ed by Duggan Sahib's _mota-kahar_. That young man is
a devil.'

'I expect Grunthi-jee,' said the Subadar-Major, 'you and I grow too old
to care for the Kahar-ki-nautch--the Bearer's dance.' He named one of
the sauciest of the old-time nautches, and smiled at his own pun. Then
he turned to his nephew. 'When I was a lad and came back to my village
on leave, I waited the convenient hour, and, the elders giving
permission, I spoke of what I had seen elsewhere.'

'Ay, my father,' said the Havildar-Major, softly and affectionately. He
sat himself down with respect, as behoved a mere lad of thirty with a
bare half-dozen campaigns to his credit.

'There were four men in this affair also,' he began, 'and it was an
affair that touched the honour, not of one regiment, nor two, but of all
the Army in Hind. Some part of it I saw; some I heard; but _all_ the
tale is true. My father's brother knows, and my priest knows, that I was
in England on business with my Colonel, when the King--the Great Queen's
son--completed his life.

'First, there was a rumour that sickness was upon him. Next, we knew
that he lay sick in the Palace. A very great multitude stood outside the
Palace by night and by day, in the rain as well as the sun, waiting
for news.

'Then came out one with a written paper, and set it upon a
gate-side--the word of the King's death--and they read, and groaned.
This I saw with my own eyes, because the office where my Colonel Sahib
went daily to talk with Colonel Forsyth Sahib was at the east end of the
very gardens where the Palace stood. They are larger gardens than
Shalimar here'--he pointed with his chin up the lines--'or Shahdera
across the river.

'Next day there was a darkness in the streets, because all the city's
multitude were clad in black garments, and they spoke as a man speaks in
the presence of his dead--all those multitudes. In the eyes, in the air,
and in the heart, there was blackness. I saw it. But that is not
my tale.

'After ceremonies had been accomplished, and word had gone out to the
Kings of the Earth that they should come and mourn, the new King--the
dead King's son--gave commandment that his father's body should be laid,
coffined, in a certain Temple which is near the river. There are no
idols in that Temple; neither any carvings, nor paintings, nor gildings.
It is all grey stone, of one colour as though it were cut out of the
live rock. It is larger than--yes, than the Durbar Sahib at Amrit