."

"But the disgrace, sir!" Gerrard was thunder-struck. "You said
yourself that he was so well fitted for this work. It suits him too,
and no mistake."

Colonel Antony frowned at the slang. "Is it possible that you perceive
any good in him?" he asked coldly.

"Why, sir,"--Gerrard was too much perturbed in mind to attempt to
answer the question,--"he could never go back contentedly to ordinary
subaltern's work after this. He will do something desperate--perhaps
even get transferred to the Bombay side, and volunteer for Khemistan."

He spoke with bated breath, for to the Antony brothers and all their
circle the neighbouring province of Khemistan was a region of outer
darkness, ruled by two fallen angels bearing the names of General Sir
Henry Lennox and Major St George Keeling. It was a point of honour to
assist their labours by harrying them with a constant dropping fire of
minutes and remonstrances, with an occasional round-shot in the shape
of interference on the part of the Supreme Government, deftly
engineered from Ranjitgarh. And the pity of it was that the men thus
thwarted with the purest possible motives were carrying on a similar
work, and in the same spirit, as their opponents, but--and here came
the line of cleavage--on different methods. Colonel Antony's grave
dark face was immovable.

"It is for you to save him if you choose, Gerrard. What! do you think
that I will allow the work here--the regeneration of the Granthi
state--to be endangered by petty, miserable squabbles between my
assistants? I have seen too much of support withheld at critical
moments because one man had a grudge against another. Here we are all
brothers. If Charteris intends to keep up this enmity, he must go."

"But if he is to blame, sir, so am I," confessed Gerrard reluctantly.

"I am glad to hear you say so. There can be no difficulty, then, in
your admitting as much to him. I own I had thought that since you were
more likely to be soon in a position to marry, he was probably the
trespasser on your ground. The young lady favours him, then?"

"No, sir, neither of us." Gerrard spoke bitterly, but Colonel Antony
brought his fist down upon the table with a resounding thud.

"What! you stand on the same footing, neither has cause for jealousy of
the other, and yet this miserable alienation continues? You are indeed
to blame, Gerrard. Go and ask your comrade's pardon, appeal to the
memories of your youth and his,