But to have men borrow money that they might serve him, and have horses ready for him, and to be met like this at the gate of India by a man who admitted he was poor, was a little more than his self-control had been trained as yet to stand.
"I won't waste words, Mahommed Gunga," he said, half-choking.
"I'll--er--I'll try to prove how I feel about it." "Ha! How said I?
Thy father's son, I said! He, too, was no believer in much promising! I was his servant, and will serve him still by serving thee.

The honor is mine, sahib, and the advantage shall be where thy father wished it." "My father would never have had me--" "Sahib, forgive the interruption, but a mistake is better checked.

Thy father would have flung thee ungrudged, into a hell of bayonets, me, too, and would have followed after, if by so doing he could have served the cause he held in trust.

He bred thee, fed thee, and sent thee oversea to grow, that in the end India might gain! Thou and I are but servants of the peace, as he was.

If I serve thee, and thou the Raj--though the two of us were weaned on the milk of war and get our bread by war--we will none the less serve peace! Aie! For what is honor if a soldier lets it rust?
Of what use is service, mouthed and ready, but ungiven?
It is good, Chota-Cunnigan-bahadur, that thou art come at last!" He saluted and backed out through the swinging door.