'Attar Singh knew the just price. All Baynes Sahib's gear was in his charge. They expended one tin box of fifty cartouches, lacking two which were returned. As I said--as I say--the arrangement was made not with heat nor blasphemies as a Mussulman would have made it; not with cries nor caperings as an idolater would have made it; but conformably to the ritual and doctrine of the Sikhs. Hear you! _"Though hundreds of amusements are offered to a child it cannot live without milk. If a man be divorced from his soul and his soul's desire he certainly will not stop to play upon the road, but he will make haste with his pilgrimage_." That is written. I rejoice in my disciples.' 'True! True! Correct! Correct!' said the Subadar-Major. There was a long, easy silence. One heard a water-wheel creaking somewhere and the nearer sound of meal being ground in a quern. 'But he--' the Chaplain pointed a scornful chin at the Havildar-Major--'_he_ has been so long in England that--' 'Let the lad alone,' said his uncle. 'He was but two months there, and he was chosen for good cause.' Theoretically, all Sikhs are equal. Practically, there are differences, as none know better than well-born, land-owning folk, or long-descended chaplains from Amritsar. 'Hast thou heard anything in England to match my tale?' the Chaplain sneered. 'I saw more than I could understand, so I have locked up my stories in my own mouth,' the Havildar-Major replied meekly. 'Stories? What stories? I know all the stories about England,' said the Chaplain. 'I know that _terains_ run underneath their bazaars there, and as for their streets stinking with _mota kahars_, only this morning I was nearly killed by Duggan Sahib's _mota-kahar_. That young man is a devil.' 'I expect Grunthi-jee,' said the Subadar-Major, 'you and I grow too old to care for the Kahar-ki-nautch--the Bearer's dance.' He named one of the sauciest of the old-time nautches, and smiled at his own pun. Then he turned to his nephew. 'When I was a lad and came back to my village on leave, I waited the convenient hour, and, the elders giving permission, I spoke of what I had seen elsewhere.' 'Ay, my father,' said the Havildar-Major, softly and affectionately. He sat himself down with respect, as behoved a mere lad of thirty with a bare half-dozen campaigns to his credit. 'There were four men in this affair also,' he began, 'and it was an affair that touched the honour, not of one regiment, nor two, but of all the Army in Hind. Some part of it I saw; some I heard; but _all_ the tale is true. My father's brother knows, and my priest knows, that I was in England on business with my Colonel, when the King--the Great Queen's son--completed his life. 'First, there was a rumour that sickness was upon him. Next, we knew that he lay sick in the Palace. A very great multitude stood outside the Palace by night and by day, in the rain as well as the sun, waiting for news.