s,
"thou":

"Sit on the floor, as thy fathers before thee have done, as thou didst
thyself before thou began to think thyself an Englishman and despise thy
country and its ways."

Chunerbutty collapsed and sat down hastily on a mat. Then in English the
_Dewan_ continued:

"Have you any news?"

"No; I have forwarded as they came all letters and messengers from Bhutan.
The troops--" He stopped and looked at the Member of Parliament.

"Continue. There is no need of secrecy before Mr. Macgregor," said the
_Dewan_. "I have said that he is a friend of India."

"It's all right, my boy," added the Hebrew Highlander encouragingly. "I am
a Pacifist and a socialist. I don't hold with soldiers or with keeping
coloured races enslaved. 'England for English and India for the Indians' is
my motto."

"Well, I have already informed you that there is no truth in the reports
that troops were to be sent again to Buxa Duar," said Chunerbutty,
reassured. "On the frontier there are only the two hundred Military Police
at Ranga Duar. They are Punjaubi Mohammedans. I made the acquaintance of
the officer commanding them last night."

"Ah! What is he like?" enquired the _Dewan_, interested.

"Inquisitive, but a fool--like all these officers," replied the engineer
contemptuously. "He noticed Narain Dass on our garden and saw that he was a
Bengali. He learned that others of us were employed on our estate and was
surprised that Brahmins should do coolie work. But he suspected nothing."

"You are sure?" asked the _Dewan_.

"Quite certain."

The _Dewan_ shook his head doubtfully.

"These English officers are not always the fools they seem," he observed.
"We must keep an eye on this inquisitive person. Now, how goes the work
among the garden coolies? Are they ripe for revolt?"

"Not yet on all the estates. They are ignorant cattle, and to them the
Motherland means nothing. But on our garden our greatest helper is the
manager, a drunken bully. He ill-treats the coolies and nearly kicked one
to death the other day."

"That's how the Englishman always treats the native, isn't it?" asked the
Hebrew representative of an English constituency.

"Always and everywhere," replied the engineer unhesitatingly, wondering if
Macgregor were really fool enough to believe the libel, which one day's
experience in India should have shown him to be false. But this foreign Jew
turned Scotchman hated the country of his adoption, as only these gentry
do,