treason. Sport, such as tiger-shooting, was for those whose age and
apoplectic temper rendered them least fitted for it. Conservatism
reigned: "High Toryism, sir, old port, and proud Prerogative!"

Mahommed Gunga grinned into his beard at the reception that awaited the
youngster whom he had trained for months now in the belief that India
had nothing much to do except reverence him. He laughed aloud, when he
could get away to do it, at the flush of indignation on his protege's
face. Tall, lean-limbed, full of health and spirits, he had paid his
duty call on a General of Division; with the boyish enthusiasm that
says so plainly, "Laugh with me, for the world is mine!" he had boasted
his good luck on the road, only to be snubbed thoroughly and told that
tiger-shooting was not what he came for.

He took the snub like a man and made no complaint to anybody; he did
not even mention it to the other subalterns, who, most of them, made no
secret of their dissatisfaction and its hundred causes. He listened,
and it was not very long before it dawned on him that, had not Mahommed
Gunga gone with him to pay a call as well, the General Division would
not have so much as interviewed him.

Mahommed Gunga soon became the bane of his existence. The veteran
seemed in no hurry to go back to his estate that must have been in
serious need of management by this time, but would ride off on
mysterious errands and return with a dozen or more black-bearded
horsemen each time. He would introduce them to Cunningham in public
whenever possible under the eyes of outraged seniors who would swear
and, fume and ride away disgust at the reverence paid to "a mere boy,
sir--a bally, ignorant young jackanapes!"