ing you with all this foolish, crazy
sort of talk."

"Not at all," said Shafto. "Thank you so much for telling me your
story. I am truly sorry for you, Ryan; it was hard lines losing your
Polly. Do you mind telling me some more? After you had recovered your
memory and become a _pongye_, what happened next?"

"Well, after a while, I chanced to see English papers and hear outside
news, an' I got a cast in a cargo boat down the river. I had a sort o'
longin' to see the soldiers, the love of the Service is in me blood, so
now and then I was drawn to Rangoon to get a sight of the khaki and to
hear the barrack yarns. Ye see, one quarter of me is Cingalese--I
suppose me grandfather on one side was a Buddhist, and that is how
_pongye_ life came so pleasant and aisy to me. The three quarters of
me is an Irish soldier, an' every day the soldier within me grows an'
the _pongye_ dies away."

"And you will never return to Burma?"

"Never, no. I have laid out to go to Ireland and spend the rest of my
time there when the war is over."

"Ah--I wonder when the war will be over?" said Shafto.

"God alone knows!" exclaimed the _pongye_. "They were talking in the
bazaar of the end coming about Christmas. I think meself it will be a
long business and an awkward business, too."

"So do I," agreed Shafto, recalling the sage remarks of George Gregory.

"Yes, it's like a light stuck in an old thatch! We'll have half the
world in it before long, an' the greatest blaze as ever was known."

"I see that Australia and Canada and South Africa are all coming to
lend a hand."

"Well, we want every hand we can get--and every foot, too! I've heard
plenty of big talk in the bazaar, where the Germans have laid out a
mint of money. By all accounts they are going to take Persia, India,
Burma, the whole of our trade, money and fleet. Well, if that comes
off, it'll be a cold world! By the way, sir," he continued in another
tone, "did ye see Ma Chit the day we were leavin' Rangoon, signin' and
wavin' to ye as we cast off?"

Shafto nodded curtly.

"An' ye never tuk no notice! Ye might have given her just a small sign
to ease her heart--but I'm thinkin' ye have a hard drop in ye."

"I dare say I have," assented Shafto, "and I'm glad of it, for now and
then it has prevented me from making an awful fool of myself."

"Ah, well, sometimes the fools have the best of it; not that I'm sayin'
a word in favour of Ma Chit--only that if ye'd