promised. The colonel-sahib has sent the food. The memsahib is
for three days without a pice.'

'I'll pay,' said the doctor shortly, and turned hurriedly to go.
Other huts were crying out for him; he could hear the voice of some
of them through their mud partitions. As he passed out he caught a
glimpse of himself in a little square looking-glass that hung on a
nail on the wall, and it made him start nervously and then smile
grimly. He saw the face of a man who had not slept three hours in
as many days and nights--a haggard, unshaven face, drawn as much
with the pain of others as with its own weariness. His hair stood
up in long tufts, his eyes had black circles under them. He wore
neither coat nor waistcoat, and his regimental trousers were tied
round the waist by a bit of rope. On the sleeve of his collarless
shirt were three dark dry splashes; he noticed them as he raised
his arm to put on his pith helmet. The words did not reach his
lips, but his heart cried out within him for a boy of the 32nd.

The ayah caught up her brass cooking-pot and followed him. Since
the doctor-sahib was to pay, the doctor-sahib would arrange that
good measure should be given in the matter of the milk. And upon
second thought the doctor-sahib decided that precautions were
necessary. He told the man with the goat, therefore, that when the
ayah received two pounds of milk she would pay him the five rupees.
As he put the money into Tooni's hand she stayed him gently.

'We are to go without, beyond the walls, to the ghat?' she asked in
her own tongue.

'Yes,' said the doctor, 'in two hours. I have spoken.'