They rode on at a walk past the tombstone that--at Mahommed Gunga's
orders--the villagers had decked with sickly scented forest flowers,
and as they passed they both saluted it in silence. The fakir of the
night before, sitting not very far away from it, mimicked them. He
sprang on the stone as soon as they were out of sight, scattering the
flowers all about him, and calling down the vengeance of a hundred gods
on the heads of Christian and Mohammedan alike.




CHAPTER XI


From lone hunt came the yearling cub
And brought a grown kill back;
With fangs aglut "'Tis nothing but
Presumption!" growled the pack.

RALPH CUNNINGHAM reached Peshawur at last with no less than nine tigers
to his gun, and that in itself would have been sufficient to damn him
in the eyes of more than half of the men who held commands there.
Jealousy in those days of slow promotion and intrenched influence had
eaten into the very understanding of men whose only excuse for rule
over a conquered people ought to have been understanding.

It was not considered decent for a boy of twenty-one to do much more
than dare to be alive. For any man at all to offer advice or
information to his senior was rank presumption. Criticism was high