by delegate from somebody who slept. By that time
they would be across the border, quarrelling among themselves about
division of the plunder!

They had respect in plenty for the youth and virile middle age that
dealt with them on the rare occasions when a timely blow was loosed.
Then they had proof that from that strange, mad country overseas there
came men who could lead men--men who could strike, and who knew enough
to hold their hands when the sudden blow had told--just men, who could
keep their plighted word. No border thief pretended that the British
could not rule him; to a man, they laughed because the possible was not
imposed. And to the last bold, ruffianly iconoclast they stole when,
where, and what they dared.

Things altered strangely soon after Ralph Cunningham, with the
diffidence of youth but the blood of a line of soldiers leaping in
him, took charge of his tiny force of nondescripts. They were neither
soldiers nor police. Nominally, he was everybody's dog, and so were
they; actually he found himself at the head of a tiny department of
his own, because it was nobody's affair to give him orders. They had
deliberately turned him loose "to hang himself," and their hope that he
might get his head into a noose of trouble as soon as possible--the very
liberty they gave him, on purpose for his quick damnation--was the means
of making reputation for him.

Nobody advised him; so with singularly British phlegm and not more
than ordinary common sense he devised a method of his own for scotching
night-prowlers. He stationed his men at well-considered vantage-points,
and trusted them. With a party of ten, he patrolled the city ceaselessly
himself and whipped every "watchman" he caught sleeping. One by one, the
blackmailing brigade began to see the discomfort of a job that called
for real wakefulness, and deserted over the Hills to urge the resumption
of raids in force. One by one, the night-prowling fraternity were
shot as they sneaked past sentries. One by one, the tale of robberies
diminished. It was merely a question of one man, and he awake,
having power to act without first submitting a request to somebody in
triplicate on blue-form B.

The time came, after a month or two, when even natives dared to leave
their houses after dark. The time came very soon, indeed, when the
nearest tribes began to hold war councils and inveigh against the
falling off of the supply of plunder. Cunningham was complimented
open