again in the work he loved, there seemed no limit to his
tireless energy; and from the Colonel downward, all were heartily glad
to get him back.

Even in an age given over to the marketable commodity, England can
still breed men of this calibre. Not perhaps in her cities, where
individual aspiration and character are cramped, warped, deadened by
the brute force of money, the complex mechanism of modern life: but in
unconsidered corners of her Empire, in the vast spaces and comparative
isolation, where old-fashioned patriotism takes the place of parochial
party politics, and where, alone, strong natures can grow up in their
own way.

It is to the Desmonds and Merediths of an earlier day that we are
indebted for the sturdy loyalty of our Punjab and Frontier troops, for
our hold upon the fighting races of the North. India may have been won
by the sword, but it has been held mainly by attributes of heart and
spirit; by individual strength of purpose, capacity for sympathy and
devotion to the interests of those we govern. When we fail in these,
and not till then, will power pass out of our hands.

That there was no such failure among the little band of Englishmen
throughout that inglorious campaign against an enemy one could never
have the satisfaction of thrashing in the open, the attitude of their
Native officers and men bore ample witness. Light-hearted
subalterns--whisked away from half-fledged love affairs, or the more
serious business of sport--might curse their luck with blasphemous
vigour; older men might grumble openly at extra parades, at the strain
of additional vigilance and discipline; but for all that, the work was
done,--thoroughly, and with a will; not within the station only, but
out there on the open plain, rolling in vast undulations to the naked
spurs of the Saliman range, where the sun smote through the canvas as
if it had been so much brown paper and the stricken regiment strove, by
constantly shifting ground, to shake off the pursuing horror that
steadily thinned its ranks. Here Colonel Stanham Buckley waked each
morning with the cold clutch of fear at his heart; fortified himself
with incessant 'nips' throughout the day; and left the bulk of the work
to a cheery little Adjutant, untroubled by the sorrowful great gift of
imagination. And here, as in the station, all officers were diligent
in visits to the hospital; heartening the sufferers by their presence,
and combating, as far as might be,