had him in the past with petty cunning and that had never entered into his head by the light of the sordid knowledge that she had revealed to him he paid her back full tale in a household where the most innocent of his motives his natural yearning for a little affection had been interpreted into a desire for more bread and jam or to himself with strangers and so put harry into the background his work was easy could penetrate certain kinds of but not all he set his child s wits against hers and was no more beaten it grew monthly more and more of trouble to read the and even the pages of the s black sheep open print story books danced and were dim so black sheep in the shadows that fell about him and cut him off from the world horrible for dear harry or another line of the tangled web of deception that he wrapped round then the crash came and the were broken it was impossible to foresee everything made personal inquiries as to black sheep s progress and received information that startled her step by step with a delight as keen as when she convicted an of the of cold she followed the trail of black sheep s for weeks and weeks in order to escape from the book shelves he had made a fool of of harry of god of all the world horrible most horrible and evidence of an utterly mind black sheep counted the cost it will only be one big beating and then she ll put a card with liar on my back same as she did before harry will me and pray for me and she will pray for me at prayers and tell me i m a child of the devil and give me hymns to learn but i ve done all my reading and she never knew she ll say she knew all along she s an old liar too said he for three days black sheep was shut in his own bedroom to prepare his heart that means two one at school and one here that one will hurt most and it fell even as he thought he was at school before the jews and the for the crime of bringing home false reports of progress he was at home by on the same count and then the was produced it between his shoulders and bade him go for a walk with it upon him if you make me do that said black sheep very quietly i shall bum this house down and perhaps i ll kill you i don t know whether i can kill you you re so bony but i ll try aa j aa sh no punishment followed this though black sheep held himself ready to work his way to s withered throat and grip there till he was beaten off perhaps was afraid for black sheep having reached the of sin bore himself with a new in the midst of all the trouble there came a visitor from over the seas to lodge who knew papa and mamma and was to see punch and black sheep was sent to the drawing room and charged into a solid laden with china gently gently little man said the visitor turning black sheep s face to the light slowly what s that big bird on the what bird asked black sheep the visitor looked deep down into black sheep s eyes for half a minute and then said suddenly good god the little chap s nearly blind it was a most business like visitor he gave orders on his own responsibility that black sheep was not to go to school or open a book until mamma came home she ll be here in three weeks as you know of course said he and i m i ushered you into this wicked world young man and a nice use you seem to have made of	39
your time you must do nothing whatever can you do that yes said punch in a dazed way he had known that mamma was coming there was a chance then of another beating thank heaven papa wasn t coming too had said of late that he ought to be beaten by a man for the next three weeks black sheep was strictly allowed to do nothing he spent his time in the old nursery looking at the broken toys for all of which account must be rendered to mamma hit him over the hands if even a wooden boat were broken but that sin was of small importance compared so the other revelations so darkly hinted at black sheep by when your mother comes and hears what i have to tell her she may appreciate you properly she said grimly and mounted guard over lest that small maiden should attempt to comfort her brother to the peril of her own soul and mamma came in a four and a flutter of tender excitement such a mamma she was young young and beautiful with delicately flushed cheeks eyes that shone like stars and a voice that needed no additional appeal of outstretched arms to draw little ones to her heart ran straight to her but black sheep hesitated could this wonder be showing off she would not put out her arms when she knew of his crimes meantime was it possible that by she wanted to get anything out of black sheep only all his love and all his confidence but that black sheep did not know withdrew and left mamma kneel ing between her children half laughing half crying in the very hall where punch and had wept five years before well do you remember me no said frankly but i said god bless papa and mamma ev night a little said black sheep remember i wrote to you every week anyhow that isn t to show off but cause of what comes afterwards what comes after what should come after my darling boy and she drew him to her again he came awkwardly with many angles not used to said the quick mother soul the girl is she s too little to hurt anyone thought black sheep and if i said i d kill her she d be afraid i wonder what will tell there was a constrained late dinner at the end of which mamma picked up and put her to bed with manifold little had shown her from black sheep already and that lady resented it bitterly black sheep rose to leave the room come and say good night said offering a withered cheek said black sheep i never kiss you and tm not going to show off tell that woman what i ve done and see what she says black sheep climbed into bed feeling that he had lost heaven after a glimpse through the gates in half an hour that woman was bending over him black sheep flung up his right arm it wasn t fair to come and hit him in the dark even never tried that but no blow followed are you showing off i won t tell you anything more than has and sh doesn t know everything said black sheep as clearly as he could for the arms round his neck oh my son my little little son it wa my fault my fault darling and yet how could we help it forgive me punch the voice died out in a broken whisper and two hot tears fell on black sheep s forehead has she been making you cry too he asked you should see jane cry but you re nice and jane is a born liar says so hush punch hush my boy don t talk like that try to love me a little bit a little bit you don t know how i want it punch a tf come back to me i am your mother your own mother and never mind the rest i know yes i know dear it doesn t matter now punch won t you care for me a little it is astonishing how much a big boy of ten can endure when he is quite sure that there is no one to laugh at him black sheep had never been made much of before and here was this beautiful woman treating him black sheep the child of the devil and the of flame as though he were a small god bj a black s i care for you a great deal mother dear he whispered at last and i m glad you ve come back but are you sure told you everything everything what does it matter but the voice broke with a sob that was also laughter punch my poor dear half blind darling don t you think it was a little foolish of you it saved a mamma shuddered and slipped away in the darkness to write a long letter to papa here is an extract is a dear plump little who the woman and wears with as much gravity as her religious opinions only eight jack a venerable horse hair which she calls her bustle i have just burnt it and the child is asleep in my bed as i write she will come to me at once punch i cannot quite understand he is well nourished but seems to have been worried into a system of small which the woman into deadly sins don t you recollect our own dear when the fear of the lord was so often the beginning of falsehood i shall win punch to me before long i am taking the children away into the country to get them to know me and on the whole i am content or shall be when you come home dear boy and then	39
thank god we shall be all under one roof again at last three months later punch no longer black sheep has discovered that he is the veritable owner of a real live lovely mamma who is also a sister and friend and that he must protect her till the father comes home deception does not suit the part of a protector and when one can do anything without question where is the use of deception mother would be awfully cross if you walked through that ditch says continuing a conversation mother s never angry says punch she d just say you re a little and that s not nice but fu show punch walks through the ditch and himself to the knees mother dear he shouts i m just as dirty as i can ji ly be black then change your clothes as quickly as you j ly can rings out mother s clear voice from the house and don t be a little there told you so says punch it s all different now and we are just as much mother s as if she had never gone not altogether o punch for when young lips have drunk deep of the bitter waters of hate suspicion and despair all the love in the world will not wholly take away that knowledge though it may turn darkened eyes for a while to the light and teach faith where no faith was majesty the king his majesty the king where the word of a king is there is power and who may say unto him what thou and to sleep at ve foot of ve bed and pink book and ve cause i will be in ve night and s all miss and now give me one kiss and i ll go lo sleep so quiet ow ve pink book has under ve pillow and ve iu miss miss i m sa come and me up miss his majesty the king was going to bed and poor patient miss who had advertised herself humbly as a young person european accustomed to the care of little children was forced to wait upon his royal the going to bed was always a process because his majesty had a convenient of forgetting which of his many friends from the s son to the s daughter he had prayed for and lest the deity should take offence was used to toil through his little prayers in all reverence five times in one evening his majesty the king believed in the of prayer as devoutly as he believed in the patient or miss who could reach him down his gun with caps one from the upper shelves of the big nursery cupboard at the door of the nursery his authority stopped beyond lay the empire of his father and mother two very terrible people who had no time to waste u on his majesty the king his voice was lowered when he passed the frontier of his his majesty the king his actions were and his soul was filled with awe because of the grim man who lived among a wilderness of pigeon holes and the most fascinating pieces of red and the wonderful woman who was always getting into or stepping out of the big carriage to the one belonged the mysteries of the to the other the great reflected wilderness of the s room where the shiny scented hung on miles and miles up in the air and the just seen of the revealed an of bags and white headed there was no room for his majesty the king either in official reserve or he had discovered that ages and ages ago before even came to the house or miss had ceased over a packet of greasy letters which appeared to be her chief treasure on earth his majesty the king therefore wisely confined himself to his own where only miss and she feebly disputed his sway from miss he had picked up his simple and it to the legends of gods and devils that he had learned in the servants quarters to miss he confided with equal trust his tattered garments and his more serious she would make everything whole she knew exactly how the earth had been born and had reassured the trembling soul of his majesty the king that terrible time in july when it rained for seven days and seven nights and there was no ark ready and all the had flown away she was the most powerful person with whom he was brought into contact always excepting the two remote and silent people beyond the nursery door how was his majesty the king to know that six years ago in the summer of his birth mrs turning over her husband s papers hj d come upon the letter of a his majesty the king foolish woman who had been carried away by the silent man s strength and personal beauty how could he tell what evil the overlooked slip of note paper had wrought in the mind of a desperately jealous wife how could he despite his wisdom guess that his mother had chosen to make of it excuse for a bar and a division between herself and her husband that strengthened and grew harder to break with each year that she having skeleton in the cupboard had trained it into a household god which should be about their path and about their bed and poison all their ways these things were beyond the province of his majesty the king he only knew that his father was daily absorbed in some mysterious work for a thing called the and that his mother was the victim alternately of the and the to these she was escorted by a captain man for whom his majesty the king had no regard he doesn t laugh he argued with miss who	39
would fain have taught him charity he only makes faces his and when he wants to o muse me i am not o mused and his majesty the king shook his head as one who knew the of this world morning and evening it was his duty to salute his father and mother the former with a grave shake of the hand and the latter with an equally grave kiss once indeed he had put his arms round his mother s neck in the fashion he used towards miss the of his sleeve edge caught in an and the last stage of his majesty s little was a suppressed scream and summary dismissal to the nursery it is w thought his majesty the king to in ears i will he never repeated the experiment miss it must be confessed spoilt him as much as his nature admitted in some sort of for what she all d th hard ways of his papa and mamma she like his majesty the king her charge knew nothing of the trouble between man and wife the savage contempt for a woman s stupidity on the one side or the dull anger on the other miss had looked after many little children in her time and served in many being a discreet woman she observed little and said less and when her pupils went over the sea to the great unknown which she with touching confidence in her hearers called home packed up her slender and sought for employment afresh all her love on each successive of only his majesty the king had repaid her affection with interest and in his ears she had told the of nearly all her hopes her aspirations the hopes that were dead and the dazzling glories of her home in ca close to square everything above the average was in the eyes of his majesty the king good when miss had crossed his royal will he reversed the epithet to vex that lady and all things evil were until the tears of repentance swept away spite bad now and again miss begged for him the rare pleasure of a day in the society of the s child the wilful four year old who to the intense amazement of his majesty the king was by her parents on thinking the question out at length by roads unknown to those who have left childhood behind he came to the conclusion that was because she wore a big blue and yellow hair this precious discovery he kept to himself the yellow hair was absolutely beyond his power his own wig being brown but something might be done towards the blue he tied a large knot in his curtains in order to remember to consult on their next meeting she was the only child he had ever spoken to and almost the his majesty the only one that he had ever seen the little memory and the very large and ragged knot held good lend me your blue said his majesty the king you ll it said doubtfully of certain committed on her doll no i won t it s for me to wear said boys don t wear sa ashes s only for i didn t know the face of his majesty the king fell who wants are you playing horses said the s wife stepping into the wanted my explained i don t now said his majesty the king hastily feeling that with one of these terrible grown his poor little secret would be from him and perhaps most burning of all laughed at i ll give you a cap said the s wife come along with me and we ll choose it the cap was a stiff three pointed and splendor his majesty the king fitted it on his royal brow the s wife had a face that children instinctively trusted and her action as she adjusted the middle was tender will it do as well stammered his majesty the king as what little one as ve oh quite go and look at yourself in the glass the words were spoken in all sincerity and to help forward any absurd dressing up amusement that the children might take into their minds but the young savage has a keen sense of the ludicrous his majesty the king swung the great glass down and saw his head crowned with the staring horror of a fool s cap a thing which his father to his the king pieces if it ever came his office he plucked it off and burst into tears said the s wife gravely you shouldn t give way to temper i am very sorry to see it it s wrong his majesty the king sobbed and the heart of s mother was touched she drew the child on to her knee clearly it was not temper alone what is it won t you tell me aren t you well the torrent of sobs and speech met and fought for a time with and and then in a sudden rush his majesty the king was delivered of a few inarticulate sounds followed by the words go a way you little what do you mean it s what he d say i know it is he said when was only a little little mess on my t t and he d say it again and laugh if i went in on my head who would say that m m my papa and i fought if i had ve blue he d let me play in ve waste paper basket under ve table what blue ve same had ve big blue w w wound my t what is it there s something on your mind tell me all about it and perhaps i can help isn t his majesty of his manhood and raising his head from the bosom upon which	39
it was resting i only fought you you cause she had ve blue and and if i d had ve blue too m my papa w would pet me the secret was out and his majesty the king sobbed bitterly in spite of the arms around him and the murmur of comfort on his healed little forehead tt s majesty the king i embarrassed by several of the s pet turn along s a in and i ve told to watch him till we turn if we him his tail will go and fall off turn along i can t i m said his majesty the king climbing down from the s wife s knee after a hasty kiss two minutes later the s tail was on the of the and the children were gravely it with from the to urge its exhausted vitality into just one more cause it doesn t the s wife stood in the doorway and watched poor little a blue and my own precious i wonder if the best of us or we who love them best ever understood what goes on in their little heads a big tear on the s wife s and she went indoors to devise a tea for the benefit of his majesty the king their souls aren t in their at that age in this climate said the s wife but they are not far off i wonder if i could make mrs understand poor little fellow with simple craft the s wife called on mrs and spoke long and lovingly about children inquiring specially for his majesty the king he s with his said mrs and the tone intimated that she was not interested the s wife in the art of war continued her i don t know said mrs these things are left to miss and of course she does not ill treat the child the s wife left hastily the last upon her nerves doesn t ill treat the child as if mis the king that were all wonder what tom would say if i only didn t ill treat his majesty the king was an honored guest at the s house and the chosen friend of with whom he into as many as the compound and the servants quarters afforded s mamma was always ready to give counsel help and sympathy and if need were and few to enter into their games with an abandon that would have shocked the sleek haired who painfully in their chairs when they came to call on her whom they mother bunch yet in spite of and s mamma and the love that these two upon him his majesty the king fell from grace and committed no less a sin than that of unknown it is true but there came a man to the door one day when his majesty was playing in the hall and the bearer had gone to dinner with a packet for his majesty s mamma and he put it upon the hall table and said that there was no answer and departed presently the pattern of the ceased to interest his majesty while the packet a white neatly wrapped one of fascinating shape interested him very much indeed his mamma was out so was miss and there was pink string round the packet he greatly desired pink string it would help him in many of his little the across the floor of his small cane chair the of who could never understand harness and so forth if he took the string it would be his own and nobody would be any the wiser he certainly could not pluck up sufficient courage to ask mamma for it wherefore mounting upon a chair he carefully the string and behold the stiff white paper spread out in four directions and revealed a beautiful little leather box with gold lines upon it he tried to replace the string but that was a failure so he opened the box to get full satisfaction for his and saw a most beautiful star his majesty the king that shone and winked and was altogether lovely and desirable said his majesty is a like what i will wear when i go to heaven i will wear it on my head miss says so i would like to wear it i would like to play it i will take it away and play it very careful until mamma asks for it i it was bought for me to play same as my cart his majesty the king was arguing against his conscience and he knew it for he thought immediately after ne er mind i will keep it to play until mamma says where is it and then i will say i it and i am sorry i will net hurt it because it is a but miss will tell me to put it back i will not show it to miss if mamma had come in at that moment all would have gone well she did not and his majesty the king stuffed paper case and jewel into the breast of his and marched to the nursery when mamma asks i will tell was the that he laid upon his conscience but mamma never asked and for three whole days his majesty the king over his treasure it was of no earthly use to him but it was splendid and for aught he knew something dropped from the heavens themselves still mamma made no inquiries and it seemed to in his as though the shiny stones grew dim what was the use of a if it made a little boy feel all bad in his inside he had the pink string as well as the other treasure but greatly he that he had not gone beyond the string it was his first experience of and it pained him after the flush of possession	39
and secret delight in the had died away each day that he delayed rendered confession to the people beyond the nursery doors more impossible now and again he determined to put himself in the path of the beautifully attired lady as she was going out and explain that he and no one else was the possessor of a most beau his majesty the king and quite for but she passed hurriedly to her carriage and the opportunity was gone before his majesty the king could draw the deep breath which noble resolve the dread secret cut him off from miss and the s wife and doubly hard fate when he over it said and told her mother that he was cross the days were very long to his majesty the king and the nights longer still miss had informed him more than once what was the ultimate destiny of and when he passed the interminable mud of the central jail he shook in his little shoes but release came after an afternoon spent in playing boats by the edge of the at the bottom of the garden his majesty the king went to tea and for the first time in his memory the meal him his nose was very cold and his cheeks were burning hot there was a weight about his feet and he pressed his head several times to make sure that it was not swelling as he sat i feel funny said his majesty the king rubbing his nose s a in my head he went to bed quietly miss was out and the bearer him the sin of the was forgotten in the of the discomfort to which he roused after a leaden sleep of some hours he was thirsty and the bearer had forgotten to leave the drinking water miss miss i m so no answer miss had leave to attend the wedding of a his majesty the king had forgotten that i want a of water he cried but his voice was dried up in his throat i want a is ve glass he sat up in bed and looked round there was a murmur voices from the other side of the nursery door it was majesty the king better to face the terrible unknown than to choke in the dark he slipped out of bed but his feet were strangely wilful and he once or twice then he pushed the door open and staggered a puffed and purple faced little figure into the brilliant light of the dining room full of pretty ladies i m hot i m moaned his majesty the king clinging to the and s no water in ve glass and i m so give me a of water an apparition in black and white his majesty the king could hardly see distinctly lifted him up to the level of the table and felt his wrists and forehead the water came and he drank deeply his teeth chattering against the edge of the then every one seemed to go away every one except the huge man in black and white who carried him back to his bed the mother and father following and the sin cf the rushed back and took possession of the terrified soul i m a he gasped i want to tell miss i m a is miss miss had come and was bending over him i m a he whispered a like ve men in the but i ll tell now i i ve when the man that came left it in ve hall i ve paper and ve little box and it looked shiny and i it to play and i was it s in ve box at ve bottom no one never asked for it but i was oh go an get ve box miss stooped to the lowest shelf of the and the big paper box in which his majesty the king kept his dearest possessions under the tin soldiers and a of mud for a bow winked and blazed a diamond star wrapped roughly in a half sheet of note paper whereon were a few words somebody was crying at the head of the bed and a man his majesty the king hand touched the forehead of his majesty the king who grasped the packet and spread it on the bed is ve he said and wept bitterly for now that he had made he would fain have kept the shining splendor with him it concerns you too said a voice at the head of the bed read the note this is not the time to keep back anything the note was very much to the point and signed by a single if you wear this to morrow night i shall know what to expect the date was three weeks ol a whisper followed and the deeper voice returned and you drifted as far apart as that i think it makes us now doesn t it oh can t we drop this folly once and for all is it worth it darling kiss me too said his majesty the king you isn t is you the fever burned itself out and his majesty the king slept when he it was in a new world peopled by his father and mother as well as miss and there was much love in that world and no morsel of fear and more than was good for several little boys his majesty the king was too young to on the uncertainty of things human or he would have been impressed with the singular advantages of crime ay black sin behold he had stolen the and his reward was love and the right to play in the waste paper basket under the table for always he trotted over to spend an afternoon with and the s wife would have kissed	39
him no not said his majesty the king with superb insolence one corner of his mouth with his hand s my mamma s place she kisses me oh said the s wife briefly then to herself well i suppose i ought to be glad for his sake children arc selfish little and i ve got my p t ie the drums of the fore and aft the drums of the fore and aft and a little child shall lead them in the list they still stand as the fore and fit princess s own royal loyal light district a but the army through all its and knows them now as the fore and aft they may in time do something that shall make their new title honorable but at present they are bitterly ashamed and the man who calls them fore and aft does so at the risk of the head which is on his shoulders two words breathed into the stables of a certain cavalry regiment will bring the men out into the streets with and and bad language but a whisper of fore and aft will bring out this regiment with their one excuse is that they came again and did their best to finish the job in style but for a time all their world knows that they were openly beaten whipped dumb shaking and afraid the men know it their officers know it the horse guards know it and when the next war comes the enemy will know it also there are two or three of the line that have a black mark against their names which they will then wipe out and it will be excessively inconvenient for the troops upon whom they do their wiping the courage of the british soldier is supposed to be above proof and as a general rule it is so the exceptions wc decently out of sight only to be referred to in the drums of the fork aft the of talk that occasionally a at midnight then one hears strange and horrible stories of men not following their officers of orders being given by those who had no right to give them and of disgrace that but for the standing luck of the british army might have ended in brilliant disaster these are unpleasant stories to listen to and the tell them under their breath sitting by the big wood fires and the young officer bows his head and thinks to himself please god his men shall never behave the british soldier is not altogether to be blamed for occasional but this verdict he should not know a intelligent general will waste six months in the craft of the particular war that he may be a colonel may utterly the capacity of his regiment for three months after it has taken the field and even a company commander may and be deceived as to the temper and temperament of his own handful wherefore the soldier and the soldier of to day more particularly should not be blamed for falling back he should be shot or hanged afterwards pour us but he should not be in that is want of tact and waste of space he has let us say been in the service of the for perhaps four years he will leave in another two years he has no inherited morals and four years are not sufficient to drive into his fibre or to teach him how holy a thing is his regiment he wants to drink he wants to enjoy himself in india he wants to save money and he does not in the least like getting hurt he has received just sufficient education to make him understand half the purport of the orders he receives and to on the nature of clean and wounds thus if he is told to under fire preparatory to an attack he knows that he runs a very great risk of being killed while he is and that he is being thrown away to gain ten minutes time he may either with desperate swiftness or he may the drums of the fore and aft or bunch or break according to the discipline under which he has lain for four years armed with imperfect knowledge cursed with the of an imagination by the intense selfishness of the lower classes and by any associations this young man is suddenly introduced to an enemy who in eastern lands is always ugly generally tall and hairy and frequently noisy if he looks to the right and the left and sees old soldiers men of twelve years service who he knows know what they are about taking a charge rush or demonstration without embarrassment he is consoled and applies his shoulder to the butt of his rifle with a stout heart his peace is the greater if he hears a senior who has taught him his and broken his head on occasion whispering they ll shout and carry on like this for five minutes then they ll rush in and then we ve got em by the short hairs but on the other hand if he sees only men of his own term of service turning white and playing with their and saying what the hell s up now while the company are into their sword and shouting front rank fix steady there steady sight for three no for five lie down all steady front rank kneel and so forth he becomes unhappy and grows miserable when he hears a comrade turn over with the rattle of fire irons falling into the and the of a pole ox if he can be moved about a little and allowed to watch the effect of his own fire on the enemy he feels and may be then worked up to the blind passion of fighting which is contrary to general belief controlled by a chilly	39
devil and shakes men like if he is not moved about and begins to feel cold at the pit of the stomach and in that crisis is badly and hears orders that were never given he will break and he will break badly and of all things under the light of the sun there is nothing the drums of the fore and aft more terrible than a broken british regiment when the worst comes to the worst and the panic is really the men must be e en let go and the company had better escape to the enemy and stay there for safety s sake if they can made to come again they are not pleasant men to meet because they will not break twice about thirty years from this date when we have succeeded in half everything that wears trousers our army will be a beautifully machine it will know too much and it will do too little later still when all men are at the mental level of the officer of to day it will sweep the earth speaking roughly you must employ either or gentlemen or best ot all commanded by gentlemen to do butcher s work with and despatch the ideal soldier should of course think for himself the pocket book says so unfortunately to attain this virtue he has to pass through the phase of thinking of himself and that is genius a may be slow to think for himself but he is anxious to kill and a little punishment teaches him how to guard his own skin and another s a powerfully regiment by rank is perhaps one degree more terrible in action than a hard bitten thousand of irish led by most young but these things prove the rule which is that the men are not to be trusted alone they have ideas about the value taught them to go on and take the chances they are carefully with a of comrades who have been shot over and until that is re introduced as a great many intend it shall be they are more liable to disgrace themselves than the size of the empire or the dignity of the army allows their officers are as good as good can be because their training begins early and god has arranged that a clean run youth of the british middle classes shall in the so the drums of the fore and aft matter of brains and all youths for this reason a child of eighteen will stand up doing nothing with a tin sword in his hand and joy in his heart until he is dropped if he dies he dies like a gentleman if he lives he writes home that he has been or cut over and sits down to government for a wound until the next little war breaks out when he himself before a medical board his colonel burns incense round his and is allowed to go to the front once more which brings me directly to a brace of the most finished little that ever drum or in the band of a british regiment they ended their sinful career by open and and were shot for it their names were and i and they were bold bad boys both of them frequently by the drum major of the fore and aft was a stunned child of fourteen and was about the same age when not looked after they smoked and drank they swore habitually after the manner of the room which is cold swearing and comes from between teeth and they fought once a week had sprung from some london and may or may not have passed through dr s hands ere he arrived at the dignity of boy could remember nothing except the regiment and the delight of listening to the band from his earliest years he hid somewhere in his little soul a genuine love for music and was most furnished with the head of a that beautiful ladies who watched the regiment in church were wont to speak of him as a darling they never heard his comments on their manners and morals as he walked back to with the band and fresh causes of offence against the other bo s hated both lads on account of their the drums of the fore and conduct might be or might be rubbing s head in the dirt but any attempt at on the part of an was met by the combined forces of and and the consequences were painful the boys were the of the corps but wealthy for they sold battles in alternate weeks for the sport of the when they were not against other boys and thus money on this day there was in the camp they had just been convicted afresh of smoking which is bad for little boys who use tobacco and s was that had so bad from the pipe in pocket that he and he alone was responsible for the they were both under i tell you i id the pipe back o said you re a liar said without heat you re a little said strong in the knowledge that his own was unknown now there is one word in the extended of abuse that cannot pass without comment you may call a man a thief and risk nothing you may even call him a coward without finding more than a boot past your ear but you must not call a man a unless you are prepared to prove it on his front teeth you might ha that wasn t so sore said sorrowfully round s guard i ll make you said and got home on s forehead all would have gone well and this story as the books say would never have been written had not his evil fate prompted the s son a long man of five and twenty to put in an appearance after	39
the first round he was in need of money and knew that the boys had silver s the drums oe the aft fighting again said he i ll report you to my father and he ll report you to the color what s that to you said with an unpleasant of the nostrils oh nothing to me you ll get into trouble and you ve been up too often to afford that what the hell do you know about what we ve done asked the you aren t in the army you he closed in on the man s left flank cause you find two gentlemen their with their you stick in your ugly nose where you aren t wanted run ome to your caste of a ma or we ll give you what for said the man attempted by knocking the boys heads together the scheme would have succeeded had not him vehemently in the stomach or had refrained from kicking his they fought together bleeding and breathless for half an hour after heavy punishment triumphantly pulled down their opponent as pull down a now gasped til give you what for he proceeded to pound the man s features while stamped on the portions of his chivalry is not a strong point in the composition of the average boy he fights as do his to make his mark ghastly was the ruin that ed and awful was the wrath of the awful too was the scene in when the two appeared to answer the charge of half a the for a criminal action and his son lied the boys stood to attention while the black clouds of evidence accumulated you little devils are more trouble than the rest of the regiment put together said the colonel angrily one the drums of e and aft might as well and i can t well put you in or under you must be again beg y pardon sir can t we say in our own defence sir hey what are you going to argue with me said the colonel no sir said but if a man come to you sir and said he was going to report you sir for a bit of a turn up with a friend sir an wanted lo get money cut o you sir the orderly room exploded in a roar of laughter well said the colonel that was what that there did sir and e d a don it sir if we t prevented im we didn t it im much sir e t no manner o right to interfere with ns sir i don t mind bein by the drum major sir nor yet reported by any but i m but i don t think it s fair sir for a to come an talk over a man in the army a second shout of laughter shook the orderly room but the colonel was grave what sort of characters have these boys he asked of the major to the sir returned that official the only soul in the regiment whom the boys feared they do everything lie sir is it like we d go for that man for fun sir said pointing to the oh said the colonel and when the boys had gone he read the s son a lecture on the sin of and gave orders that the should keep the drums in better discipline if either of you come to practise again with so much as a scratch on your two ugly little faces thundered the band s the drums of the and aft master i ll tell the drum major to take the skin off your backs understand that you young devils then he repented of his speech for just the length of time that looking like a in red took the place of one of the trumpets in hospital and rendered the echo ot a battle piece certainly was a and had often in his more exalted moments expressed a yearning to master every instrument of the band there s nothing to prevent your becoming a said the who had composed of his own and worked day and night in the interests of the band what did he say demanded after practice said i might be a an he asked in to ave a glass o wine on mess nights ho said you might be a non did e that s just about e would say when i ve put in my boy s service it s a shame that doesn t count for i ll take on a then i ll be a lance in a year what i know about the ins an o things in three years i ll be a i won t marry then not i i ll old on and learn the ways an for exchange into a ment that doesn t know all about me then i ll be a then i ll ask you to ave a glass o wine an you ll well ave to stay in the room while the mess brings it to your dirty s pose i m going to be a not i quite i ll be a too there s like taking to a thing an to it the says the ment don t go ome for another seven years i ll be a lance then or near to thus the boys discussed their and conducted themselves with piety for a week that is to say started a with the color s daughter aged thirteen not as he explained to with any the drums of the fore and aft matrimony but by way o my and in and the black haired enjoyed that more than previous ones and the other boys raged furiously together and preached sermons on the dangers of bein tangled along o but neither love nor virtue would have held long in	39
the paths of propriety had not the gone abroad that the regiment was to be sent on active service to take part in a war which for the sake of we will call the war of the lost tribes the had the almost before the mess room and of all the nine hundred men in not ten had seen a shot fired in anger the colonel had twenty years ago assisted at a frontier expedition one of the had seen service at the cape a confirmed in e company had helped to clear streets in ireland but that was all the regiment had been put by for many years the overwhelming mass of its rank and file had from three to four years service the non officers were under thirty years old and men and alike had forgotten to speak of the stories written in brief upon the colors the new colors that had been formally blessed by in england ere the regiment came away they wanted to go to the front they were anxious to but they had no knowledge of what war meant and there was none to tell them they were an educated regiment the of school in their ranks was high and most of the men could do more than read and write they had been in loyal of the idea but they themselves had no notion of that idea they were made up of from an over district the system had put flesh and muscle upon their small bones but it could not put heart into the sons of those who for generations had done work for pay had in drying rooms stooped over s the drums of the fore and aft among white lead and shivered on lime the men had found food and rest in the army and now they were going to fight people who ran away if you shook a stick at them wherefore cheered when the ran and the shrewd non officers on the chances of and of saving their pay at men said the fore and fit have never been under fire within the last generation let us therefore break them in easily by setting them to guard lines of communication and this would have been done but for the fact that british were wanted badly wanted at the front and there were doubtful native that could fill the minor duties em with two strong said they may be knocked about a bit but they ll learn their business before they come through nothing like a night alarm and a little cutting up of to make a regiment smart in the field wait till they ve had half a dozen throats cut the colonel wrote with delight that the temper of his men was excellent that the regiment was all that could be wished and as sound as a bell the smiled with a sober joy and the in pairs down the mess room after dinner and nearly shot themselves at revolver practice but there was consternation in the hearts of and what was to be done with the drums would the band go to the front how many of the drums would accompany the regiment they took council together sitting in a tree and smoking it s more than a toss up they ll leave us be ind at the t with the women you like that said cause o y mean s a woman or a d o women o the of field service you know i m as keen on goin as you said wish i was a said sadly the drums of the fore and aft they ll take tom along that i can plaster a wall with an like as not the won t take us then let s go an make tom so sick e can t no more you old is kick him said on the branch that ain t no good neither we ain t the sort o characters to on our they re bad if they have the band at the we don t go and no error there if they take the band we may get cast for medical are you medical fit said digging in the ribs with force said with an oath the doctor says s weak through on an empty throw a chest an i ll try yer threw out his chest which smote with all his might turned very pale gasped up his eyes and said that s all right you ll do said i ve o men dying when you it em fair on the don t bring us no nearer goin though said do you know where we re ordered knows an e won t split on a up to the front to kill hairy big beggars that turn you inside out if they get old o you they say their women are good looking too any asked the abandoned not a they say unless you dig up the ground an see what the ave id they re a poor lot stood upright on the branch and gazed across the plain said he there s the colonel coming colonel s a good old beggar let s go an talk to im nearly fell out of the tree at the audacity of the suggestion like he feared not god neither regarded he man but there are limits even to the audacity of boy an q speak to colonel was s the drums of the fore and aft but had slid down the trunk and doubled in the direction of the colonel that officer was walking wrapped in thought and visions of a c b yes even a k c b for had he not at command one of the best of the line the fore and fit and he was aware of two small boys charging down upon him once before	39
he slid an arm round his neck i won t old you back no more go away an get your an i ll make you a new button bag as nice as i know how she whispered put some o your air into it an i ll keep it in my pocket so long s i m alive then wept anew and the interview ended public feeling among the boys rose to fever pitch and th e lives of and became not only had they been permitted to two years before the boy s age fourteen but by it seemed of their extreme youth they were allowed to go to the front which thing had not happened to acting within the knowledge of boy the band which was to accompany the regiment had been cut down to the twenty men the returning to the ranks and were attached to the band as though they would much have preferred being company don t matter much said after the medical inspection be thankful that we re to go at all the doctor e said that if we could stand what we took from the s son we d stand pretty nigh anything the drums of the fore and aft which we will said looking tenderly at the ragged and ill made that had given him with a lock of her hair worked into a l upon the cover it was the best i could she sobbed i wouldn t let mother nor the s tailor me keep it always an remember i love you true they marched to the railway station nine hundred and sixty strong and every soul in turned out to see them go the their teeth at and marching with the band the married women wept upon the platform and the regiment cheered its noble self black in the face a nice level lot said the colonel to the second in command as they watched the first four companies fit to do anything said the second in but it seems to me they re a thought too young and tender for the work in hand it s bitter cold up at the front now they re sound enough said the colonel we must take our chance of sick so they went northward ever northward past and of armies of camp followers and of laden the throng day by day till with a shriek the train pulled up at a hopelessly where six lines of temporary track six trains where blew and officers swore from dawn till far into the night amid the wind driven of the and the of a thousand hurry up you re badly wanted at the front was the message that greeted the fore and aft and the occupants of the red cross carriages told the same tale t so much the gasped of to a knot of admiring fore and t so much the though there s the drums of the fore and aft enough o that it s the food an the climate frost all night when it and sun all day and the water fit to knock you down i got my like a egg i ve got too an my is all out o order tain t no in those parts i can tell you are the like demanded a private there s some prisoners in that train yonder go an look at em they re the aristocracy o the country the common folk are a dashed sight if you want to know what they fight with reach under my seat an pull out the long knife that s there they dragged out and beheld for the first time the grim bone handled knife it was almost as long as that s the thing to ye said the feebly it can take off a man s arm at the shoulder as easy as butter i the beggar that used that un but there s more of his likes up above they don t understand but they re devils to the men strolled across the tracks to inspect the prisoners they were unlike any that the fore and aft had ever met these huge black haired sons of the as the men stared the freely and muttered one to another with lowered eyes my eyes awful swine i said who was in the rear of the procession say old man how you got eh you wasn t hanged for your ugly face hey the of the company turned his leg irons at the movement and stared at the boy see he cried to his fellows in push to they send children against us what a people and what fools said nodding his head cheerily you go down country get get live like a t of the fore and aft ke that s a better than get it in your good by man take care o your beautiful figure ed an try to look the men laughed and fell in for their first march when they began to realize that a soldier s life was not all beer and they were much impressed with the size and ferocity of the whom they had now learned to call and more with the exceeding discomfort of their own surroundings twenty old soldiers in the corps would have taught them how to make themselves snug at but they had no old soldiers and as the troops on the line of march said they lived like pigs they learned the heart breaking of camp and and the of an e p tent and a wrung mule they studied in water and developed a few cases of in their study at the end of their third march they were surprised by the arrival in their camp of a iron which fired from a at seven hundred yards out the brains of a private seated by the fire this robbed them of their peace	39
for a night and was the beginning of a long range fire carefully calculated to that end in the they saw nothing except an occasional puff of smoke from a above the line of march at night there were distant of flame and occasional which set the whole camp blazing into the gloom and occasionally into opposite tents then they swore vehemently and vowed that this was magnificent but not war indeed it was not the regiment could not halt for against the of the country side its duty was to go forward and make connection with the scotch and troops with which it was the knew this and knew too after their first shots that they were dealing with a raw regiment thereafter they devoted to the task of keeping the fore aft on the drums op we the strain not for anything would they have taken liberties with a corps with the wicked little whose delight it was to lie out in the open on a dark night and stalk their with the terrible big men dressed in women s clothes who could be heard praying to their god in the night watches and whose peace of mind no amount of could shake or with those vile who marched so unprepared and who dealt out such grim reward to those who tried to profit by that this white regiment was different quite different it slept like a and like a charged in every direction when it was roused its walked with a that could be heard for a quarter of a mile would fire at anything that moved even a driven donkey and when they had once fired could be rushed and laid out a horror and an offence against the morning sun then there were camp followers who and could be cut up without fear their shrieks would disturb the white boys and the loss of their services would inconvenience them sorely thus at every march the hidden enemy became bolder and the regiment and twisted under attacks it could not the crowning triumph was a sudden night rush ending in the cutting of many tent ropes the of the canvas and a glorious of the men who struggled and kicked below it was a great deed neatly carried out and it shook the already shaken nerves of the fore and aft all the courage that they had been required to exercise up to this point was the two o clock in the morning courage and they so far had only succeeded in shooting their comrades and losing their sleep sullen discontented cold savage sick with their and the fore and aft joined their i hear you had a tough time of it coming up said the but when he saw the hospital sheets his face fell this is bad said he to himself they re as rotten as the drums of the fore and aft sheep and aloud to the colonel tm afraid we can t spare you just yet we want all we have else i should have given you ten days to in the colonel on my honor sir he there is not the least necessity to think of us my men have been rather and upset without a fair return they only want to go in somewhere where they can see what s before them can t say i think much of the fore and fit said the in confidence to his major they ve lost all their and by the trim of them might have marched through the country from the other side a more out set of men i never put eyes on oh they ll improve as the work goes on the parade has been rubbed off a little but they ll put on field polish before long said the major they ve been and they quite don t understand it they did not all the was on one side and it was hard with that made them sick there was also the real sickness that laid hold of a strong man and dragged him howling to the grave worst of all their officers knew just as little of the country as the men themselves and looked as if they did the fore and aft were in a thoroughly unsatisfactory condition but they believed that all would be well if they could once get a fair go in at the enemy pot shots up and down the valleys were unsatisfactory and the never seemed to get a chance perhaps it was as well for a long with a knife had reach of eight feet and could carry away enough lead to three englishmen the fore and fit would like some practice at the enemy all seven hundred blazing together that wish showed the mood of the men the walked into their camp and in broken room english strove to with them offered them pipes of tobacco and stood them treat at the car but the the drums of the fore and aft fore and aft not knowing much of the nature of the treated them as they would treat any other and the little men in green trotted back to their firm friends the and with many confided to them that dam white regiment no dam use sulky dirty any for the smote the as to the head and told them not to a british regiment and the grinned for the were their elder brothers and entitled to the privileges of the common soldier who touches a is more than likely to have his head open three days later the arranged a battle according to the rules of war and the peculiarity of the temperament the enemy were in inconvenient strength among the hills and the moving of many green standards warned him th at the tribes were up in aid of the regular troops a and a half	39
again according to the once in this formation each man felt himself desperately alone and edged in towards his fellow for comfort s sake then the crack of his neighbor s rifle at his ear led him to fire as rapidly as he again for the sake of the comfort of the noise the reward was not long delayed five plunged the in smoke impenetrable to the eye and the bullets began to take ground twenty or thirty yards in front of the as the weight of the dragged down and to the right arms wearied with holding the kick of the leaping the company peered helplessly through the smoke the more nervous mechanically trying to fan it away with their high and to the left a captain till he was hoarse no good cease firing and let it drift away a bit three and four times the shrieked the order and when it was obeyed the fore and aft looked that their foe should be lying before them in of a light the drums of the and aft wind drove the smoke to and showed the y still in position and apparently unaffected a quarter of a ton of lead had been buried a in front of them as the ragged earth that was not they were waiting for the mad riot to die down and were firing quietly into the heart of the smoke a private of the fore and aft spun up his company shrieking with agony another was kicking the earth and gasping and a third through the lower by a jagged bullet was calling aloud on his comrades to put him out of his pain these were the and they were not soothing to hear or see the smoke cleared to a dull haze then the foe began to shout with a great shouting and a mass a black mass detached itself from the main body and rolled over the ground at horrid speed it was composed of perhaps three hundred men who would shout and fire and if the rush of their fifty comrades who were determined to die carried home the fifty were half with and wholly mad with religious when they rushed the british fire ceased and in the lull the order was given to close ranks and meet them with the any one who knew the business could have told the fore and aft that the only way of dealing with a rush is by at long because a man who means to die who desires to die who will gain heaven by dying must in nine cases out of ten kill a man who has a lingering prejudice in favor of life if he can close with the latter where they should have closed and gone forward the fore and aft opened out and and where they should have opened out and fired they closed and waited a man dragged from his blankets half awake and is never in a pleasant frame of mind nor does his happiness increase when he watches the of the eyes of three hundred six foot upon whose the foam is lying upon the drums op the fore and aft whose tongues is a roar of wrath and in whose hands are three foot knives the fore and aft heard the bringing that regiment forward at the double while the of the pipes came from the left they strove to stay where they were though the wavered down the line like the oars of a ragged boat then they felt body to body the amazing physical strength of their foes a shriek of pain ended the rush and the knives fell amid scenes not to be told the men together and smote blindly as often as not at their own fellows their front like paper and the fifty passed on their now drunk with success fighting as madly as they then the rear ranks were to close up and the dashed into the alone for the rear rank had heard the in front the and the of pain and had seen the dark stale blood that makes afraid they were not going to stay it was the rushing of the over again let their officers go to hell if they chose they would get away from the knives come on shrieked the and their men cursing them drew back each closing into his neighbor and round and of the last company faced their death alone in the belief that their men would follow you ve killed me you sobbed and dropped cut from the shoulder to the centre of the chest and a fresh of his men retreating always retreating trampled him under foot at they made for the pass whence they had emerged i kissed her in the kitchen and i kissed her in the ball child un child un follow me oh said the cook is he to kiss us all the drums of the fore and aft the were pouring through the left and over the heights at the double to the invitation of their step the black rocks were crowned with dark green as the gave tongue in the morning in the morning by the bright light when blows his trumpet in the morning the rear companies tripped and over loose stones the front halted for a moment to take stock of the valley and to settle stray boot then a happy little sigh of contentment down the ranks and it was as though the land smiled for behold there below was the enemy and it was to meet them that the had doubled so hastily there was much enemy there would be amusement the little men their well to hand and at their officers as grin ere the stone is cast for them to fetch the ground downward to the valley and they enjoyed a fair view of the proceedings they sat upon the to	39
watch for their officers were not going to waste their wind in assisting to a rush more than half a mile away let the white men look to their own front hi said the major who was dam fools yonder stand close order this is no time for close order it s the time for amused and indignant the beheld the retirement let us be gentle of the fore and aft with a running chorus of oaths and they run the white men run colonel may we also do a little running murmured the senior but the colonel would have none of it let the beggars be cut up a little said he serves em right they ll be into facing round in a minute he the of the fore and aft looked through his field glasses and caught the of an officer s sword beating em with the flat damned how the are walking into them said he the fore and aft heading back bore with them their officers the of the pass forced the mob into solid formation and the rear rank delivered some sort of a wavering the drew off for they did not know what the might hide moreover it was never wise to chase white men too far they returned as wolves return to cover satisfied with the slaughter that they had done and only stopping to at the wounded on the ground a quarter of a mile had the fore and aft retreated and now in the pass was quivering with pain shaken and with fear while the officers beyond control smote the men with the and the of their swords get back get back you you women right about face column of companies form you hounds shouted the colonel and the swore aloud but the regiment wanted to go to go anywhere out of the range of those merciless knives it swayed to and fro with shouts and while from the right the dropped after of bullets at long range into the mob of the returning to their own troops the fore and aft band though protected from direct fire by the rocky under which it had sat down fled at the first rush and would have fled also but their short legs left them fifty yards in the rear and by the time the band had mixed with the regiment they were painfully aware that they would have to close in alone and get back to that rock gasped they won t see us there and they returned to the scattered instruments of the band their hearts nearly bursting their ribs the drums of the fore and aft here s a nice show for j said throwing himself full length on the ground a fine show for british oh the devils they ve gone an left us alone here ll took possession of a cast off water bottle which naturally was full of rum and drank till he again drink said he shortly they ll come back in a minute or two you see drank but there was no sign of the regiment s return they could hear a dull from the head of the valley of retreat and saw the back their pace as the fired at them we re all that s left of the band an we ll be cut up as sure as death said i ll die game then said thickly with his tiny s sword the drink was working on his brain as it was on s old on i know something better than said stung by the splendor of a sudden thought due chiefly to rum tip our yonder the word to come back the beggars are well away come on we won t get hurt t ke the an give me the drum the old step for all your are worth there s a few of our men coming back now stand up ye drunken little by your right quick march he slipped the over his shoulder thrust the into s hand and the two boys marched out of the cover of the rock into the open making a hideous of the first bars of the british as had said a few of the fore and aft were coming back sullenly and under the of blows and abuse their red coats shone at the head of the valley and behind them were wavering but between this shattered line and the enemy who with suspicion feared that the hasty retreat meant an and had not the drums of the fore and aft moved therefore lay half a mile of a level ground only by the wounded the tune settled into full swing and the boys kept shoulder to shoulder the drum as one possessed the one made a thin and pitiful but the tune carried far even to the come on you dogs muttered to himself arc we to play was staring straight in front of him and marching more stiffly than ever he had done on parade and in bitter mockery of the distant mob the old tune of the old line and rattled some talk of alexander and some of of and and such great names as these there was a far off clapping of hands from the and a roar from the in the distance but never a was fired by british or the two little red moved forward in the open parallel to the enemy s front but of all the world s great heroes there s none that can compare with a tow row row row row row to the british the men of the fore and aft were gathering thick at the entrance into the plain the on the heights far above was speechless with rage still no movement from the enemy the day stayed to watch the children halted and beat the long roll of the assembly	39
hundreds when there were only twenty bullets to stop them on the heights the screw guns ceased firing they had run out of and the groaned for the fire could not sufficiently the retreat long before the last were fired the were out in force looking for the wounded the battle was over and but for want of fresh troops the would have been wiped off the earth as it was they counted their dead by hundreds and nowhere were the dead thicker than in the track of the fore and aft but the regiment did not cheer with the nor did they dance uncouth dances with the among the dead they looked under their brows at the colonel as they leaned upon their and panted get back to camp you haven t you disgraced yourself enough for one day go and look to the wounded it s all you re fit for said the colonel yet for the past hour the fore and aft had been doing all that mortal commander could expect they had lost heavily because they did not know how to set about their business with proper skill but they had borne themselves gallantly and this was their reward a young and color who had begun to imagine himself a hero offered his water bottle to a whose tongue was black with thirst i drink with no answered the and turning to a said drink water got it the grinned and passed his bottle the fore and aft said no word they went back to camp when the field of strife had been a little up and made and the who saw himself a knight in three months was the only soul who was complimentary to them the colonel was and the officers were savage and sullen well said the they are young troops of the drums of the fore and aft course and it was not unnatural that they should retire in disorder for a bit oh my only aunt maria murmured a junior staff officer retire in disorder it was a run but they came again as we all know the the colonel s white face before him and they behaved as well as could possibly be expected behaved beautifully indeed i was watching them lt s not a matter to take to heart colonel as some german general said of his men they wanted to be over a little that was all to himself he said now they re blooded i can give em responsible work it s as well that they got what they did teach em more than half a dozen rifle that will later run alone and bite poor old colonel though all that afternoon the winked and on the hills striving to tell the good news to a mountain forty miles away and in the evening there arrived dusty and sore a correspondent who had gone out to assist at a village burning and who had read off the message from afar cursing his luck the while let s have the details somehow as full as ever you can please it s the first time i ve ever been left this campaign said the correspondent to the and the nothing told him how an army of communication had been up destroyed and all but by the craft wisdom and foresight of the but some say and among these be the who watched on the that that battle was won by and whose little bodies were borne up just in time to fit two at the head of the big ditch grave for the dead under the heights of poor dear mamma poor dear mamma the wild hawk to the wind swept sky the deer to the wholesome and the heart of a man to the heart of a maid as it was in the days of old song scene interior of miss s bedroom at miss in window turning a of miss f who has come to spend the day sitting on the bed the of a ball room frock and a bunch of artificial lilies of the valley time jo p m on a hot may afternoon miss and he said i shall never forget this dance and of course i said oh how can you be so silly do you think he meant anything dear miss long silk from the rubbish you know him better than do miss p oh do be sympathetic i m sure he does at least i would be sure if he wasn t always riding with that odious mrs miss t i suppose so how does one manage to dance through one s heels first look at this isn t it shameful heel on open hand for inspection miss d never mind that you can t mend it help with this hateful i ve run the string so and i ve run the string so and i can t make the fulness come right where would you put this waves lilies of the valley poor dear mamma miss t as high up on the shoulder as possible miss d am i quite tall enough i know it makes may look sided miss t yes but may hasn t your shoulders hers arc like a bottle bearer at door captain miss d jumping up wildly and hunting for body which she has discarded owing to the heat of the day captain what captain oh good gracious and fm only half dressed well i sha n t bother miss t calmly you needn t it isn t for us that s captain he is going for a ride with mamma he generally comes five days out of the seven voice from an inner apartment run out and give captain some tea and tell him i shall be ready in ten minutes and o	39
come to me an instant there s a dear girl miss t o bother aloud well mamma and after five minutes flushed and rubbing her fingers miss d you look pink what has happened miss t in a stage whisper a twenty four inch waist and she won t let it out where are my on the toilet table and at her hair with a brush in the interval miss d who is this captain i don t think i ve met him miss t you must have he belongs to the set i ve danced with him but i ve never talked to him he s a big yellow man just like a newly chicken with an e he walks like this cavalry s f i and he goes ha i deep down in his throat when he can t think of anything to say mamma likes him i don t miss d does he wax that dear mamma miss t busy with powder puff yes i think so why miss d ending over the and sewing furiously oh nothing only miss t sternly only what out with it miss d well may she s engaged to mr you know said promise you won t repeat this miss t yes i promise what did she say miss d that being kissed with a rush by a man who didn t wax his was like eating an egg without salt miss t at her full height with crushing scorn may is a horrid nasty things and you can tell her i said so i m glad she doesn t belong to my set i must go and feed this man do i look miss d yes perfectly be quick and hand him over to your mother and then we can talk shall listen at the door to hear what you say to him miss t sure i don t care fm not afraid of captain in proof of this into drawing room with a stride followed by two short steps which produces the effect of a horse entering captain who is sitting in the shadow of the window curtain and round helplessly captain aside the by jove i must ha picked up that action from the aloud rising miss miss t conscious thai she is flushing good evening captain mamma told me to say that she will be ready in a few minutes won t you have some tea aside i hope mamma will be quick what am i to say to the creature aloud and abruptly milk and sugar g no sugar tha and very little milk ha poor dear mamma miss t aside if he s going to do that i m lost i shall laugh i know i shall g at his and watching it sideways dawn his nose ha aside wonder what the little beast can talk about must make a shot at it miss t aside oh this is i must say something both together have you been g i beg your pardon you were going to say miss t has been watching the with awed won t you have some eggs g looking at the tea table eggs i oh she must have a nursery tea at this hour s pose they ve wiped her mouth and sent her to me while the mother is getting on her aloud no thanks miss t crimson with confusion oh i i didn t mean that i wasn t thinking of mu eggs for an instant i mean salt won t you have some sa sweets aside he ll think me a lunatic i wish mamma would come g aside it a nursery tea and she s ashamed of it by jove she doesn t look half bad when she colors up like that aloud helping himself from the dish have you seen those new at s miss t no i made these myself what are they like g these aside and that s a fact miss aside oh bother he ll think i m fishing for compliments aloud no s of course g not to compare with these how d you make them i can t get my to understand the simplest thing beyond mutton and miss t yes a you know perhaps you frighten him you should never frighten a servant he loses his head it s very bad policy poor dear mamma g he s so stupid miss t folding hands in fur lap you should call quietly and say o g getting interested yes aside fancy that little saying to my miss t then you should explain the dinner dish by dish g but i can t speak the miss t you should pass the higher standard and try g i have but i don t seem to be any the wiser are you miss t i never passed the higher standard but the is very patient with me he t get angry when i talk about sheep s or ox of grain when i mean g aside with intense indignation i d like to sec being rude to that girl steady the aloud and do you understand about horses too miss t a little not very much i can t doctor them but i know what they ought to eat and i am in charge of our stable g indeed you might help me then what ought a man to give his in the hills my says eight because everything is so dear miss t six a and one allowance neither more nor less and a grass cut gets six that s better than buying grass in the g	39
how do you know miss t i tried both ways g do you ride much then i ve never seen you on the miss t aside i haven t him more than fifty times aloud nearly every day poor dear mamma g by jove i didn t know that ha at his and is silent for forty seconds miss t and wondering what will happen next it looks beautiful i shouldn t touch it if i were you aside it s all mamma s fault for not coming before i will be rude g under the tan and bringing down his hand very quickly eh at oh yes ha ha laughs uneasily aside well of all dashed cheek i never had a woman say that to me yet she must be a cool hand or else ah that nursery tea voice from the unknown g good gracious what s that miss t the dog i think aside has been listening and i ll never forgive her g aside they don t keep dogs here aloud didn t sound like a dog did it miss t then it must have been the cat let s go into the what a lovely evening it is steps into and looks out across the hills into sunset the captain follows g aside superb eyes i wonder that i never noticed them before aloud there s going to be a dance at lodge on wednesday can you spare me one miss t shortly no i don t want any of your you only ask me because mamma told you to i hop and i you know i do g aside that s true but little girls shouldn t understand these things aloud no on my word i don t you dance beautifully miss t then why do you always stand out after half a dozen turns i thought officers in the army didn t tell g it wasn t a believe me i really do want the pleasure of a dance with you poor dear miss t why won t mamma dance with you any more g more earnestly than the necessity demands i wasn t thinking of your mother aside you little miss t still looking out of the window eh oh i beg your pardon i was thinking of something else g aside well i wonder what she ll say next i ve never known a woman treat me like this before i might be dash it i might be an aloud oh don t trouble i m not worth thinking about isn t your mother ready yet miss t i should think so but promise me captain you won t take poor dear mamma twice round any more it her so g she says that no exercise her miss t yes but she suffers afterwards you don t know what is and you t to keep her out so late when it gets chill in the evenings g aside i thought she came off her horse rather in a bunch one lives and aloud i m sorry to hear that she hasn t mentioned it to me miss t of course not poor dear mamma never would and you mustn t say that i told you either promise me that you won t oh captain promise me you won t g i am dumb or i shall be as soon as you ve given me that dance and another if you can trouble yourself to think about me for a minute miss t but you won t like it one little bit you ll be awfully sorry afterwards g i shall like it above all things and i shall only be sorry that i didn t get more aside now what in the world am i saying miss t very well you will have only yourself to thank if your toes are trodden on shall we say seven poor dear mamma g and eleven aside she can t be more than eight stone but even then it s an small foot looks at his own riding boots miss t they re beautifully shiny i can almost see my face in them g i was thinking whether i should have to go on for the rest of my life if you trod on my toes miss t very likely why not change eleven for a square g no please i i want them both won t you write them down miss t don t get so many dances that i shall them you will be the g wait and see aside she doesn t dance perfectly perhaps but miss t your tea must have got cold by this time won t you have another cup g no thanks don t you think it s pleasanter out in the aside i never saw hair take that color in the sunshine before it s like one of s pictures miss t yes it s a wonderful sunset isn t it but what do you know about s pictures g i go home occasionally and i used to know the galleries nervously you mustn t think me only a with a miss t don t please don t i m so sorry for what i said then i was horribly rude it slipped out before i thought don t you know the temptation to say frightful and shocking things just for the mere sake of saying them i m afraid i gave way to it g watching the girl as she i think i know the feeling it would be terrible if we all yielded to it wouldn t it for instance i might say poor dear mamma entering and poor dear mamma	39
ah captain sorry to keep you waiting hope you haven t been bored my little girl been talking to you miss t aside i m not sorry i spoke about the i m not i m not i only wish i d mentioned the too g aside what a shame i how old she is it never occurred to me before aloud we ve been discussing shakespeare and the musical glasses in the miss t aside nice man he knows that quotation he isn t a with a aloud good by captain aside what a huge hand and what a squeeze i don t suppose he meant it but he has driven the rings into my fingers poor dear mamma has come round oh yes captain don t you think that the saddle is too far forward they pass into the front g aside how the should i know what she prefers she told me that she on horses aloud i think it is miss t coming out into front oh bad i must speak to him for this he has taken up tha two links and hates that passes out and to e s head g let me do it miss t no understands me don t you old man chain and horse on nose and poor did they want to cut his chin off there captain watches the with poor dear mamma to miss t you ve forgotten your guest i think dear miss t good gracious so i have by treats indoors hastily poor dear mamma poor dear mamma reins in fingers by too tight captain and makes the foot rest poor dear mamma too long and breaks through it captain g aside can t hold up eleven stone ever it s all your aloud can t imagine why i was so clumsy aside now little would have gone up like a bird they ride out of the garden the captain a f back g aside how that habit catches her under the arms poor dear mamma with the worn smile of sixteen seasons the worse for exchange you re dull this afternoon captain g up why did you keep me waiting so long et et et an interval of three weeks gilded youth sitting on opposite town hall been trotting out the we all thought it was the you re g with withering emphasis you young what the does it matter to you proceeds to read gilded youth a lecture on discretion and which latter uke a chinese lantern further interval of weeks scene exterior of new library on a evening miss miss meet among the miss t is carrying a bundle of books under her left arm miss d level well poor dear miss t ascending well miss d her friend s left arm taking away all the books j placing books in returning to arm securing hand by the third finger and well vou bad girl and you never told me miss t he he he only spoke yesterday afternoon miss d bless you dear and to be aren t i you you promised ever so long ago miss t of course i ll tell you all about it to morrow gets into oh miss d with intense interest yes dear piano it s quite true about the egg miss d what miss t the egg without the salt ko curtain the world without the world without certain people of importance scene smoking room of the club time p m of a night in the rains four men dispersed in picturesque attitudes and easy chairs to these enter cf the irregular in evening dress the judge ought to bo hanged in his own store hi to take the taste out of my mouth royal that s it is it what the deuce made you dine at the judge s you know his thought it couldn t be worse than the club but i ll swear he alleged liquor and doctors it with gin and ink looking round the room is this all of you to night p w d was called out at dinner mingle had a pain in his dies of once a week in the rains and gets drunk on in between good little chap though any one at the judge s and his looking awfully white and female girl couldn t catch the name on her way to the hills under the charge the judge and fresh from fit good lord how truly magnificent was there enough ice when i there i got one whole lump nearly as big as a what had to say for himself would without seems that every one is having a fairly good time up there in spite of the rain by jove that reminds me i know i hadn t come across just for the pleasure of your society news great news told me who s dead now no one that i know of but s at last dropping chorus how much the devil was pulling your leg not yea verily verily verily verily verily i say unto thee the gift o god our it s been given out up above at law women will give out anything what does accused say told me that he congratulated him one hand held out t other ready to guard turned pink and said it was so poor old they all do it who s i let s hear the details she s a girl daughter of a colonel somebody s stiff with daughters be more explicit wait a shake what ce ax her name three something three stars	39
perhaps knows that brand isn t she a little bit of a girl with red hair bout that from what said then i ve met her she was at last season owned a permanently mamma and danced i say you knew the didn t you o twenty five years service waking the world without up from his eh what s that knew who how i thought i was at confound you the girl s engaged so says engaged engaged bless my soul i m getting an old man little engaged it was only the other day i went home with them in the no the and she was crawling about on her hands and knees among the used to call me the tack because i showed her my watch and that was in sixty seven no seventy good god how time flies i m an old man i remember when married miss daughter of old but that was before your time and so the little baby s engaged to have a little baby of her own who s the other fool of the pink never met him lived in debt married in debt and die in debt must be glad to get the girl off his hands has money lucky devil place at home too he comes of first class stock can t quite understand his being caught by a colonel s daughter and looking cautiously round room black at that no offence to you stiffly not much tha quoting motto of irregular we are what we are eh old man but was such a superior animal as a rule why didn t he go home and pick his wife there they are all alike when they come to the turn into the straight about a man begins to get sick of living alone and of the eternal chap in the morning it s dead goat as a rule but go on the world without if a man s once taken that way nothing will hold him do you remember of your service they transferred him to when his time came and he married a plate s daughter or something of that kind she was the only female about the place yes poor brute that smashed s chances altogether mrs used to ask was you goin the dance this hang it all hasn t married beneath him there s no tar brush in the family i tar brush not an you young talk as though the man was doing the girl an honor in marrying her you re all too conceited nothing s good enough for you not even an empty club a dam bad dinner at the judge s and a station as sickly as a hospital you re quite right we re a set of luxurious dogs in heat between the shoulders i m covered with it let s hope will be cooler are you ordered into camp too i thought the had a clean sheet no worse luck two cases yesterday one died and if we have a third out we go is there any shooting at the country s under water except the patch by the grand trunk road i was there yesterday looking at a and came across four poor devils in their last stage it s rather bad from here to then we re pretty certain to have a heavy go of it i shouldn t mind changing places with for a while sport with in the shade of the town hall and all that oh why doesn t somebody come and marry me instead of letting me go into camp the world without pointing to notice forbidding dogs in the club ask the committee you you ll stand me another for that what will you take is fine on moral grounds have you any preference small glass please excellent these days told me so for four drinks most unfair punishment i only thought of as being round the tables by the of would have to import his by train mrs s the only woman in the station she won t leave and he s doing his best to get her to go good indeed here s mrs s health to the only wife in the station and a damned brave woman drinking a damned brave woman i suppose will bring his wife here at the end of the cold weather they are going to be married almost immediately i believe may thank his luck that the pink are all and no this hot weather or he d be torn from the arms of his love as sure as death have you ever noticed the thorough minded way british cavalry take to it s because they are so expensive if the had stood fast here they would have been out in camp a month ago yes i should decidedly like to be he ll go home after he s married and send in his papers see if he doesn t why shouldn t he hasn t he money would any one of us be here if we weren t poor old what has become of the six hundred you from our table last month it took unto itself wings i think an got some of it and a the rest or else i spent it the world without never had dealings with a in his life virtuous if had three thousand a month paid from england i don t think i d deal with a either yawning oh it s a sweet life i wonder whether matrimony would make it sweeter	39
ask with his wife dying by inches go home and get a fool of a girl to come out to what is it says the splendid palace of an indian pro which reminds me my quarters like a i had fever last night from sleeping in a swamp and the worst of it is one can t do anything to a roof till the rains are over what s wrong with you you haven t eighty to take into a running stream no but i m a of and i m a regular job all over my body it s sheer poverty of blood and i don t see any chance of getting richer either way can t you take leave that s the pull you army men have over us ten day are nothing in your sight tm so important that government can t find a substitute if i go away ye es i d like to be whoever his wife may be you ve passed the turn of life that was speaking of indeed i have but i never yet had the to ask a woman to share my life out here on my soul i believe you re right i m thinking of mrs the woman s an absolute wreck exactly because she stays down here the only way to keep her fit would be to send her to the hills for the world without eight months and the same with any woman i fancy i see taking a wife on those terms with the at one and sixpence the little be little with a fine to bring home for the holidays and a pair of be for to wear free of expense presented by yes it s an prospect by the way the hasn t done falling yet the time will come when we shall think ourselves lucky if we only lose half our pay surely a third s loss enough who gains by the arrangement that s what i want to know the silver question i m going to bed if you begin thank goodness here s looking like a ghost enter indian medical staff very white and tired evening it s in sheets the roads are something ghastly how s mingle very bad and more frightened i handed him over to mingle might just as well have called him in the first place instead of me he s a nervous little chap what has he got this time can t quite say a very bad and a blue so far he asked me at once if it was and i told him not to be a fool that soothed him poor devil the does half the business in a man of that build lighting a i firmly believe the will kill him if he stays down you know the amount of trouble he s been giving for the last three weeks he s doing his very best to frighten himself into the grave general poor little devil why doesn t he get away the world without can t he has his leave all right but he s so dipped he can t take it and i don t think his name on paper would raise four that s in confidence though all the station knows it i suppose i shall have to die here he said all across the bed he s quite made up his mind to kingdom come and i know he has nothing more than a wet weather if he could only keep a hand on himself that s bad that s very bad foot little good little chap too i say what do you say well look here anyhow if it s like as you say i say fifty i say fifty i go twenty better of the bar i say fifty what do you say hi wake up eh what s that what s that we want a hundred from you you re a bachelor drawing a gigantic income and there s a man in a hole what man any one dead no but he ll die if you don t give the hundred here here s a you can see what we ve signed for and a will come round to morrow to collect it so there will be no trouble one hundred e m j there you are feebly it isn t one of your jokes is it no it really is wanted you were the biggest last week and you ve the too long sign i let s see three and a seventy two twenty three twenty say four twenty that ll give him a month clear at the hills many thanks you m a i ll send the to the world without you must engineer his taking the stuff and of course you mustn t of course it would never do he d weep with gratitude over his evening drink that s just what he would do damn him oh i say you pretend to know everything have you heard about no divorce court at last worse he s engaged how much he be he i he s going to be married in a few weeks told me at the judge s this evening it s you don t say so holy moses there ll be a shine in the tents of regiment cut up rough think you don t know anything about the regiment it is then maybe do you mean to say that you men have forgotten or is there more charity in the world than i thought you don	39
t look pretty when you are trying to keep a secret you explain mrs after a long pause to the room it s my notion that we are a set of fools nonsense that business was knocked on the head last season why young was a candle stick as such think a while recollect last season and the talk then or no did ever talk to any other woman there s something in that it weu slightly noticeable now you come to mention it but she s at b s at i the world without he had to go to to look after a relative of his a person with a title uncle or aunt and there he got engaged no law prevents a man growing tired of a woman except that he mustn t do it till the woman is tired of him and the woman was not that she may be now two months of work wonders curious thing how some women carry a fate with them there was a mrs in the central provinces whose men invariably fell away and got married it became a regular proverb with us when i was down there i remember three men desperately devoted to her and they all one after another took wives that s odd now i should have thought that mrs s influence would have led them to take other men s wives it ought to have made them afraid of the judgment of providence mrs will make afraid of something more than the judgment of providence i fancy supposing things are as you say he ll be a fool to face her he ll sit tight at shouldn t be a bit surprised if he went off to to explain he s an unaccountable sort of man and she s likely to be a more than unaccountable woman what makes you take her character away so confidently was her first and a woman doesn t allow her first man to drop away without she the first transfer of affection to herself by swearing that it is forever and ever consequently we are sitting here till past one o clock talking scandal like a set of station cats the world without it s all your fault we were perfectly respectable till you came in go to bed i m off good night all past one i it s past two by jove and here s the k ut coming for the late charge just heavens one two three four five to pay for the pleasure of saying that a poor little beast of a woman is po better than she should be i m ashamed of myself go to ed you and if i m sent to to morrow be prepared to hear i m dead before paying my card account curtain the tents of the tents of only why should it be with pain at a t why must i the leaves of put any kiss of pardon on thy brow why should the other women know so much and talk together such the look and such the smile he used to love with then as now any wife to any husband scene a dinner for thirty four carefully calculated to scale of rs per less exchange table by bank of flowers mrs t after conversation has risen to proper pitch ah i didn t see you in the crush in the where have you been all this while captain turning from regularly ordained dinner partner and settling glasses good evening not quite so loud another time you ve no notion how your voice carries aside so much for the written explanation it ll have to be a verbal one now sweet prospect i how on earth am i to tell her that i am a respectable engaged member of society and it s all over between us mrs h i ve a heavy score against you where were you at the monday pop where were you on tuesday where were you at the i was looking everywhere g for me i oh i was alive somewhere i suppose the tents of aside it s for s sake but it s going to be dashed unpleasant mrs h have i done anything to offend you i never meant it if i have i couldn t help going for a ride with the man it was promised a week before you came up g i didn t know mrs h it really was g anything about it i mean mrs h what has upset you to day all these days you haven t been near me for four whole days nearly one hundred hours was it kind of you and i ve been looking forward so much to your coming g have you mrs h you know i have i ve been as foolish as a about it i made a little and put it ih card case and every time the twelve o clock gun went off i scratched out a square and said that brings me nearer to il g with an uneasy what will think if you neglect him so mrs h and it hasn t brought you nearer you seem farther away than ever are you about something i know your temper g no mrs h have i grown old in the last few months then reaches forward to bank of flowers for card on left allow me hands card mrs h keeps her arm at full stretch for three seconds mrs li to partner oh thanks i didn t see turns right again is anything in me changed at all g for goodness sake go on with your dinner you must	39
eat something try one of those arrangements aside and i fancied she had good shoulders once upon a time what an ass a man can make of himself mrs h herself to a paper seven peas y some o the tents of stamped and a of that isn t an answer tell me whether i have done anything g aside if it isn t ended here there will be a ghastly scene somewhere else if only i d written to her and stood the at long range to ban do i ll tell you later on mrs h tell me now it must be foolish misunderstanding and you know that there was to be nothing of that sort between us we of all people in the world can t afford it is it the man and don t you like to say so on my honor g i haven t given the man a thought mrs h but how d you know that haven t g aside here s my chance and may the devil help me through with it aloud and believe me i do not care how often or how tenderly you think of the man mrs h i wonder if you mean that oh what is the good of and pretending to when you are only up for so short a time don t be a stupid a pause during which he crosses his left leg over his right and continues his dinner g in answer to the in her eyes my worst mrs h upon my word you are the very man in the world i i ll never do it again aside no i don t think you will but i wonder what you will do before it s all over to our do mrs h well haven t you the grace to bad man g aside i mustn t let it drift back now trust a woman for being as blind as a bat when she won t see mrs h vm waiting or would you like me to dictate a form of apology the tents of g desperately by all means dictate mrs h lightly very well your several christian names after me and go on profess my sincere repentance g sincere repentance mrs h for having behaved aside at last i wish to goodness she d look away for having behaved as i have behaved and declare that i am thoroughly and heartily sick of the whole business and take this opportunity of making clear my intention of ending it now and forever aside if any one had told me i should be such a mrs h shaking a pf into her plate that s not a pretty joke g no it s a reality aside i wonder if of this kind are always so raw mrs h really you re getting more absurd every day g i don t think you quite understand me shall i repeat it mrs h no for pity s sake don t do that it s too terrible even in fun g aside i ll let her think it over for a while but i ought to be horse whipped mrs h i want to know what you meant by what you said just now g exactly what i said no less mrs h but what have i done to deserve it what have i done g aside if she only wouldn t look at me aloud and very slowly his eyes on plate d you remember that evening in july before the rains broke when you said that the end would have to come sooner or later and you wondered for which of us it would come first mrs ht y i w s only joking and you that as the tents of long as there was breath iti your body it should never come and i believed you g card well it has that s all a long pause during which mrs h her head and rolls the bread into little g ai the mrs h throwing back her head and laughing naturally they train us women well don t they g touching shirt so far as the expression goes aside it isn t in her nature to take things quietly there ll be an explosion yet mrs h m th a shudder thank you b but red indians allow people to when they re being tortured i believe slips fan from and slowly rim of fan level with chin partner on left very close to night isn t it you find it too much for you mrs h oh no not in the least but they really ought to have even in your cool t they turns dropping fan and raising eyebrows g it s all right aside here comes the storm mrs h her eyes on the fan ready in right hand it was very cleverly managed and i congratulate you you swore you never contented yourself with merely saying a thing you swore that as far as lay in your power you d make my wretched life pleasant for me and you ve denied me the consolation of breaking down i should have done it indeed i should a woman would hardly have thought of this refinement my kind considerate friend as before you have explained things so tenderly and too you haven t spoken or written a word of warning and you have let me believe in you till the last minute you haven t condescended to give me your yet no a woman could not have managed it half so well are there many like you in the world the tents of g sure i	39
don t know to oh do mrs h you call yourself a man of the world don t do men of the world behave like devils when they do a woman the honor to get tired of her g sure i don t know don t speak so loud mrs h keep us respectable o lord whatever happens don t be afraid of my you you ve chosen your ground far too well and i ve been properly brought up lowering fan haven t you pity except for yourself g wouldn t it be rather impertinent of me to say that i m sorry for you mrs h i think you have said it once or twice before you re growing very careful of my feelings my god i was a good woman once you said i was you ve made me what i am what are you going to do with me what are you going to do with me won t you say that you are sorry helps to g i am sorry for you if you want the pity of such a brute as i am i m sorry for you mrs h rather tame for a man of the world do you think that that admission you g what can i do i can only tell you what i think of myself you can t think worse than that mrs h oh yes i can and now will you tell me the reason of all this remorse has been suddenly conscience stricken g angrily his eyes still lowered no the thing has come to an end on my side that s all mrs h that s all as though i were a you used to make prettier speeches d you remember when you said g for heaven s sake don t bring that back call me anything you like and admit it io the tents of mrs h but you don t care to be reminded of old lies if i could hope to hurt you one tenth as much as you have hurt me to night no i wouldn t i couldn t do it liar though you are g i ve spoken the truth mrs h my dear sir you flatter yourself you have lied over the reason remember that i know you as you don t know yourself you have been everything to me though you are fan guard oh what a contemptible is i and so you are merely tired of me g since you insist upon my repeating is yes mrs h lie the first i wish i knew a word lie seems so ineffectual in your case the fire has just died out and there is no fresh one think for a minute if you care whether i despise you more than i do simply is it g yes aside i think i deserve this mrs h lie number two before the next glass you tell me her g aside i ll make her pay for dragging into the business is it likely mrs h likely if you thought that it would flatter your vanity you d cry my name on the to make people turn round g i wish i bad there would have been an end of this business mrs h oh no there would not and so you were going to be virtuous and were you to come to me and say i ve done with you the incident is i ought to be proud of having kept such a man so long g aside it only remains to pray for the end of the dinner aloud you know what i think of myself mrs h as it s the only person in the world you ever da think of and as i know your mind thoroughly i do you want to get it all oyer oh i can t keep the tents of back and you re going think of it to throw me over for another woman and you swore that all other women were my she care for you as i do me she can t is it any one that i know g thank goodness it isn t aside i expected a but not an earthquake mrs h she can t is there anything that i wouldn t do for you or haven t done and to think that i should take this trouble over you knowing what you are do you despise me for it g wiping his mouth to hide a smile again f it s entirely a work of charity on your part mrs h but i have no right to resent it is she better looking than i who was it said g not that mrs h i ll be more merciful than you were don t you know that all women are alike g aside then this is the exception that proves the rule mrs h all of them i ll tell you anything you like i will upon my word they only want the admiration from anybody no matter who anybody but there is always one man that they care for more than any one else in the world and would sacrifice all the others to oh do listen i ve kept the man trotting after me like a and he believes that he is the only man i am interested in i ll tell you what he said to me g spare him aside i wonder what his version is mrs h he s been waiting for me to look at him all through dinner shall i do it and you can see what an idiot he looks g	39
but what the of this gentleman mrs h watch sends a glance to the man the tents of who tries vainly to combine a of ice a of self satisfaction a glare of intense devotion and the of a british dining countenances g he doesn t look pretty why didn t you wait till the spoon was out of his mouth mrs h to amuse you she ll make an exhibition of you as i ve made of him and people will laugh at you oh can t you see that it s as plain as the sun you ll be trotted about and told lies and made a fool of like the others never made a fool of you did i g aside what a clever little woman it is mrs h well what have you to say g i feel better mrs h yes i suppose so after i have come down to your level i couldn t have done it if i hadn t cared for you so much i have spoken the truth g it doesn t alter the situation mrs h passionately then she has said that she cares for you i don t believe her it s a lie as black as yours to me g i ve a notion that a friend of yours is looking at you mrs h he i hate him he introduced you to me g aside and some people would like women to assist in making the laws introduction to imply aloud you see if you can remember so far back as that i couldn t in common politeness refuse the offer mrs h in common politeness we have got beyond that g aside old ground means fresh trouble aloud on my honor mrs h your ha ha then she s not what you imagine i meant to mrs h don t tell me anything about her she the tents of care for you and when you come back after having made an exhibition of yourself you ll find occupied with g you couldn t while i am alive aside if that doesn t bring her pride to her rescue nothing will mrs h drawing herself up couldn t do it jf you re right i don t believe i could though you are what you are a coward and a liar in grain g it doesn t hurt so much after your little lecture with mrs h one mass of vanity will nothing ever touch you in this life there must be a hereafter if it s only for the benefit of but you will have it all to yourself g under his eyebrows are you so certain of that mrs h i shall have had mine in this life and it will serve me right g but the admiration that you insisted on so strongly a moment ago aside oh i am a brute i mrs h will thai console me for knowing that you will go to her with the same words the same arguments and the the same pet names you used to and if she cares for you you two will laugh over my story won t that be punishment heavy enough even for me even for me and it s all useless that s another punishment g feebly oh come i m not so low as you think mrs h not now perhaps but you will be oh if a woman your vanity there s nothing on earth that you would not tell her and no meanness that you would not do have i known you so long without knowing that g if you can trust me in nothing else and i don t see why i should be trusted you can count upon my holding my tongue mrs h if you denied everything you ve said this even the tents of ing and declared it was all in fun a long pause td trust you not otherwise all i ask is don t tell her name please don t a man might forget a woman never would looks up table and sees hostess collect eyes so it s all ended through no fault of mine haven t i behaved beautifully i ve accepted your dismissal and you managed it as cruelly as you could and i have made respect my sex haven t i arranging gloves and fan i only pray that she ll know you some day as i know you now i wouldn t be you then for i think even your conceit will be hurt i hope she ll pay you back the humiliation you ve brought on me i hope no i don t i give you up i must have something to loo forward to or i shall go crazy when it s all over come back to me come back to me and you ll find that you re my still g clearly false move and you pay for it it s a girl mrs h rising then it true i they said but i wouldn t insult you by asking a girl was a girl not very long ago be good to her i dare say she believes in you goes out with an uncertain smile he her the door and settles into a chair as the men g now if there is any power who looks after this world will he kindly tell me what i have done out for the and half aloud what have i done curtain with any amazement with any amazement and are not afraid with any amazement marriage service scene a s bedroom arranged with unnatural captain and heavily time i o a	39
m a glorious day at enter delicately captain of s regiment looks at and shakes his head murmuring poor violent with hair on chair back m wake ud my sleeping beauty ye then my merry merry men it is our opening day i it is our opening da ay the little birds have been and for ever so long and i m here g sitting up and yawning morning this is good of you old fellow most cf ly good of you don t know what i should do without you ton my soul i don t haven t slept a wink all night m i didn t get in till half past eleven had a look at you then and you seemed to be sleeping as soundly as a condemned criminal g jack if you want to make those worn out jokes you d better go away with gravity it s the happiest day in my life l with any amazement m grimly not by a very long chalk my son you re going through some of the most refined torture you ve ever known but be calm am with you dress eh at m do you suppose that you are your own master for the next twelve hours if you do of course makes for the door g no i for goodness sake old man don t do that you ll see me through won t you i ve been up that and can t remember a line of it m g s uniform j go and tub don t bother me i ll give you ten minutes to dress in interval filled by the noise as of a healthy in the bath room g emerging from dressing room what time is it m nearly eleven g five hours more o lord i m first sign of that wonder if it s going to spread aloud come along to breakfast g i can t eat anything i don t want any breakfast m aside so early aloud captain i order you to eat breakfast and a dashed good breakfast too none of your airs and graces w ith me leads g downstairs and stands over him while he eats two g has looked at his watch thrice in the last five minutes what time is it m time to come for a walk light up g i haven t smoked for ten days and i won t now takes which m has cut for him and blows sm ke through his nose we aren t going down the are we with any amazement m aside they re all alike in these stages aloud no my we re going along the road we can find g any chance of seeing her m innocent no come along and if you want me for the final don t cut my eye out with your stick g spinning round i say isn t she the dearest creature that walked what s the time what comes after wilt thou take this woman m you go for the ring r it ll be on the top of my right hand little finger and just be careful how you draw it off because i shall have the s somewhere in my glove g walking forward hastily d the come along it s past twelve and i haven t seen her since yesterday evening spinning round again she s an absolute angel jack and she s a dashed deal too good for me look here does she come up the aisle on my arm or how m if i thought that there was the least chance of your remembering anything for two minutes i d tell you stop about like that g halting in the middle of the road i say jack m keep quiet for another ten minutes if you can you lunatic and walk the two tramp at five miles an hour for fifteen minutes g what s the time how about that cursed wedding cake and the slippers they don t throw em about in church do they m in the leads off with his boots g confound your silly soul don t make fun of me i can t stand it and i won t l with any amazement m so old horse you ll have to sleep for a couple of hours this afternoon g spinning round i m ly going to be treated like a dashed child understand that m aside nerves gone to fiddle strings what a day we re having tenderly putting his hand an g s shoulder my david how long have you known this would i come up here to make a fool of you after all these years g i know i know jack but i m as upset as i can be don t mind what i say just hear me run through the and see if i ve got it all right to have and to hold for better or worse as it was in the beginning is now and ever be world without end so help me god amen m with suppressed laughter yes that s about the of it i ll prompt if you get into a hat g earnestly yes you ll stick by me jack won t you i m ly happy but i don t mind that i m in a blue m gravely are you i should never have noticed it you don t look like it g don t i that s all right spinning round on my soul and honor jack she s the sweetest little angel that ever came down from the sky there isn t a woman on earth fit to speak to her	39
m aside and this is old aloud go on if it you g you can laugh that s all wild of are fit for m you never would wait for the troop to come up you aren t quite married yet y know g that reminds me i don t believe i shall be able to get into my boots let s go home and try em on forward with any amazement m wouldn t be in your shoes for anything that asia has to g spinning round that just shows your hideous blackness of soul your dense stupidity your brutal there s only one fault about you you re the best of good fellows and i don t know what i should have done without you but you aren t married his head gravely take a wife jack m with a face like a wall as whose for choice g if you re going to be a i m going on what s the time m an since twas very clear we drank only beer there must ha been some in the come back you i m going to take you home and you re going to lie down g what on earth do i want to lie down for m give me a light from your and see g watching butt quiver like a sweet state i m in m you are i ll get you a and you ll go to sleep they return and m a four finger g o it ll make me as drunk as an owl m curious thing t have the slightest effect on you drink it off yourself down there and go to bye bye g it s absurd i sha n t sleep i know i sha n tl falls into heavy at end of seven minutes m watches him tenderly m poor old i ve seen a few turned off with any before but never one who went to the gallows in this tion can t tell how it affects em though it s the that sweat when they re backed into harness and that s the man who went through the guns at like a devil possessed of devils g but this is worse than the guns old worse than the guns isn t it g in his sleep and m touches him on the forehead poor dear old going like the rest of em like the rest of em friend that closer than a brother eight years dashed bit of a slip of a girl eight weeks and where s your friend till church clock strikes three m up with you get into your g already isn t it too soon hadn t i better have a no you re au right aside he d his chin to pieces g what s the hurry m you ve got to be there first g to be stared at m exactly you re part of the show where s the your spurs are in a shameful state g jack i be damned if you shall do that for me more dry up and get dressed if i choose to clean your spurs you re under my orders g dresses m follows suit m walking round m yes you ll do only don t look so like a criminal ring gloves that s all right for me let your alone now if the are ready we ll go g nervously it s much too soon let s light up let s have a i t s m let s make of ourselves with any amazement bells without good pie all to prayers we call m there go the bells come unless you d rather not they ride off bells we honor the king and bride s joy do bring good tidings we tell and ring the dead s g at the door of the church i say aren t we much too soon there axe no end of people inside i say aren t we much too late stick by me jack what the devil do i do m strike an attitude at the head of the aisle and wait for her g groans as m wheels him into position before three hundred eyes m if you love me for pity s sake for the honor of the regiment stand up yourself into your uniform look like a man i ve got to speak to the a minute tj breaks into a gentle perspiration if you wipe your face i ll never be your best man again stand up g visibly m returning she s coming now look out when the music starts there s the organ beginning to bride steps out of at church door g catches a glimpse of her and takes heart organ on and the voice that breathed o er that earliest marriage day the marriage blessing it hath not passed away m watching g by jove he is looking well didn t think he had it in him with any amazement g how long does this hymn go on for m it will be over directly anxiously beginning to and hold on and think o the regiment g i say there s a big brown crawling up that wall m my mother the last stage of bride comes up to left of altar lifts eyes once to g who is suddenly smitten mad g tv himself again and again little s a woman a woman and i thought she was a little girl m a a whisper j from the halt inward wheel g mechanically and the	39
ceremony proceeds only unto her as long as ye both shall live g his throat useless ha m say you will or you won t there s no second deal here bride gives response with perfect coolness and is given away by the father g thinking to show his learning jack give me away now quick m you re given yourself away quite enough her right hand man repeat repeat philip have you forgotten your own name g through which bride without a tremor m now the ring follow the don t pull off my glove here it is great he s found his voice g in a voice to be heard to the end of the church and turns on his heel m rein back back to your troop t half legal yet joined together let no man put asunder with any j g fear after blessing m quickly on your own front one length her with you i don t come you ve nothing to say g up to altar m i a piercing rattle meant to be a whisper kneel you stiff an kneel whose daughters ye are so long as ye do well and are not afraid with any amazement m dismiss break off left wheel all troop to they sign m kiss her g rubbing the ink into his glove eh at m taking one pace to bride if you don t i shall g an arm not this journey general in which g is pursued by unknown female g faintly to m this is can i wipe my face now m my responsibility has ended better ask g as if shot and procession is out of church to paternal roof where usual take place over the wedding cake m at table up with you they expect a speech g after three minutes agony ha of applause m good for a first attempt now go change your while mamma is weeping over the g m starts up tearing his hair it s not half legal where are the shoes get an captain done gone band all the any amazement f s woman produce those shoes some one lend me a bread knife we mustn t crack s head more than it is white satin and puts up his sleeve where is the bride b the company at large be tender with that rice it s a heathen custom give me the big bag bride slips out quietly into and towards the sunset m in the open stole away by jove so much the worse for here he is now this be than where s your horse g furiously seeing that the women are out of where the is my m half way to by this time you ll have to ride like young horse comes round on his hind legs refuses to let g handle him g oh you will will you get round you brute you you beast get round horse s head over nearly breaking lower himself into saddle and sends home both spurs in the midst of a gale of best m for your life and your love ride ai d god bless you throws half a pound of rice at g who y forward on the saddle in a cloud of dust m i ve lost old lights and off singing you may it on his you may cut it on his card that a young man married is a young man miss from her horse really c you are more plain spoken than polite t with any amazement m they say marriage is like wonder who ll be the next victim satin from his sleeve and falls at his feet left wondering curtain the garden of the garden of and ye shall be as gods scene grass at back of the overlooking wooded valley on the left glimpse of the dead forest of on the rights hills in background line of the now one week a husband is smoking the pipe of an a rug in the sunshine and on rug the mrs g comes out of mrs g my husband g lazily with intense enjoyment eh at say that again mrs g i ve written to mamma and told her that we shall be back on the th g did you give her my love mrs g no i kept all that for myself sitting down by his side i thought you wouldn t mind g with mock i object how did you know that it was yours to keep mrs g i guessed g lit tu mrs g i be called those sporting pet names bad boy g you ll be called anything i choose has it ever occurred to you madam that you are my wife the garden of mrs g it has i haven t ceased wondering at it yet g nor i it seems so strange and yet somehow it doesn t you see it could have been no one else mrs g no no one else for me or for you it must have been all arranged from the beginning tell me again what made you care for me g how could i help it you were you you know mrs g did you ever want to help it speak the truth g a twinkle in his eye i did darling just at the first but only at the very first i you stoop low and i ll whisper a little beast ho ho ho mrs g taking him by the and making him sit up a little beast stop laughing over your	39
crime and yet you had the the awful cheek to propose to me g i d changed my mind then and you weren t a little beast any more mrs g thank you sir i and when was i ever g but that first day when you gave me tea in that colored muslin gown thing you looked you did indeed dear such an absurd little and i didn t know what to say to you mrs g twisting so you said little beast upon my word sir called you a but i wish now i had called you something worse g very meekly i but you re me ly you re welcome to torture me again on those terms mrs g oh why did you let me do it g looking across valley no reason in particular but if it amused you or did you any good you might wipe those dear little boots of yours on me g stretching out her hands don t i oh don t the garden of philip my king please don t talk like that it s how you re so much too good for me so much too good g me i m not fit to put my arm round you puts it round mrs g yes you are but i what have i ever done g given me a bit of your heart haven t you my queen mrs g that s nothing any one would do thai they couldn t help it g you ll make me horribly conceited just when i was beginning to feel so humble too mrs g humble i don t believe it s in your character g what do you know of my character impertinence mrs g ah but i shall sha n t i i shall have time in all the years and years to come to know e about you and there will be no secrets between us g little witch i believe you know me thoroughly already mrs g i think i can guess you re selfish g yes mrs g foolish g very mrs g and a dear g that is as my lady pleases mrs g then your lady r pleased a pause d you know that we re two solemn serious grown up people g her straw hat over her eyes you grown lip you re a baby mrs g and we re talking nonsense g then let s go on talking nonsense i rather like it ru tell you a secret promise not to repeat mrs g ye es only to you g i love you mrs g re ally for how long the garden of g for ever and ever mrs g that s a long time g think so it s the shortest can do with mrs g you re getting quite clever g i m talking to you mrs g prettily turned hold up your stupid old head and i ll pay you for it g affecting supreme contempt take it yourself if you want it mrs g i ve a great mind to and i will takes ity and is repaid with interest g little it s my opinion that we are a couple of mrs g we re the only two sensible people in the world ask the eagle he s coming by g all i dare say he s seen a good many sensible people at they say that those birds live for ever so long mrs g how long g a hundred and twenty years mrs g a hundred and twenty years oh and in a hundred and twenty years where will these two sensible people be g what does it matter so long as we are together now mrs g looking round the on yes only you and i i and you in the whole wide wide world until the end sees the line of the how big and quiet the hills look d you think they care for us g can t say i ve consulted em particularly care and that s enough for me mrs g drawing nearer to him yes now but afterwards what s that little black on the g a forty miles away you ll see it the garden of move as the wind carries it across the face of that and then it will be all gone mrs g and then it will be all gone g anxiously not chilled pet arc you better let me get your cloak mrs g no don t leave me stay here i believe i am afraid oh why are the hills so horrid promise me promise me that you ll love me g what s the trouble darling i can t promise any more than i have but i ll promise that again and again if you like mrs g her head on his shoulder it then say it n no don t the the would laugh t my husband you ve married a little goose g very tenderly have i i am content whatever she is so long as she is mine mrs g quickly because she is yours or because she is me g because she is both i m not clever dear and i don t think i can make myself understood properly mrs g understand will you tell me something g anything you like aside i wonder what s coming now mrs g her eyes lowered you told me once in the old days centuries and centuries ago	39
matter but if you love me be very good to me now garden of for this part of my life i shall forget have i made yoa understand g i think so child have i said anything yet that you of mrs g will you be very angry that that voice and what you said about the engagement g but you asked to be told that darling mrs g and why you shouldn t have told me you must be the judge and oh dearly as i love you i sha n t be able to help you i shall hinder you and you must judge in spite of me g we have a great many things to find out together god help us both say so but we shall understand each other better every day and i think i m beginning to see now how in the world did yoa come to know just the importance of giving me just that lead mrs g i ve told you that i fi n know only somehow it seemed that in all this new life i was being guided for your sake as well as my own g aside then was right they know and we we re blind all of us lightly getting a little beyond our depth dear aren t we i ll remember and if i fail let me be punished as i deserve mrs g there shall be no punishment we ll start into life together from here you and i and no one else g and no one else a pause your are all wet sweet was there ever such a quaint little absurdity mrs g was there ever such nonsense talked before g knocking the ashes out of his pipe t what we say it s what we don t say that helps and it s all the philosophy no one would understand even if it were put into a book mrs g the idea no only we or people like if there are any people like us the garden of g all people not like ourselves are blind mrs g wiping her eyes do you think then that there are any people as happy as we are g must be unless we ve appropriated all the happiness in the world mrs g looking towards poor just fancy if we have g then we ll hang on to the whole show for it s a great deal too jolly to lose eh wife o mine mrs g oh i how much of you is a solemn married man and how much a horrid school boy g when you tell me how much of you was eighteen last birthday and how much is as old as the and twice as mysterious perhaps i ll attend to you lend me that the spirit me to at the sunset mrs g mind i it s not ah how that g turning it s difficult to keep a to proper pitch mrs g it s the with all musical instruments what shall it be g vanity and let the hills hear sings through the first and half of the verse turning to g now chorus sing both together con to the horror of the who are settling for the night vanity all is vanity wisdom me i clasped my true love s tender hand and answered frank and free ee if this be vanity who d be wise if this be vanity who d be wise if this be vanity who d be wi ii vanity let r be mrs g to the gray of the evening sky vanity let it be echo from the spur let it be curtain l fa tim a and you may go into every room of the house and sec everything that is there but into the blue room you must not go of beard scene the in the time ii a m on a sunday morning captain in his shirt sleeves is bending over a complete set of s from saddle to ting rope which is spread over the floor of his study he is smoking cm and his forehead is with thought g himself a jack s an ass there s enough brass on this to load a mule and if the americans know anything about anything it can be cut down to a bit only don t want the watering bridle either half a dozen sets of chains and for the same old horse scratching his head how let s it all over from the beginning by jove i ve forgotten the scale of i ne er mind keep the bit only and every from the to no at all simple leather across the breast like the hi i jack never thought of that mrs g entering hastily her hand bound in a cloth oh i ve my hand over that horrid horrid jam t g eh at mrs g round eyed reproach i ve it ii v x y aren t you sorry and i did so want that jam to jam properly g poor little woman let me kiss the place and make it well you small sinner where s that i can t see it mrs g on the top of the little finger there it s a most big burn g kissing little finger baby let look after the jam you know i don t care for sweets mrs g in deed g not of that kind anyhow and now run along and leave me to my own base devices i m busy mrs g calmly settling herself in long	39
chair so i see what a mess you re making i why have you brought all that leather stuff into the house g to play with do you mind dear mrs g let me play too i d like it g i m afraid you wouldn t don t you think that jam will burn or whatever it is that jam does when it s not looked after by a clever little housekeeper mrs g i thought you said could attend to it i left him in the stirring when i hurt myself so g his eye returning to the po little woman three pounds four and seven is three eleven and that can be cut down to two eight with just a lee care without anything is all rot in hands what s the use of a shoe case when a man s he can t stick it on with a like a stamp the shoe i mrs g what s what is this leather cleaned with g cream and champagne and look here dear do you really want to talk to me about anything important fa mrs g no i ve done my accounts and thought vi like to see what you re doing g well love now you ve seen and would you that is to say i really am busy mrs g you want me to go g yes dear for a little while this tobacco will hang in your dress and doesn t interest you mrs g everything you do interests me g yes i know i know dear i ll tell you all about it some day when i ve put a head on this thing in the meantime g i m to be turned out of the room like a troublesome child g no o i don t mean that exactly but you see i shall be up and down shifting these things to and fro and i shall be in your way don t you think so mrs g can t i lift them about let me try forward to s saddle g good gracious child don t touch it you ll hurt yourself picking up saddle little girls aren t expected to handle now where would you like it put holds saddle above his head mrs g a break in her voice nowhere how good you are and how strong oh what s that ugly red streak inside your arm g lowering saddle quickly nothing it s a mark of sorts aside and jack s coming to with his notions all cut and dried mrs g i know it s a mark but i ve never seen it before it all up the arm what is it g a cut if you want to know mrs g want to know of course i do i can t have my husband cut to pieces in this way how did it come was it an accident tell me fa tim a g no t an accident i got it from a man in mrs g in action oh and you never told me i g forgotten all about it mrs g hold up your arm what a horrid ugly are you sure it doesn t hurt now how did the man give it you g desperately looking at his watch with a knife i came down old van loo did that s to say and fell on my leg so i couldn t run and then this man came up and began at me as i mrs g oh don t don t that s enough well what happened g i couldn t get to my and came round the corner and stopped the performance mrs g how he s such a lazy man i don t believe he did g don t you i don t think the man had much doubt about it jack cut his head off mrs g off with one blow as they say in the books g i m not sure i was too interested in myself to know much about it anyhow the head was off and jack was old van loo in the ribs to make him get up now you know all about it dear and now mrs g you want me to go of course you r told me about this though i ve been married to you for ever so long and you never would have told me if i hadn t found out and you never do tell me anything about yourself or what you do or what you take an interest in g darling i m always with you aren t i mrs g in my pocket you were going to say i know you are but you are always thinking away from me g trying to hide a smile am i i wasn t aw e of it i m ly sorry fa tim a mrs g oh don t make fun of me you know what i mean when you are reading one of those things about cavalry by that prince doesn t he be a prince instead of a stable boy g prince a stable boy oh my aunt never mind dear you were going to say mrs g it doesn t matter you don t care for what i say only only you get up and walk about the room staring in front of you and then comes in to dinner and after i m in the drawing room i can hear you and him talking and talking and talking about things i can t understand and oh i get so tired and feel	39
so lonely i don t want to complain and be a trouble but i do indeed i do g my poor darling i never thought of that why don t you ask some nice people in to dinner mrs g nice people i where am i to find them horrid and if i did i shouldn t be amused you know i only y you g and you have me surely sweetheart mrs g i have not why don t you take me into your life g more than i do that would be difficult dear mrs g yes i suppose it would to you i m no help to you no companion to you and you like to have it so g aren t you a little unreasonable mrs g stamping her fool i m the most reasonable woman in the world when i m treated properly g and since when have i been treating you mrs g always and since the beginning you you have g i don t but i m willing to be convinced mrs g pointing to there i g how do you mean fa tim a mrs g what does all that why am i not to be told is it so precious g i forget its exact government value just at present it means that it is a great deal too heavy mrs g then why do you touch it g to make it lighter see here little love i ve one notion and jack has another but we are both agreed that all this is about thirty pounds too heavy the thing is how to cut it down without any part of it and at the same time allowing the to carry everything he wants for his own comfort and shirts and things of that kind mrs g why doesn t he pack them in a little trunk g hissing her oh you darling pack them in a little trunk indeed don t carry trunks and it s a most important thing to make the horse do all the carrying mrs g but why bother about it you re not a g no but i command a few score of him and is nearly everything in these days mrs g more than me f g stupid of course not but it s a matter that i m interested in because if i or jack or i and jack hack out some sort of lighter and all that it s possible that we may get it adopted mrs g how g at home where they will make a sealed pattern a pattern that all the must copy and so it will be used by all the mrs g and that interests you g it s part of my profession y know and my profession is a good deal to me everything in a soldier s is important and if we can improve that so much the better for the soldiers and for us mrs g who s us fa tim a g jack and i though jack s notions are too radical what s that big sigh for mrs g oh nothing and you ve kept all this a a secret from me why g not a secret exactly dear i didn t say anything about it to you because i didn t think it would amuse you mrs g and am i only made to be amused g no of course i merely mean that it couldn t i interest you mrs g it s your work and and if you d let me i d count all these things up if they are too heavy you know by how much they are too heavy and you must have a list of things made out to your scale of lightness and g i have got both scales somewhere in my head but it s hard to tell how light ou can make a for instance until you ve actually had a model made mrs g but if you read out the list i could copy it down and pin it up there just above your table wouldn t that do g it would be ly nice dear but it would be giving you trouble for nothing i can t work that way i go by rule of thumb i know the present scale of and the other one the one that i m trying to work to will shift and vary so much that i couldn t be certain even if i wrote it down mrs g i m so sorry i thought i might help is there anything else that i could be of use in g looking round the room i can t think of anything you re always helping me you know mrs g am i how g you are you of course and as long as you re near me i can t explain exactly but it s in the air mrs g and that s why you wanted to send me away fa tim a g that s only when tm trying to do work work like this mrs g s better then isn t he g of course he is jack and i have been thinking down the same for two or three years about this it s our and it may really be useful some day mrs g after a pause and that s all that you have away from me g it isn t very far away from you now take care that the oil on that bit doesn t come off on your dress mrs g	39
everything as they come across it but seems to me that there are exceptions to the rule aloud i told you that there was nothing to be gained from my table mrs g what does the woman mean she goes on talking about consequences almost inevitable consequences with a capital c for half a page flushing scarlet oh good gracious how abominable g promptly do you think so doesn t it show a sort of interest in us aside thank heaven harry always wrapped her meaning up safely i aloud is it absolutely necessary to go on with the letter darling mrs g it s impertinent it s simply horrid what right has this woman to write in this way to you she t to g when you write to the girl i notice that you generally fill three or four sheets can t you let an old woman on paper once in a way she means well mrs g i don t care she shouldn t write and if she did you ought to have shown me her letter g can t you understand why i kept it to myself or must i explain at length as i explained the mrs g furiously i hate you this is as bad as those saddle bags on the floor never mind whether it would please me or not you ought to have given it to me to read g it comes to the same thing you took it yourself mrs g yes but if i hadn t taken it you wouldn t have said a word i think this it s like a name in a book is an interfering old thing g aside j so long as you thoroughly understand that she is old i don t much care what you think aloud very good dear would you like to write and tell her so she s seven thousand miles away mrs g i don t want to have anything to do with her but you ought to have told me to last page of letter and she me too ve never seen her reads i do not know how the world stands with you in all human probability i shall never know but whatever i may have said before i pray for her sake more than for yours that all may be well i have learnt what misery means and i dare not wish that any one dear to you should share my knowledge g good god can t you leave that letter alone or at least can t you refrain from reading it aloud i ve fa tim a been through it once put it back on the desk do yoa hear me mrs i sha n t looks at g s eyes oh please i didn t mean to make you angry deed i didn t fm so sorry i know i ve wasted your time g grimly you have now will you be good enough to go if there is nothing more in my room that you are anxious to into mrs g putting out her hands oh don t look at me like that i ve never seen you look like that before and it hu me i m sorry i t to have been here at all and and and sobbing oh be good to me be good to me there s only you anywhere breaks down in long chair y hiding face in cushions g aside she doesn t know how she me on the raw aloud bending over chair i didn t mean to be harsh dear i didn t really you can stay here as long as you please and do what you please don t cry like that you ll make yourself sick aside what on earth has come over her aloud darling what s the matter with you mrs g her face still hidden let me go let me go to my own room only only say you aren t angry with me g angry with you love of course not i was angry with myself i d lost my temper over the don t hide your face i want to kiss it lower mrs g right arm round his neck several and much sobbing mrs g in a whisper i didn t mean about the jam when i came in to tell you g bother the jam and the mrs g still more faintly my finger wasn t at all i i wanted to speak to you about about something else and i didn t know how fa tim a g speak away then looking into her eyes j eh i at here don t go away you don t mean mrs g to and hiding her face in its folds the the almost inevitable consequences through as g attempts to catch her and herself in her own room g x arms full of j oh sitting down in chair i m a brute a pig a bully and a my poor poor little darling made to b amused only curtain the valley of the shadow the valley of the shadow knowing good and evil scene in the plains in june asleep in where u walking up and down doctor s trap in porch junior generally and uneasily through the house time a m eat in doctor coming into and touching g on the shoulder you had better go in and see her now g the color of good cigar ash eh at oh yes of course what did you say doctor syllable by syllable go in to the and see	39
her she wants to speak to you aside i shall have him on my hands next junior half lighted dining room isn t there any doctor you little fool junior let me do my work stop a minute edges after g doctor wait till she sends for you at least least man alive he ll kill you if you go in there i what are you him for junior coming into given him a stiff brandy he wants it you ve forgotten him for the last ten hours and forgotten yourself too g enters bedroom which is lit by one night lamp on the floor pretending to be asleep the valley of the shadow voice j rom the bed all down the street such go and put them out how can i sleep with an of the c i in my room no not c i e something else what was it g trying to control his voice i m here bending over bed don t you know me it s me it s it s your husband voice mechanically it s me it s it s your husband g she doesn t know me it s your own husband darling voice your own husband darling with am understanding all saying g make her understand me then quick hand on mrs g s forehead captain voice do i know i m not fit to be seen aside to g say same as at breakfast g good morning little woman how are we today voice that s poor old you fool i can t see you come nearer g it s me you know me voice of course i do who does not know the man who was so cruel to his wife almost the only one he ever had g yes dear of course of course but won t you speak to him he wants to speak to you so much voice they d never let him in the doctor would give if he were house he ll never come oh g putting out his arms they have let him in the valley of the shadow and he always was in the house oh my love don t you know me voice in a half chant and it came to pass at the hour that this poor soul repented it knocked at the gates but they were shut tight as a plaster a great burning plaster they had our marriage all across the door and it was made of red hot iron people really ought to be more careful you know g what am i to do takes her in his arms speak to me to voice what shall i say oh tell me what to say before it s too late they are all going away and i can t say anything g say you know me only say you know me doctor who has entered quietly for pity s sake don t take it too much to heart it s this way sometimes they won t recognize they say all sorts of queer things don t you see f g all right all right go away now she u recognize me you re her she must mustn t she doctor she will before have i your leave to try g anything you please so long as she ll know me it s only a question of hours isn t it doctor while there s life there s hope y know but don t build on it g i don t pull her together if it s possible what have i done to deserve this doctor bending over bed now mrs we shall be all right to morrow you must take it or i sha n t let see you it isn t nasty is it voice always more can t you leave me alone g oh leave her in peace doctor stepping back aside may i be forgiven if the valley of the shadow i ve done wrong aloud in a few minutes she ought to be sensible but i t tell you to look for anything it s only g what man doctor in a whisper forcing the last rally g then leave us alone doctor don t mind what she says at first if you can they they they turn against those they love most sometimes in this it s hard but g am i her husband or are you leave us alone for whatever time we have together voice and we were engaged suddenly i assure you that i never thought of it for a moment hut o my little me i don t know i should have done if he l proposed g she thinks of that girl before she thinks of me aloud voice not from the shops dear you can get the real leaves from and laughing weakly never mind about the blossoms dead white silk is only fit for and i won t wear it it s as bad as a winding sheet a long pause g i never asked a favor yet if there is anybody to to me let her know me even if i die too voice very faintly dear g i m here darling voice what has happened they ve been me so with and things and they wouldn t let you come and see me i was never ill before am i ill now g you you aren t quite well voice how funny have i been ill long g some days	39
but you ll be all right in a little time voice do you think so i don t feel well and oh what have they done to my hair valley of the g i d d don t know voice they ve cut it off what a shame g it must have been to make your head cooler voice just like a boy s wig don t i look horrid g never looked prettier in your life dear how am i to ask her to say good by voice i don t feel pretty i feel very ill my heart won t work it s nearly dead inside me and there s a funny feeling in my eyes everything seems the same distance you and the and the table inside my eyes or miles away what does it mean g you re a little feverish sweetheart very feverish breaking down my love my love how can i let you go voice i thought so why didn t you tell me that at first g what voice that i am going to die g but you aren t you sha n t a stepping into after a glance at the bed do voice it s hard so very very hard after one year just one year ing and i m only twenty most girls aren t even married at twenty can t they do anything to help me i don t want to die g hush dear you won t voice what s the use of talking p me you ve never failed me yet oh help me to keep alive i don t believe you wish me to live you weren t a bit sorry when that horrid baby thing died i wish i d killed baby g drawing his hand across his forehead it s more than a man s meant to bear it s not right aloud love i d die for you if it would help voice no more death there s enough already don t die too g i wish i dared voice it says till death do us part nothing after the valley of the shadow that and so it would be no use it stops at the dying why does it stop there only such a very short life too tm sorry we married g no anything but that voice because you ll forget and i ll forget oh forget i always loved you though i was cross sometimes if i ever did anything that you didn t like say you forgive me now g you never did darling on my soul and honor you never did i haven t a thing to you voice i for a whole week about those with a what a little wretch i was and how grieved you were forgive me that g there s nothing to forgive it was my fault they were too near the drive for god s sake don t talk so there s such a lot to say and so little time to say it in voice say that you ll always love me until the end g until the end carried it s a lie it must be because we ve loved each other this isn t the end voice into semi delirium my church service has an ivory cross on the back and it says so so it must be true till death do us part but that s a lie with a of g s manner a damned lie yes i can swear as well as i can t make my head think though that s because they cut off my hair how can one think with one s head all hold me keep me with you always and always but if you marry the girl when i m dead i ll come back and howl under our bed room window all night oh bother you ll think i m a what time is it g a little before the dawn dear i wonder where i shall be this time to morrow s the valley of the shadow g would you like to see the voice why should i d tell me that lam going to heaven and that wouldn t be true because you are here do you recollect when he upset the cream ice all over his trousers at the g yes dear voice i often wondered whether he got another pair of trousers but then his are so shiny all over that you really couldn t tell unless you were told let s call him in and ask g gravely no i don t think he d like that your head sweetheart voice with a sigh of contentment gracious when did yo x last your chin s worse than the barrel of a musical box no don t lift it up i like it a pause you said you ve never cried at all you re crying all over my cheek g i i i can t help it dear voice how funny i couldn t cry now to save my life g want to sing g won t it tire you better not perhaps voice why won t be about begins in a hoarse l cake ale all because her s home from the sea that s parade and she grows red as rose who was so pale and are you sure the church clock goes says she i knew i couldn t take the last note how do the bass run puts out her hands and begins playing piano on the sheet g catching up hands ah i don t do that if	39
you love me voice love you of course i do who else should it be a pause the valley of the shadow voice very clearly f m ng now ing s choking me cruelly into the dark without you my heart but it s a lie dear we mustn t believe it forever and ever living or dead don t let me go my husband hold me tight they can t whatever happens a cough my not for always and so soon voice ceases pause of ten minutes g his face in the side of the bed while over bed from opposite side and feels mrs g s breast and forehead g rising doctor ko do by bedside with a shriek ai ai my i not getting not have got fiercely to g doctor oh my doctor entering hastily come away over bed eh the what inspired you to stop the get out man go away wait outside go here over his shoulder to g mind i promise nothing the dawn breaks as g into the garden m up at the gate on his way to parade and very old man how goes g dazed i don t quite know stay a bit have drink or something don t run away you re just getting amusing ha ha i m aside what am i let in for has aged ten years in the night g slowly s your s too loose m so it is put it straight will you aside i shall be late for parade poor g links and chain ly and finally stands staring towards the the day the valley of the shadow doctor out of professional gravity across flower beds and shaking g s hands it s it s it s there s a fair chance a dashed fair chance the y know the sweat y know i saw how it be the y know clever woman that of yours just at the right time a dashed good chance no you don t go in we ll pull her through yet i promise on my reputation under providence send a man with this note to two heads better than one specially the we ll pull her round hastily to house g his head on s jack i believe i m going to make a bloody exhibition of myself m openly and feeling in his left i b b believe i b doing it already old bad what say i b as pleased as you you re one big idiot and i b himself together sit tight here comes the devil junior who is not in the doctor s confidence we we are only men in these things i know that i can say nothing now to help m then don t say it leave him alone it s not bad enough to over here take the to and ride hell for leather it ll do you good i can t go junior do him good smiling give me the and i ll drive let him lie down your horse is my cart please i slowly without back i beg your pardon i ll on paper if you like junior m s that ll do thanks turn in and i ll bring back hell for leather m it would ha served me right if he had the valley of the shadow y g cut me across the face he can drive too i shouldn t care to go that pace in a cart what a faith he must have in his maker of harness come you brute off to blowing his nose as the sun rises interval of five weeks mrs g very white and pinched in morning at breakfast table how big and strange the room looks and oh how glad i am to see it again what dust though i must talk to the servants sugar i ve almost forgotten seriously wasn t i very ill g i liked tenderly oh you bad little what a start you gave me mrs g i ll never do it again g you d better not and now get those poor pale cheeks pink again or i shall be angry don t try to lift the urn you ll upset it wait comes round to head of table and lifts urn g quickly se drawing down g s face to her own dear remember g what mrs g that last terrible night g then just you forget all about it mrs g softly her eyes filling never it has brought us very close together my husband there i m going to give a g i gave her fifty mrs g so she told me it was a reward was i worth it several don t here s the two or one sir curtain j o the swelling of the swelling of if thou hast run with the and they have thee then how thou content with horses and if in the land of peace r thou they have wearied thee how wilt thou do in the swelling of scene the s in the plains on a january morning mrs g arguing with bearer in back m rides up m mrs how s the infant phenomenon and the proud proprietor mrs g you ll find them in the front go through the house i m just now m about with cares of f i fly passes into front where is watching ten months crawling about the m what s the trouble an honest man s europe morning this way seeing g junior by jove that s on	39
d round the neck his short arm rest studded with brass nails his roll of his big pipe his umbrella and his tall sugar loaf hat with the nodding feathers in it he wrapped himself up in his patched made of every colour and material in the world sat down in a comer of the very quiet and resting his arm on his short handled waited for death the people brought him food and little of flowers and he gave his blessing in return he was nearly blind and his face was and lined and wrinkled beyond belief for he had lived in his time which was before the english came within five miles of s ra when we to know each other well would tell me tales in a voice most like the of heavy guns over a wooden bridge his tales were true but not one in twenty could be printed in an english book because the english do not think as natives do they brood over matters that a native would dismiss till a fitting occasion and what they would not think twice about a native will brood over till a fitting occasion then native and english stare at each other hopelessly across great of and what said one evening is your honoured craft and by what manner of means earn you your daily bread i am said i a one who writes with a pen upon paper not being in the service of the government then what do you write said come nearer for i cannot see your countenance and the light fails i write of all matters that lie within my understanding and of many that do not but chiefly i write of life and death and men and women and love and fate according to the measure of my ability telling the tale through the mouths of one two or more people then by the favour of god the tales are sold and money to me that i may keep alive even so said that is the work of the story but he speaks straight to men and women and does not write anything at all only when the tale has aroused expectation and are about to befall the virtuous he stops suddenly and demands payment ere he continues the is it so in your craft my son i have heard of such thin when a tale is of great and is sold as a in small pieces ay i was once a of stories when i was begging on the road between and before the last pilgrimage that ever i took to i told many tales and heard many more at the rest houses in the when we were merry at the end of the march it is in my heart that grown men are but as little children in the matter of tales and the oldest tale is the most beloved with your people that is truth said l but in regard to our people they desire new tales and when all is written they rise up and declare that the tale were better told in such and such a manner and doubt either the truth or the invention thereof but what folly is theirs said throwing out his knotted hand a tale that is told is a true tale as long as the telling lasts and of their talk upon it you how that was the prince of said to one who him in the great rest x preface house on the road go on my brother and finish that i have begun and he who took up the tale but having neither voice nor manner for the task came to a and the at supper made him eat abuse and stick half that night nay but with our people money having passed it is their right as we should turn against a in regard to shoes if those wore out if ever i make a book you shall see and judge and the said to the falling tree wait brother till i fetch a said with a grim chuckle god has given me eighty years and it may be some over i cannot look for more than day granted by day and as a favour at this tide be swift in what manner is it best to set about the task said i o chief est of those who string pearls with their tongue how do i know yet he thought for a little how should i not know has made very many heads but there is only one heart in all the world among your people or my people they are children in the matter of tales but none are so terrible as the little ones if a man a word or in a second telling vary events by so much as one small devil ay i also have told tales to the little ones but do thou this his old eyes fell on the gaudy paintings of the wall the blue and red dome and the flames of the beyond tell them first of those things that thou hast i an and they have seen together thus their knowledge will piece out thy tell them of what thou alone hast seen then what thou hast heard and since they be children tell them of battles and kings devils and angels but omit not to tell preface a them of love and all the earth is full of tales to him who and does not drive away the poor from his door the poor are the best of tale for they must lay their ear to the ground every night after this conversation the idea grew in my head and was pressing in his inquiries as to the health of the book later when we been parted for months it happened that i was to go away and far off and i came to bid	39
good bye it is farewell between us now for i go a very long journey i said and i also a longer one than thou but what of the book said he it will be bom in due season if it is so ordained i would i could see it said the old man beneath his but that will not be i die three hence in the night a little before the dawn the of my years is accomplished in nine cases out of ten a native makes no as to the day of his death he has the of the beasts in this respect then thou wilt depart in peace and it is good talk for thou hast said that life is no delight to thee but it is a pity that our book is not bom how shall i know that there is any record of ray name because i promise in the of the book pre i everything else that it shall be written of the island in the river and awaiting god in s ra first spoke of the book said i and gave counsel an old man s counsel son of of the village in the in the district of will that be written also i i preface that will be written also and the book will go across the black water to the houses of your people and all the will know of me who am eighty years old all who read the book shall know i cannot promise for the rest that is good talk call aloud to all who are in the and i will tell them this thing they up and priests of all and every degree of and leaning upon his spoke so that they were visibly filled with envy and a white haired senior bade think of his latter end instead of in the mouths of strangers then gave me his blessing and i came away these tales have been collected from all places and all sorts of people from priests in the from the the carpenter nameless men on and trains round the world women spinning outside their cottages in the twilight officers and gentlemen now dead and buried and a few but these are the very best my father gave me the greater part of them have been published in magazines and newspapers to whose i am indebted but some are new on this side of the water and some have not seen the light before the most remarkable stories are of course those which do not appear for obvious reasons contents ig men o and the german flag e wandering jew i through the i the of the gods i the s i jews in i the of i s well road i the city of dreadful night i a i the dream of e of c of hill i man who was head of the district t without benefit of clergy xiv contents page the end of the passage the of the i bi mark of the beast i the return of and life s the men the chief engineer s sleeping suit was of yellow striped with blue and his speech was the speech of they the deck under him and he on to the ornamental a black pipe between his teeth though the hour was not seven of the did you ever hear o the men o he asked when the man from had finished a story of an giant discovered in the of there was never story yet passed the lips of but the man from could cap it no we never did we responded with one voice the man from watched the chief keenly as a possible i m not telling the story for the sake of talking merely said the chief but as a warning against unless you bet on a certainty the men o were just a certainty i have had talk wi them now you will understand is a or it may be an possession o the i o and there they will get you tin and an it and all manner o is a great place but what about the population said the man from the population said the chief slowly were few il ut you must understand that s by co life s the tin mines there is no special to to reside in the climate is warm and remarkably like the climate o and in regard to it cannot have escaped your that isn t and we ve only just come from it protested the man from there s a department in too ay but there s no department in each man is a law to himself some drink and some drink and some drink bad for the coats o the stomach is a and some drink so i have been informed but one and all they sweat like the packing of a head on a days voyage with the screw racing half her time but as i was saying the population o was five all told of english that is to say scotch an i m scotch ye know said the chief the man from lit another and waited patiently it was hopeless to hurry the chief engineer i am not pretending to account for the population o being laid down according to such dimensions the five white men engaged upon the o tin ore and pursuits there were three o the sons o wait while i remember was the first by two inches a giant in the land an a man to cross in his ways heel to head he was six feet nine inches and across and through the thickness of his body six good feet nine an man next to him and i have forgotten his precise business was sandy and he was six feet seven but lean and and	39
it the men o j was more in the of his neck that the height lay than in any honesty o bone and five feet and a few odd inches may have been his real height the remainder came out when he held up his head and feet seven he was upon the door i took his measure in chalk on a chair and next to him but a made man ruddy and of a fair countenance was that they called the fir he was but feet five and a child beside i and when the three walked out together they made a run through the colony o the ran round them as though they had been the giant trees in the valley these three men o it was perfectly ridiculous a that one little place should have contained maybe the three men upon the face o the earth now the order o things for it led to the finest big drink in and ax sore heads the mom that endured for a week i am against liquor but the event to follow was a justification you must understand that many call at wi strangers o the profession in the spring time when the young were the trees o the forests were putting forth their leaves there came an american man to and he was six foot three or it may have been four in his stockings he came on business from but he stayed for pleasure wi the men o less than a half o the population were in their and stature ye will understand and merchants five feet nine or he had business with those two and he stood above them from the six feet o his height till they went j life s to drink in the course o conversation he said as tall men wiu things about his height and the trouble of it to him that was his pride o the flesh as the longest man in the island he said but there they took him up and asked if he were sure i say i am the longest man in the island he said and on that i ll bet my substance they laid down the bed plates of a big drink then and there and put it aside while they called from his house near by among the how s a wi you said and came in by the side o the two inches or it been one taller than he you re long said the man opening his eyes but i am longer an they sent a whistle through the night an out sandy from his bit and he came in an stood by the side o an the pair just the room to the ceiling cloth the man was a player and a most profane you hold both he said but the is with me fair an softly says s here says that man putting his leg through the window and coming in like an o the desert by one foot in and one in and a hand in north it may be are you suited said when the hinder end o was through the sill an the head of was lost in the smoke away above the american man took out his card and put it on the table b longer is my name america is my nation is my resting place but this here beats creation said he boys giants side show giants i the men lar t minded to slide out of my bet if i had been on the strength of the riddle on this board i would have done it if you had me even by three inches but when it comes to feet yards miles i am not the man to the biggest drink that ever made the travellers joy palm blush with indignation or the and the howl with envy set them up and continue till the final mon i tell you twas an awful sight to see those four giants about the house and the island and down the pillars thereof an throwing palm trees and their long legs round the hills o an sight i was there i did not mean to tell you but it s out now i was not overcome for i e en sat me down under the pieces o the table at four the mom an meditated upon the strangeness of things yon s the breakfast and the german flag across the deck in his pink a cup of tea in one hand and a in the other when the steamer was down the coast on her way to he drank beer all day and all night and played a game called with three i washed said he in a voice of but is no use washing on these hell seas look at me i am still all wet and it is der tea dot makes me so boy bring me on ice you will die if you drink beer before breakfast said one man beer is the worst thing in the world for i know der liver i no liver i shall not die at least i will not die dot no beer fit to if i should died i will don so a before in in new york in in und all over der inside of south also in should i died or in but i am here und der are my dot i have all the to find he pointed towards the wheel where in two rough wooden boxes lay a mass of vegetation supposed by all the ship to represent of value now do not grow in the main streets of towns k by co and the german flag and had gone far to get his there was nothing that he had not collected that year from king to white now said he	39
after he had been speaking for not much more than ten minutes without a pause und i will you a to show how bad und worse it is to go und belief fool said dis was in which was in north or you would not und i was und else dot i could back in my dot is vas den me man dot vas his name und he vas also but only coral you could imagine i you a coral snake is a all red und white hke coral dot has been in bands upon der neck of a girl is one snake dot we who know ash der flag id is red und und white hke a he was man better as me by said i will get a flag snake or i will die und we all all of dot flag von day when we was in none knows in our among der woods comes a woman a flag in a bottle my bottle und we both fell from our flat our pot what you call stomach at dis thing now i was also und i dot der of life to vas dis flag i und i said dot is your find heart s true friend art a man said und dot he der bottle und der woman she i i lo ufe s it will bite i said in a man must be careful of der insects her in der und den she will be all right said i will der examine is no fear der coral are apparatus boot i looked at her she vas der of a der true narrow contract it is not said i she may bite den we are tree mile from der him he had him in his hand as slow as a und as nonsense says said dot not von of der coral der sack of vas der der of he written a book you do not know of course but he vas a i my eye upon der flag und in s fist der vas not der of innocence i said it is you dot will get der sack der sack from dis life here den you may der says it her see now i will show you written und dot he went his out his big book of der flag in his fist said said und he der book in der fork of his fist und read der passage dot coral bite vas den he shut der book a bang dot der flag she once der fool he bit me says things was before we know der i was and the german flag ii die der arm said i und you can no more ten i will go to dinner said und he put her und it vas very red emotion we upon soup horse flesh beans for dinner but before we vas eaten der soup he hold of his arm und cry it is to der i am a dead man und he lied in i you it vas most sad for der dot came vas all dose of he vas doubled into big knots den md den worse dan und he i vas him saying dost know me but he himself der inward part was knowledge so i know he vas not in den he himself in von knot und den he died all alone me in i was sorry for i und i him den i took der coral dot flag so bad und und i him so i got him und so i lost the wandering jew ir you go once round the world in an direction you gain one day said the men of science to john hay in after years john hay went east west north and south business made love and a family as have done many men and the scientific information above recorded lay neglected in the of his mind with a thousand other matters of equal importance when a rich relative died he foimd himself wealthy beyond any reasonable expectation that he had entertained in his previous career which had been a and evil one indeed long before the came to him there existed in the brain of john hay a little cloud a momentary of thought that came and went almost before he could realize that there was any solution of so do the round the of a house to show that the darkness is falling he entered upon great possessions in money land and houses but behind his delight stood a ghost that cried out that his enjoyment of these things should not be of long duration it was the ghost of the rich relative who had been permitted to return to earth to torture his nephew into the grave wherefore under the spur of this constant john hay always preserving the air of heavy business like that hid the shadow on his mind turned houses and lands into sovereigns rich round red english sovereigns each one worth by co the wandering jew twenty shillings lands may become and houses fly on the wings of red flame but till the day of judgment a sovereign will always be a sovereign that is to say a king of pleasures possessed of his sovereigns john hay would fain have spent them one by one on such coarse amusements as his soul loved but he was haunted by the instant fear of death for the ghost of bis relative stood in the hall of his house close to the hat rack shouting up the that life was short that there was no hope of increase of days and that the were already out his nephew s coffin john hay was generally alone in the house and even when he had company his friends	39
for the between race and race it s the story of da knew nothing about da he held his peace until they came to the clearing where the dying flames said whit as they fluttered and whispered over the white it must have been a great fire when at full men had seen it at pa across the valley and blazing through the night and said that the of were getting drunk but it was only of the i d native and a woman burning burning this was how things and the policeman s bear me out was the wife of who was a one eyed and of a malignant disposition a week after their marriage he beat with a heavy s by co i life s stick a month later came that way to the cool hills on leave from his regiment and the villagers of with tales of service and glory under the government and the honour in which he was held by the colonel and listened to as des have done all the world over and as she listened she loved ive a wife of my own said though that is no matter when you come to think of it i am also due to return to my regiment after a time and i cannot be a i who intend to be there is no version of i could not love thee dear as much loved i not honour more but came near to making one never mind said stay with me and if tries to beat me you beat him very good said and he beat severely to the delight of all the of that is enough said as he rolled down the now we shall have peace but crawled up the grass slope again and hovered round his hut with angry eyes he ll kill me dead said to you must take me away there ll be a trouble in the lines my wife will out my beard but never mind said i will take you there was loud trouble in the lines and s beard was pulled and s wife went live with her mother and took away the children that s all right said and said yes that s au right through the fire so there was only left in the hut that looks across the valley to pa and since the beginning of time no one has had any sympathy for husbands so unfortunate as he went to the man who keeps the talking monkey s head get me back my wife said i can t said until you have made the in the valley run up the pa no said and he shook his above s white head give all your money to the of the village said and they will hold a council and the council will send a message that your wife must come back so gave up all his worldly wealth to twenty seven eight three and a silver chain to the council of and it fell as foretold they sent s brother down into s regiment to call home kicked him once round the lines and then handed him over to the who beat him with a belt come back s brother where to said to said he never said she then will send a curse and you will away like a tree in the said s brother slept over these things next morning she had i am beginning to away a tree in the she said that is the curse of and she really began to away because her no life s heart was dried up with fear and those who believe in curses die from curses too was afraid because he loved better than his very life two months passed and s brother stood outside the lines again and you are withering away come back i will come back said say rather that we will come back said ai but when said s brother upon a day very early in the morning said and he off to apply to the colonel for one week s leave i am withering away like a tree in the spring moaned you will be better soon said and he told her what was in his heart and the two laughed together softly for they loved each other but grew better from that hour they went away together travelling third class by train as the provided and then in a cart to the low hills and on foot to the high ones the scent of the pines of her own the wet hills it is good to be alive said said where is the road and where is the forest s house it cost forty twelve years ago said the forest handing the gun here are twenty said and you must give me the best bullets it is very good to be alive said wistfully the scent of the pine mould and they waited till the night had fallen upon and the pa had the dry wood for the next day s on the spur above his house it i j through the it courteous in to save us tliis trouble said as he stumbled on the pile which was twelve foot and four high we must wait till the moon rises when the moon rose knelt upon the pile if it were only a government said down the wire bound barrel of the forest s gun be quick said and was quick but was quick no longer then he lit the pile at the four comers and climbed on to it re the gun the uttle flames began to peer up between the big of the the government should teach us to pull the with our toes said grimly to the moon that was the last public observation of upon a day early in the morning came to the and shrieked very	39
and ran away to catch the who was on tour in the district the base bom has ruined four worth of wood gasped he has also killed my wife and he has left a letter which i cannot read tied to a pine bough in the stiff formal hand taught in the school had let us be burned together if anything remain over for we have made the necessary prayers we have also and the brother of both evil men send my service to the colonel the policeman looked long and curiously at the life s marriage bed of red and white ashes on which lay dull black the barrel of the s gun he drove his heel into a half log and the chattering sparks flew upwards most extraordinary people said the policeman said the little flames the policeman entered the dry bones of the case for the government does not approve of in his but who will pay me those four said the of the gods the evening was ended in s and the old priests were smoking or counting their beads a little naked child in with its mouth wide open a handful of flowers in one hand and l lump of tobacco in the other it tried to kneel and make to but it was so fat that it fell forward on its shaven head and rolled on its side kicking and gasping while the tumbled one way and the tobacco the other laughed set it up again and blessed the flowers as he received the tobacco from my father said the child he has the fever and cannot come wilt thou pray for him father surely but the smoke is on the and the night chill is in the air and it is not good to go naked in the autumn i have no clothes said the child and all to day i have been carrying cow cakes to the it was very hot and i am very tired it shivered a little for ihe twilight was cool an arm under his vast tattered of many colours and made an inviting little nest by his side the child crept in and filled his brass studded leather with the new tobacco when i came to the the shaven head with the and the black eyes looked out of the folds by co life s of the as a looks out from his nest and was smiling while the child played with his beard i would have said something friendly but remembered in time that if the child fell ill afterwards i should be with the evil eye and that is a horrible possession sit thou still i said as it made to get up and run away where is thy slate and why has the teacher let such an evil character loose on the streets when there are no police to protect us in which ward dost thou try to break thy neck with flying from the house tops nay nay said the child its face i into s beard and twisting uneasily there was a holiday to day among the schools and i do not always fly i play li like the rest is the national game among the of the from the naked hedge school children who use an old tin for to the b a s of the university who for the belt thou play thou art half the height of the bat i said the child nodded resolutely yea i do play ow ran ran ran i know it all but thou must not forget with all this to pray to the gods according to custom said who did not altogether approve of and western i do not forget said the child in a hushed voice also to give reverence to thy teacher and s voice softened to from pulling holy men by the beard little eh eh the child s face was altogether hidden in the great white beard and it began to till soothed the of the gods ss it as children are soothed all the world over with the promise of a story i did not think to frighten thee senseless little one look am i angry ar ar shall i weep too and of our tears make a great pond and drown us both and then thy father will never get well lacking thee to pull his beard peace peace and i will tell thee of the gods thou hast heard many tales very many father now this is a new one which thou hast not heard long and long ago when the gods walked with men as they do to day but that we have not faith to see the greatest of gods and his wife were walking in the garden of a temple which temple that in the ward said the child nay very far away maybe at or whither thou must make pilgrimage when thou art a man now there was sitting in the garden under the trees a that had worshipped for forty years and he lived on the of the pious and meditated night and day oh father was it thou said the child looking up with large eyes nay i have said it was long ago and moreover this was married did they put him on a horse with flowers on his head and forbid him to go to sleep all night long thus they did to me when they made my wedding said the child who had been married a few months before and what thou do said i i wept and they called me evil names and then i smote and we wept together thus did not the said for he ib life s was a holy man and very poor perceived him sitting naked by the temple steps where all went up and down and she said to what shall men think of the gods when the gods	39
king at the daily public audience this is personal government as it was in the days of al of blessed memory whose times exist still and will exist long after the english have passed away the privilege of open speech is of course exercised at certain personal risk the king may be pleased and raise the speaker to honour for that very of speech which three minutes later brings a too to the edge of the ever ready blade and the people love to have it so for it is their right it happened upon a day in that the chose to do his day s work in the gardens which lie a short distance from the city of a light table stood before him and round the table in the open air were and ministers according to their degree the court and the long tail of chiefs men of blood fed and by blood stood in an irregular round the table and the wind from the blew among them all day long dashed in with letters from the districts with of rebellion famine failure of or of the s on the road and all day long the would read the and pass such of these as were less private to the officials whom they directly concerned or call up a waiting chief for a word of explanation it is well to speak clearly to the ruler of then the grim head under the black cap with the diamond star in front would nod gravely and that chief would return to his fellows once that afternoon a woman for divorce against her husband who was bald and the hearing both sides of the case bade her pour over the bare and them off that the hair might grown again and she be contented here the court laughed and the woman withdrew cursing her king under her breath but when twilight was falling and the order of the court was a little relaxed there came before the king in a trembling haggard wretch sore with much but of stout enough build who had stolen three of such small matters does his take why did you steal said he and when the king asks questions they do themselves service who answer directly i was poor and no one gave hungry and there was no food why did you not work i could find no work protector of the poor and i was starving you lie vou stole for drink for lust for idleness for anything but hunger since any man who will may find work and daily bread the prisoner dropped his eyes he had attended the court before and he knew the ring of the death tone any man may get work who knows this so well ii life s as i do for i too have been not like you but as any honest man may be by the turn of fate and the will of god growing warm the turned to his all and thrust the of his aside with his elbow you have heard this son of lies hear me tell a true tale i also was once starved and my belt on the sharp belly pinch nor was i alone for with me was another who did not fail me in my evil days when i was hunted before ever i came to this throne and wandering like a dog by my money melted melted melted he flung out a bare palm before the audience and day upon day faint and sick i went back to that one who waited and god knows how we lived till on a day i took our best silk it was fine work of such as no needle now works and a for two and all that we had i brought it to a money in a and i asked for three upon it he said to me who am now the king you are a thief this is worth three hundred i am no thief i answered but a prince of good blood and i am hungry prince of wandering beggars said that money i have no money with me but go to my house with my clerk and he will give you two eight for that is all i will lend so i went with the clerk to the house and we talked on the way and he gave me the money we lived on it till it was spent and we hard and then that clerk said being a young man of a good heart surely the money will lend yet more on that and he offered me two these i refused saying nay but get me some work and he got me work and i wrought day by day as a bearing burdens the s and of my hands receiving four a day for my sweat and but he this son of naught must steal for a year and four months worked and none dare say that i lie for i have a witness even that clerk who is now my friend then there rose in his place among the and the one clad in silk who folded his hands and aid this is the truth of god for i who by the favour of god and the am such as you know was once clerk to that money there was a pause and the cried hoarsely to the prisoner throwing scorn upon him till he ended with the dread arid which justice so they led the thief away and the whole of him was seen no more together and the court out of its silence whispering before god and the prophet but this is a man jews in my newly purchased house furniture was at the least the legs parted from the chairs and the tops from the tables on the slightest provocation but such as it was it	39
was to be paid for and agent and for the local waited in the with the receipt he was announced by the servant as the jew he who believes in the brotherhood of man should hear my r grinding the second word through his i white teeth with all the scorn he dare show before his master was personally meek in manner so meek indeed that one could not understand how he had fallen into the profession of bill collecting he resembled an over fed sheep and his voice suited his figure there was a fixed mask of childish wonder upon his face if you paid him he was as one at your wealth if you sent him away he seemed puzzled at your hard never was jew more unlike his dread breed wore list slippers and coats of doth so that the most brazen of british would have from them in fear very slow and deliberate was his speech and carefully guarded to give offence to no one after many weeks was induced to speak to me of his friends there be eight of us in and we are waiting by co j i jews m s till there are ten then we shall apply for a and get leave from to day we have no and i only i am priest and butcher to our people i am of the tribe of i think but i am not sure my father was of the tribe of and we wish much to get our i shall be a priest of that is a big city in the north of india counting its by the ten thousand and these eight of the chosen people were shut up in its midst waiting till time or chance sent them their full congregation the wife of two little children an orphan boy of their people s uncle a white haired old man his wife a jew from one and priest and butcher made up the list of the jews in they in one house on the outskirts of the great city amid heaps of rotten bricks herds of and a fixed pillar of dust caused by the incessant passing of the beasts to the river to drink in the evening the children of the city came to the waste place to fly their and s sons held aloof watching the sport from the roof but never descending to take part in them at the back of the house stood a small brick in which prepared the daily meat for his people after the custom of the jews once the rude door of the square was suddenly smashed open by a struggle from inside and showed the meek bill at his work nostrils lips drawn back over his teeth and his hands upon a half sheep he was attired in strange having no relation whatever to coats or list slippers and a knife was in his mouth as he struggled with the animal between the walls the breath came from him in thick sobs and the nature of life s the man seemed changed when the ordained slaughter was ended he saw that the door was open and shut it hastily his hand leaving a red mark on the timber while his children from the neighbouring house top looked down awe stricken and open eyed a of busied in one of his religious was no thing to be desired twice summer came upon turning the trodden waste ground to iron and bringing sickness to the it will not touch us said confidently before the winter we shall have our s my brother and his wife and children are coming up from and then i shall be the priest of the the old man would crawl out in the stifling evenings to sit on the rubbish heap and watch the being borne down to the river it will not come near us said feebly for we are the people of god and my nephew will be priest of our let them die he crept back to his house again and the door to shut himself off from the world of the but the wife of looked out of the window at the dead as the passed and said that she was afraid comforted her with hopes of the to be and collected bills as was his custom in one night the two children died and were buried early in the morning by the deaths never appeared in the city returns the sorrow is my sorrow said and this to him seemed a sufficient reason for setting at naught the of a large flourishing and remarkably well governed empire the orphan boy dependent on the charity of and his wife could have felt no gratitude and must have been a he begged for whatever money bis pro i jews in would give him and with that fled down country for his ufe a week after the death of her children left her bed at night and wandered over the country to find them she heard them crying behind every bush or drowning in every pool of water in the fields and she begged the on the grand trunk road not to steal her little ones from her in the morning the sun rose and beat upon her bare head and she turned into the cool wet crops to lie down and never came back though and sought her for two nights the look of patient wonder on s face deepened but he presently found an explanation there are so few of us here and these people are so many said he that it may be our god has forgotten us in the house on the outskirts of the city old and grumbled that there was no one to wait on them and that had been to her race went out and collected bills and in tlie evenings smoked with till one dawning died	39
having first paid au his debts to and sat alone in the empty house all day and when returned wept the easy tears of age till they cried themselves a week later staggering under a huge bundle of clothes and cooking pots led the old man and woman to the railway station where the bustle and confusion made them we are going back to said to whose sleeve was clinging there are more of us there and here my house is empty he helped into the carriage and turning back said to me i should have been priest of the j life s if there had been ten of us surely we must have been forgotten by our the remnant of the broken colony passed out of the station on their journey south while a turning over the books on the was whistling to himself the ten little boys but the tune sounded as solemn as the dead march it was the of the jews in the of if you consider the of the case it was the only thing that he could do but has been hanged by the neck till he is dead and is dead also three years ago when the steamer was at and the weather was very hot indeed the big fat who fed the second right furnace thirty feet down in the hold got leave to go ashore he departed a boy as they call the he returned the full blooded of his with a bottle in each hand then he sat on the fore grating eating salt fish and and singing the songs of a far country the food belonged to the or head man of the sailors he had just cooked it for himself turned to borrow some salt and when he came back s dirty black fingers were into the rice a is a person of importance far above a though the draws better pay he sets the chorus of ah when the captain s is pulled up to the he the lead too and sometimes when all the ship is lazy he puts on his muslin and a big red and plays with the passengers children on the quarter deck then the passengers g ve him money and he it all up for an at or or by se life s ho you fat black barrel you re eating my food said in the other that be s where the tongue stops and runs from port said eastward till east is west and the of the islands gossip with the strayed son of monkey face dried s liver i am the and the commander of all this ship take away your and thrust the empty rice plate into s hand beat it into a basin over s head drew his knife and in the leg drew his knife but dropped into the darkness of the hold and through the grating at who was the clean fore deck with his blood only the white moon saw these things for the officers were looking after the and the passengers were tossing in their close ah right said and went forward to tie up his we will settle the account later on he was a bom in india married once in where his wife had a cigar shop on the road once in to a chinese girl and once in to a woman who sold fowls the english sailor cannot owing to and telegraph marry as as he used to do but native sailors can being by the barbarous inventions of the western savage was a good husband when he happened to remember the existence of a wife but he was also a very good and it is not wise to offend a because he does not forget anything moreover in s case blood had been drawn and food spoiled d the of morning rose with a blank mind he was no longer of but a very hot so he went on deck and opened hb jacket to the morning breeze till a knife came like a flying sh and stuck into the of the cook s half an inch from his right he ran down below before his time trying to remember what he could have said to the owner of the weapon at noon when all the ship s were feeding advanced into their midst and being a placid man with a large regard for his own skin he opened saying men of the ship last night i was drunk and this morning i know that i behaved to some one or another of you who was that man that i may meet him face to face and say that i was measured the distance to s naked breast if he sprang at him he might be tripped up and a blind blow at the chest sometimes only means sh on the breast bone ribs are to between unless the subject be so he said nothing nor did the other their faces immediately dropped all expression as is the custom of the oriental when there is g on the carpet or any chance of trouble looked long at the white he was only an african and could not read characters a big sigh almost a groan broke from him and he went back to the the took up the conversation where he had interrupted it they talked of the best methods of cooking rice suffered considerably from lack of fresh air during the run to he only came on deck to breathe when all the world was about and even then a heavy block once dropped from a within a foot life s of his head and an apparently lashed grating on which he set his foot began to turn over with the intention of dropping him on the cargo fifteen feet below and one night the knife dropped from the fo c s le and this	39
time it drew blood so made complaint and when the reached fled and buried himself among eight hundred thousand people and did not sign articles till the ship had been a month gone from the port waited too but his wife grew and he was forced to sign in the to because he that all play and no work gives jack a ragged shirt in the china seas he thought a great deal of and when lay in port with the inquired after him and found he had gone to england the cape on the came to england on the worth the met her by the light was going out with the to the coast want to find a friend my trap mouthed coal said a gentleman in the service nothing easier wait at the till he comes every one comes to the wait you poor heathen the gentleman spoke truth there are three great doors in the world where if you stand long enough you shall meet any one you wish the head of the canal is one but there death comes also cross station is the second for inland work and the is the third at each of these places are men and women looking for those who will surely come so waited at the time was no object to him and the wives could wait as he did from day to day week to week and month to month by the blue diamond the red dot smoke j the of the yellow streaks and the nameless dingy of the sea that loaded and whistled and roared in the everlasting fog when money failed a kind gentleman told to become a christian and became one with great speed getting his religious between ship and ship s arrival and six or seven shillings a week for tracts to what the faith was did not in the least care but he knew if he said native ki lis ti an to men with long black coats he might get a few and the tracts were at a little public house that sold by the which is even smaller weight than the half screw which is less than the half and a most profitable trade but after eight months fell sick with contracted from long standing still in and much against his will he was forced lo lie down in his two and room raging against fate the kind gentleman sat by his bedside and grieved to find that talked in strange tongues instead of listening to good books and almost seemed to become a heathen again till one day he was roused from semi stupor by a voice in the street by the dock head my friend he whispered call now call quick god has sent him he wanted one of his own race said the kind gentleman and going out he called at the top of his voice an excessively coloured man in a white shirt and brand new a shining hat and a turned round many voyages had taught how to spend his money and made him a citizen of the world hi yes said he when the situation was explained command him black when i was life s in the good dam show him up and he followed into the room one glance told the what the kind gentleman had overlooked was desperately poor drove his hands deep into his pockets then advanced with clenched fists on the sick shouting ah make fast aft you know you know me look dam big fat lazy beckoned with his left hand his right was under his pillow removed his gorgeous hat and stooped over till he could catch a faint whisper how beautiful said the kind gentleman how these love like children spit him out said leaning over yet more closely touching the matter of that fish and said and sent the knife home under the edge of the bone upwards and forwards there was a thick sick cough and the body of the african slid slowly from the bed his clutching hands letting fall a shower of silver pieces that ran across the room now i can die said but he did not die he was nursed back to life with all the skill that money could buy for the law wanted him and in the end he grew sufficiently healthy to be hanged in due and proper form did not care particularly but it was a sad blow to the kind gentleman i s head did not reach to the top of the dock as the english newspapers say this case however was not reported because nobody cared by so much as a rope for the life or death of little the in the red court house sat upon him all through the long hot afternoon and whenever they asked him a question he and their verdict was that the evidence was and the judge it was true that the dead body of little s sister had been found at the bottom of the well and i was the only human being within a half mile at the time but the child might have fallen in by accident therefore little was and told to go where he pleased this permission was not so generous as it sounds for he had nowhere to go to nothing in particular to eat and nothing whatever to wear he trotted into the court compound and sat upon the well wondering whether an unsuccessful into the black water below would end in a forced voyage across the other black water a groom put down an emptied nose bag on the bricks and little being hungry set himself to scrape out what wet grain the horse had overlooked o thief and but newly set free from the terror of the law come along said the groom and little to by co life s was led by	39
and he runs back again as a strayed wolf turns into tall crops he is a one eyed man and carries burnt between his brows the impress of two copper some say that he was tortured by a prince in the old days for he is so old that he must have been capable of mischief in the days of his most pressing need at present is a and the care of the british government these things happened when the grass was tall and the villagers of told me that a of pig had gone into the patch to enter grass is always an unwise proceeding but i went because i knew nothing of pig hunting and i t by co life s partly because the villagers said that the big of the owned foot long therefore i wished to shoot him in order to produce the in after years and say that i had ridden him down in fair chase i took a gun and went into the hot close patch that it would be an easy thing to one pig in ten square miles of mr the went with me because he that i was incapable of existing for an hour without his advice and countenance he managed to slip in and out between the grass but i had to force my way and in twenty minutes was as completely lost as though i had been in the heart of central africa i did not notice this at first till i had grown wearied of stumbling and pushing through the grass and mr was beginning to sit down very often and hang out his tongue very far there was nothing but grass everywhere and it was impossible to see two yards in any direction the grass stems held the heat exactly as do in half an hour when i was devoutly wishing that i had left the big alone i came to a narrow path which seemed to be a compromise between a native and a pig run it was barely six inches wide but i could along it in comfort the grass was extremely thick here and where the path was ill defined it was necessary to crush into the either with both hands before the face or to back into it leaving both hands free to manage the rifle none the less it was a path and valuable because it might lead to a place at the end of nearly fifty yards of fair way just when i was preparing to back into an unusually stiff i missed mr who for his is an unusually frivolous dog and never keeps to heel i called hi m three times and said aloud where has the little beast gone gone i r well road s i to then i stepped backwards several paces for almost my feet a deep voice repeated where has the i little beast gone to appreciate an unseen voice i thoroughly you should hear it when you are lost in i stifling grass i called mr again and the i echo assisted me at that i ceased calling i and listened very attentively because i thought i heard la man laughing in a peculiarly offensive manner the made me sweat but the laughter made me shake i there is no earthly need for laughter in high grass it is as well as the stopped and i took courage and continued to call till i thought that i had the echo somewhere behind and below the into which i was preparing to back just before i lost mr i drove my rifle up to the between the grass stems in a downward and forward direction then i it to and fro but it did not seem to touch ground on the far side of the as it should have done every time that i with the exertion of driving a heavy through thick grass the was faithfully repeated from below and when i stopped to wipe my face the sound of low laughter was distinct beyond doubting i went into the face first an inch at a time my mouth open and ray eyes fine full and prominent when i had overcome the resistance of the grass i found that i was looking straight across a black gap in the ground that i was actually lying on my chest leaning the mouth of a well so deep i could scarcely see the in it there things in the water black things and the water was as black as pitch with blue the laughing came from the noise of a little spring half way down one side of the well some si life s times as the black things round the from the spring fell upon their tightly stretched skins and then the laughter changed into a of mirth one thing turned over on its back as i watched and drifted round and round the circle of the with a hand and half an arm held clear of the water in a stiff and horrible flourish as though it were a very wearied guide paid to exhibit the beauties of the place i did not spend more than half an hour in creeping round that well and finding the path on the other side the remainder of the journey i accomplished by feeling every foot of ground in front of me and crawling like a through every i carried mr in my arms and he licked my nose he was not frightened in the least nor was i but we wished to reach open ground in order to enjoy the view my knees were loose and the apple in my throat refused to slide up and down the path on the far side of the well was a very good one though in on all sides by grass and it led mc in time to a priest s hut in the centre	39
to but they are not and the likeness to is unbroken in all respects save one the lean dogs snuff at them and turn away here and there a tiny child lies on his father s and a protecting arm is thrown round it in every instance but for the most part the children sleep with their mothers on the yellow white are not to be trusted within reach of brown bodies a stifling hot blast front the mouth of the gate nearly ends my resolution of entering the city of dreadful night at this hour it is a compound of all evil animal and vegetable that a walled city can in a day and a night the temperature within the motionless groves of and orange trees outside the city walls seems chilly by comparison heaven help all sick persons and yoimg children within the city to night the high house walls are still heat savagely and from obscure side breezes that ought to poison a but the do not heed a drove of them are the vacant main street stopping now and then to lay their ponderous against the closed shutters of a s shop and to blow like l the city of dreadful night then silence follows the silence that is full of the night noises of a great city a instrument of some kind b just and only just audible high overhead some one throws open a window and the rattle of the wood work echoes down the empty street on one of the roofs a is in full blast and the men are talking softly as the pipe a little farther on the noise of conversation is more distinct a of light shows itself between the sliding shutters of a shop inside a bearded weary eyed is his account books among the of cotton prints that surround him three figures bear him company and throw in a remark from time to time first he makes an entry then a remark then passes the back of his hand across his streaming forehead the heat in the built in street is fearful inside the shops it must be almost but the work goes on steadily entry growl and hand stroke succeeding each other with the precision of clock work a and fast asleep lies across the road on the way to the of a bar of moonlight falls across the forehead and eyes of the but he never it is close upon midnight and the heat seems to be increasing the open square in front of the is crowded with and a man must pick his way carefully for fear of treading on them the moonlight the s high front of coloured work in broad bands and each separate dreaming pigeon in the and comers of the throws a little shadow ghosts rise up wearily from their and into the dark depths of the building is it possible to climb to the top of the great and thence to look down on the city at all events the attempt is worth making and s life s the chances are that the door of the staircase will be unlocked unlocked it is but a deeply sleeping lies across the threshold face turned to the moon a rat out of his at the sound of approaching footsteps the man opens his eyes for a minute turns and goes to sleep again all the heat of a of fierce indian is stored in the pitch black polished walls of the staircase half way up there is something alive warm and and it driven from step to step as it catches the of my advance it to the top and itself as a yellow eyed angry of are asleep on this and the other and on the below there is the shadow of a cool or at least a less breeze at this height and refreshed thereby turn to look on the city of dreadful night might have drawn it could describe it this spectacle of sleeping thousands in the moonlight and in the shadow of the moon the roof tops are crammed with men women and children and the air is full of noises they are restless in the city of dreadful night and small wonder the marvel is that they can even breathe if you gaze intently at the multitude you can see that they are almost as as a daylight crowd but the is subdued everywhere in the strong light you can watch the turning to and fro shifting their beds and again them in the pit like court yards of the houses there is the same movement the pitiless moon shows it all shows too the plains outside the and here and there a hand s breadth of the without the walls shows lastly a splash of glittering silver on a house top almost directly below the l the city of dreadful night some poor soul has risen to a jar of water over his body the of the falling water strikes on the ear two or three other men in far off comers of the city of dreadful night follow his example and the water flashes like a small cloud passes over the face of the moon and the city and its inhabitants clear drawn in black and white before fade into masses of black and deeper black still the noise continues the sigh of a great city overwhelmed with the heat and of a people seeking in vain for rest it is only the lower class women who sleep on the house tops what must the torment be in the where a few lamps are still g there are in the court below it is the faithful minister but he ought to have been here an hour ago to tell the faithful that prayer is better than sleep the sleep that will not come to the city the for	39
a moment with the door of one of the awhile and a bull like roar a magnificent bass thunder tells that he has reached the top of the they must hear the cry to the banks of the itself even across the it is almost overpowering the cloud by and shows him in black against the sky bands laid upon his ears and broad chest heaving with the play of his lungs ho then a pause while another somewhere in the direction of the golden temple takes up the call ho again and again four times in all and from the a dozen men have risen up already i bear witness that there is no god but god what a splendid cry it is the of the creed that brings men cut of their beds by scores at midnight once again he o life s through the same phrase shaking with the vehemence of his own voice and then far and near the night air rings with is the prophet of god it is as though he were flinging his defiance to the far off horizon where the summer plays and leaps like a sword every in the city is in full cry and some men on the roof tops are to kneel a long pause the last cry la and the silence up on it as the ram on the head of a cotton the down the dark grumbling in his beard he passes the arch of the entrance and then the stifling silence settles down over the city of dreadful night the on the sleep again more loudly the hot breeze comes up in and lazy and the moon down towards the horizon seated with both elbows on the of the tower one can watch and wonder over that heat tortured hive till the dawn how do they live down there what do they think of when will they awake more of water pots faint of wooden moved into or out of the shadows uncouth music of instruments softened by distance into a plaintive wail and one low of far off thunder in the of the the who lay across the threshold of the when i came up starts wildly in his sleep throws his hands above his head something and falls back again by the of the they like i drop off into an uneasy conscious that three o clock has struck and that there is a slight a very slight coolness in the atmosphere the city is absolutely quiet now but for some dog s nothing save dead heavy sleep the city of dreadful night i several weeks of darkness pass after this for the moon has gone out the very dogs are still and i watch for the first of the dawn before making my way homeward again the noise of shuffling feet the morning call is about to begin and my night watch is over ho ho the east grows gray and presently the dawn wind comes up as though the had summoned it and as one man the city of dreadful night rises from its bed and turns its face towards the dawning day with return of life comes return of first a low whisper then a deep bass for it must be remembered that the entire city is on the house tops my eyelids weighed down with the of long deferred sleep i escape from the through the and out into the square beyond where the have risen away the and are discussing the morning the minute s freshness of the air has gone and it is as hot as at first will the out of his kindness make room what is it something borne on men s shoulders comes by in the half light and i stand back a woman s corpse going down to the burning and a says she died at midnight from the heat so the city was of death as well as night after all and pie kissed the girls and made them cry when the girls came out to play ran away it you will admit that a man has no right to enter his drawing room early in the morning when the is setting things right and clearing away the dust you will that people who eat out of china and own card cases have no right to apply their standard of right and wrong to an unsettled land when the place is made fit for their reception by those men who are told off to the work they can come up bringing in their trunks their own society and the and all the other apparatus where the queen s law does not carry it is to expect an of other and weaker rules the men who run ahead of the cars of decency and propriety and make the ways straight cannot be judged in the same manner as the stay at home folk of the ranks of the regular not many months ago the queen s law stopped a few miles north of on the there was no very strong public opinion up to that limit but it existed to keep men in order when the government said that the queen s law must carry up to and the chinese border the order was given and some men whose desire was to be ever a little in advance of the by co rush of respectability forward with the troops these were the men who could never pass and would have been too pronounced in their ideas for the administration of worked provinces the supreme government stepped in as soon as might be with and and all but reduced new to the dead indian level but there was a short time during which strong men were necessary and a field for themselves among the fore of was reckoned by all who knew him a strong man he	39
held an appointment in lower when the order came to break the frontier and his friends called him because of the singularly like manner in which he sang a song whose first line is something like the words most men who have been in will know the song it means puff puff puff puff great sang it to his and his friends shouted with delight so that you could hear them far away in the when he went to upper he had no special regard for god or man but he knew how to make himself respected and to carry out the mixed military civil duties that fell to most men s share in those months he did his office work and entertained now and again the of fever shaken soldiers who through his part of the world in search of a flying party of sometimes he turned out and dressed down on his own account for the country was still and would blaze when least expected he enjoyed these but the were not so amused all the officials who came in contact with him departed with the idea that was a valuable k life s person well able to take care of himself and on that belief he was left to his own devices at the end of a few months he wearied of his solitude and cast about for company and the queen s law had hardly begun to be felt in the country and public opinion which is more powerful than the queen s law had yet to come also there was a custom in the which allowed a white man to take to himself a wife of the daughters of upon due payment the marriage was not quite so binding as is the ceremony among but the wife was very pleasant when all our troops are back from there will be a proverb in their mouths as as a wife and pretty english ladies will wonder what in the world it means the of the village next to s post had a fair daughter who had seen and loved him from afar when news went abroad that the englishman with the heavy hand who lived in the was looking for a housekeeper the came in and explained that for five down he would his daughter to s keeping to be maintained in all honour respect and comfort with pretty dresses according to the custom of the this thing was done and never repented it he foimd his rough and tumble house put straight and made comfortable his hitherto expenses cut down by one half and himself and made much of by his new acquisition who sat at the head of his table and sang songs to him and ordered his servants about and was in every way as sweet and merry and honest a winning a woman as the most of could have desired no race say who know produces such good wives and heads of as the when the next by on the war path the in command found at s table a hostess to be to a woman to be treated in every way as one occupying an assured position when he gathered his men together next dawn and into the he thought of the nice little dinner and the pretty face and envied from the bottom of his heart yet he was engaged to a girl at home and that is how some men are constructed the s name was not a pretty one but as she was promptly by the did not matter thought well of the and the general comfort and vowed that he had never spent five hundred to a better end after three months of domestic life a great idea struck him matrimony english matrimony could not be such a bad thing after all if he were so thoroughly comfortable at the back of beyond with this girl who smoked how much more comfortable would he be with a sweet english maiden who would not smoke and would play upon a piano instead of a also he had a desire to return to his kind to hear a band once more and to feel how it felt to wear a dress suit again decidedly matrimony would be a very good thing he thought the matter out at length of evenings while sang to him or asked him why he was so silent and whether she had done anything to offend him as he thought he smoked and as he smoked he looked at and in his fancy turned her into a fair amusing merry little english girl with hair coming low down on hei a tm life s forehead and perhaps a between her lips certainly not a big thick of the brand that smoked he would wed a girl with s eyes and most of her ways but not all she could be improved upon then he blew thick smoke wreaths through his nostrils and stretched himself he would taste marriage had helped him to save money and there were six months leave due to him see here httle woman he said we must put by more money for these next three months i want it that was a direct on s housekeeping for she herself on her but since her god wanted money she would do her best you want money she said with a little laugh i have money look she ran to her own room and fetched out a small bag of of all that you give me i keep back some see one hundred and seven can you want more money than that take it it is ray pleasure if you use it she spread out the money on the table and pushed it towards him with her quick little pale yellow fingers never referred to economy in the household again three months later after the and receipt of several mysterious	39
my garden the ground slopes toward the road and the slope is crowned with a thick there is a short carriage road from the house to the which passes close to the next afternoon i saw that had seated himself at the bottom of the slope down in the dust of the public road and in the full glare of the sun with a starved basket of greasy sweets in front of him he had gone into trade once more on the strength of my and the ground was as paradise by my honoured favour remember there was only his basket the sunshine and the gray dust when the sap of my empire first began next day he had moved himself up the slope nearer to my and waved a palm leaf fan to keep the flies off the sweets so i judged that he must have done a fair trade four days later i noticed that he had backed himself and his basket under the shadow of the and had tied an coloured rag between order to make more shade there were plenty of sweets in his basket i thought that trade must be looking up seven weeks later the government took up a plot of ground for a chief court dose to the end of my compound and employed nearly four hundred on the foundations bought a blue and white striped blanket a brass lamp stand and a small boy to cope with the rush of trade which was tremendous d is five days later he bought a huge fat red backed account book and a glass thus i saw that the had been getting into his debt and that commerce was increasing on legitimate lines of credit also i saw that the one basket had grown into three and that had backed and into the and made himself a nice little clearing for the proper display of the basket the blanket the books and the boy one week and five days later he had built a mud fireplace in the clearing and the fat account book was overflowing he said that god created few englishmen of my kind and that i was the of au human virtues he offered me some of his sweets as tribute and by accepting these i acknowledged him as my under the skirt of my protection three weeks later i noticed that the boy was in the habit of cooking s mid day meal for and was beginning to grow a stomach he had away more of my and owned another and a account book eleven weeks later had eaten his way nearly through that and there was a reed hut with a outside it standing in the little that he had two dogs and a baby slept on the so i had taken a wife he said that he had by my favour done this thing and that i wa s several times finer than six weeks and two days later a mud wall had grown up at the back of the hut there were fowls in front and it smelt a little the secretary said that a pool was forming in the public road from the of my compound and that i must take steps to clear it away i spoke to he said i was lord of his earthly concerns and the garden was life s all my own property and sent me some more sweets in a second hand two months later a was killed in a that took place opposite s the of police said it was a serious case went into my servants quarters insulted my butler s wife and wanted to arrest my butler the curious thing about the murder was that most of the were drunk at the time pointed out that my name was a strong shield between him and his enemies and he expected that another baby would be bom to him shortly four months later the hut was all mud walls very built and had used most of my for his five a silver watch and an chain shone upon his very round stomach my servants were drunk several times and used to waste the day with when they got the chance i spoke to he said by my favour and the glory of my countenance he would make ail his women folk ladies and that if any one hinted that he was running an still under the shadow of the why i bis was to a week later he hired a man to make several dozen square yards of work to put around the back of his hut that his women folk might be from the public gaze the man went away in the evening and left his day s work to the short cut from the public road to my house i was driving home in the dusk and turned the comer by s quickly the next i was that the horses of the were stamping and in the strongest sort of net work both beasts came down one rose with nothing more than knees the other was so badly kicked that i was forced to shoot him is gone now and his hut is into its native mud with instead of salt for a sign that the place is accursed i have built a summer house to overlook the end of the garden and it is as a fort on my frontier whence i guard my empire i know exactly how felt he has been in the the dream of like mr of old i writer to the most honourable the east india company in this god forgotten city of have dreamed a dream and never since that my mare fell lame have i been so troubled therefore lest i should forget my dream i have made shift to set it down here though heaven knows how the pen is to me who was always with sword than	39
i live so long to be governor general but for all these things and i suppose that he meant thereby the changes and chances of our life in these parts i must pay my price by this time i had somewhat and being well out of my first sleep was disposed to look upon the matter as a man s jest so says i merrily and what price shall i pay for this palace of mine which is but twelve feet square and my five poor a month the devil take you and your i have my price twice over in sickness at that moment my man turns full towards me so that by the moonlight i could see every line and of his face then my drunken mirth died out of me as i have seen the waters of our great rivers die away in one night and i who was afraid of no man was taken with a more deadly terror than i hold it has ever been the lot of mortal man to know for i saw that his face was my very own but marked and lined and with the of disease and much evil living as i once when i was lord help me very drunk indeed have seen mine life s own face all white and drawn and grown old in a mirror i take it that any man would have been even more greatly feared than i for i am in no way wanting in courage after i had lain still for a little in my agony and waiting until i should awake from this terrible dream for dream i knew it to be he says again that i must pay my price and a little after as though it were to be given in and what price will you pay says i very softly for god s sake let me be whoever you are and i will mend my ways from to night says he laughing a little at my words but otherwise making no motion of having heard them nay i would only rid so brave a yoimg as yourself of much that will be a great to you on your way through life in the indies for believe me and here he looks full on me once more there is no return at all this which i could not then understand i was a good deal put and waited for what should come next says he very calmly give me your trust in man at that i saw how heavy would be my price for i never doubted but that he could take from me all that he asked and my head was through terror and altogether cleared of the wine i had drunk so i takes him up very short crying that i was not so wholly bad as he would make believe and that i trusted my fellows to the full as much as they were worthy of it it was none of my fault says i if one half of them were and the half deserved to be burnt in the hand and i would once more ask him to have done with his questions then i stopped a little afraid it is true to have let my tongue so nm away with me but he took no notice of this and only laid his hand lightly on my left breast and i felt very cold there for a while then he says laughing the dream of more give me your faith in women at that i started in my bed as though i had been stung for i thought of my sweet mother in england and for a while fancied that my faith in god s best creatures could neither be shaken nor stolen from me but later myself s hard eyes being upon me i fell to thinking for the second tune that night of she that me and married tom and of mistress whom only my devilish pride follow and how she was even worse than and i worst of them all seeing that with my life s work to be done i must needs go dancing down the devil s swept and because there was a light woman s smile at the end of it and i thought that all women in the world were either like or mistress as indeed they have ever since been to me and this put me to such an extremity of rage and sorrow that i was beyond word glad when myself s hand fell again on my left breast and i was no more troubled by these follies after this he was silent for a little and i made sure that he must go or i awake ere long but presently he speaks again and very softly that i was a fool to care for such follies as those he had taken from me and that ere he went he would only ask me for a few other trifles such as no man or for matter of that boy either would keep about him in this country and so it happened that he took from out of my very heart as it were looking all the time into my face with my own eyes as much as remained to me of my boy s soul and conscience this was to me a far more terrible loss than the two that i had suffered before for though lord help me i had travelled far enough from all paths of decent or living yet there was in me though i myself write it a certain goodness of heart which when i was sober or life s sick made me very sorry of all that i had done before the fit came on me and this i lost wholly having in place thereof another deadly coldness at the heart i am not as i have before said	39
ready with my pen so i fear that what i have just written may not be readily understood yet there be certain times in a young man s life when through great sorrow or sin all the boy in him is burnt and away so that he passes at one step to the more sorrowful state of manhood as our staring indian day changes into night with never so much as the gray of twilight to temper the two extremes this shall perhaps make my state more if it be remembered that my torment was ten times as great a s comes in the natural course of nature to any man at that time i dared not think of the change that had come over me and all in one night though i have often thought of it since have paid the price says i my teeth chattering for i was deadly cold and what is my return at this time it was nearly dawn and myself had begun to grow pale and thin against the white light in the east as my mother used to tell me is the custom of ghosts and devils and the like he made as if he would go but my words him and he laughed as i remember that i laughed when i ran through the sword arm last august because he said that mrs was no better than she should be what return says he catching up my last words why strength to live as long as god or the devil pleases and so long as you live my young master my gift with that he puts something into my hand though it was still too dark to see what it was and when next i up he was gone when the light came i made shift to behold his gift and saw that it was a httle piece of dry bread d the of my bully we ride to church to day the man that hasn t got a must steal one straight away be men remember this is a du cut along der aisle and der au s ride to church once upon a time very far from england there three men who loved each other so greatly that neither man nor woman could come between them they were in no sense refined nor to be admitted to the of decent folk because they happened to be private soldiers in her majesty s army and private soldiers of our service have small time for self culture their duty is to keep themselves and their clean to refrain from getting drunk more often than is necessary to obey their and to pray for a war all these things my friends accomplished and of their own motion threw in some for which the army did not call their fate sent them to serve in india which is not a golden country though poets have sung otherwise there men die with great swiftness and those who live life s suffer many and curious things i do not think that my friends concerned themselves much with the social or political aspects of the east they attended a not war on the northern frontier another one on our western boundary and a third in upper then their regiment sat still to and the monotony of life was their portion they were morning and evening on the same dusty parade ground they wandered up and down the same stretch of dusty white road attended the same church and the same shop and slept in the same bam of a for two long years there was the father in the craft who had served with various from to old in war reckless and in his pious hours an soldier to him turned for help and comfort six and a half feet of slow moving heavy footed bom on the bred in the and educated chiefly among the carts at the back of york railway station his name was and his chief virtue an patience which helped him to win fights how a fox of a ever came to be one of the is a mystery which even to day i cannot explain there was always three us used to say an by the grace god so long as our service lasts three us they ll always be tis so they desired no companionship beyond their own and it was evil for any man of the regiment who attempted dispute with them physical argument was out of the question as regarded and the and assault on meant a combined attack from these twain a business which no five men were anxious to have on their hands therefore they the of b flourished sharing their drinks their tobacco and their money good luck and evil battle and the chances of death ufe and the chances of happiness from in southern to in northern india through no merit of my own it was my good fortune to be in a measure admitted to their friendship frankly by from the beginning sullenly and with reluctance by and suspiciously by who held to it that no man not in the army could with a red coat like to like said he i he s a tain t natural that s all but that was not all they and in the told me more of their lives and adventures than i am ever likely to write all else this tale begins with the lamentable thirst that was at the beginning of first causes never was such a thirst told me so they kicked against their virtue but the attempt was only successful in the case of he whose talents were many went forth into the and stole a dog from a some one he knew not who not in the army now that was but newly connected by marriage with the colonel of the	39
regiment and was made from quarters least anticipated by and in the end he was forced lest a worse thing should happen to dispose at of as promising a small as ever one end of a leading string the purchase money was barely sufficient for one small outbreak which led him to the guard room he escaped however with nothing worse than a severe and a few hours of punishment not for nothing had he acquired the reputation of being the best soldier life s of his inches in the regiment had taught personal cleanliness and as the first articles of companions creed a man he was used to say in the speech of his goes to for a weakness in the knees an is for a pair but a man such as is an ornament to his service a man whose buttons are gold whose coat is wax upon him an whose are a speck thai man may in reason do he likes an from day to that s the pride bein we sat together upon a day in the shade of a far from the where a used to run in rainy weather behind us was the in which the gray wolves of the provinces and occasionally a tiger from central india were supposed to dwell in front lay the glaring white under a glaring sim and on either side ran the broad road that led to it was the that suggested to my mind the wisdom of taking a day s leave and going upon a shooting tour the is a holy bird throughout india and he who one is in danger of being by the nearest villagers but on the last occasion that had gone forth he had contrived without in the least offending local to return with six beautiful skins which he sold to profit it seemed just possible but manner use is ut to me goin out a the ground s an ut gets unto the throat fit to kill looking at me reproachfully an a is not a bird you can catch the tail ye run can a man run on an too i j the of had considered the question in all its bearings he spoke his pipe stem the while go forth return in glory to s royal ome an round these temples the o vou better go you ain t like to shoot yourself not while there s a of liquor me an ii stay at ome an keep shop case o any thin up but you go out with a gas pipe gun an the httle or you kin get one day s leave easy as go along an get it an get or turning to who was half asleep under the shadow of the bank he roused slowly go said he and went cursing his with irish and room point take note said he when he had won his holiday and appeared dressed in his clothes with the only piece in his hand take note an you i am goin in the face my own will all for to please you i will come af ther in a an i know that i wiu lie down die me catch for you ye lazy an be sacrificed by the he waved a huge and went away at twilight long before the appointed hour he returned empty handed much with dirt from the safe rest of a room table whereon he was smoking fast asleep on a bench go life s said without answering as he stirred up the can ye fight will ye fight very slowly the meaning of the words communicated itself to the half roused man he understood and again what might these things mean was shaking him savagely meantime the men in the room howled with delight there was war in the at last war and the breaking of bonds room etiquette is on the direct challenge must follow the direct reply this is more binding than the ties of tried friendship once again repeated the question answered by the only means in his power and so swiftly that the had barely time to avoid the blow the laughter around increased looked at his himself as greatly bewildered dropped from the table because his world was falling come outside said and as the occupants of the room prepared to follow he turned and said furiously there will be no fight this night any wan you is to assist the man that does follows on no man moved the three passed out into the moonlight with the buttons of his coat the parade ground was deserted except for the s impetuous rush carried his companions far into the open ere attempted to turn round and continue the discussion be still now twas my fault for things in the middle an end i should ha an explanation but dear on your are ye fit think you for the finest fight that was than me before ye answer more than ever puzzled turned two or l the of three times felt an arm kicked and answered ah m fit he was accustomed to fight blindly at the bidding of the superior mind they sat them down the men looking on from afar and himself in mighty words your fools scheme i out into the desert beyond the an there i met a pious a i ut for granted he be delighted for to me a piece an i jumped in you long lazy black haired swine who would have done the same thing under similar circumstances twas the height policy that man miles an miles as far as the new railway line they re now back the river tis a for only says he now an again to get me out ut i am i an the that you on me son an glory	39
be you at that i to an took no heed till he pulled up on the the line where the were mud there was a two thousand on that line you that a bell rang an they off to a big where s the white man in charge i to my in the shed he engaged on a a i he you take ticket he take money you get i that s the an cultivated man calls a me child a darkness an sin lead on to that though the mischief tis so far away from home which is the at christmas an the colonel s wife behind the tea table is more than i know that j life s i to the shed an found twas pay day among the their wages was on a table a big fine red buck a man high four wide an three thick a fist on him like a corn sack he was the fair an easy but he ask each man if he that month an each man yes course thin he from their wages all was paid he filled an ould cigar box full gun an ut among the they did not take much joy that an small a man close to me up a black gun an sings out i have ut good may ut do you i the forward to this big fine red man who threw a cloth off the most an chair i saw chair put your in a bag that was a don t yer know a when you see it said with great scorn i to call ut chair an chair ut shall be little man continued the twas a most chair all lined pink silk an fitted red silk curtains here ut is the red man here ut is the an he grinned weakly ways is ut any use to you the red man no the i d like to make a ut to you i am graciously pleased to accept that same the red man an at that all the cried aloud in was for cheerful notes an back to their me alone in the shed the red man saw me an his face grew blue on his big fat neck d you want here he room an no more i it may be ye had an that s manners ye for i was not goin to have the service the of upon out of this he i m in charge this section construction i m in charge i an it s like i will stay a while d ye much in these parts s that to you z he i but a great to you for i m you get the full half your from that chair is ut always so i an that i to a to ask questions that man s name is an he s been that ould chair monthly this nine months on the section takes a or he gives em the a month on pay day that i ut gives ut back to him for tis too big to carry away an he d sack the man that to sell ut that has been the wealth by think the shame to the man that the army in are bound to protect an in their two thousand a month t has t gotten t cheer man said on this an fraud committed by the man i a council war he in all the time to me into a fight with language that belonged by right to any tis a king s chair or a s there s gold on ut an silk an all manner tis not for me to countenance any sort wrong me bein the ould man anyway he has had ut nine months he dare not make ut was taken from him five miles away or ut may be six there was a long pause and the howled merrily one arm and contemplated it in the moonlight then he nodded partly to himself and partly to his friends with suppressed emotion i thought ye see the ut said i made to say as much to the man before he was for a direct front attack horse an guns an all for that i had no to convey the machine away i will not argue you i this day but me we talk ut out tis no good to the his an by twas the man that me ye ve been same for nine months but i m a just man i an the that the gilt top was not come by at that he turned sky green so i knew things was more than not come by i m to compound the for this month s s ah ho from and that man s on his fate continued his head all hell had no name bad enough for me that tide faith he called me a robber me that was him from in his evil ways a an to a man conscience a may change the life tis not for me to argue i ye are but by my hand i ll take away the temptation for you that lies in that chair you will have to fight me for ut he for well i know you will never dare make report to any one fight i will i but not this day for i m for want nourishment ye re an ould hand he me up an down an a a fight we will have the of eat now an an go your way that he gave me some an good an we talked this an that the while it goes hard on me now i my mouth to that piece furniture but justice is justice ye ve ut yet he there s	39
the fight between there is i an a good fight ye have the pick the best in my for the dinner you have given this day thin i came hot foot to you two your tongue the both tis this way to morrow we three will go there an he shall have his pick me an s a for he is all fat to the eye an he moves now i m all beef to the look an i move quick by my the man won t take me so me n see fair play i tell you be big whipped the cream above the jam the business take a good three us be very to haul away that chair this from ut is we must have ut tis the only piece property reach that we can get so cheap an s a fight all he has robbed the man we rob him for the sake the he gave me but u we do with the article when we ve got it them are as big as an uncommon ard to sell as said when ye stole the box from the who s goin to do t said and subsided the three returned to without a word s last argument the matter this was property and to be attained in the simplest and least embarrassing life s fashion it would eventually become beer great was next afternoon a procession of three formed itself and disappeared into the in the direction of the new railway line alone was without care for darkly into the future and little feared the what at that interview in the lonely pay shed by the side of the half built only a few hundred know and their tale is a one running thus we were at work three men in red coats came they saw the they made and the small man among the also made and used many very strong words upon this talk they departed together to an open space and there the fat man in the red coat fought with after the custom of white men with his hands making no noise and never at all pulling s hair such of us as were not afraid beheld these things for just so long a time as a man needs to cook the mid day meal the small man in the red coat had possessed himself of s watch no he did not steal that watch he held it in his hand and at certain seasons made and the twain ceased their combat which was like the combat of young in spring both men were soon all red but was much more red than the other seeing this and fearing for his life because we greatly loved him some fifty of us made shift to rush upon the red coats but a certain very black as to the hair and in no way to be confused with the small man or the fat man who fought that man we affirm ran upon us and of us he embraced some ten or fifty in both arms and beat our heads together so that our turned to the of and we ran away it is not good to interfere in the of white men after that ell and did not rise these men jumped upon his him of all his money and attempted to e the pay shed and departed is it true that makes no complaint of these latter things having ken done we were senseless with fear and do not all remember there was no near the pay what do we know about is it true that not return to this place on account of his sickness for ten days this is the fault f those bad men in the red coats who should be severely punished for is both our father and another and we love him much yet if does not return to this place at all we will speak the truth there was a for the up keep of which e were forced to pay nine of our monthly on such allowed us to make to him before the what could we we were poor men he took a full half of wages will the government repay us those those three men in red coats bore the upon their shoulders and departed all the money that had taken from us was in the cushions of therefore they stole it thousands of were there all our money it was our bank box to fill which we cheerfully contributed to three of our monthly why does the man look upon us with the eye of before god there was a and now there is no and if they send the here to make we can only say that there never has been any why should a be near these works we are poor men and we know nothing s life s such is the simplest version of the simplest story with the descent upon from the lips of the i received it himself was in no condition to say anything and preserved a massive silence broken only by the occasional of the lips he had seen a fight so gorgeous that even his power of speech was taken from him i respected that reserve until three days after the affair i discovered in a stable in my quarters a of splendour evidently in past days the litter of a queen the pole whereby it swung between the shoulders of the was rich with the painted of the shoulder were of yellow silk the of the litter itself were with the loves of all the gods and of the on the sliding doors were fitted with of and ran in shod with silver the cushions were of silk and the curtains which once hid any glimpse of the beauty of the king	39
dance too if i wasn t so there a in the face of the moon a huge and ragged spirit of the waste that its wings from afar it had risen out of the earth it was coming towards us and its outline was never twice the same the table cloth or dressing gown whatever the creature wore took a hundred shapes once it stopped on a neighbouring mound and all its legs and arms to the winds my but that as got em bad said seems like if e comes any we ll ave to with im raised himself from the dirt as a bull his of the and as a bull so he after a short minute at gaze gave tongue to the stars a oh then it was that we and the figure dipped into the hollow till with a crash of grass the lost one strode up to the of the and disappeared io life s to the waist in a wave of joyous dogs then and gave greeting bass and together both a in the throat you damned fool said they and him with their fists go easy he answered a huge arm each i would have you to know that i am a god to be treated as such tho by my faith i fancy i ve got to go to the guard room just like a soldier the latter part of the sentence destroyed the suspicions raised by the former any one would have been justified in regarding as mad he was and and his shirt and trousers were dropping off him but he wore one wondrous garment l gigantic cloak that fell from collar bone to heel of pale pink silk wrought all over in of hands long since dead with the loves of the gods the monstrous figures leaped in and out of the light of the fire as he settled the folds round him handled the stuff respectfully for a moment while i was trying to remember where i had seen it before then he screamed what ave you done with the you re the i am said the an by the same token the is my hide off i ve in this for four days me son i begin to why the is no use me boots an me like an on a s leg at a dance i begin to feel like a man all fearful an give me a pipe an i ll tell on he lit a pipe resumed his grip of his two friends and rocked to and fro in a gale of laughter said sternly tain t no time for the of you ve given an me more trouble you re worth you ave been absent without leave an you ll go into for that an you ave come back ly dressed an most improper in the o that of which you laugh an we thought you was dead all the time said the still shaking gently i ve done my tale you may cry if you like an httle here can my inside out ha done an my have been my luck has been the blessed luck british army an there s no than that i went out an in the and i have come back a pink god did any of you go to my time was up he was at the bottom of ut all ah said so murmured to morrow ah u t face in upon his ye will not s a a man had put me into the an the six bearer men were down the road i thought to mock for that fight so i go to the and there bein most full i my head out the concern an passed compliments i must ha him outrageous for i am that way the power the tongue comes on me i can bare him that his mouth opened like the mouth a which was had handled ut an i clear his no manner nor matter offence but me a big of beer twas the beer did the for i crawled back into the on me right ear me left foot an thin i slept like the dead i half roused an the noise in my head was and an los life s such as was quite new to me mother mercy thinks i a i wiu have on my shoulders i wake an that i curls up to sleep before ut should get on me that noise was not twas the rattle a there followed an impressive pause yes he had put me on a put me an all an six black his own that was in his confidence on the flat a and we were an along to be that i did not wake up thin an introduce to the as i was i slept for the part a day an a night but you that that man had packed me off on wan his to all for to make me my leave an get me into the the explanation was an eminently rational one lay at least ten hours by rail from the and nothing in the world could have saved from arrest as a had he appeared there in the apparel of his had not forgotten to take revenge drawing back a little began to place soft blows over selected portions of s body his thoughts were away on the and they meditated evil for continued i was full awake the was set down in a street i for i hear people an but i knew well i was far from home there is a queer smell upon our a smell dried earth and brick this place smelt flowers an bad water an alive came an blew heavy with his at the the it s in a village j i i the of lot i am i to	39
an the is the but i had no desire to move only lie still you re in foreign parts an the luck the british army will carry ye through that is an i made ut thin a lot surrounded the take ut up wan man but who ll pay us another the s minister the man i to i m a in me own right a minister to pay me expenses i u be an emperor if i lie still long enough but this is no village i ve found i lay quiet but i me right eye to a crack the shutters an i saw that the whole street was crammed an horses an a naked priests all powder an tails but i may tell you an you that all the ours was the most imperial an magnificent now a means a native lady au the world over except a soldier the happens to be a ride women an priests i your father s son is in the right this time there will be s six black in pink muslin up the an oh but the an the made me sick thin we got fair among the not more than fifty them an we an like in a tide i hear the women and in their but mine was the royal they made way for ut an the pink muslin men o mine were room for the do you know aught the lady yes said i she is a very old queen of the central indian states and they say she is fat life s how on earth could she go to without all the city knowing her twas the eternal foolishness the man they saw the lying an an the beauty ut after s men had ut and gone away an they gave ut the best name that occurred to quite right too for aught we know the ould lady was like me i m glad to hear she s fat i was no light weight an my men were anxious to me under a great big ornamented the most improper s an s i saw they made me blush like a like a the temple of i murmured remembering the monstrous horrors of that at pretty your presence there was pretty about ut except me twas all half an the left they shut a big black gate behind us an half a company fat yellow priests began the into a place yet a big stone hall full pillars an gods an incense an all manner similar the gate disconcerted me for i perceived i have to go forward to get out my retreat bein cut off by the same token a good priest makes a bad they nearly turned me inside out the to the temple now the the forces inside was this way the that was me lay by the favour providence on the far left flank behind the a pillar carved with heads the remainder the was in a big half circle facing in to the biggest an most she god that i dreamed her head j the of ran up into the black above us an her feet stuck out in the light a little fire melted butter that a priest was out a butter dish thin a man began to sing an play on back in the an twas a queer song ut made my hair lift on the back my neck thin the doors au the slid back an the women out i saw what i ll see again twas more glorious at a for they was in pink an blue an silver an red an grass green di an im an great red all over but that was the least part the glory they were more lovely than the like any loveliness in ay their little bare feet were than the white hands a lord s lady an their mouths were like roses an their eyes were bigger an than the eyes any women i ve seen ye may laugh but i m truth i saw the like an i will seeing that in all probability you were watching the wives and daughters of most of the kings of india the chances are that you won t i said for it was dawning on me that had stumbled upon a big queens praying at i will he said mournfully that sight doesn t come twist to any man it made me ashamed to watch a fat priest knocked at my door i didn t think he d have the to disturb the so i lay still the old cow s asleep he to another let her be that be long before she has a calf i might ha known before he spoke that all a woman for in an for matter o that in england too is that made me more sorry i d come me bein as you well know a man life s he was silent for a moment thinking of his little son dead many years ago they prayed an the butter fires blazed up an the incense turned everything blue an between that an the fires the women looked as tho they were all an they took hold the she god s knees they cried out an they threw themselves about an that world without end amen music was mad mother how they cried an the ould she god above all so scornful the was out in me fast an i was think in harder than the thoughts go through my head how to get out an all manner of nonsense as well the women were in rows their di an the tears out their hands an the were goin lower an thin there was a blaze like from the roof an that showed me the inside the an at the end where my foot was stood	39
the spit an image o worked on the this man here ut was he hunted in the folds of his pink cloak ran a hand under one and thrust into the a foot long embroidered of the great god playing on a the heavy the staring eye and the blue black moustache of the god made up a far ofi resemblance to the blaze was gone in a wink but the whole came to me thin i believe i was mad too i slid the off open an out into the behind the head pillar tucked up my to my knees off my boots an a general au the pink the glory be ut out like a woman s you tread on ut at a ball an a bottle came with ut i the the of bottle an the next i was out the the pillar the wrapped round me most graceful the music like an a could round my bare legs by this hand that did ut i was on the the god that the talks about a sweet sight i must ha looked i knew my eyes were big and my face was wax white an at the worst i must ha looked like a ghost but they took me for the god the music stopped and the women were dead dumb an i crooked my legs like a shepherd on a basin an i did the ghost with my feet as i had done ut at the theatre many times an i slid the width that temple in front the she god on the beer bottle did you demanded the practical me oh the action to the word and sliding gravely in front of us a but imposing deity in the half light i sang only say you ll be mrs don t say nay i didn t know me own voice when i sang an oh twas pitiful to see the women the s were down oh their faces i passed the last wan i see her poor httle fingers one in another as if she wanted to touch my feet so i the tail this pink overcoat over her head for the greater honour an i slid into the on the other side the temple and fetched up in the arms a big fat priest all wanted was to get away so i him by his life s greasy throat an shut the speech out him out i which way ye fat heathen oh he man i white man soldier man common soldier man where in the name confusion is the back door the women in the temple were still on their faces an a yoimg priest was out his arms above their heads this way my fat friend behind a big bull god an into a passage thin i that i must ha made the miraculous reputation that temple for the next fifty years not so fast i an i held out both my hands a wink that ould thief smiled like a father i him by the back the neck in case he should be to put a knife into me an i ran him up an down the passage twice to collect his be quiet he in english now you talk sense i you give me for the use that most i have no time to take away don t tell he is ut like i but ye might give me my railway fare i m far from my home an i ve done you a service tis a good thing to be a priest the ould man himself to from a bank as i will prove to you he all round the slack his clothes an began notes old gold and into my hand till i could no more you lie said you re mad or a native don t give coin unless you cut it out o tain t nature then my lie an my is concealed imder that lump sod yonder retorted nodding across the an there s a more in nature than your little legs have taken you the of ine son four hundred an thirty four by my an a big fat gold that i took rom him as a was our share in that an e give it you for love said we were alone in that passage maybe i was a trifle too but i had done for the good the temple and the joy those women twas cheap at the price i ha taken more if i ha found ut i turned the ould man down at the last but he was thin he opened a door in another passage an i found up to my knees in river water an bad ut is more by token i had come out on the river line dose to the and to a corpse this was in the heart the night for i had been four hours in the temple there was a crowd boats tied up so i wan an across the river i came home country up by day how on earth did you manage i said how did sir get from to he marched an he how near he was to down that s why he is he is an now yawned now i will go an give myself up for leave it s eight an twenty days an the rough end of the colonel s tongue in orderly room any way you look at ut but tis cheap at the price said i softly if there happens to be any sort of excuse that the colonel can in any way accept i have a notion that you ll get nothing more than the dressing gown the new are in and not a word more is ut excuses the old man wants tis not my way but he shall have i ll ufe s tell him i was	39
engaged in financial operations connected a church and he his way to and the singing so they sent a ril s file and they put me in the room of a soldier and when he was lost in the midst of the moonlight we could hear the refrain bang upon the big drum upon the as we go along boys oh for although in thi t there s no nor champagne we ll keep our spirits goin with a song he surrendered himself to the joyful and almost weeping guard and was made much of by his fellows but to the colonel he said that he had been smitten with and had lain insensible on a s cot for hours and between laughter and the affair was smoothed over so that he could next day teach the new how to fear god honour the queen shoot straight and keep clean the of what did the colonel s lady nobody never knew somebody asked the s wife an she told em true when you to a man in the case they re like a tow a pins for the colonel s lady a ft are sisters under their skins room ail day i had followed at the heels of a pursuing array engaged on one of the finest battles that ever camp of exercise beheld thirty thousand troops had by the wisdom of the government of india been turned loose over a few thousand square miles of country to practise in peace what they would never attempt in war consequently cavalry charged at the trot captured by attacks delivered in line of quarter columns and mounted up to the wheels of an train which carried nothing more deadly than a twenty five two and a few score ail in three inch plate yet it was a very camp operations did not cease at nobody knew the country and nobody spared man or horse there was cavalry and almost forced work over broken ground the array of the south had finally pierced the centre of the army of the north and was pouring through the gap ufe s hot foot to capture a of importance its front extended the sticks being represented by strung out along the line of route backwards to the transport columns and all the lumber that behind an army on the move on its right the broken left of the army of the north was flying in mass chased by the southern horse and by the southern guns till these had been pushed far beyond the of their last support then the flying sat down to rest while the elated of the pursuing force that he held all in check and observation he did not observe that three miles to his right flank a flying column of northern horse with a of and british troops had been pushed round as fast as the failing light allowed to cut across the entire rear of the southern army to break as it were all the ribs of the fan where they by striking at the transport reserve and supplies their instructions were to go in avoiding the few who might not have been drawn off by the pursuit and create sufficient excitement to impress the southern army with the wisdom of guarding their own flank and rear before they captured cities it was a pretty neatly carried out speaking for the second division of the southern army our first intimation of the attack was at when the were in deep sand most of the escort were trying to help them out and the main body of the had gone on a s ark of and the mixed of an indian transport train and behind the guns when there appeared from nowhere in particular british the of to the extent of three companies who sprang to the heads of the gun horses and brought all to a amid oaths and cheers how s that said the major commanding the attack and with one voice the drivers and answered while the colonel of all your are charging our main body said the major your are for two miles i think we ve broken the back of this division and listen there go the a weak fire broke from the rear guard more than a mile away and was answered by cheerful the who should have swung clear of the second division had stepped on its tail in the dark but drawing off hastened to reach the next line of attack which lay almost parallel to us five or six miles away our column swayed and three the reserve the baggage and a section of the hospital and bearer corps the promised to report himself cut up to the nearest and his cavalry and all other cavalry to the special care of toiled on to resume touch with the rest of the division we ll here to night said the major i have a notion that the will get caught they may want us to re form on stand easy till the transport gets away a band caught my beast s bridle and led him out of the choking dust a larger hand me out of the saddle and two of the hands in the world received me pleasant is the lot of the special correspondent who falls into such hands as those of and i life s an that s all right said the calmly we thought we d find you here by is there anything yours in the transport fetch ut out did fetch ut out from under the trunk of an elephant in the shape of a servant and an animal both laden with medical comforts the little man s eyes sparkled if the an these parts gets sight the said making practised they ll ev they re bein fed on iron s an dog these days but glory s no compensation for a belly ache praise	39
be we re here to protect you beer bread soft an that s a cur soup in a tin by the smell ut an fowls mother moses but ye take the field like a tis ere s a said significantly when the s done the may clean the pot i several things into s before the major s hand fell on my shoulder and he said tenderly for the queen s service was quite wrong about special they are the soldier s best friends come and take pot luck with us to night and so it happened amid laughter and that my well considered melted away to later at the mess table which was a sheet spread on the the had taken three days with it and there be few things especially when government is with german toys beef of surpassing compressed vegetables and meat may be but what thomas the of lai needs is bulk in his inside the major assisted by his brother officers purchased for the camp and so made the experiment of no long before the fatigue party sent to collect had returned the men were settled down by their and pots had appeared from the surrounding country and were dangling over fires as the kid and the compressed vegetable together there rose a cheerful of mess outrageous demands for a little more with that there liver wing and gust on gust of as pointed as a and as delicate as a gun butt the boys are in a good temper said the major they ll be singing presently well a night like this is enough to keep them happy over our heads burned the wonderful indian stars which are not all pricked in on one plane but preserving an orderly perspective draw the eye through the et darkness of the void up to the barred doors of heaven itself the earth was a gray shadow more unreal than the sky we could hear her lightly in the pauses between the howling of the the movement of the wind in the and the fitful of fire away to the left a native from some unseen hut began to sing the mail train thundered past on its way to and a crow then there was a belt silence about the fires and the even breathing of the crowded earth took up the story the men full fed turned to tobacco and song their officers with them the is happy who can win the approval of the musical critics in his regiment and is honoured among the more intricate step dancers by him as by him who plays cleverly thomas will stand in time of need when he will let a hi s better officer go on alone the ruined of forgotten saints heard the ballad of town the battery marching to the long long indian day the place where tlie died and that crashing chorus which youth s daring spirit manhood s fire firm hand and eagle eye must he aj who would to see the gray die to day of all those jovial thieves who appropriated my and lay and laughed that sheet not one remains they went to that were not of exercise and battles without the and the frontier fever and fight took them in their time i drifted across to the men s fires in search of whom i found his feet by the blaze there is nothing particularly lovely in the sight of a private thus engaged after a long day s march but when you reflect on the exact proportion of the might majesty dominion and power of the british empire which stands on those feet you take an interest in the proceedings there s a bad luck to ut on the heel said i can t touch ut ut out httle man took out his house wife the trouble with a needle in the calf with the same weapon and was swiftly kicked into the fire i ve the best my toes over you ye child said sitting cross legged and nursing his feet then seeing me oh ut s you be an take that s place hold him down on the for a bit d the of but escaped and went elsewhere as i took possession of the hollow he had scraped for himself and lined with his on the other side of the fire grinned and in a minute fast asleep there s the height for you said lighting his pipe with a flaming branch but s eaten half a box your at wan an i think the tin too what s the best you son an how did you happen to be on the side this day we captured you the army of the south is winning au along the line i said then that line s the s rope your presence you ll learn to morrow how we to on before we made trouble an that s what a woman does by the same we ll be attacked before the an ut would be not to slip your boots how do i know that by the light pure reason here are three companies us ever so far inside the enemy s flank an a crowd cavalry gone on just to turn out the whole s nest them course the enemy will pursue by like as not an thin we ll have to run for ut mark my words i am the opinion he said don t fight for the pure joy but if you do knock the nose him first an we ought to ha gone on an helped the but what do you know about i demanded i this was a new side of s character l all that shakespeare wrote an a more that h the gallery shouted said the man of war carefully h his boots did i not tell you silver s theatre in h i was younger	39
i am now an a patron ufe s the drama ould silver never pay actor man or woman their just an by his was at the last thin the to take a part an oft as not ould silver made them pay for the fun faith i ve seen played a new black eye an the queen as full as a i that in the black an was shot in south africa he ould silver into him s part me that had a fine fancy for in those days course i into the gallery an began to fill the pit other people s hats an i passed the time day to through like a mule a pall on his back i there s a hole in your heel pull up your s i for the love that skull an up your s the whole house begun to tell him that he stopped his mid between my s may be down or they may not he his eye into the gallery for well he knew who i was but this is over me an the ghost the out you your ass s an that s how i come to know about those days those days did you have an to pay for it in your life never without having to pay i said that s tis mane you on ut but ut s the same horse or a headache if you an a belly ache if you eat too much an a to all down faith the beast only gets the an he s the lucky man he dropped his head and stared into the fire his moustache the while from the far side of i the co of i the the voice of senior of b company uplifted itself in an ancient and much appreciated song of sentiment the men moaning me behind him i the north wind coldly she drooped from that hour i my own little my sweet i my o i with forty five o s in the last word even at that i distance you might have cut the soft south irish accent i with a for all we take we must pay but the price is cruel high murmured when the chorus had i ceased i what s the trouble i said gently for i knew that he was a man of an sorrow hear now said he ye know what i am now i know what i to be at the my service i ve you time an again an what i have not has an what am i oh mary mother an ould a that has seen the ment change out from colonel to boy not or twice but scores ay scores an me not so near promotion as in the first an me on an clear not by my own good but the kindness some young enough to be son to me do i not know ut can i not tell i m passed over at p tho i m full liquor an ready to fall all in wan piece such as even a child might see oh tis only ould an i m let off in ly room through some of the tongue an a ready answer an the ould man s mercy is ut i feel i fail away an back to life s to carry ut ail off as a joke not ii tis hell to me dumb hell through ut all an next tune the fit comes i will be as bad again good cause the ment has to know me for the best soldier in ut better cause have i to know for the worst man i m only fit to the new what i ll learn an i am sure as tho i heard ut that the wan these pink eyed gets away from my mind ye now an listen to this jim sure i am that the me up to him for a so i as they say at instruction by direct and fire lord be good to me for i have some lie down and go to sleep said i not being able to comfort or advise you re the best man in the regiment and next to the biggest fool lie down and wait till we re attacked what force will they turn out guns think you try that your an ladies an the talk tho you ut well ye say to help me an yet ye knew what cause i had to be what i am begin at the beginning and go on to the end i said but up the fire a bit first i passed s for a that shows how little we know what we do said putting it aside fire takes all the heart out the steel an the next time may be that our little man is fighting for his ufe his il break an so you ll ha killed him no more than to yourself warm tis a s that pass the rod i down and after an interval the voice of began the of i did i tell you how came to be wife mine i a burning anxiety that i had felt for some ever since the strong the patient and the infinitely tender had of her own good love and free will washed a shirt for me moving in a barren land where washing was not i can t remember i said casually was it before or after you made love to and got no satisfaction the story of is written in another place it is one of the many less respectable in s career before before long before was that business an the ril s ghost woman was the worse for me i had married there s a time for au things an i know how to all things in place the that me in my place no	39
hope to be aught else begin at the beginning i insisted mrs told me that you married her when you were in an the same is a pit said she spoke did twas this way that have ye fallen in love i preserved the silence of the damned continued thin i will assume that ye have not did in the days my youth as i have more than you i was a man that filled the eye an delighted the women man was hated as i have bin man was loved as i no not within half a day s march ut for the first five years my service i was what i give my to be now i i life s whatever was within my reach an ut an that k more than most men can say i an ut did me no harm by the hollow i play four women at an them from out about the other three an smile like a full blown through ut all dick the battery we ll have down on us to night could drive his team no than i mine an i the cattle an so i lived an so i was happy till that business she that turned me off as cool as a an taught me where i in the mind an honest woman twas no sweet dose to swallow that i awhile an thought to my mental work i study an be a an a major minutes that but on top my there was an empty place in my an me own opinion not fill ut i to you re a great man an the best set up in the gk on an get promotion to me what for i to for the glory ut to me will that fill these two strong yours go to the devil i to go to the married lines to me tis the same thing i to you re the same man ut is said to me an that i on ut a long while did you feel that way i gently knowing that if were he would go on the from the fires beat up to the stars as the rival singers of the companies were against each other so i felt that way an a bad time ut was bein a fool i into the married lines more for the sake to our ould colour than the din h for any women folk i was a ril then but a ril then i ve got a to prove ut you ll take a cup us i will that i tho is not my be better for you if ut were ould mother an she had ought to know for in the ind his service fuu each night that i o f my gloves there was in so that they an pulled up my chair round at the china ornaments an bits things in the quarters they were things that belonged to a man an no camp here to day an next you re comfortable in this place i tis the wife that did ut boy he the stem his pipe to ould mother an she the top his bald head the compliment that you want money she an thin an thin the kettle was to be filled came in my her sleeves up to the elbow an her hair in a glory over her forehead the big blue eyes beneath like stars on a frosty night an the tread her two feet lighter than waste paper from the colonel s basket in ly room ut s emptied bein but a a girl she went pink at me an i twisted me moustache an looked at a picture the wall show a woman that ye care the snap a finger for her an she ll come to your boot heels i suppose that s why you followed till everybody in the married quarters laughed at you said i remembering that and casting off the disguise of i m down the gin theory the attack said life s driving his boot into the dying fire ij you read the soldier s pocket book which any soldier reads you ll see that there are exceptions was out the door an twas as tho the sunlight had shut too mother i but is that your daughter i ve believed that way these eighteen years ould his eyes but mrs has her own opinion like iv ry woman tis yours this time for a mother thin why in the name fortune did i see her before i you ve been round the married women these three years past she was a bit a child till last year an she shot up the spring ould mother i ll no more i d mane that ould mother at me side ways like a hen looks at a hawk the chickens are free try me an tell i that i pulled on my gloves off the an went out the house as stiff as at gin p for well i knew that s eyes were in the small my back out the window faith that was the only time i mourned i was not a man for the pride the spurs to j i i out to think an i did a powerful lot but ut all came round to that a girl in the dotted blue the blue eyes an the in them thin i kept off an i kept to the married or near by on the did i meet her oh my time past did i not a lump in my throat as big as my an my heart goin uke a s on a saturday morning twas good day to ye miss an good day t you ril for a week or two and a bit further the of could i get the	39
respect i had to that girl that j i ha broken finger an thumb i here i as i recalled the gigantic figure of i when she handed me my shirt i ye may laugh m the an tis you that are in fault was a girl that ha taken the out the in those days flower hand foot shod air an the eyes the she had that is my wife to day ould and aught else than to me twas after three weeks off an on an through the eyes that a little i boy grinned in me face i had him the my belt for all over the place an i m not the only wan that doesn t to he i him by the his neck my heart was hung on a hair those days you will an out ut i or i ll lave no bone you speak to i he which i ye i limb satan the bob he he s seen her home from her aunt s house in the civil lines four times th s fortnight child i him your tongue s stronger than your body go to your quarters i m sorry i you down i at that i went four ways to i was mad to think that all ray airs among women i ha been by a basin faced fool a not fit to trust on a trunk i found him in our lines the was next us an a son a she mule he was his big brass spurs an his on his an all but he a hair life s a word you ve walked four times this fortnight gone what s that to you he i ll walk forty times more an forty on top that ye lance ril before i he had his fist home on my cheek an down i went full will that content you he on his for ail the world like a content i foi your own sake man take off your spurs your an tis the the stand up he all he know but he his an his shoulders had no fair play i was for an that cut on my cheek what hope had he me stand up i time an again he was to quarter the ground an high an go large this isn t school i man stand up an let me get in at ye but i saw he be about i his in my left an his waist belt in my right an swung him clear to my right front head he my nose till the wind was knocked out him on the bare ground stand up i or i ll kick your head into your chest and i ha done ut too mad i was my collar bone s he help me back to lines i ll walk her no more so i helped him back and was his collar bone broken i asked for i fancied that only could neatly accomplish that terrible throw he pitched on his left shoulder point ut was next day the news was in both an i met a cheek on me like all the tailor s the of there was no good ril or aught else an what have i done miss i very her that ye should not pass the time of day ye ve half killed rough rider she her dear blue eyes up may be i was he a friend yours that saw ye home four in the fortnight yes she but her mouth was down at the comers an an what s that to you she ask i to go away did you fight for me then ye silly man she tho she knew ut all along who else i an i wan pace to the front i wasn t worth ut she in her apron that s to say i shall i say ut yes she in a saint s whisper an at that i explained and she me what man that is a man an many that is a woman hears in his life but what made ye cry at i your bloody cheek she her little head down on my i was on duty for the day an like a sorrowful now a man take that two ways i ut as pleased me best an my first kiss ut mother innocence but i kissed her on the tip the nose an the eye an a girl that let s a kiss come like that has never been kissed before take note that thin we hand in hand to ould mother like two little an she said twas no bad thing an ould nodded behind his pipe an ran away to her own room that day i on a clouds all earth was too small to me i ha the sun out the sky for a live coal to my pipe so magnificent i was but i at an began general advance i ha been balance them that day that day a very long pause well said i twas all wrong said with an enormous sigh an i know that ev ry bit ut was my own foolishness that night i maybe the half three not enough to turn the hair of a man in his natural senses but i was more than half pure joy an that beer was so much to me i can t tell how it came about but i had no thought for except i hadn t slipped her little white arms from my neck five the breath of her kiss was not gone from my mouth i must go through the married lines on my way to quarters an i must stay to a red headed a girl that was daughter to mother the wife of nick the the black curse be on the whole brood that	39
ye not step in pretty and polite though the had no s with the child mother looked up quick an she was the to see the for was her daughter i m pressed for time to day as as brass an i ve only come for my man tis strange to find him here the day the day looked at me as though i had hit her an i answered straight there was some last night at the an s on the joke i at the very slow an cut in he was there from nine till ten an the half that time i was on his knee ye may look and ye may look an ye may look me up an down but ye won t look away that is my man tis time for us to be home said word to ye left me at half past eight she to me an i thought that ye d leave me for promises or no promises go back her you that have to be fetched by a girl i m done with you she and she ran into her own the of room her mother so i was alone those two women and at liberty to my sentiments i if you made a fool me the lights you shall not do ut in the day i promised you words or lines you lie ould mother an may ut choke you where you stand she was far gone in an tho ut choked me where i i d not change i go home i take shame for a decent girl like you your mother out bare headed on this errand hear now and have ut for an answer i gave my word to yesterday an more blame to me i was you last night but more you ve chosen to to me on ut i will not be held thereby for in the world is that enough pink all over an i wish you joy the she a you ve lost a woman that would ha wore her hand to the bone for your pleasure an deed ye were not must ha spoken plain to her i am such as is deed i am ye ve lost a fool a girl that ll look at you again an ye ve lost what he had your common honesty if you manage your men as you manage your love small they call you the worst ril in the ny come away mother she but a would the ould woman d you by that she up under her thick gray eyebrows ay an i tho give me the go times i ll have no with you or yours i take your child away ye woman i life s an am i she her hands up above her head thin what are you ye weak son a am who put the open shame on me an my child that we go through the lines in the broad daylight for the broken word of a man double portion of my shame be on you that think yourself so strong by mary and the saints by blood and water an by sorrow that came into the world since the the black fall on you and yours so that you may be free from pain for another when ut s not your own may your heart in your breast drop by drop all your friends at the strong you think yourself may your strength be a curse to you to you into the s hands against your own will clear eyed you are may your eyes see clear step the dark path you take till the hot hell put out may the dry thirst in my own ould bones go to you that you shall pass bottle full nor glass empty god preserve the light your to you my jewel a that ye may forget what you to be an do you re in the may ye see the and follow the worse as long as there s breath in your body an may ye die quick in a strange land your death before ut takes you an to stir hand or foot i heard a in the room behind and thin s hand into mine like a into a muddy road the half that i ll take she an more too if i can go home ye silly woman go home an confess come away come away her i the of by the shawl twas none s fault or the love mary stop the an you said ould mother round will ye take the half that man s load stand off from him before he takes you down too you that look to be a s wife in five years you look too high child you shall wash for the master he to give you the job out charity but a s wife you shall be to the end an sorrow of a s wife you shall know and a joy but wan that shall go from you like the running tide from a rock the pain you shall know but the pleasure giving the breast an you shall put away a man child into the common ground a priest to say a prayer over him an on that man child ye shall think day your life think long for ll have another tho you pray till your knees are the mothers shall mock you behind your back when you re wringing over the you shall know what ut is to help a husband home an see him go to the room will that you that won t be seen to my daughter you shall talk to worse than before all s over the wives shall look down on you contemptuous daughter a an you shall cover ut all up a smiling face when your heart s stand off him	39
for i ve put the black curse of upon bim an his own mouth shall make ut good she pitched forward on her head an began at the mouth ran out water an the ould woman into the till she sat i m old an she an and tis like i say a more than i mane when you re able to walk go says ould mother this house has no place for the likes you that have cursed my daughter said the ould woman hard words break no bones an the love her husband till my bones are green com i what i came here for can you lend us the bottom a mrs but her off as tho her heart break an an i in ten minutes we had forgot ut all then why do you remember it now said i is ut like i d forget word that wicked ould woman spoke fell in my life an i ha ut all ut all when my little was bom that was on the line march three months the regiment was taken with we were an thin an i was on i came off duty the women showed me the child an ut turned on side an died as i looked we buried him by the road an father victor was a day s march behind the heavy baggage so the ny captain read a prayer an since then i ve been a man an all else that ould mother put upon me an what do you think i thought a good deal but it seemed better then to reach out for s hand the demonstration nearly cost me the use of three fingers whatever he knows of his weaknesses is entirely ignorant of his strength but what do you think he repeated as i was out the fingers the of my reply was drowned in and from the next fire where ten men were shouting for boy cap n field you pen north o pop come ere to your own company and the who had been another audience with and was shot down among his admirers by the major force youve my dress shirt said he an i shan t sing no more to this ere room roused by the confusion himself crept behind and him aloft on his shoulders sing ye bird said he and beating time on s skull delivered himself in the voice of the highway of this song my girl she give me the go when i was a london lad an i went on the drink for a fortnight an then i went to the bad the queen she give me a to fight for er over the seas but ment built me a fever trap an give me disease chorus don t you what a girl says an don t you go for the beer but i was an ass when i was at grass an that is why i m ere i fired a shot at a the beggar e fired again an i lay on my bed with a in my ed an missed the next campaign life s i up with my gun at a who carried a but the stuck and the bay an all i got was the chorus ho don t you aim at a when you stand on the sky line dear an don t you go for a if none o your friends is near i served my time for a an my with pop for i went on the bend with a intimate friend an finished the night in the shop i served my time for a the colonel e the most you ll see is a full c b an very next night twas so chorus don t you go for a unless your ed is dear but i was an ass when i was at grass an that is why i m ere i ve tasted the luck o the army in an camp an an i lost my tip through the trip along o the women an drink i m down at the heel o my service an when i am laid on the shelf my very friend from beginning to end by the blood of a mouse was myself i chorus ho don t you what a girl says an don t you go for the beer but i was an ass when i was at grass an that is why i m ere confined to the of ay listen to our little man now an as tho trouble had touched him d you remember when he went mad with the home sickness said recalling a never to be forgotten season when through the deep waters of and behaved but he s bitter truth though my very worst from to ind by the blood a mouse was when i woke i saw the night dew his moustache leaning on his rifle at lonely as on his rock with i know not what tearing his liver n on hill to love s low voice she lent a careless ear her hand within his rosy fingers lay a weight she would not turn or hear but with averted face went on her way but when pale death all and grim lifted his bony hand and held out his wreath she followed him and love was left forlorn and wondering that she who for his bidding would not stay at death s whisper rose and went away din i where are you come out of the tents as i have done and fight against the english don t kill your own kin come out to me the from a native corps was round the ts of the camp firing at intervals and shouting invitations to his old comrades by the rain and the darkness he came to the english wing of the camp and with his	39
and rifle practice disturbed the men they had been making roads all day and were tired was sleeping at s feet s all that he said thickly and a bullet its way through the tent wall the men swore it s that from the said up some one an tell im e s come to the wrong shop d on hill go to sleep little man said who was steaming nearest the door i can t arise an with him tis tools outside tain t because you can t it s cause you won t ye long limp lazy beggar you im s the good of put a bullet into the swine e s us awake said another voice a shouted angrily and a dripping from the darkness tain t no good sir i can t see im e s somewhere down ill tumbled out of his blanket shall i try to get im sir said he no was the answer lie down i won t have the whole camp shooting all round the clock tell him to go and pot his friends considered for a moment then putting his head under the tent wall he called as a conductor calls in a block up there up the men laughed and the laughter was carried down wind to the who hearing that he had made a mistake went off to worry his own regiment half a mile away he was received with shots the were very angry with him for their colours an s all right said withdrawing his head as he heard the of the in the distance s me tho that man s not fit to live with my beauty sleep this way go out and shoot him in the morning then said the silence in the tents now get your rest men lay down with a happy little sigh and in two minutes there was no sound except the rain on the life s canvas and the all embracing and of the camp lay on a bare ridge of the and for a week had been waiting for a flying column to make connection the nightly rounds of the and his friends had become a nuisance in the morning the men dried themselves in hot sunshine and cleaned their the native regiment was to take its turn of road making that day while the old regiment i m goin to lay for a shot at that man said when he had finished washing out his rifle e comes up the every about five o clock it we go and lie out on the north ill a bit this afternoon we ll get im you re a little said blowing blue clouds into the air but i suppose i will have to come you s gone out with the mixed cause e thinks a said with scorn the mixed were a of picked shots generally employed in clearing spurs of hills when the enemy were too impertinent this taught the young of how to handle men and did not do the enemy much harm and strolled out of camp and passed the going to their road you ve got to sweat to day said we re going to get your man you didn t knock im out last night by any chance any of you no the pig went away mocking us i had one shot at him said a private he s my cousin and ought to have cleared our but good luck to you d on hill they went cautiously to the north hill leading because as he explained this is a long range show an i ve got to do it his was an almost passionate devotion to his rifle which by room report he was supposed to kiss every night before turning in charges and he held in contempt and when they were inevitable slipped between and bidding them to fight for his skin as well as their own they never failed him he trotted along like a hound on a broken trail through the wood of the north hill at last he was satisfied and threw himself down on the soft pine slope that commanded a clear view of the and a brown bare beyond it the trees made a scented darkness in which an army corps could have hidden from the sun glare without ere s the tail o the wood said e s got to come up the cause it gives im cover we ll lay ere tain t not so dusty neither he buried his nose in a of white no one had come to tell the flowers that the season of their strength was long past and they had merrily in the twilight of the pines this is something like he said a clear drop for a bullet how much d you make it seven maybe a trifle less the air s so thin i went a of on the rear face of the north hill curse them mixed at i they ll scare the country a shot in the middle of the row said life s the man of many there s a red rock yonder he ll be sure to pass quick ran liis sight up to six hundred yards and fired the bullet threw up a feather of dust by a of at the base of the rock good enough said snapping the scale down you your sights to mine or a little lower you re always high but remember first shot to me but it s a lovely afternoon the noise of the firing grew louder and there was a of men in the wood the two lay very quiet for they knew that the british soldier is desperately prone to fire at anything that moves or calls then appeared his across the breast by a bullet looking ashamed of himself he flung down on the pine needles breathing in one o	39
them damned o th said he the rent to th right flank when he i was there if i knew who he was i d a the hide him look at ma that s the a train him to hit a fly a rest at seven an he loose on he sees or hears up to th mile you re weu out that fancy gang stay here bin at the wind in the said with a chuckle i ll show you some later on they in the pine needles and the sun them where they lay the mixed ceased firing and returned to camp and left the wood to a few scared the up its voice in the silence and talked foolishly to the rocks now and again the dull of a charge three miles away told on hill x that the were in difficulties with their road making the men smiled as they listened and lay still in the warm leisure presently bet een the of his seems queer about im yonder at all e ll be a side when i ve done with im said they were talking in whispers for the stillness of the wood and the desire of slaughter lay heavy upon them i make no doubt he had bis reasons for but my faith i make less doubt man has good reason for him said happen there was a up wi it men do more than more for th sake of a they make most us list they ve no manner right to make us desert ah they make us list or their fathers do said softly his over his eyes s brows contracted savagely he was watching the valley if it s a girl i ll shoot the beggar twice over an second time for bein a fool you re sentimental all of a sudden o your last near nay lad ah was but o what had happened an has happened ye child calamity that you re like a cow calf at the back the pasture an excuses for the man s goin to kill ye ll have to wait another hour yet little man spit it out an to the moon it takes an earthquake or a bullet to fetch aught out you discourse don the a a mental eye on the valley life s u it s along o hill there said watching the bare sub spur that reminded him of his he was speaking more to himself than his fellows ay said he stands up town an stands up i reckon you ve never tell o hill but yon bit o bare stuff if there was a white road is like ut strangely like an an wi never a tree for shelter an gray houses wi and an a goin to and fro just like these and cold a wind that cuts you like a knife you could tell hill folk by the red apple colour o their cheeks an nose tips and their blue eyes driven into by the wind mostly for lead i th the trail of th ore vein same as a field rat it was the i ever seen yo d come on a bit o wood like a well head an you was let down i th of a rope off the side wi one hand a candle stuck in a lump o clay with t other an hold of a rope with t other hand an that s three of them said must be a good climate in those parts took no heed an then yo came to a level where you crept on your hands and knees through a mile o drift an you come out into a cave place as big as with a engine water from s at went deeper still it s a queer country let alone for the hill is full of those natural an the rivers an the drops into what they call pot holes an come out again miles away was you there said on hill i was a young chap then an mostly went m coal and lead ore but at th time i m on i was the team i th big i didn t belong to that country side by rights i went there because of a little difference at home an at i took up wi a rough lot one night we d been an i must ha more than i could stand or happen th ale was none so good though i them days by for god i never seed bad ale he flung his arms over his head and a vast handful of white said he i never seed the ale i could not drink the i could not smoke nor the i could not kiss well we have a race home the lot on us i lost all th others an when i was one of them walls built o loose stones i comes down into the ditch stones and all an broke my arm not as i much about it for i on th back of my head an was knocked stupid like an when i come to it were an i were on the settle i s an was i ached all and my mouth were like a she gave me a drink out of a china wi gold letters a present from as i looked at many and many a time at after yo re to lie still while dr comes because your arm s broken and father has sent a lad to fetch him he found yo when he was goin to work an carried you here on his back she oa i an i my eyes for i felt ashamed o father s gone to his work these three hours an he said he d tell em to get somebody to drive the the clock an a bee in the house an	39
i like her she s most remarkable in her i may die in or cape but wherever i die me bein i am an a priest handy i go under the same orders an the same words an the same as tho the pope himself come down from the roof st peter s to see me off there s neither high nor low nor broad nor deep nor nor between her an that s what i like but mark you she s no manner church for a wake man she takes the body and the soul him he has his proper work to do i remember when my father died that was three months to his grave he d ha sold the above our heads for ten minutes of an he did all he could that s why i say ut takes a strong man to deal with the ould church an for that reason you ll find so many women go there an that same s a s the use o bout these things said you re bound to find all out quicker nor you want to any ow he jerked the out of the block into the palm of his hand ere s my he said and made the black headed bullet bow like a e s goin to teach a man i all about which is which an s true after all before but after that there was one thing they at and almost shut th gate i my face for and that were my dog blast th only one saved out o a litter o as was up when a o powder off in th s hut they liked his name no better than his i i j is ufe s business which were every dog he across a rare good dog wi spots o black and pink on his face one ear gone and lame o one side wi being driven in a basket through an iron roof a matter of half a mile they said i give him up cause he were worldly and low and would i let be shut out of heaven for the sake on a dog nay says i if th door isn t wide enough for th pair on us we ll stop outside for we ll none be parted and th preacher spoke up for blast as had a for him from th first i reckon that was why i come to like th preacher and wouldn t hear o his name to bless as some o them wanted so th pair on us became lar but it s hard for a young chap o my build to cut traces from the world th flesh an the devil all a heap yet i stuck to it for a long time while th lads as used to stand about th town end an lean th bridge into th o a sunday would call after me when s ta to preach cause we re to hear tha ho d tha jaw he hasn t th white on ta mom another lad would say and i had to double my fists hard i th bottom of my sunday coat and say to if monday and i t a member o the primitive i d leather all th lot of that was th hardest of all to know that i could fight and i mustn t fight sympathetic from so what wi and class s and th big fiddle as he made me take between my knees i spent a deal o time i s house place but often as i was there th preacher to me to go of and both th old man an th yoimg woman were pleased to have him he lived i as were a on mil step off but he come he come all the same i liked him as well or better as any man i d ever seen i one way and yet i hated him wi all my heart i t other and we watched each other like cat and mouse but civil as you please for i was on my best behaviour and he was that fair and open that i was bound to be fair with him rare good company he was if i hadn t wanted to his little neck half of the time often and often when be was goin from s i d set him a bit on the road see im ome you mean said ay it s a way we have i o friends off you was a friend as i didn t want to come back and he didn t want me to come back neither and so we d walk together towards and then he d set me back again and there we d be two o clock i the each other to an fro like a pair o hill and valley long after light had gone out i s window as both on us had been looking at pretending to watch the moon ah broke in ye d no against the singer they ll take the airs an the graces the man nine times out ten an they only find the blunder later the that s just where yo re wrong said under the tan of his cheeks i was th first wi an yo d think that were enough but th parson were a steady sort o chap and were strong o his side and all th women i the congregation it to at she were fair fond to take up wi a ne er do like me as was respectable an a fighting dog at his heels it was all very well for her to be doing me good and saving my soul but she must mind as she didn t do herself harm i o life s they talk o rich folk bein stuck up	39
was and where th ore was brought up and put into th as went down o themselves me th on and th horses a after long as it was daylight we were good friends but when we got fair into th dark and could see th day at the hole like a lamp at a street end i downright wicked ma religion dropped all away from me when i looked back at him as were always between me and the talk was at they were to be wed when she got better an i couldn t get her to say yes or nay to it he began to sing a hymn in his voice and i came out wi a chorus that was all an at my horses an i began to know how i hated him he were such a little chap too i could drop him wi one hand down s copper hole a place where th th edge on a rock and fell wi a bit of a whisper into a pit as no rope i could plump again rooted up the innocent ay he should see th o th earth an never naught else i could take him a mile or two along th drift and leave him wi his candle to cry wi none to hear him and say amen i was to lead him down th ladder way to th drift where was and why shouldn t he slip on th ladder wi my feet on his fingers till they grip and i put him down wi my heel if i went down th ladder i could click hold on him and him over my head so as he should go down the shaft his bones at ev ry as bill did when he was fresh and hadn t a bone left when he wrought to th life s bottom a leg to walk from an arm to put round s waist no more no more the thick lips curled back over the yellow teeth and that flushed face was not pretty to look upon nodded sympathy and moved by his comrade s passion brought up the rifle to his shoulder and searched the for his muttering about a a and a thunder storm the voice of tie supplied the necessary small talk till i picked up his story but it s none so easy to kill a man like yon when i d given up my horses to th lad as took my place and i was th preacher th s into his ear across th o th engines i saw he were afraid o naught and when the showed his black eyes i could feel as he was me again i were no better nor blast chained up short and i the depths of him while a strange dog went safe past th art a coward and a fool i said to an i i my mind again him till when we come to s copper hole i laid hold o the preacher and lifted him up over my head and held him into the darkest on it now lad i says it s to be one or t other on thee or for why isn t thee afraid for i says for he were still i my arms as a sack nay i m but afraid for thee my poor lad as knows naught says he i set him down on th edge an th run an there was no more in my head like when th bee come through th window o s house what dost tha mean says i i ve often thought as thou ought to know says he but twas hard to teu thee s for neither on us nor for nobody o this earth dr on hill and he knows her and her mother before that she is in a and she cannot live six months longer he s known it for many a day steady john steady says he and that weak little man pulled me further back and set me again him and talked it au over quiet and still me a bunch o candles in my hand and counting them and again as i listened a deal on it were th regular talk but there were a vast lot as made me begin to think as he were more of a man than i d ever given him credit for till i were cut as deep for him as i were for six candles we had and we crawled and climbed ail that day while they lasted and i said to hasn t six months to live and when we came into th daylight again we were like dead men to look at an blast come behind us without so much as his tail when i saw again she looked at me a minute and says who s and she tried to smile as she kissed me and i fair broke down yo see i was a young chap i them days and had seen naught o life let alone death as is a she me as dr said as air was too keen and they were goin to to s brother david as worked i a mill and i hold up like a man and a christian and she d pray for me well and they went away and the preacher that same back end o th year were appointed to another circuit as they call it and i were left alone on hill i tried and i tried hard to stick to th chapel but t th same thing at after i hadn t s voice to follow i th nor her eyes a their is and i th class meetings they said as i have some experiences to tell and i hadn t a word to say for z life s blast and me a good deal	39

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