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Rung Ho! by Talbot Mundy
page 102 of 344 (29%)

That was a tall order, and in spite of all of youth's enthusiasm was
enough to make any young fellow nervous. But Mahommed Gunga met him in
the street, saluted him with almost sacrilegious ceremony, and drew him
to one side.

"Have courage, now, bahadur! I ride away to visit my estates (he spoke
of them always in the plural, as though he owned a county or two). You
have under you the best eyes and the keenest blades along the border
for I attended to it! Be ruthless! Use them, work them--sweat them
to death! Keep away from messes and parades; seek no praise, for you
will get none in any case! Work! Work for what is coming!"

"You speak as though the fate of a continent were hanging in the
balance," laughed Cunningham, shaking hands with him.

"I speak truth!" said Mahommed Gunga, riding off and leaving the
youngster wondering.

Now, there was nothing much the matter with the men on either side,
taken in the main, who hated one another on that far-pushed frontier.
Even the insufferable incompetents who held the rotting reins of
control were such because circumstance had blinded them. There was not
a man among the highly placed ones even who would have deliberately
placed his own importance or his own opinion in the scale against
India's welfare. There was not a border thief but was ready to respect
what he could recognize as strong-armed justice.

The root of the trouble lay in centralization of authority, and rigid
adherence to the rule of seniority. Combined, these two processes had
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