The Broken Road

gan. But inasmuch as no attempt to mine had been made during the first month, the fear had grown dim. It was revived during the fifth week. The officers were at mess

phole had been fashioned in the thick wall on a downward slant, so that a marksman might co

sked a subaltern of the Sapper

" said

eneath his feet; so near the mine had been already driven to the walls. The strokes fell with the regularity of the ticking of a

way to Dewes, and Dewes in his turn

u think?" a

d up strai

nking it sounds like the beating of a clock

romantic sayings struck no response fr

counte

er took the plac

but we are la

sortie then,

nes eagerly. "Let m

ed at his

l you require?" h

replied Dew

the fifty yards of open ground to the sangar behind which the mine shaft had been opened. The work of the hundred men was quick and complete. Within half an hour, Lynes, himself wounded, had brought back his force, and left the mine destroyed. But during that half-hour disaster had fallen upon the garrison. Luff

ght, and early in the morning Dewes was roused from his sle

not got very long now.

ight, but the fortress was strangely silent. The people whom he passed either spoke not at all or spoke only in low tones. They sat huddled in groups, waiting. Fear was abroad that morning.

s on his camp-bed. The door from the courtyard was ope

or I am very tired." A smile came upon his face. "Do you remember Linfo

e pillows underneath h

fe

t. I shal

octor had gone from t

f it falls it's not a great thing. The troops will come up and trample down Wafadar Nazim and Abdulla Mahommed. They are not

d then said in a

be look

confidence of his people. There is hardly an adherent of his who genuinely likes him; there's hardly a man in this Fort who doesn't believe that he wished to sell his country to the British. I should think he is impossible here in the future

e was in possession of his faculties,

her far ahead, aren'

e sm

are twenty-one years t

or who in India talked of twenty-one years as a long span of time. But there was no one else to wh

a and make them listen to me. But there's no hope of it. You must do what you can, Dewes, but very likely they won't pay any attention

wes. "You know the Fr

tle voices and their cut-throat ways. The most that you can know is that you are stumbling in the dark. Well, let's get back t

uestion as an opportu

cal Of

us. Have you forgotten?

hing of England. He wil

by the look of hopeless

er's

o rule over Eastern people, according to Eastern ideas, and you think all is well. I tell you, Dewes, it's sheer lunacy. Of course it's true-this boy won't perhaps suffer in esteem among his people quite as much as others have done. He belongs and

ut this time in a low, pleading voice, which was very unusual in him, and which kept the words he spoke vivid and fresh in Dewes' mem

ause he was bound up with the Frontier. The Frontier has been my wife, my children, my home, my one long and lasting passion. And I am very well content that it has been so. I don't regret missed opportunities of happiness. What I regret is that I s

upon his forehead. Dewes held to his lips a glass

see?" asked Dewes. "I wi

leasure, and then you send them back-to settle down in their native States, and obey the orders of the Resident. Do you think they will be content? Do you think they will have their heart in their work, in their humdrum life, in their elaborate ceremonies? Oh, there are instances enough to convince if only people would listen. There's a youth now in the South, the heir of an Indian throne-he has six weeks' holiday. How does he use it, do you think? He travels

rity of Luffe had gained upon h

he may take her seriously, and often does. What then? When he is told to go back to his State and settle down, what then? Will he be content with a wife of his own people? He is already a stranger among his own folk. He will eat out his heart with bitterness and jealousy. And, mind y

onplace Major of a Sikh regiment. All the more, therefore, must he husband his strength, so that all that he had in mind might be remembered. There would be little chance, perhaps, of it bearing fruit

avoy-do you remember? You all looked sufficientl

member," s

gland then. He dined in high places and afterwards supped at the Savoy with the coryphées; and both in the high places and among the coryphées his jewels had made him welcome. This is truth I am telling you. He was a boaster. Well, afte

horrible," e

his own people will be the best that can come of it, while ruin and disasters very well may. There

odded h

o the end of his strength. His voice had weakened, he lay with his eyes sunk deep

lied Luffe, "tha

oof of the Fort. The sun was up, the day already hot, and would have been hotter, but that a light wind stirred among the almond trees in the garden. The leaves of those trees now actually brushed against the Fort walls. Five weeks ago there had been bare stems and branches. Suddenly a rifle cracked, a little puff of smoke rose close to a b

s raised, and in the evening the Brigadier-General in Command rode up to the gates and found a tired and haggard group of officers awaiting him. They received him without ch

er looked a

Luffe?"

r," repli

h Luffe belonged than to the man himself. Luffe was a man of independent views, Brigadier Appleton a soldie

g morning, and once more the Khan expounded his views as to the ed

llency disapproved of

tainly let the boy go to Eton and Oxford. A fine idea, your Highness. The training will widen his mind, enlarge his idea

ne. Dewes turned the matter over in his slow mind. Wrong definitely, undeniably wrong on the point of fact, was it not likely that Luffe was wrong too on the point of theory? Dewes had six month