258 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



sincerely too, without noticing the patronage, " and will 

 fight again for you." 



" Now those Afridis they knew we'd just pour 

 in men and guns again and again till we had 

 the best of it, but they fought us, though they only 

 rode for a fall." The Sikh relished but moderately 

 the comparison with the Pathan, their immemorial race 

 antagonists, so he merely added, " Well, we fought them 

 too; it is good fighting, but not being guard, when 

 not one little shot at enemy allowed." This, at least, 

 was a common sentiment, and though the sergeant gave 

 vent to his dislike of India and all things pertaining 

 thereto, his companion bore no ill-will, bidding good-bye 

 with all the flowery expressions that pass current in the 

 East ; the other nodded curtly. 



" Rum devils," he ejaculated, as the lithe white 

 figure disappeared in the gloom; and so we of 

 alien races shall always be to each other. Our 

 fighting instincts give us at least one common 

 ground, and a religious tolerance touches their 

 sympathies, and just so long as we keep up their pride 

 as soldiers, and give them liberty to choose their own 

 methods of approaching the " Unknown," so long shall 

 we strengthen the only bonds possible between East 

 and West. 



All the way from Murree we had been penetrating 

 deeper into the burning pit, and as we entered the 

 station of Pindi we stifled, the weight of unbroken 

 thunderstorms heavy upon us. I was almost asleep as 

 the tonga drew up before my hostess's bungalow, and 

 I fell out into kind, welcoming arms, and was restored 

 with tea and refreshments. It was nearly midnight, 

 but no breeze had arisen to break the awful monotony 



