that would lob a bullet into an enemy's camp at one thousand
yards, and were even handier than the long rifle. Therefore they
were coveted all along the border, and since demand inevitably
breeds supply, they were supplied at the risk of life and limb for
exactly their weight in coined silver - seven and one half pounds'
weight of rupees, or sixteen pounds sterling reckoning the rupee
at par. They were stolen at night by snaky-haired thieves who
crawled on their stomachs under the nose of the sentries; they
disappeared mysteriously from locked arm-racks, and in the hot
weather, when all the barrack doors and windows were open, they
vanished like puffs of their own smoke. The border people desired
them for family vendettas and contingencies. But in the long cold
nights of the northern Indian winter they were stolen most
extensively. The traffic of murder was liveliest among the hills
at that season, and prices ruled high. The regimental guards were
first doubled and then trebled. A trooper does not much care if he
loses a weapon - Government must make it good - but he deeply
resents the loss of his sleep. The regiment grew very angry, and
one rifle-thief bears the visible marks of their anger upon him to
this hour. That incident stopped the burglaries for a time, and
the guards were reduced accordingly, and the regiment devoted
itself to polo with unexpected results; for it beat by two goals
to one that very terrible polo corps the Lushkar Light Horse,
though the latter had four ponies apiece for a short hour's fight,
as well as a native officer who played like a lambent flame across
the ground.

They gave a dinner to celebrate the event. The Lushkar team came,
and Dirkovitch came, in the fullest full uniform of a Cossack
officer, which is as full as a dressing-gown, and was introduced