And everyone in Government House knows it.

We shall do the usual thing, I have no doubt--pension him off, settle him down comfortably outside the borders of Chiltistan, and rule the country as trustee for his son--until the son comes of age." Dewes realised surely enough that Luffe was in possession of his faculties, but he thought his anxiety exaggerated.
"You are looking rather far ahead, aren't you, sir ?" he asked.
Luffe smiled.
"Twenty-one years.

What are twenty-one years to India?
My dear Dewes!" He was silent.

It seemed as though he were hesitating whether he would say a word more to this Major who in India talked of twenty-one years as a long span of time.

But there was no one else to whom he could confide his fears.