ift to me and mine. The men of the old
days--they are now Commissioners--come riding to me through the
crops--high upon horses so that all the village sees--and we talk out
the old skirmishes, one dead man's name leading to another.'

'And after?' said the lama.

'Oh, afterwards they go away, but not before my village has seen.'

'And at the last what wilt thou do?'

'At the last I shall die.'

'And after?'

'Let the Gods order it. I have never pestered Them with prayers. I do
not think They will pester me. Look you, I have noticed in my long
life that those who eternally break in upon Those Above with complaints
and reports and bellowings and weepings are presently sent for in
haste, as our Colonel used to send for slack-jawed down-country men who
talked too much. No, I have never wearied the Gods. They will
remember this, and give me a quiet place where I can drive my lance in
the shade, and wait to welcome my sons: I have no less than three
Rissaldar--majors all--in the regiments.'

'And they likewise, bound upon the Wheel, go forth from life to
life--from despair to despair,' said the lama below his breath, 'hot,
uneasy, snatching.'

'Ay,' the old soldier chuckled. 'Three Rissaldar--majors in three
regiments. Gamblers a little, but so am I. They must be well mounted;
and one cannot take the horses as in the old days one took women.
Well, well, my holding can pay for all. How thinkest thou? It is a
well-watered strip, but my men cheat me. I do not know how to ask save
at the lance's point. Ugh! I grow angry and I curse them, and they
feign penitence, but behind my back I know they call me a toothless old
ape.'

'Hast thou never desired any other thing?'

'Yes--yes--a thousand times! A straight back and a close-clinging knee
once more; a quick wrist and a keen eye; and the marrow that makes a
man. Oh, the old days--the good days of my strength!'

'That strength is weakness.'

'It has turned so; but fifty years since I could have proved it
otherwise,' the old soldier retorted, driving his stirrup-edge into the
pony's lean flank.

'But I know a River of great healing.'

'I have drank Gunga-water to the edge of dropsy. All she gave me was a
flux, and no sort of strength.'

'It is not Gunga. The River that I know washes from all taint of sin.
Ascending the far bank one is assured of Freedom. I do not know thy
life, but thy face is the face of the honourable and courteous. Thou
hast c