rney to the gallows.

It was a dramatic scene. The stalwart young Pathan in uniform with his
wrists handcuffed stood with all the bold bearing of his race by the
bedside of the man that he had tried to kill, while two powerful sepoys
armed with drawn bayonets hemmed him in, their hands on his shoulders.

The prisoner looked for a moment at the pale face of the wounded man,
then his bold eyes suffused with tears as he said:

"_Huzoor_! (The Presence!) I am sorry. Had I known that night it was
Your Honour I would not have lifted my rifle against you. The Sahib has
always been good to me, to all of us. My enemy I slew, as we of the
_Puktana_ must do to all who insult us. That deed I do not regret."

Wargrave looked up sorrowfully at the splendidly-built young
fellow--barely twenty-one--who had only done as he had been taught to do
from his cradle. Among Pathans blood only can wash away the stain of an
insult. The officer felt no anger against him for his own injuries and
regretted that false notions of honour had led him to kill a comrade and
were now sending him to a shameful death.

"I am sorry, Gul Mahommed, very sorry," he said. "You were always a good
soldier, and now you must die."

The Pathan drew himself up with all the haughty pride of his race.

"I do not fear death, Sahib. They will give me the noose. But my father
can spare me. He has five other sons to fight for him. If only the Sahib
would forgive----."

Wargrave, much moved, held out his hand to him. The prisoner touched it
with his manacled ones, then raised his fingers to his forehead.

"For your kindness, Sahib, _salaam_!"

Then he turned and walked proudly out of the room and Wargrave heard the
tramp of heavy feet on the rocky road outside as the prisoner was
marched away on the long trail to the gallows. Two months later Gul
Mahommed was hanged in the courtyard of Alipur jail in Calcutta before
detachments of all the regiments garrisoning the city.

The subaltern had long chafed at the restraint of an invalid before
Macdonald took him off the sick-list and he was free to wander again
with Colonel Dermot in the forest and among the mountains. Before the
hot weather ended Raymond came to spend three weeks with him and be
initiated into the delights of sport in the great jungle.

When the long imprisonment of the rains came Wargrave began to suffer in
health; for his wounds had sapped his strength more than he knew and
Macdonald shook his head