atter what the cost might be.
The rifles were worth little. The men and officers we lost were worth
a great deal. It was unsound economics, but Imperialism and economics
clash as often as honesty and self-interest. We were therefore committed
to the policy of throwing good money after bad in order to keep up our
credit; as a man who cannot pay his tradesmen, sends them fresh orders
in lieu of settlement. Under these unsatisfactory conditions, the
negotiations opened. They did not, however, interfere with the military
situation, and the troops continued to forage daily in the valley, and
the tribesmen to fire nightly into the camp.

At the end of the week a message from the Queen, expressing sympathy
with the sufferings of the wounded, and satisfaction at the conduct of
the troops, was published in Brigade orders. It caused the most lively
pleasure to all, but particularly to the native soldiers, who heard with
pride and exultation that their deeds and dangers were not unnoticed by
that august Sovereign before whom they know all their princes bow, and
to whom the Sirkar itself is but a servant. The cynic and the socialist
may sneer after their kind; yet the patriot, who examines with anxious
care those forces which tend to the cohesion or disruption of great
communities, will observe how much the influence of a loyal sentiment
promotes the solidarity of the Empire.

The reader must now accompany me to the camp of the 3rd Brigade, twelve
miles away, at Nawagai. We shall return to the Mamund Valley and have a
further opportunity of studying its people and natural features.

CHAPTER XIII: NAWAGAI

"When the wild Bajaur mountain men lay choking with their blood,
And the Kafirs held their footing..."

"A Sermon in Lower Bengal," SIR A. LYALL.

Few spectacles in nature are so mournful and so sinister as the
implacable cruelty with which a wounded animal is pursued by its
fellows. Perhaps it is due to a cold and bracing climate, perhaps to a
Christian civilisation, that the Western peoples of the world have to
a great extent risen above this low original instinct. Among Europeans
power provokes antagonism, and weakness excites pity. All is different
in the East. Beyond Suez the bent of men's minds is such, that safety
lies only in success, and peace in prosperity. All desert the falling.
All turn upon the fallen.

The reader may have been struck, in the account of the fig