ar all
from the Pater. I might look in for tiffin, if things go smoothly,
and if _you_'ll put up with me all dusty and dishevelled from the
fray! From what I saw and heard to-day, we're not likely to be
greeted with marigold wreaths and benedictions! Of course hundreds
will be thankful to see us. But I doubt if they'll dare betray the
fact. I needn't tell you to keep cool. You're simply splendid.

"Your loving and admiring,
ROY."

It was after ten next morning, the heat already intense, when that mixed
force, British and Indian, and the four aeroplanes acting in concert
with them, halted outside the Delhi Gate of Lahore City, while an order
was read out to the assembled leaders that, if shots were fired or bombs
flung, those aeroplanes would make things unpleasant. Then--at last they
were on the move; through the Gate, inside the City, aeroplanes flying
low, cavalry bringing up the rear.

Here normal life and activity were completely suspended--hence more than
half the trouble. Groups of idlers, sauntering about, stared, spat, or
shook clenched fists, shouting, "Give us Ghandi--and we will open!"
"Repeal Rowlatt Bill and we will open."

And, at every turn, posters exhorted true patriots--in terms often as
ludicrous as they were hostile--to leave off all dealings with the
'English monkeys,' to 'kill and be killed.'

And as they advanced, leaving pickets at stated points--pausing that Mr
Elton might exhort the people to resume work--mere groups swelled to
crowds, increasing in number and virulence; their cries and contortions
more savage than anything Roy had yet seen.

But it was not till they reached the Hira Mundi vegetable market,
fronting the plain and river, that the real trouble began. Here were
large excited crowds streaming to and fro between the Mosque and the
Mundi--material inflammable as gunpowder. Here, too, were the hotheads
armed with leaded sticks, hostile and defiant, shouting their eternal
cries. And to-day, as yesterday, the Badshahi Mosque was clearly the
centre of trouble. Exhortations to disperse peacefully were unheeded or
unheard. All over the open space they swarmed like locusts. Their
wearisome clamour ceased not for a moment. And the mosque acted as a
stronghold. Crowds packed away in there could neither be dealt with nor
dispersed. So an order was given that