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Chilianwallah, of Moodkee and Ferozeshah. I said: "Abide a little
and the wind turns. There is no blessing in this work." In those
days I rode seventy miles with an English Memsahib and her babe on
my saddle-bow. (Wow! That was a horse fit for a man!) I placed them
in safety, and back came I to my officer - the one that was not
killed of our five. "Give me work," said I, "for I am an outcast
among my own kind, and my cousin's blood is wet on my sabre." "Be
content," said he. "There is great work forward. When this madness
is over there is a recompense."'

'Ay, there is a recompense when the madness is over, surely?' the
lama muttered half to himself.

'They did not hang medals in those days on all who by accident had
heard a gun fired. No! In nineteen pitched battles was I; in six-
and-forty skirmishes of horse; and in small affairs without number.
Nine wounds I bear; a medal and four clasps and the medal of an
Order, for my captains, who are now generals, remembered me when
the Kaisar-i-Hind had accomplished fifty years of her reign, and
all the land rejoiced. They said: "Give him the Order of Berittish
India." I carry it upon my neck now. I have also my jaghir
[holding] from the hands of the State - a free gift to me and mine.
The men of the old days -they are now Commissioners - come riding
to me through the crops - high upon horses so that all the village
sees - and we talk out the old skirmishes, one dead man's name
leading to another.'

'And after?' said the lama.

'Oh, afterwards they go away, but not before my village has seen.'

'And at the last what wilt thou do?'

'At the last I shall die.'

'And after?'

'Let the Gods order it. I have never pestered Them with prayers.
I do not think They will pester me. Look you, I have noticed in my
long life that those who eternally break in upon Those Above with
complaints and reports and bellowings and weepings are presently
sent for in haste, as our Colonel used to send for slack-jawed
down-country men who talked too much. No, I have never wearied the
Gods. They will remember this, and give me a quiet place where I
can drive my lance in the shade, and wait to welcome my sons: I
have no less than three Rissaldar - majors all - in the regiments.'

'And they likewise, bound upon the Wheel, go forth from life to
life - from despair to despair,' said the lama below his breath,
'hot, uneasy, snatching.'

'Ay,' the old soldier chuckled. 'Three Rissaldar -majors in three
regiments. Gamblers a little, but so am I. They must be well
mounted; and one cannot take the horses as in the old days one took
women. Well, well, my holding can pay for all. How thinkest thou?
It is a well-watered strip, but my men cheat me. I do not know how
to ask save at the lance's point. Ugh! I grow angry and I curse
them, and they feign penitence, but behind my back I know they call
me a toothless old ape.'

'Hast thou never desired any other thing?'

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