early morning, he had been born. For he was Eurasian; half European,
half Indian, having his place twixt heaven and hell, which is to say,
nowhere. His father had died of a complication of bhang-drinking and
opium-eating; and as a consequence, James was full of humorless
imagination, spells of moodiness and outbursts of hilarious politics.
Every native who acquires a facility in English immediately sets out to
rescue India from the clutches of the British raj, occasionally
advancing so far as to send a bullet into some harmless individual in
the Civil Service.

James was faithful, willing and strong; and as a carrier of burdens,
took unmurmuringly his place beside the tireless bullock and the
elephant. He was a Methodist; why, no one could find lucid answer,
since he ate no beef, drank from no common cup, smoked through his fist
when he enjoyed a pipe, and never assisted Warrington Sahib in his
deadly pursuit of flies and mosquitoes. He was Hindu in all his acts
save in his manner of entering temples; in this, the European blood
kept his knees unbended. By dint of inquiry his master had learned
that James looked upon his baptism and conversion in Methodism as a
corporal would have looked upon the acquisition of a V. C. Twice,
during fever and plague, he had saved his master's life. With the
guilelessness of the Oriental he considered himself responsible for his
master in all future times. Instead of paying off a debt he had
acquired one. Treated as he was, kindly but always firmly, he would
have surrendered his life cheerfully at the beck of the white man.

Warrington was an American. He was also one of those men who never
held misfortune in contempt, whose outlook wherever it roamed was
tolerant. He had patience for the weak, resolution for the strong, and
a fearless amiability toward all. He was like the St. Bernard dog,