Chapter Five.

Chapter Five.Rough weather as soon as we were out of the mouth of the Thames gave me something else to think about, and I did not spend much time in calculating whether I liked Captain Brace or not; but I suppose I behaved pretty well, for in two days I went on deck feeling a little faint, and as if the great ship was playing at pretending to sink beneath my feet.“Come, that’s good,” said a familiar voice; and I found Captain Brace had crossed over to where I was holding on by the bulwark, looking at the distant shore. “Why, Vincent, you are a better sailor than I am.”I smiled at him in rather a feeble manner.“Oh, I mean it,” he said. “It has been very rough for the past forty-eight hours, and I have been, as you know, pretty queer, but I forced myself to get up this morning, and it has done me no end of good. I have been down to see the men, thinking I would rouse them up, but, poor fellows, they are all so utterly miserable that I think I’ll leave them alone to-day.”Human nature is curious; for I was so glad that the men were worse than the officers, that I felt quite cheerful, and after breakfast—to which I went down feeling as if I could not touch a bit, but did touch a good many bits and drops—I found myself walking up and down the deck with Captain Brace, taking an interest in the towering masts with their press of sail, and the flashing, sparkling water, which came with a bump every now and then against the side of the great ship, and scattered a fine shower of spray over the bows.For the wind was brisk, and the ship heeled over pretty well as she sped down Channel.In the course of the day, during which I began to be acquainted with the officers, a passenger or two slowly made his appearance. I say “his,” because not a lady showed on deck during the week. Then, as the weather fell calm, they all came up nearly at once; and when I caught sight of the stout elderly lady who had been so affectionate to me in the docks, I felt disposed to go down. But there was no occasion. The week’s confinement below, and their miserable state of illness, had pretty well swept away the recollection of the drowning scene, and beyond one or two looks and a whisper passed on from one to the other, which I felt were about me, there was nothing to make me feel nervous and red.I am not going to give a description of our long voyage round by the Cape, for that was our course in those days; let it suffice if I say that we sailed south into warmer seas, with the torrid sun beating down upon us in a way which Captain Brace said would prepare us for what was to come. We had storms in rounding the Cape, and then we sailed on again north and east.It was a long, slow, monotonous voyage, during which I went on learning a good deal of my profession, for there was drilling every morning on deck, and the draft of men were marched and countermarched till the rough body of recruits began to fall correctly into the various movements, while I supplemented the knowledge I had acquired as a cadet, and more than once obtained a few words of praise from the sergeant with the draft, and what were to me high eulogies from Captain Brace.“Nothing like mastering the infantry drill, Vincent,” he said to me one day. “Young officers know, as a rule, far too little of foot drill. It will save you a good deal of trouble when we get there.”It was monotonous but not unpleasant, that voyage out. We had the customary sports on crossing the line; we fished and caught very little, though the men captured the inevitable shark with the lump of salt pork; and used the grains, as they called the three-pronged fork, to harpoon dolphins. I had my first sight of flying fish, and made friends with the officers. Then there was music and dancing on the hot moonlit nights; deck quoits under the awning by day; a good deal more sleep than we took at home; and at last we reached Ceylon and touched at Colombo, where everything struck me as being wonderfully unlike what I had pictured in my own mind.“Well,” said Captain Brace one evening, after we had had a run together on the shore, “what do you think of the Cingalese?”“That they look so effeminate,” I said.“Exactly,” he replied, nodding his head as I went on.“They are not bad looking; but it looks so absurd to see those elderly men dressed in muslins, with drawers and clothes that put me in mind of little girls about to go to a children’s party or a dance.”He looked amused, and I continued—“And then the ordinary people, with their oily black hair all done up in a knot behind and held by a comb. It does look so womanish.”“Yes; to us,” said Captain Brace. “But their clothes are comfortable for the hot climate, and that is more than you will be able to say of ours when you get out in the plains in full uniform some day.”“And it will not be long first now,” I thought; and I did not look forward to my first appearance in full uniform under a hot sun with any degree of dread.Then we were once more at sea, sailing on and on through fine weather and foul, till I learned that we were sailing up through the Sunderbunds, and on up the Hooghly, passing outward-bound vessels with great towering East Indiamen among them. Then the shore began to draw in, and I learned from one that there was good tiger-shooting in that district, beyond where I could see a fringe of palms, and from another that it would not be safe to bathe where we were.“On account of sharks,” I said, with an assumption of knowledge.“No, sir; muggers.”And when I stared inquiringly, he added—“Crocodiles; and higher up the river, sir, great turtles, which will snap a man, or a horse, or a dood to pieces in no time.”It was the same evening that I was standing looking at the low, far-off shore, with Captain Brace, and I said quietly—“I say, that little stout Mr Binns—”“Mr Commissioner Binns,” said the Captain. “Give him his full title. What about him?”“Was he telling me travellers’ tales about the crocodiles—muggers, as he called them—and the risk of bathing?”“Oh no; they swarm in this muddy river. I wonder they have let that come down.”He pointed to something floating at a short distance from the ship, and I looked at it with curiosity.“Some dead animal?” I said.“A dead man, Vincent. We are going up the estuary of the sacred river, you know, and it is the burial-place of the great cities which are upon its bank.”I turned away from the floating object with a shudder of horror, and was silent for some minutes, but broke out with—“But the great turtles—will they drag a man or a horse under water, and eat him?”“I have never seen it,” he replied; “but I have seen them attack a dood.”“What is a dood?”“A camel; one of a troop fording the river. It had plunged into a deep hole, and before it could struggle back into the shallow it was pulled under, and never rose again.”“Ugh!” I shuddered; “how horrid!”“Yes. You will know the danger if ever you have to take your men across a ford.”A couple of days later we were anchored in the great stream in front of the city of palaces, and I was gazing with eyes full of wonder and eagerness at the noble buildings, the great flights of steps leading down to the water, the constant procession of people to and fro, with huge elephants gaily caparisoned and bearing temple-like howdahs, some filled with Europeans, more often with turbaned chiefs or people of importance. The white garments and turbans of the natives gave a light and varied look in the bright sunshine, while amongst them were the carriages of the English residents, the handsome horses of officers, and the gay uniforms of the English and native troops, from whose weapons the dazzling sunshine flashed.“Yes; plenty of the military element,” said Captain Brace, pointing out different figures in the busy scene. “Take my glass,” he continued. “That’s a sepoy regiment. You can see their dark faces.”“Yes, I see,” I cried eagerly.“Do you see those two mounted men in white, with lances?”“Yes; who are they?”“Sowars of the native cavalry; and that little half troop behind—you can tell what they are?”“They look like English hussars,” I said.“Right. Part of the eighth, I should say. They are stationed here.”“But they are not the East India Company’s men.”“No. Part of the regular army. Those sowars are some of ours, and— Ah, you are in luck,” he cried, taking back the glass and using it quickly, before lending it again. “Look: there are some of the horse brigade.”“Artillery?” I cried excitedly.“Yes; and in review order. A troop of our horse artillery with their guns.”My hands trembled so that I could hardly bring the glass to bear upon the long line of men, but at last I had it correct, and excitedly saw them file by at a distance, the sun glancing on their polished brass helmets with long trailing plumes of red horsehair; their blue heavily braided jackets looking as if suddenly cut off by the men’s white breeches, and then again by their heavy black boots.It was to me a gallant show, and I drew a long, deep breath as I counted the guns with the men mounted upon the limbers, and watched attentively till they passed out of sight.“Well,” said my companion, “what do you think of our brigade?”“Oh!” I ejaculated, “I wish I belonged.”A very brief reply, but the tone made my sad-looking companion smile sadly.“Ah, Vincent,” he said, “you can only see the parade and show. Yes; it is very bright and fresh to you, but the time will come when all that pomp will be very irksome to you, and you will wish that the Company would let you dress simply and sensibly in a uniform suited to this terrible climate, and in which you could use your limbs freely without distressing yourself and your horse.”“But they look magnificent,” I said.“Yes, brilliant, my lad, brilliant; but there is another side to soldiering besides the show. There! all this sounds as if I were trying to damp and discourage you, but I have had seven years’ hard work out here in India, Vincent; perhaps, when you have been here as long, you may talk as I do.”“I shall not,” I muttered to myself. “I should be a poor soldier if I did. What did you say?” I said aloud.“I said that to-morrow morning we go ashore, and I can introduce you at head-quarters when I go to report myself. But, Vincent, my lad, what luck it would be if you had been in the horse brigade, and found yourself appointed to my troop.”“Yes,” I said, rather non-enthusiastically, for my hopes went in quite a contrary direction.“You would rather not,” he said, gazing at me sadly, and I coloured up like a girl, for I felt that he had read my thoughts. “I’m afraid you don’t like me, my lad.”My face burned as I said, “I’ve tried hard to like you ever since we met.”“Tried,” he said, smiling, as he raised his brows. “Ah, well! that is frankly spoken, after all,” and he walked away, leaving me feeling that I had hurt his feelings by showing that I did not like him in the least.We met next day, and I went with him to report myself, the officers I saw making more than one jocular allusion to my being so much of a boy, but good-humouredly telling me that I should soon correct that. Then followed my introduction to my company in the artillery, where with my Brandscombe knowledge I was soon able to hold my own, and obtained some little notoriety from the interest I took in the horses which drew our heavy guns. I never let slip a chance either of being present at the parades of the horse artillery, visiting Captain Brace often; and I am afraid very selfishly, for I felt little warmth for him as a man, though a great deal for him as an officer, as I admired his bearing and the way in which he handled his men.And so a year passed away, and then came a day when I had to appear at head-quarters, where I showed myself, feeling that I was in disgrace for some reason or another.I was kept waiting for some little time before an orderly bade me follow him, and directly after, I found myself in the presence of four stern-looking officers, who began to question me severely, one beginning as soon as another ceased.I suppose my replies were satisfactory, all being on technical matters connected with field-gunnery, but what it all meant, unless I was to be promoted, I could not tell.At last the officer who seemed to be the head, turned to me.“Look here, Lieutenant Vincent,” he said; “this sharp examination is due to the fact that some pressure has been brought to bear, to have you transferred to the horse artillery.”I turned scarlet with excitement. “Well, sir, we naturally resent this, as we are proud of our horse service, and do not want some lout with interest to back him, foisted upon us. It would be degrading, but I tell you frankly that we are favourably impressed.”“Thank you, sir,” I said.“We have carefully gone into your antecedents. We find that you are the son of a distinguished officer in the Queen’s service; that your career at Brandscombe was excellent, and we learn nothing but good of you in connection with your year’s work here.”I bowed.“Of course, we push you forward reluctantly, for it is a great honour to such a youth as you are. Why, you will be the youngest officer in the horse artillery.”“I am young, sir,” I said, humbly, but with my heart beating fast.“And there is another thing before this is settled. What about riding?”“I can ride anything, sir,” I said eagerly.“Indeed!”“I have hunted a great deal at home.”“Ah, well, I suppose we must give way, and I hope you will prove worthy of your promotion to so gallant a corps. By the way, you know Captain Brace?”“Oh yes, sir,” I replied.“Yes; he speaks very highly of you. So you shall go on probation with his troop at Rambagh.”I tried to speak, but no words came.“Which means, Mr Vincent,” said another of the old officers, “that if you prove yourself a soldier of spirit you will stay.”I hardly knew what followed, and soon after I was dismissed, to go and find Brace, who welcomed me with outstretched hands.“I am very glad, Vincent,” he said, “very glad indeed. Come along with me, and I’ll introduce you to Major Lacey, and the other officers of your new corps.”

Rough weather as soon as we were out of the mouth of the Thames gave me something else to think about, and I did not spend much time in calculating whether I liked Captain Brace or not; but I suppose I behaved pretty well, for in two days I went on deck feeling a little faint, and as if the great ship was playing at pretending to sink beneath my feet.

“Come, that’s good,” said a familiar voice; and I found Captain Brace had crossed over to where I was holding on by the bulwark, looking at the distant shore. “Why, Vincent, you are a better sailor than I am.”

I smiled at him in rather a feeble manner.

“Oh, I mean it,” he said. “It has been very rough for the past forty-eight hours, and I have been, as you know, pretty queer, but I forced myself to get up this morning, and it has done me no end of good. I have been down to see the men, thinking I would rouse them up, but, poor fellows, they are all so utterly miserable that I think I’ll leave them alone to-day.”

Human nature is curious; for I was so glad that the men were worse than the officers, that I felt quite cheerful, and after breakfast—to which I went down feeling as if I could not touch a bit, but did touch a good many bits and drops—I found myself walking up and down the deck with Captain Brace, taking an interest in the towering masts with their press of sail, and the flashing, sparkling water, which came with a bump every now and then against the side of the great ship, and scattered a fine shower of spray over the bows.

For the wind was brisk, and the ship heeled over pretty well as she sped down Channel.

In the course of the day, during which I began to be acquainted with the officers, a passenger or two slowly made his appearance. I say “his,” because not a lady showed on deck during the week. Then, as the weather fell calm, they all came up nearly at once; and when I caught sight of the stout elderly lady who had been so affectionate to me in the docks, I felt disposed to go down. But there was no occasion. The week’s confinement below, and their miserable state of illness, had pretty well swept away the recollection of the drowning scene, and beyond one or two looks and a whisper passed on from one to the other, which I felt were about me, there was nothing to make me feel nervous and red.

I am not going to give a description of our long voyage round by the Cape, for that was our course in those days; let it suffice if I say that we sailed south into warmer seas, with the torrid sun beating down upon us in a way which Captain Brace said would prepare us for what was to come. We had storms in rounding the Cape, and then we sailed on again north and east.

It was a long, slow, monotonous voyage, during which I went on learning a good deal of my profession, for there was drilling every morning on deck, and the draft of men were marched and countermarched till the rough body of recruits began to fall correctly into the various movements, while I supplemented the knowledge I had acquired as a cadet, and more than once obtained a few words of praise from the sergeant with the draft, and what were to me high eulogies from Captain Brace.

“Nothing like mastering the infantry drill, Vincent,” he said to me one day. “Young officers know, as a rule, far too little of foot drill. It will save you a good deal of trouble when we get there.”

It was monotonous but not unpleasant, that voyage out. We had the customary sports on crossing the line; we fished and caught very little, though the men captured the inevitable shark with the lump of salt pork; and used the grains, as they called the three-pronged fork, to harpoon dolphins. I had my first sight of flying fish, and made friends with the officers. Then there was music and dancing on the hot moonlit nights; deck quoits under the awning by day; a good deal more sleep than we took at home; and at last we reached Ceylon and touched at Colombo, where everything struck me as being wonderfully unlike what I had pictured in my own mind.

“Well,” said Captain Brace one evening, after we had had a run together on the shore, “what do you think of the Cingalese?”

“That they look so effeminate,” I said.

“Exactly,” he replied, nodding his head as I went on.

“They are not bad looking; but it looks so absurd to see those elderly men dressed in muslins, with drawers and clothes that put me in mind of little girls about to go to a children’s party or a dance.”

He looked amused, and I continued—

“And then the ordinary people, with their oily black hair all done up in a knot behind and held by a comb. It does look so womanish.”

“Yes; to us,” said Captain Brace. “But their clothes are comfortable for the hot climate, and that is more than you will be able to say of ours when you get out in the plains in full uniform some day.”

“And it will not be long first now,” I thought; and I did not look forward to my first appearance in full uniform under a hot sun with any degree of dread.

Then we were once more at sea, sailing on and on through fine weather and foul, till I learned that we were sailing up through the Sunderbunds, and on up the Hooghly, passing outward-bound vessels with great towering East Indiamen among them. Then the shore began to draw in, and I learned from one that there was good tiger-shooting in that district, beyond where I could see a fringe of palms, and from another that it would not be safe to bathe where we were.

“On account of sharks,” I said, with an assumption of knowledge.

“No, sir; muggers.”

And when I stared inquiringly, he added—

“Crocodiles; and higher up the river, sir, great turtles, which will snap a man, or a horse, or a dood to pieces in no time.”

It was the same evening that I was standing looking at the low, far-off shore, with Captain Brace, and I said quietly—

“I say, that little stout Mr Binns—”

“Mr Commissioner Binns,” said the Captain. “Give him his full title. What about him?”

“Was he telling me travellers’ tales about the crocodiles—muggers, as he called them—and the risk of bathing?”

“Oh no; they swarm in this muddy river. I wonder they have let that come down.”

He pointed to something floating at a short distance from the ship, and I looked at it with curiosity.

“Some dead animal?” I said.

“A dead man, Vincent. We are going up the estuary of the sacred river, you know, and it is the burial-place of the great cities which are upon its bank.”

I turned away from the floating object with a shudder of horror, and was silent for some minutes, but broke out with—

“But the great turtles—will they drag a man or a horse under water, and eat him?”

“I have never seen it,” he replied; “but I have seen them attack a dood.”

“What is a dood?”

“A camel; one of a troop fording the river. It had plunged into a deep hole, and before it could struggle back into the shallow it was pulled under, and never rose again.”

“Ugh!” I shuddered; “how horrid!”

“Yes. You will know the danger if ever you have to take your men across a ford.”

A couple of days later we were anchored in the great stream in front of the city of palaces, and I was gazing with eyes full of wonder and eagerness at the noble buildings, the great flights of steps leading down to the water, the constant procession of people to and fro, with huge elephants gaily caparisoned and bearing temple-like howdahs, some filled with Europeans, more often with turbaned chiefs or people of importance. The white garments and turbans of the natives gave a light and varied look in the bright sunshine, while amongst them were the carriages of the English residents, the handsome horses of officers, and the gay uniforms of the English and native troops, from whose weapons the dazzling sunshine flashed.

“Yes; plenty of the military element,” said Captain Brace, pointing out different figures in the busy scene. “Take my glass,” he continued. “That’s a sepoy regiment. You can see their dark faces.”

“Yes, I see,” I cried eagerly.

“Do you see those two mounted men in white, with lances?”

“Yes; who are they?”

“Sowars of the native cavalry; and that little half troop behind—you can tell what they are?”

“They look like English hussars,” I said.

“Right. Part of the eighth, I should say. They are stationed here.”

“But they are not the East India Company’s men.”

“No. Part of the regular army. Those sowars are some of ours, and— Ah, you are in luck,” he cried, taking back the glass and using it quickly, before lending it again. “Look: there are some of the horse brigade.”

“Artillery?” I cried excitedly.

“Yes; and in review order. A troop of our horse artillery with their guns.”

My hands trembled so that I could hardly bring the glass to bear upon the long line of men, but at last I had it correct, and excitedly saw them file by at a distance, the sun glancing on their polished brass helmets with long trailing plumes of red horsehair; their blue heavily braided jackets looking as if suddenly cut off by the men’s white breeches, and then again by their heavy black boots.

It was to me a gallant show, and I drew a long, deep breath as I counted the guns with the men mounted upon the limbers, and watched attentively till they passed out of sight.

“Well,” said my companion, “what do you think of our brigade?”

“Oh!” I ejaculated, “I wish I belonged.”

A very brief reply, but the tone made my sad-looking companion smile sadly.

“Ah, Vincent,” he said, “you can only see the parade and show. Yes; it is very bright and fresh to you, but the time will come when all that pomp will be very irksome to you, and you will wish that the Company would let you dress simply and sensibly in a uniform suited to this terrible climate, and in which you could use your limbs freely without distressing yourself and your horse.”

“But they look magnificent,” I said.

“Yes, brilliant, my lad, brilliant; but there is another side to soldiering besides the show. There! all this sounds as if I were trying to damp and discourage you, but I have had seven years’ hard work out here in India, Vincent; perhaps, when you have been here as long, you may talk as I do.”

“I shall not,” I muttered to myself. “I should be a poor soldier if I did. What did you say?” I said aloud.

“I said that to-morrow morning we go ashore, and I can introduce you at head-quarters when I go to report myself. But, Vincent, my lad, what luck it would be if you had been in the horse brigade, and found yourself appointed to my troop.”

“Yes,” I said, rather non-enthusiastically, for my hopes went in quite a contrary direction.

“You would rather not,” he said, gazing at me sadly, and I coloured up like a girl, for I felt that he had read my thoughts. “I’m afraid you don’t like me, my lad.”

My face burned as I said, “I’ve tried hard to like you ever since we met.”

“Tried,” he said, smiling, as he raised his brows. “Ah, well! that is frankly spoken, after all,” and he walked away, leaving me feeling that I had hurt his feelings by showing that I did not like him in the least.

We met next day, and I went with him to report myself, the officers I saw making more than one jocular allusion to my being so much of a boy, but good-humouredly telling me that I should soon correct that. Then followed my introduction to my company in the artillery, where with my Brandscombe knowledge I was soon able to hold my own, and obtained some little notoriety from the interest I took in the horses which drew our heavy guns. I never let slip a chance either of being present at the parades of the horse artillery, visiting Captain Brace often; and I am afraid very selfishly, for I felt little warmth for him as a man, though a great deal for him as an officer, as I admired his bearing and the way in which he handled his men.

And so a year passed away, and then came a day when I had to appear at head-quarters, where I showed myself, feeling that I was in disgrace for some reason or another.

I was kept waiting for some little time before an orderly bade me follow him, and directly after, I found myself in the presence of four stern-looking officers, who began to question me severely, one beginning as soon as another ceased.

I suppose my replies were satisfactory, all being on technical matters connected with field-gunnery, but what it all meant, unless I was to be promoted, I could not tell.

At last the officer who seemed to be the head, turned to me.

“Look here, Lieutenant Vincent,” he said; “this sharp examination is due to the fact that some pressure has been brought to bear, to have you transferred to the horse artillery.”

I turned scarlet with excitement. “Well, sir, we naturally resent this, as we are proud of our horse service, and do not want some lout with interest to back him, foisted upon us. It would be degrading, but I tell you frankly that we are favourably impressed.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said.

“We have carefully gone into your antecedents. We find that you are the son of a distinguished officer in the Queen’s service; that your career at Brandscombe was excellent, and we learn nothing but good of you in connection with your year’s work here.”

I bowed.

“Of course, we push you forward reluctantly, for it is a great honour to such a youth as you are. Why, you will be the youngest officer in the horse artillery.”

“I am young, sir,” I said, humbly, but with my heart beating fast.

“And there is another thing before this is settled. What about riding?”

“I can ride anything, sir,” I said eagerly.

“Indeed!”

“I have hunted a great deal at home.”

“Ah, well, I suppose we must give way, and I hope you will prove worthy of your promotion to so gallant a corps. By the way, you know Captain Brace?”

“Oh yes, sir,” I replied.

“Yes; he speaks very highly of you. So you shall go on probation with his troop at Rambagh.”

I tried to speak, but no words came.

“Which means, Mr Vincent,” said another of the old officers, “that if you prove yourself a soldier of spirit you will stay.”

I hardly knew what followed, and soon after I was dismissed, to go and find Brace, who welcomed me with outstretched hands.

“I am very glad, Vincent,” he said, “very glad indeed. Come along with me, and I’ll introduce you to Major Lacey, and the other officers of your new corps.”

Chapter Six.“You miserable, ugly, lazy nigger, take that, and that, and that.”There was the sound of blows at eachthat, and then a volley of abuse as I neared the officers’ quarters, and every word and blow came through the open windows.“Confound you! do you think I keep you to do nothing but sleep? I’ll have my horses look better than any one else’s, and they look worse,” came clearly; and there were more blows, while a group of white-clothed syces, two of whom held horses, looked at one another, and I saw that their faces wore a troubled aspect, as they whispered as soon as the English sentry on guard by the gateway turned his back to march steadily in the shade to the end of his beat, but as soon as he faced round they stood like bronze statues.Then came more blows, and it was evident to me that the trouble, or whatever it might be, was taking place in the quarters to which I had been directed; but I wanted to make sure, and I turned out of my way to meet the sentry, who halted and saluted as I drew near.“Which are Lieutenant Barton’s quarters?” I said.“Straight in front, sir. Through that door where the horses stand.”“Is there something the matter?”The man grinned. “Lieutenant’s licking his syce, sir, for being dirty.”“Oh!” I said; and I was about to turn away, when the man said respectfully—“Beg pardon, sir; you don’t know me again.”“No,” I said, looking at the man in a puzzled way. “Yes, of course; you are Denny. I did not expect to find you here. How are you?”“Nicely, sir, thank ye. I was picked with two more to enter this troop. Very glad, sir, you are appointed to it.”“Thank you, Denny,” I said. “It is pleasant to see the same faces.”“Beg pardon, sir,” continued the man eagerly. “I oughtn’t to talk like this, perhaps, but I got a letter from London yesterday, and she’s all right, and ain’t no worse for being pretty nigh drowned; and she said if ever I see the young gent as saved her life, as she’d always pray for him that he might live long and die happy.”“Oh, don’t talk about it, Denny,” I said hastily. “Thank you. That door where the syces are with the horses?”“Don’t stand sulking there, you black-looking scoundrel. It won’t do with me; I’ll cut it out of you.”There was the sound of more blows, and then, as I nearly reached the doorway, where the native servants made way respectfully, I heard what was evidently the final blow, and the words, “Now get out.”Directly after, a tall native in white came out, with his face convulsed and the blood streaming down one cheek from a cut on the left temple, and staining his white cotton garment; but as he came upon me, his countenance suddenly grew unnaturally calm, and he drew up on one side and saluted, as if nothing was the matter, though I could see that he was trembling like a leaf.Discipline had already taught me that I had no right to interfere with the actions of my superior officers, but human nature had made me already resent the way in which overbearing Englishmen bullied and ill-used the patient, long-suffering natives; and as I had heard the sounds of abuse and blows coming across the compound, a curious sensation of shame and annoyance made me feel hot and uncomfortable; and now as I came suddenly face to face with the good-looking, dark-faced man, with his bleeding temple, I hurriedly drew out a clean white handkerchief, doubled it into a bandage, and signing to the man to bend down, tied it tightly, bandage fashion, over what was a very severe cut.The man shrank from me for a moment, as if my action repelled him, but the next he had crossed his hands humbly over his breast, and bent forward.The act on my part was very quickly done, and then he raised his head, and his eyes met mine with a look that I could not read, but I could see that his lips were quivering, and the side of his head left uncovered was full of lines.The next moment I had remembered that I was an officer, and drew myself up stiffly.“Is Lieutenant Barton in his rooms?” I said, in what I meant to be sharp, authoritative tones.“Yes; what do you want?” came out through the window; and I stepped forward, catching one peculiar look from the injured man again, and noticing that the other syces salaamed to me as I passed out of the glare of sunshine, into the comparative darkness of a mat-hung passage, and from thence into a comfortable room well-furnished with cane chairs, gay Indian rugs, and curtains, and with a light table, on which stood a cigar-box, a bottle or two, and glasses. Between them lay a stout, silver-topped malacca cane, evidently the instrument with which the native groom had been chastised.But the principal object in the room was a fair-haired, supercilious-looking young man of seven or eight and twenty, in the lightest of pyjamas, and with a scarlet sash about his waist.He was lolling back in a reclining-chair as I entered, and he wrinkled his face, half-closing his eyes, and drawing his heavy moustache close up under his nose in a very unpleasant way, as he stared at me.“Oh, you’re our new fire-eater,” he said, in a bantering tone. “I heard you had come while I was away. How are you? Sit down and have a cigar. Here, hi!”He clapped his hands, and a grave-looking native in white entered, salaamed, and said softly—“Sahib?”“Mix two cool drinks, and put in plenty of ice. Look sharp!”“Don’t order anything for me,” I said, as the man bowed and left the room.“Don’t object to my having one, do you?” was said sneeringly, as I sat down; and then the officer laughed. “Take a cigar.”“Thank you. I don’t smoke.”“Don’t drink—don’t smoke? Ah, well, I dare say we can teach you before we’ve done. Well, how do you like Rambagh?”“I haven’t been here long enough to tell yet. It is very hot.”“Pooh! this is nothing. Ninety. Wait a bit, and we’ll give it to you up to twenty.”“No, that’s too cold,” I said, laughing.“Is it? Wait till you try.”“Oh, you mean a hundred and twenty.”“I do. You will not be so ready to use a lot of words when one will do, after you’ve been here a while.”“I suppose it does make you languid.”“Yes, and you can’t get a thing done by the lazy hounds you have for servants. The more you keep, the less there is done. I had to thrash my new syce this morning to bring him to his senses.”“Yes, I heard you,” I said. “Are you allowed to knock people about like that?”He opened his eyes, and then squeezed them up again, as he stared at me wonderingly.“Allowed? Who’s to prevent it?”“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m new to the place.”Just then the native servant brought in two glasses of some cool-looking drink, and handed them to his master.“Now, idiot! how often am I to tell you to go to the visitors first?”“Ask pardon, master,” said the man; and he brought the brass tray to me, but the lieutenant took his own first.“Health,” he said shortly, and half drained his glass. I sipped mine, and set it down as the man left the room.“Let’s see; you came over with Brace, didn’t you?”“Yes; in theJumna. He advised me to call and see you this morning, as you were out when we came.”“Much obliged to him. Fond of shooting?”“I dare say I should be. I have had no opportunity so far.”“Fishing, then?”“Oh yes. I have had a little trout and bottom fishing.”“Ah! we can give you some mahseer fishing here. Trying after big ones that can pull you in.”“Thank you. I shall be very glad.”“But you will not have much time yet. Nice grind you’ve got before you to master your drill.”“Yes, I suppose so,” I replied.“Don’t drink, don’t smoke, and I suppose you can’t ride?”“Yes, I can ride,” I said quickly.“I suppose so—in a riding-school. Wait till you are going at full gallop over the plain, with six or eight guns bumping and jumping after you; you’ll find out then whether you can ride. Well, how do you like Brace?”The question startled me.“I—I hardly know yet,” I said.“With him long enough, anyhow!”“I thought him very gentlemanly and kind.”“Bah! You don’t want a man to be gentlemanly and kind. You have got to learn to be a soldier—an artilleryman, not a molly. But, there, don’t you be uneasy about that. I’ll see that you are not spoiled. Got your servants yet?”“No; there is nothing settled. I have only just come.”“No horses, I suppose?”“No. Captain Brace said he would help me to get a couple.”“Hum! Deal he knows about horses. Better let me buy them for you. I know just the thing for you: plenty of speed, showy, and grand action—sort of a charger that wouldn’t do for me. Not up to my weight, but it would carry you splendidly. Brace always was the worst mounted man in the brigade. Better try a cigar.”I declined again, and sat chatting to my brother-officer till I thought I had been with him long enough, when I rose to go.“What! off already?” he said. “Oh, well, if you can’t stay. But you haven’t swallowed your drink.”I declined that too, feeling that he must be looking down upon me with the most utter contempt; but he said nothing till I had shaken hands.“Then I shall look out for a charger for you?”“Please no; not till I have spoken to Captain Brace.”“What for? Oh, he’ll be glad to be saved the trouble. That will be all right. You stick to me, and I’ll see you through.”I left my brother-officer’s quarters soon afterwards, feeling very glad to get away, and certainly under the impression that he thought me very stupid and boyish.“I suppose I’ve been keeping him in,” I thought, for outside I found the syces still waiting with the horses I had noticed on entering, and there, too, was the man who had been punished by the lieutenant; but my handkerchief was not tied round his head now, his wound having been bathed and covered with a scrap of plaister. I observed, too, that he must have changed the slight white garments he wore, for the ugly stains were gone.He salaamed as I passed and went back to my own quarters, thinking that I should have to alter a good deal if I used the native servants as I had seen the man treated that day.

“You miserable, ugly, lazy nigger, take that, and that, and that.”

There was the sound of blows at eachthat, and then a volley of abuse as I neared the officers’ quarters, and every word and blow came through the open windows.

“Confound you! do you think I keep you to do nothing but sleep? I’ll have my horses look better than any one else’s, and they look worse,” came clearly; and there were more blows, while a group of white-clothed syces, two of whom held horses, looked at one another, and I saw that their faces wore a troubled aspect, as they whispered as soon as the English sentry on guard by the gateway turned his back to march steadily in the shade to the end of his beat, but as soon as he faced round they stood like bronze statues.

Then came more blows, and it was evident to me that the trouble, or whatever it might be, was taking place in the quarters to which I had been directed; but I wanted to make sure, and I turned out of my way to meet the sentry, who halted and saluted as I drew near.

“Which are Lieutenant Barton’s quarters?” I said.

“Straight in front, sir. Through that door where the horses stand.”

“Is there something the matter?”

The man grinned. “Lieutenant’s licking his syce, sir, for being dirty.”

“Oh!” I said; and I was about to turn away, when the man said respectfully—

“Beg pardon, sir; you don’t know me again.”

“No,” I said, looking at the man in a puzzled way. “Yes, of course; you are Denny. I did not expect to find you here. How are you?”

“Nicely, sir, thank ye. I was picked with two more to enter this troop. Very glad, sir, you are appointed to it.”

“Thank you, Denny,” I said. “It is pleasant to see the same faces.”

“Beg pardon, sir,” continued the man eagerly. “I oughtn’t to talk like this, perhaps, but I got a letter from London yesterday, and she’s all right, and ain’t no worse for being pretty nigh drowned; and she said if ever I see the young gent as saved her life, as she’d always pray for him that he might live long and die happy.”

“Oh, don’t talk about it, Denny,” I said hastily. “Thank you. That door where the syces are with the horses?”

“Don’t stand sulking there, you black-looking scoundrel. It won’t do with me; I’ll cut it out of you.”

There was the sound of more blows, and then, as I nearly reached the doorway, where the native servants made way respectfully, I heard what was evidently the final blow, and the words, “Now get out.”

Directly after, a tall native in white came out, with his face convulsed and the blood streaming down one cheek from a cut on the left temple, and staining his white cotton garment; but as he came upon me, his countenance suddenly grew unnaturally calm, and he drew up on one side and saluted, as if nothing was the matter, though I could see that he was trembling like a leaf.

Discipline had already taught me that I had no right to interfere with the actions of my superior officers, but human nature had made me already resent the way in which overbearing Englishmen bullied and ill-used the patient, long-suffering natives; and as I had heard the sounds of abuse and blows coming across the compound, a curious sensation of shame and annoyance made me feel hot and uncomfortable; and now as I came suddenly face to face with the good-looking, dark-faced man, with his bleeding temple, I hurriedly drew out a clean white handkerchief, doubled it into a bandage, and signing to the man to bend down, tied it tightly, bandage fashion, over what was a very severe cut.

The man shrank from me for a moment, as if my action repelled him, but the next he had crossed his hands humbly over his breast, and bent forward.

The act on my part was very quickly done, and then he raised his head, and his eyes met mine with a look that I could not read, but I could see that his lips were quivering, and the side of his head left uncovered was full of lines.

The next moment I had remembered that I was an officer, and drew myself up stiffly.

“Is Lieutenant Barton in his rooms?” I said, in what I meant to be sharp, authoritative tones.

“Yes; what do you want?” came out through the window; and I stepped forward, catching one peculiar look from the injured man again, and noticing that the other syces salaamed to me as I passed out of the glare of sunshine, into the comparative darkness of a mat-hung passage, and from thence into a comfortable room well-furnished with cane chairs, gay Indian rugs, and curtains, and with a light table, on which stood a cigar-box, a bottle or two, and glasses. Between them lay a stout, silver-topped malacca cane, evidently the instrument with which the native groom had been chastised.

But the principal object in the room was a fair-haired, supercilious-looking young man of seven or eight and twenty, in the lightest of pyjamas, and with a scarlet sash about his waist.

He was lolling back in a reclining-chair as I entered, and he wrinkled his face, half-closing his eyes, and drawing his heavy moustache close up under his nose in a very unpleasant way, as he stared at me.

“Oh, you’re our new fire-eater,” he said, in a bantering tone. “I heard you had come while I was away. How are you? Sit down and have a cigar. Here, hi!”

He clapped his hands, and a grave-looking native in white entered, salaamed, and said softly—

“Sahib?”

“Mix two cool drinks, and put in plenty of ice. Look sharp!”

“Don’t order anything for me,” I said, as the man bowed and left the room.

“Don’t object to my having one, do you?” was said sneeringly, as I sat down; and then the officer laughed. “Take a cigar.”

“Thank you. I don’t smoke.”

“Don’t drink—don’t smoke? Ah, well, I dare say we can teach you before we’ve done. Well, how do you like Rambagh?”

“I haven’t been here long enough to tell yet. It is very hot.”

“Pooh! this is nothing. Ninety. Wait a bit, and we’ll give it to you up to twenty.”

“No, that’s too cold,” I said, laughing.

“Is it? Wait till you try.”

“Oh, you mean a hundred and twenty.”

“I do. You will not be so ready to use a lot of words when one will do, after you’ve been here a while.”

“I suppose it does make you languid.”

“Yes, and you can’t get a thing done by the lazy hounds you have for servants. The more you keep, the less there is done. I had to thrash my new syce this morning to bring him to his senses.”

“Yes, I heard you,” I said. “Are you allowed to knock people about like that?”

He opened his eyes, and then squeezed them up again, as he stared at me wonderingly.

“Allowed? Who’s to prevent it?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m new to the place.”

Just then the native servant brought in two glasses of some cool-looking drink, and handed them to his master.

“Now, idiot! how often am I to tell you to go to the visitors first?”

“Ask pardon, master,” said the man; and he brought the brass tray to me, but the lieutenant took his own first.

“Health,” he said shortly, and half drained his glass. I sipped mine, and set it down as the man left the room.

“Let’s see; you came over with Brace, didn’t you?”

“Yes; in theJumna. He advised me to call and see you this morning, as you were out when we came.”

“Much obliged to him. Fond of shooting?”

“I dare say I should be. I have had no opportunity so far.”

“Fishing, then?”

“Oh yes. I have had a little trout and bottom fishing.”

“Ah! we can give you some mahseer fishing here. Trying after big ones that can pull you in.”

“Thank you. I shall be very glad.”

“But you will not have much time yet. Nice grind you’ve got before you to master your drill.”

“Yes, I suppose so,” I replied.

“Don’t drink, don’t smoke, and I suppose you can’t ride?”

“Yes, I can ride,” I said quickly.

“I suppose so—in a riding-school. Wait till you are going at full gallop over the plain, with six or eight guns bumping and jumping after you; you’ll find out then whether you can ride. Well, how do you like Brace?”

The question startled me.

“I—I hardly know yet,” I said.

“With him long enough, anyhow!”

“I thought him very gentlemanly and kind.”

“Bah! You don’t want a man to be gentlemanly and kind. You have got to learn to be a soldier—an artilleryman, not a molly. But, there, don’t you be uneasy about that. I’ll see that you are not spoiled. Got your servants yet?”

“No; there is nothing settled. I have only just come.”

“No horses, I suppose?”

“No. Captain Brace said he would help me to get a couple.”

“Hum! Deal he knows about horses. Better let me buy them for you. I know just the thing for you: plenty of speed, showy, and grand action—sort of a charger that wouldn’t do for me. Not up to my weight, but it would carry you splendidly. Brace always was the worst mounted man in the brigade. Better try a cigar.”

I declined again, and sat chatting to my brother-officer till I thought I had been with him long enough, when I rose to go.

“What! off already?” he said. “Oh, well, if you can’t stay. But you haven’t swallowed your drink.”

I declined that too, feeling that he must be looking down upon me with the most utter contempt; but he said nothing till I had shaken hands.

“Then I shall look out for a charger for you?”

“Please no; not till I have spoken to Captain Brace.”

“What for? Oh, he’ll be glad to be saved the trouble. That will be all right. You stick to me, and I’ll see you through.”

I left my brother-officer’s quarters soon afterwards, feeling very glad to get away, and certainly under the impression that he thought me very stupid and boyish.

“I suppose I’ve been keeping him in,” I thought, for outside I found the syces still waiting with the horses I had noticed on entering, and there, too, was the man who had been punished by the lieutenant; but my handkerchief was not tied round his head now, his wound having been bathed and covered with a scrap of plaister. I observed, too, that he must have changed the slight white garments he wore, for the ugly stains were gone.

He salaamed as I passed and went back to my own quarters, thinking that I should have to alter a good deal if I used the native servants as I had seen the man treated that day.

Chapter Seven.I felt bound to tell Captain Brace of Lieutenant Barton’s proposal respecting my horses, and he looked at me sharply. “Do you wish him to manage that for you?” he said.“Certainly not,” I replied quickly; “he is quite a stranger, and I have known you from leaving England.”“He has not a very high opinion of my knowledge of horses, I know; but I think I can save your father some money in the transaction; and I promise you that you shall be well-mounted. And, by the way, Vincent, I don’t want to worry you with advice, but I must tell you one thing. The climate here is very trying to an English constitution, and if a man—”I looked up sharply, and I saw a faint smile on his lip as he went on—”—wishes to keep in health, he must be careful, and very abstemious as to what he drinks. Do you understand?”I said I did, and thought of the table in Lieutenant Barton’s quarters; feeling sure it was meant as a hint to me not to follow my brother-officer’s example.I was so busy during those early days drilling, and learning my various duties, that the time went very fast. I had my servants engaged, and felt rather ashamed to have so many; but the captain said that they were absolutely necessary, and the lieutenant that there were not half enough. He found terrible fault, too, with my horse the first day I was mounted, and on parade; and this, too, after I had tried the handsome dark arched-necked creature several times, and found that it carried me delightfully, being one of those elastic short-stepping animals, whose pace suited so well with the military style of riding.“Well,” said Barton, sourly, “I gave you my advice, and offered to help you. Don’t blame me if you get ridden over one of these days.”I was nervous enough before he spoke that morning, and naturally felt a good deal more so afterwards; and during the evolutions in which I took part for the first time, with a stern-looking sergeant close by me to help me through, it seemed to me as if my brother-officer’s words were about to be fulfilled. For in my confusion during a gallop I managed to get where I had no business to be, and turned sharply round to see that the men with the gun were pretty close to me before they reined in. To complete my misery, the major in charge of the battery rode up, and delivered a few pretty sharp adjurations to me and to the sergeant.I did not feel very comfortable that morning as I rode up to the quarters, dismounted, covered with perspiration and dust, and saw my horse led away; neither did I feel much better after my bath and change, as I hesitated whether I should go over to Captain Brace’s rooms, he having invited me to breakfast.“I shall never manage it,” I thought. Every one was laughing at me, and it was dreadful to be rowed like that by the major.I threw myself despondently in my chair, and had quite given up going, when Captain Brace’s servant came round to say that his master was waiting breakfast.There was nothing else for it but to go, and I followed the man to the bright-looking, cool room where Brace was seated.“Come, my lad,” he cried, “I should have thought you would be ravenous. Hallo! What’s wrong?”I looked at him with my face all in wrinkles, and sank down despondently in the seat to which he pointed.“Tired out?” he said.I shook my head.“Then, pray, what’s the matter?”“Matter?” I cried bitterly. “You saw what a fool I made of myself this morning.”His face wore a peculiar look as he shook his head.“No,” he said; “I was not there that time. What did you do?”“Not there! Why, you saw me get all wrong, and the men nearly ride me down, as Barton said they would, with that horse.”“I thought so,” said Brace drily. “How curious it is that a prophecy of evil always makes more impression than one of good.”“I don’t understand you,” I said.“My words were simple, my lad. Barton ran that horse down because he did not buy it for you. Now, naturally enough, I kept my eye upon you all through the drill, so as to see how you would get on. Your horse behaved admirably; and I should be ready to give you a couple of hundred rupees more for it than it cost; while, for a beginner, I thought you did remarkably well. Here: have some coffee.”“Well!” I cried, excitedly, “when I was nearly ridden over!”“You were not nearly ridden over; nothing of the kind.”“But you heard what the major said.”“Yes. He shouts pretty sharply sometimes. You were out of your place, of course.”“Oh yes; I was out of my place, of course,” I said bitterly. “I feel completely disgraced.”“Go on with your breakfast, boy,” cried Brace, with a good-humoured laugh. “Disgraced! You, a mere calf in just learning your drill. If you had been in the troop for four or five years, and made such a blunder, why, it would have been rather disgraceful; but for you! Why, we are quite proud of the rapid way you are picking up the evolutions.”“No: you are saying that to comfort me,” I cried bitterly.“I have a good many faults, Vincent,” he said quietly; “but I don’t think insincerity is one of them. If I say a thing to you, my lad, pleasant or unpleasant, you may take it for granted that I believe it to be honest and true.”“But the major? What he said to me before all the men was dreadful.”“Not at all. He was bound to say it. He might have spoken less harshly; but—wonderful!—here he is.”For just then I nearly jumped out of my chair on hearing the major’s voice asking for Captain Brace, and the next moment he had stridden into the room.“How nice and cool you are here,” he said. “Ah, Vincent, my lad, feel a bit sore after our gallop?”“Yes, sir,” I replied, gloomily, as the major seated himself at the table, helped himself to coffee and curry, and began to eat.“You’ll soon get over that. It’s rough work at first; but use is second nature. I say, that’s a very pretty little nag of yours; rather slight, but quite up to your weight. She gallops splendidly. Here, I’m regularly breakfasting. I wanted to have a few words with you, so I came over, as my wife was not down.”“Shall I go, sir?” I said, rising.“No, no, my dear boy; sit still.”I stared. Not an hour before he was bullying me fiercely before the whole troop.Brace saw my face, and laughed.“Vincent is in the doldrums,” he said.“What about?” grumbled the major, with his mouth full of curry.“You asked him if he was sore. He is: about the thrashing you gave him this morning.”“Bah! nonsense! Good lesson for you, boy. You won’t make that mistake again. You are getting on capitally. Wish we had a couple more of your breed.”“There, Vincent,” said Brace; “what do you say now?”I could not say anything, only feel as if the morning had suddenly become bright and joyous; and I began to make a wonderful breakfast; while the major chatted over a few matters connected with the discipline of the troop and the behaviour of some of the men.“Well,” said Brace, as soon as the major had gone; for he jumped up suddenly on receiving a message from his own quarters, leaving his half-eaten curry and a newly filled cup of coffee.“The general down,” he cried. “Bring Vincent over this evening for an hour or two.”“Well,” said Brace, “how are the spirits now?”“Oh, better,” I said, smiling; “but I do wish I was more clever.”“Rubbish! Don’t be impatient. A soldier can’t learn his duties in a month; and when he has learned them, it requires incessant practice to keep up to the mark; and will need,” he continued sadly, “to work hard; and, by the way, pay all the attention you can to your sword practice and fencing. I would not miss any of the pistol practice either.”I looked at him curiously, for there seemed to be a meaning underlying his words.“You need not worry about the riding-school; you can’t help getting on well in that. What are you looking at?”“You don’t think there is going to be war, do you?”“I think a soldier ought always to be ready in case there is,” he replied evasively.“Yes; but not war out here. You don’t think Russia means—”“Hallo! Who has been talking to you about Russia? No, Vincent, my boy, I do not; but I should not be surprised if we have a bit of trouble in one of the provinces before long. I hope not; but we are always having a little affair with some native prince. However, if we do, it may not affect us. Our troop may be a thousand miles away. India is a big place.”“Yes, and isn’t it wonderful that so few Englishmen should keep so many millions of the natives in subjection?”“In some respects, yes, my lad; in others, no. The great power comes from the fact that India embraces many nations who do not all think alike, neither are they of the same religion; and hence if we had trouble with one nation, the possibility is that we could bring some of the others to fight upon our side. But matters are not as they should be, Vincent; and I cannot help having forebodings now and then. We do not treat the people as we should. There is a little too much of the iron heel of the despot on their necks.”I thought of Barton’s treatment of the syce, and of many similar incidents wherever I had been since I came out, and then forgot every one but the fact that the post had come in, and with it a letter from my father, enclosing two others from my mother and sister.“Where are they now?” asked Brace.“In the north-west provinces,” I said eagerly, “at Nussoor.”“Some hundred miles away, Vincent. You are not likely to meet them for some time to come. You will have to introduce me to your people when you do.”

I felt bound to tell Captain Brace of Lieutenant Barton’s proposal respecting my horses, and he looked at me sharply. “Do you wish him to manage that for you?” he said.

“Certainly not,” I replied quickly; “he is quite a stranger, and I have known you from leaving England.”

“He has not a very high opinion of my knowledge of horses, I know; but I think I can save your father some money in the transaction; and I promise you that you shall be well-mounted. And, by the way, Vincent, I don’t want to worry you with advice, but I must tell you one thing. The climate here is very trying to an English constitution, and if a man—”

I looked up sharply, and I saw a faint smile on his lip as he went on—

”—wishes to keep in health, he must be careful, and very abstemious as to what he drinks. Do you understand?”

I said I did, and thought of the table in Lieutenant Barton’s quarters; feeling sure it was meant as a hint to me not to follow my brother-officer’s example.

I was so busy during those early days drilling, and learning my various duties, that the time went very fast. I had my servants engaged, and felt rather ashamed to have so many; but the captain said that they were absolutely necessary, and the lieutenant that there were not half enough. He found terrible fault, too, with my horse the first day I was mounted, and on parade; and this, too, after I had tried the handsome dark arched-necked creature several times, and found that it carried me delightfully, being one of those elastic short-stepping animals, whose pace suited so well with the military style of riding.

“Well,” said Barton, sourly, “I gave you my advice, and offered to help you. Don’t blame me if you get ridden over one of these days.”

I was nervous enough before he spoke that morning, and naturally felt a good deal more so afterwards; and during the evolutions in which I took part for the first time, with a stern-looking sergeant close by me to help me through, it seemed to me as if my brother-officer’s words were about to be fulfilled. For in my confusion during a gallop I managed to get where I had no business to be, and turned sharply round to see that the men with the gun were pretty close to me before they reined in. To complete my misery, the major in charge of the battery rode up, and delivered a few pretty sharp adjurations to me and to the sergeant.

I did not feel very comfortable that morning as I rode up to the quarters, dismounted, covered with perspiration and dust, and saw my horse led away; neither did I feel much better after my bath and change, as I hesitated whether I should go over to Captain Brace’s rooms, he having invited me to breakfast.

“I shall never manage it,” I thought. Every one was laughing at me, and it was dreadful to be rowed like that by the major.

I threw myself despondently in my chair, and had quite given up going, when Captain Brace’s servant came round to say that his master was waiting breakfast.

There was nothing else for it but to go, and I followed the man to the bright-looking, cool room where Brace was seated.

“Come, my lad,” he cried, “I should have thought you would be ravenous. Hallo! What’s wrong?”

I looked at him with my face all in wrinkles, and sank down despondently in the seat to which he pointed.

“Tired out?” he said.

I shook my head.

“Then, pray, what’s the matter?”

“Matter?” I cried bitterly. “You saw what a fool I made of myself this morning.”

His face wore a peculiar look as he shook his head.

“No,” he said; “I was not there that time. What did you do?”

“Not there! Why, you saw me get all wrong, and the men nearly ride me down, as Barton said they would, with that horse.”

“I thought so,” said Brace drily. “How curious it is that a prophecy of evil always makes more impression than one of good.”

“I don’t understand you,” I said.

“My words were simple, my lad. Barton ran that horse down because he did not buy it for you. Now, naturally enough, I kept my eye upon you all through the drill, so as to see how you would get on. Your horse behaved admirably; and I should be ready to give you a couple of hundred rupees more for it than it cost; while, for a beginner, I thought you did remarkably well. Here: have some coffee.”

“Well!” I cried, excitedly, “when I was nearly ridden over!”

“You were not nearly ridden over; nothing of the kind.”

“But you heard what the major said.”

“Yes. He shouts pretty sharply sometimes. You were out of your place, of course.”

“Oh yes; I was out of my place, of course,” I said bitterly. “I feel completely disgraced.”

“Go on with your breakfast, boy,” cried Brace, with a good-humoured laugh. “Disgraced! You, a mere calf in just learning your drill. If you had been in the troop for four or five years, and made such a blunder, why, it would have been rather disgraceful; but for you! Why, we are quite proud of the rapid way you are picking up the evolutions.”

“No: you are saying that to comfort me,” I cried bitterly.

“I have a good many faults, Vincent,” he said quietly; “but I don’t think insincerity is one of them. If I say a thing to you, my lad, pleasant or unpleasant, you may take it for granted that I believe it to be honest and true.”

“But the major? What he said to me before all the men was dreadful.”

“Not at all. He was bound to say it. He might have spoken less harshly; but—wonderful!—here he is.”

For just then I nearly jumped out of my chair on hearing the major’s voice asking for Captain Brace, and the next moment he had stridden into the room.

“How nice and cool you are here,” he said. “Ah, Vincent, my lad, feel a bit sore after our gallop?”

“Yes, sir,” I replied, gloomily, as the major seated himself at the table, helped himself to coffee and curry, and began to eat.

“You’ll soon get over that. It’s rough work at first; but use is second nature. I say, that’s a very pretty little nag of yours; rather slight, but quite up to your weight. She gallops splendidly. Here, I’m regularly breakfasting. I wanted to have a few words with you, so I came over, as my wife was not down.”

“Shall I go, sir?” I said, rising.

“No, no, my dear boy; sit still.”

I stared. Not an hour before he was bullying me fiercely before the whole troop.

Brace saw my face, and laughed.

“Vincent is in the doldrums,” he said.

“What about?” grumbled the major, with his mouth full of curry.

“You asked him if he was sore. He is: about the thrashing you gave him this morning.”

“Bah! nonsense! Good lesson for you, boy. You won’t make that mistake again. You are getting on capitally. Wish we had a couple more of your breed.”

“There, Vincent,” said Brace; “what do you say now?”

I could not say anything, only feel as if the morning had suddenly become bright and joyous; and I began to make a wonderful breakfast; while the major chatted over a few matters connected with the discipline of the troop and the behaviour of some of the men.

“Well,” said Brace, as soon as the major had gone; for he jumped up suddenly on receiving a message from his own quarters, leaving his half-eaten curry and a newly filled cup of coffee.

“The general down,” he cried. “Bring Vincent over this evening for an hour or two.”

“Well,” said Brace, “how are the spirits now?”

“Oh, better,” I said, smiling; “but I do wish I was more clever.”

“Rubbish! Don’t be impatient. A soldier can’t learn his duties in a month; and when he has learned them, it requires incessant practice to keep up to the mark; and will need,” he continued sadly, “to work hard; and, by the way, pay all the attention you can to your sword practice and fencing. I would not miss any of the pistol practice either.”

I looked at him curiously, for there seemed to be a meaning underlying his words.

“You need not worry about the riding-school; you can’t help getting on well in that. What are you looking at?”

“You don’t think there is going to be war, do you?”

“I think a soldier ought always to be ready in case there is,” he replied evasively.

“Yes; but not war out here. You don’t think Russia means—”

“Hallo! Who has been talking to you about Russia? No, Vincent, my boy, I do not; but I should not be surprised if we have a bit of trouble in one of the provinces before long. I hope not; but we are always having a little affair with some native prince. However, if we do, it may not affect us. Our troop may be a thousand miles away. India is a big place.”

“Yes, and isn’t it wonderful that so few Englishmen should keep so many millions of the natives in subjection?”

“In some respects, yes, my lad; in others, no. The great power comes from the fact that India embraces many nations who do not all think alike, neither are they of the same religion; and hence if we had trouble with one nation, the possibility is that we could bring some of the others to fight upon our side. But matters are not as they should be, Vincent; and I cannot help having forebodings now and then. We do not treat the people as we should. There is a little too much of the iron heel of the despot on their necks.”

I thought of Barton’s treatment of the syce, and of many similar incidents wherever I had been since I came out, and then forgot every one but the fact that the post had come in, and with it a letter from my father, enclosing two others from my mother and sister.

“Where are they now?” asked Brace.

“In the north-west provinces,” I said eagerly, “at Nussoor.”

“Some hundred miles away, Vincent. You are not likely to meet them for some time to come. You will have to introduce me to your people when you do.”

Chapter Eight.My work was hard at Rambagh, for I had no measured hours. I was ambitious too; eager to master my profession, and in constant dread of exciting derision by making some mistake.Perhaps some lads of my age would not have worked so hard, but would have contented themselves by acquiring the necessary knowledge slowly; but that did not accord with my ideas, and I eagerly attended all the early morning drills, and though the sergeant sourly said that I wanted a deal of setting up, and the riding-master laughingly told me that I looked like a tailor on horseback, I suppose I got on pretty well. At any rate, I was able to keep my place without making many outrageous blunders.I suppose it was a good deal due to the petting bestowed upon him, but I found my charger—the Sheik—as I called him, at Captain Brace’s suggestion, grew quite attached to me, and would follow me like a dog.And in spite of the intense heat, it was a pleasant life when I grew more used to my work, and less conscious and afraid of ridicule. I had my servants, who were very obedient and servile, but not at all attentive. I was too easy with them, Barton said, and he told me that a good kicking would do them good. Certainly his men flew to obey every word, and shrank at every look.“And hate him like poison,” Captain Brace said bitterly.But they did not show their hatred, if Brace was right; and no officer rode out to parade in better trim than Barton.One hot day, as I was seated panting at my shuttered window, I saw that Barton’s way of treating the syces was imitated by his subordinates, for one of the Serjeants, for some reason or another, raised his hand to strike a white-clothed figure across the enclosure, but altered his mind, and kicked him instead, with the result that the man shrank away, but made no sign, and I could not help thinking what a tyrant the white man was to the conquered black.I don’t know how it was, but as I lay back in my chair weary after a heavy morning drill, and drowsy from the effects of a good breakfast, I kept my eyes on the white-clothed figure whom the serjeant had kicked. He had stood like a statue till the serjeant had gone into the barracks, but as soon as the officer’s back was turned, I saw him glance round sharply, and then he appeared to be speaking to the natives near him in a quick excited way.From where I lay back, it was like looking at some photograph, every figure stood out so sharply in the bright sunshine, and I was just thinking that I did not feel so indignant at what had taken place as I had when I had first witnessed such a thing, when I half sleepily noticed that the native had left the group of syces by the open doorway which looked black on the white walls. Then he appeared to be crossing the great barrack square, and passed out of my sight, while my eyes closed, and I was dropping off to sleep, when I started wide-awake again listening.The sound which had aroused me was repeated close to the open window, and it was a sharp hissing drawing in of the breath, as of one in pain; and directly after thesycewho had crossed over to my side of the square, passed my window, halting slightly, and with a strange expression on his face, which impressed me even then. As I watched him it passed away, and he drew himself up, walking as usual, and salaaming to some one approaching in the opposite direction, and Major Lacey and Captain Brace sauntered by, while I lay thinking about the syce’s expression, and the patient way in which he had hidden the pain from which he was suffering. I had recognised him, too, as the tall, handsome native who had been struck by Barton—a man who, ever since, had saluted me with a grave, gentle smile.“It’s too bad,” I was saying to myself; and then, in my listless weariness, I was dropping off to sleep again, as I generally did after a hard drill, when my black servant entered silently, and presented me with a little packet.“What is it?” I said lazily.“No know, sahib. Ny Deen bring, and say tell master dhoby man keep it and couldn’t get back.”I opened the packet, which smelt most fragrantly, and found first some white flowers, and beneath them, very carefully washed, ironed, and scented, a pocket-handkerchief.“Mine,” I said half wonderingly, and then I grasped what it meant. “Did that syce, Lieutenant Barton’s man, bring this just now?”“Yes, sahib. Ny Deen.”“That will do,” I said; and I lay back thinking of the morning when I saw the man come out of Barton’s quarters bleeding, and bound up the cut.“A set of black scoundrels, are they,” I said to myself. “Well, some of them have feeling, and a way of showing their gratitude.”I took up and smelt the fragrant white blossoms thoughtfully; and then I remember saying to myself, for those events were stamped pretty deeply in my memory—“An Englishman would never have dreamed of sending flowers like that. I dare say it means something, if one only knew.”A few days after, when I had almost forgotten the incident, save that I always politely returned Ny Deen’s salute when I passed him, I was returning to my quarters one evening, when—not at all an uncommon thing—I heard loud voices in front, and saw that three of our men were going unsteadily along, evidently after too long a stay at one of the wretched places where they were supplied with the poisonous arrack which was answerable for the miserable death of so many British soldiers. One of the men in particular was in that noisy, excited state when reason seems to have run riot, and folly and madness have been taken for companions.The man’s two companions were greatly under the influence of drink, but they had sense enough left to try and control their drunken friend; and as I kept back unseen in the darkness, I saw them check the fellow when an insane desire had come upon him to kick and hammer at the officers’ quarters; and later on they engaged in a struggle, when he swore that he would go and let loose every horse in the troop.All this made me so indignant with the idiot that I was several times on the point of interfering, but I thought that nature would punish the fellow enough the next day, and kept back, waiting to see the others get him to his quarters.But, in spite of my determination, I found myself unexpectedly dragged into the affair; for, just as they were near Lieutenant Barton’s quarters, two of the syces’ wives came by, and with a shout the man escaped from his comrades’ grasp, made a rush at the two frightened women, and caught one of them in his arms.She cried aloud for help, and a couple of the native servants rushed out; one of them seizing the drunken gunner, and, in the brief struggle which ensued, I saw the two women run away, while their assailant held on to one of the white-clothed men, and, steadying himself, began striking him savagely, while the syce made no resistance, but passively received the blows.“The fool!” I said to myself, as I hurried up, thinking that if it had been an Englishman instead of a native, our drunken gunner would have received a severe thrashing. I did not pause to consider any consequences, but just watched my opportunity, and as the Englishman struck the syce heavily with his right hand, as he held the poor fellow with his left, I, too, delivered a stinging blow, as I ran in, right in the gunner’s ear, and then stood astonished at what I had done. For the next moment the fellow had gone down heavily, his head striking against a stone, and then he rolled over and lay still, with the syce standing close by looking on.“You’ve killed him, sir,” said one of the man’s comrades, as he went down on one knee by his side and raised his head.“Serve the brute right,” I said passionately.“Yes; he’s pretty bad,” growled the other, as he, too, bent down over his comrade, the affair having pretty well sobered them, as it had sobered me, too; for a chill of horror ran through me at the very thought of the man’s words being true.“Here, you,” I said roughly; “go and tell the sergeant of the guard. What, you in trouble again, Ny Deen?”“Yes, sahib,” said the syce softly, for I had recognised Barton’s groom.He ran off quickly, and the sergeant and a couple of men came up just as Barton was returning to his quarters.“Hillo! what’s up?” he said; “an accident?”“No,” I said shortly; “this drunken fellow was insulting our women, and then ill-using your syce for protecting them, and I knocked him down.”“And you have done it, sir,” grumbled the sergeant. “I’m afraid he isn’t going to come to.”Barton bent down over the man, who, I now saw, by a stable-lantern, was bleeding from the head, and the chill of horror increased as the lieutenant rose.“Here,” he said; “carry him into hospital. Be smart. You, sergeant, go and rouse up the doctor.”“Yes, sir;” and the men hurried off.“He’ll be pleased,” said Barton to me, with a cynical laugh. “He has had nothing but cholera cases and a broken arm to see to for months. But, I say, Don Quixote, you’ve put your foot in it this time.”“Enough to make me.” I cried petulantly. “I can’t stand by and see men such brutes.”We stopped and saw the insensible man carried into the building used as an infirmary, and by that time the doctor, who had been dining with Major Lacey—Brace being of the party—came into the building, and was followed by the above-named officers, who looked on in silence till the surgeon made his report.“Concussion of the brain, I’m afraid,” he said shortly. “Bad for a man in his state. This fellow is always on the drink. He must have fallen very heavily. Was he fighting?”“Yes—no,” I said, rather confusedly.“Not very clear, Vincent,” said the major. “Which was he doing?”“The fact is, sir, he was brutally ill-using one of the syces, who did not dare to defend himself, and I knocked the fellow down.”“Oh!” said the major, coldly; and he walked away, but turned back.“You had better go to your quarters, sir,” he said. “I suppose we can do you no good, Danby?”“No; thanks. Only let me have the nurse. Place will be cooler without company.”I went to my quarters, feeling as if the whole of my military career had come to an end through my passionate, quixotic behaviour; and yet somehow I could not deeply regret my action.I was sitting in my dim room, watching the moths and flies circling round the shaded lamp, when I received a summons to go to the major’s quarters, and on going across I found Brace there, and the doctor.“This is a serious matter, Vincent,” said the major. “Dr Danby gives a very bad account of this man’s state. How did it all happen? Tell me everything.”I explained all the circumstances, and then there was a pause. I glanced at Brace, who sat there in the shade, so that I could not see his face, and a curious sensation of misery attacked me as I began to think of court-martials, and dismissal, or resignation, if there were no worse punishment, and my brain had already pictured the man’s death, with the following military funeral, and volleys fired over the grave, when the major said—“We must wait and see how this matter turns out, Vincent. It will be a most painful thing for me to report at head-quarters. But I will say no more to-night, only to warn you that you are too quixotic.”That word again! How I did loathe it then.“I have a great objection myself to seeing the natives beaten, and I have more than once punished men for it; but it will not do for a junior officer like you to take upon yourself the defence of every black whom you consider ill-used. There, sir; you can return to your quarters. No, no, don’t say anything to-night. Go back, and think of what I have said. Going, Brace?”“Yes,” said the captain, rising. “I’ll walk back with Vincent: you don’t want me any longer. I’ll see Danby again to-night, and hear how the man is going on.”A minute later I was walking across in the darkness, with Brace, waiting for him to speak, and listening to the regular tramp of the sentry near us, and the softer sound of another at a distance, like an echo of the one by the officers’ quarters.But we had reached my quarters, and still Brace did not speak.“Good night,” I said, coldly.“I am very sorry, Vincent,” he said, ignoring my extended hand; and I felt, more than ever, that we never could be friends.“Then you think I have done very wrong?” I said bitterly.“Yes, very wrong. As an officer, you had no right to strike one of the men.”“Then you would have me stand by and see the poor fellows about us struck, kicked, and insulted, until it is beyond bearing,” I cried passionately. “I declare I wonder sometimes that they don’t rise up against us, and put an end to the cruel oppression from which they suffer.”“Hush!” he said gravely. “You are letting your tongue get the better of your discretion, Vincent. You, a young officer, can only amend these ways by your example. You must see, when you are cooler, that you have been guilty of a grave breach of discipline. I am speaking as your brother-officer, who sincerely wishes to see you rise in the profession you have chosen. We have been thrown together, and I hoped, by my experience, to help you—one so much younger—living, as you are, among strangers. It is not a pleasant task, Vincent, for I cannot help seeing that you resent my interference often, and think me cold, hard, and unsympathetic. There, good night for the present. I will come on later, and report how the man is.”He turned on his heel, and I stood listening to the tramp of his feet till he turned in to his own quarters, while I sat down to think, after telling the servants to go to bed.It was a miserable night for me. The window was open, and the hot wind came in, making me feel so low and depressed, that life was almost unbearable. There was theping, ping, ping, of the mosquitoes, and the piteous wailing shriek of the jackals as they hunted in a pack, and there, too, was the monotonous tramp of the sentry, hour after hour.“Asleep, Vincent?”I started from a nap to see the open window a little darker.“No. I have been dozing. How is he?”“I have just come from the hospital. There is no concealing the fact, my lad, that he is very bad; but let us hope it will not come to the worst. Good night.”“Good night,” I said, as he walked away; “however can it be a good night for me again?”Then, after a weary time, I rose, and began to walk up and down my quarters with the question always before me—“Suppose that man dies, what will you do?”Very little sleep came to me that night, and at dawn I sent a man for news, and my servant came back looking horrified.“Oh, mastah!” he whispered, “dey say Private Smith going to die.”

My work was hard at Rambagh, for I had no measured hours. I was ambitious too; eager to master my profession, and in constant dread of exciting derision by making some mistake.

Perhaps some lads of my age would not have worked so hard, but would have contented themselves by acquiring the necessary knowledge slowly; but that did not accord with my ideas, and I eagerly attended all the early morning drills, and though the sergeant sourly said that I wanted a deal of setting up, and the riding-master laughingly told me that I looked like a tailor on horseback, I suppose I got on pretty well. At any rate, I was able to keep my place without making many outrageous blunders.

I suppose it was a good deal due to the petting bestowed upon him, but I found my charger—the Sheik—as I called him, at Captain Brace’s suggestion, grew quite attached to me, and would follow me like a dog.

And in spite of the intense heat, it was a pleasant life when I grew more used to my work, and less conscious and afraid of ridicule. I had my servants, who were very obedient and servile, but not at all attentive. I was too easy with them, Barton said, and he told me that a good kicking would do them good. Certainly his men flew to obey every word, and shrank at every look.

“And hate him like poison,” Captain Brace said bitterly.

But they did not show their hatred, if Brace was right; and no officer rode out to parade in better trim than Barton.

One hot day, as I was seated panting at my shuttered window, I saw that Barton’s way of treating the syces was imitated by his subordinates, for one of the Serjeants, for some reason or another, raised his hand to strike a white-clothed figure across the enclosure, but altered his mind, and kicked him instead, with the result that the man shrank away, but made no sign, and I could not help thinking what a tyrant the white man was to the conquered black.

I don’t know how it was, but as I lay back in my chair weary after a heavy morning drill, and drowsy from the effects of a good breakfast, I kept my eyes on the white-clothed figure whom the serjeant had kicked. He had stood like a statue till the serjeant had gone into the barracks, but as soon as the officer’s back was turned, I saw him glance round sharply, and then he appeared to be speaking to the natives near him in a quick excited way.

From where I lay back, it was like looking at some photograph, every figure stood out so sharply in the bright sunshine, and I was just thinking that I did not feel so indignant at what had taken place as I had when I had first witnessed such a thing, when I half sleepily noticed that the native had left the group of syces by the open doorway which looked black on the white walls. Then he appeared to be crossing the great barrack square, and passed out of my sight, while my eyes closed, and I was dropping off to sleep, when I started wide-awake again listening.

The sound which had aroused me was repeated close to the open window, and it was a sharp hissing drawing in of the breath, as of one in pain; and directly after thesycewho had crossed over to my side of the square, passed my window, halting slightly, and with a strange expression on his face, which impressed me even then. As I watched him it passed away, and he drew himself up, walking as usual, and salaaming to some one approaching in the opposite direction, and Major Lacey and Captain Brace sauntered by, while I lay thinking about the syce’s expression, and the patient way in which he had hidden the pain from which he was suffering. I had recognised him, too, as the tall, handsome native who had been struck by Barton—a man who, ever since, had saluted me with a grave, gentle smile.

“It’s too bad,” I was saying to myself; and then, in my listless weariness, I was dropping off to sleep again, as I generally did after a hard drill, when my black servant entered silently, and presented me with a little packet.

“What is it?” I said lazily.

“No know, sahib. Ny Deen bring, and say tell master dhoby man keep it and couldn’t get back.”

I opened the packet, which smelt most fragrantly, and found first some white flowers, and beneath them, very carefully washed, ironed, and scented, a pocket-handkerchief.

“Mine,” I said half wonderingly, and then I grasped what it meant. “Did that syce, Lieutenant Barton’s man, bring this just now?”

“Yes, sahib. Ny Deen.”

“That will do,” I said; and I lay back thinking of the morning when I saw the man come out of Barton’s quarters bleeding, and bound up the cut.

“A set of black scoundrels, are they,” I said to myself. “Well, some of them have feeling, and a way of showing their gratitude.”

I took up and smelt the fragrant white blossoms thoughtfully; and then I remember saying to myself, for those events were stamped pretty deeply in my memory—

“An Englishman would never have dreamed of sending flowers like that. I dare say it means something, if one only knew.”

A few days after, when I had almost forgotten the incident, save that I always politely returned Ny Deen’s salute when I passed him, I was returning to my quarters one evening, when—not at all an uncommon thing—I heard loud voices in front, and saw that three of our men were going unsteadily along, evidently after too long a stay at one of the wretched places where they were supplied with the poisonous arrack which was answerable for the miserable death of so many British soldiers. One of the men in particular was in that noisy, excited state when reason seems to have run riot, and folly and madness have been taken for companions.

The man’s two companions were greatly under the influence of drink, but they had sense enough left to try and control their drunken friend; and as I kept back unseen in the darkness, I saw them check the fellow when an insane desire had come upon him to kick and hammer at the officers’ quarters; and later on they engaged in a struggle, when he swore that he would go and let loose every horse in the troop.

All this made me so indignant with the idiot that I was several times on the point of interfering, but I thought that nature would punish the fellow enough the next day, and kept back, waiting to see the others get him to his quarters.

But, in spite of my determination, I found myself unexpectedly dragged into the affair; for, just as they were near Lieutenant Barton’s quarters, two of the syces’ wives came by, and with a shout the man escaped from his comrades’ grasp, made a rush at the two frightened women, and caught one of them in his arms.

She cried aloud for help, and a couple of the native servants rushed out; one of them seizing the drunken gunner, and, in the brief struggle which ensued, I saw the two women run away, while their assailant held on to one of the white-clothed men, and, steadying himself, began striking him savagely, while the syce made no resistance, but passively received the blows.

“The fool!” I said to myself, as I hurried up, thinking that if it had been an Englishman instead of a native, our drunken gunner would have received a severe thrashing. I did not pause to consider any consequences, but just watched my opportunity, and as the Englishman struck the syce heavily with his right hand, as he held the poor fellow with his left, I, too, delivered a stinging blow, as I ran in, right in the gunner’s ear, and then stood astonished at what I had done. For the next moment the fellow had gone down heavily, his head striking against a stone, and then he rolled over and lay still, with the syce standing close by looking on.

“You’ve killed him, sir,” said one of the man’s comrades, as he went down on one knee by his side and raised his head.

“Serve the brute right,” I said passionately.

“Yes; he’s pretty bad,” growled the other, as he, too, bent down over his comrade, the affair having pretty well sobered them, as it had sobered me, too; for a chill of horror ran through me at the very thought of the man’s words being true.

“Here, you,” I said roughly; “go and tell the sergeant of the guard. What, you in trouble again, Ny Deen?”

“Yes, sahib,” said the syce softly, for I had recognised Barton’s groom.

He ran off quickly, and the sergeant and a couple of men came up just as Barton was returning to his quarters.

“Hillo! what’s up?” he said; “an accident?”

“No,” I said shortly; “this drunken fellow was insulting our women, and then ill-using your syce for protecting them, and I knocked him down.”

“And you have done it, sir,” grumbled the sergeant. “I’m afraid he isn’t going to come to.”

Barton bent down over the man, who, I now saw, by a stable-lantern, was bleeding from the head, and the chill of horror increased as the lieutenant rose.

“Here,” he said; “carry him into hospital. Be smart. You, sergeant, go and rouse up the doctor.”

“Yes, sir;” and the men hurried off.

“He’ll be pleased,” said Barton to me, with a cynical laugh. “He has had nothing but cholera cases and a broken arm to see to for months. But, I say, Don Quixote, you’ve put your foot in it this time.”

“Enough to make me.” I cried petulantly. “I can’t stand by and see men such brutes.”

We stopped and saw the insensible man carried into the building used as an infirmary, and by that time the doctor, who had been dining with Major Lacey—Brace being of the party—came into the building, and was followed by the above-named officers, who looked on in silence till the surgeon made his report.

“Concussion of the brain, I’m afraid,” he said shortly. “Bad for a man in his state. This fellow is always on the drink. He must have fallen very heavily. Was he fighting?”

“Yes—no,” I said, rather confusedly.

“Not very clear, Vincent,” said the major. “Which was he doing?”

“The fact is, sir, he was brutally ill-using one of the syces, who did not dare to defend himself, and I knocked the fellow down.”

“Oh!” said the major, coldly; and he walked away, but turned back.

“You had better go to your quarters, sir,” he said. “I suppose we can do you no good, Danby?”

“No; thanks. Only let me have the nurse. Place will be cooler without company.”

I went to my quarters, feeling as if the whole of my military career had come to an end through my passionate, quixotic behaviour; and yet somehow I could not deeply regret my action.

I was sitting in my dim room, watching the moths and flies circling round the shaded lamp, when I received a summons to go to the major’s quarters, and on going across I found Brace there, and the doctor.

“This is a serious matter, Vincent,” said the major. “Dr Danby gives a very bad account of this man’s state. How did it all happen? Tell me everything.”

I explained all the circumstances, and then there was a pause. I glanced at Brace, who sat there in the shade, so that I could not see his face, and a curious sensation of misery attacked me as I began to think of court-martials, and dismissal, or resignation, if there were no worse punishment, and my brain had already pictured the man’s death, with the following military funeral, and volleys fired over the grave, when the major said—

“We must wait and see how this matter turns out, Vincent. It will be a most painful thing for me to report at head-quarters. But I will say no more to-night, only to warn you that you are too quixotic.”

That word again! How I did loathe it then.

“I have a great objection myself to seeing the natives beaten, and I have more than once punished men for it; but it will not do for a junior officer like you to take upon yourself the defence of every black whom you consider ill-used. There, sir; you can return to your quarters. No, no, don’t say anything to-night. Go back, and think of what I have said. Going, Brace?”

“Yes,” said the captain, rising. “I’ll walk back with Vincent: you don’t want me any longer. I’ll see Danby again to-night, and hear how the man is going on.”

A minute later I was walking across in the darkness, with Brace, waiting for him to speak, and listening to the regular tramp of the sentry near us, and the softer sound of another at a distance, like an echo of the one by the officers’ quarters.

But we had reached my quarters, and still Brace did not speak.

“Good night,” I said, coldly.

“I am very sorry, Vincent,” he said, ignoring my extended hand; and I felt, more than ever, that we never could be friends.

“Then you think I have done very wrong?” I said bitterly.

“Yes, very wrong. As an officer, you had no right to strike one of the men.”

“Then you would have me stand by and see the poor fellows about us struck, kicked, and insulted, until it is beyond bearing,” I cried passionately. “I declare I wonder sometimes that they don’t rise up against us, and put an end to the cruel oppression from which they suffer.”

“Hush!” he said gravely. “You are letting your tongue get the better of your discretion, Vincent. You, a young officer, can only amend these ways by your example. You must see, when you are cooler, that you have been guilty of a grave breach of discipline. I am speaking as your brother-officer, who sincerely wishes to see you rise in the profession you have chosen. We have been thrown together, and I hoped, by my experience, to help you—one so much younger—living, as you are, among strangers. It is not a pleasant task, Vincent, for I cannot help seeing that you resent my interference often, and think me cold, hard, and unsympathetic. There, good night for the present. I will come on later, and report how the man is.”

He turned on his heel, and I stood listening to the tramp of his feet till he turned in to his own quarters, while I sat down to think, after telling the servants to go to bed.

It was a miserable night for me. The window was open, and the hot wind came in, making me feel so low and depressed, that life was almost unbearable. There was theping, ping, ping, of the mosquitoes, and the piteous wailing shriek of the jackals as they hunted in a pack, and there, too, was the monotonous tramp of the sentry, hour after hour.

“Asleep, Vincent?”

I started from a nap to see the open window a little darker.

“No. I have been dozing. How is he?”

“I have just come from the hospital. There is no concealing the fact, my lad, that he is very bad; but let us hope it will not come to the worst. Good night.”

“Good night,” I said, as he walked away; “however can it be a good night for me again?”

Then, after a weary time, I rose, and began to walk up and down my quarters with the question always before me—

“Suppose that man dies, what will you do?”

Very little sleep came to me that night, and at dawn I sent a man for news, and my servant came back looking horrified.

“Oh, mastah!” he whispered, “dey say Private Smith going to die.”

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