s about to summon you to
the presence of the high and mighty Speathley."

After the warning he had received, Gerrard was not likely to be late for
his appointment, but when he arrived at Major-General Speathley's
headquarters, it was evident that the Brigadier thought it salutary for
junior officers to cool their heels a little in his anteroom. A number
of other men were hanging about, and a low buzz of conversation filled
the tent. Gerrard was known by name to most of those present, and he was
soon in possession of the chief item of interest which was agitating the
camp. That morning's reconnaissance had been pushed as far as Ratan
Singh's tomb, which had been occupied without opposition, and a careful
search had revealed the shallow grave in which the dishonoured remains of
Nisbet and Cowper had been hastily hidden after the tragedy in the spring.

"The old man swears he will turn out Ratan Singh--whoever he may have
been--and give the poor chaps a _pucca_ funeral in the shrine itself,"
said one youth.

"I was not aware that we fought with the dead," said Gerrard, rather
disgusted.

"Seems rayther a spicy idea to me," drawled another. "They do our
fellows out of a grave, so we prig one of theirs for 'em."

"Surely we can do better for them than a second-hand tomb," said Gerrard,
more emphatically than he realised. "Wouldn't it be more to the purpose
to leave Ratan Singh in peace, since he has done us no injury, and punish
the living who deserve it?"

"Eh--what?" demanded an explosive voice behind the group. "And who may
you be, young sir, who think your opinion so well worth hearing?"

Gerrard turned to confront a short choleric man in uniform, whom he had
no difficulty in recognising to be the Brigadier. "My name is Gerrard,
sir, and I am attached to the Habshiabad force."

"Oho!" General Speathley drew out with some difficulty an eyeglass, and
fixing it in his eye, looked up at Gerrard as though he had been too
small to see without it. "So this is another of the sucking Caesars who
command armies in Granthistan! And what, pray, may be the nature of your
very valuable suggestion, sir?"

"I have acted as Resident at Agpur, sir, and know something about the
people, and I was about to say that they would be far more impressed with
the retribution if we buried our glorious dead in the very midst of the
city from which they were driven rather than in an old tomb outside it."

The astonishment on the G