ur sins. As it is, you will be wise to get off that high
horse of yours and take a back seat. I never have put up with this sort
of thing from you. And I never mean to."

Derrick had no answer ready. He stood still, considering these things.

Colonel Carlyon turned his back on him and cut the end of a cigar. "Do
you grasp my meaning?" he enquired at length, as Derrick remained
silent.

Derrick moved to a chair and sat down. Somehow Carlyon had taken the
backbone out of his indignation. He spoke at last, but without anger.
"Even if it were as you say," he said, "I don't consider you treated me
decently."

Carlyon suddenly laughed. "Even if by some odd chance I have actually
spoken the truth," he said, "I shall not, and do not, feel called upon
to justify my action for your benefit."

"I think you owe me that," Derrick said quickly.

"I disagree with you," Carlyon rejoined. "I owe you nothing whatever
except the aforementioned thrashing which must, unfortunately, under the
circumstances, remain a debt for the present."

Derrick leant forward suddenly

"Stop rotting, Carlyon!" he said, with impulsive earnestness. "I can't
help talking seriously. You didn't know, surely, what a tight fix we
were in? You couldn't have intended us to--to--die in the dark like
that?"

"Intended!" said Carlyon sharply. "I never intended you to occupy that
position at all, remember."

"Yes; but--since we were in that position, since--if you choose to put
it so--I exceeded all bounds and intentions and took those splendid
little Goorkhas into a death-trap; I may have been a headstrong, idiotic
fool to do it; but, granted all that, you did not deliberately and
knowingly leave us to be massacred? You couldn't have done actually
that."

Carlyon laid his cigar-case on the table at Derrick's elbow, and lighted
his own cigar with great deliberation.

"You may remember, Dick," he said quietly, after a pause, "that once
upon a time you wrote--and published--a book. It had its merits and it
had its faults. But a fool of a critic took it into his head to give you
a thorough slating. You were furious, weren't you? I remember giving you
a bit of sound advice over that book. Probably you have forgotten it.
But it chances to be one of the guiding principles of my life. It is
this: Never answer your critics! Go straight ahead!"

He paused.

"I remember," said Derrick. "Well?"

"Well," said Carlyon gravely, "that is what I have done all my li