being protected from the malice of the aborigine by two noble regiments.
We count, moreover, at least thirty of the fair sex and forty
miscellaneous persons, such as miserable civilians like myself, and
children. Hitherto, we have been content to meet at odd times and odd
places. When hospitality has run dry, we have resorted to a shed-like
structure dignified with the name of club. Personally, I call it a
disgrace, which should at once be rectified."

"I have already contributed my mite!" protested a young subaltern from the
British regiment.

"I know; so has everybody. With strenuous efforts I have collected the sum
of five hundred rupees. That won't do. We require at least four times that
sum. Consequently, we must have a patron."

"The second part of your programme concerns the patron, then?" Captain
Webb inquired, with an aspect of considerable relief. "Not yourself, by
any chance?"

"Certainly not. If I had any noble inclinations of that sort I should have
discovered them a long time ago. No, I content myself with taking the part
of a fairy godmother."

"I'm afraid I don't follow," Stafford put in. "What is the fairy godmother
going to do for us? Produce a club-house, a patron, or a cucumber?"

"A patron, and one, my dear fellow, whom I should have entirely overlooked
had it not been for you."

"For me!"