Most young fellows would, as you did, have joined their countrymen when threatened by a greatly superior enemy and, again, most would, if prisoners, have taken any opportunity that offered to effect their escape.

Therefore, in the brief account that you gave me, this morning, it appeared to me that you had behaved pluckily and shrewdly, and had well earned a commission, especially as you have a knowledge of the language.

You simply told me that you had been able to render some service to the Burman who travelled down with you, but such service might have been merely that you assisted him when he was in want, bound up a wound, or any other small matter.
"Now we find that you performed an act of singular courage, an act that even the oldest shikaree would have reason to be proud of.
Such an act--performed, too, for a stranger, and that stranger an enemy--would, of itself, give any man a title to the esteem and regard of any among whom he might be thrown, and would lead them to regard him in an entirely different light to that in which they would otherwise have held him.
"I think that you will all agree with me, gentlemen." "Certainly." There was a chorus of assent from the circle of officers.

His narrative had, as the general said, shown that the young fellow was possessed of coolness, steadiness, and pluck; but this feat was altogether out of the common and, as performed by a mere lad, seemed little short of marvellous.
"You will, of course, have Hitchcock's quarters," the quartermaster general said to Stanley, as the party broke up.

"It is a small room, but it has the advantage of being water tight, which is more than one can say of most of our quarters.