It was so much more important that I should get the undress uniform, to enable me to begin work, that I did not press the tailor quite so much as to the other clothes." "Are you ready to begin work, at once ?" "The sooner the better," Harry replied.
"Then I shall hand you over to the native officer, who has charge of the drilling of recruits.

There is a small yard, behind the barracks, where Europeans are instructed in the first stages.

To see them doing the goose step would not add to the respect the soldiers have for their white officers.

They are therefore taught such matters in private so that, when they come out for company drill, they are not quite at sea." Half an hour later, Harry was at work under the instructions of a native officer.

By the time he had finished, a tent had been erected for him; and he was glad to find a bath ready, for it was much warmer down in Bombay than above the Ghauts, and it had been hot work drilling.