n twenty
minutes, but the interview, which was complicated with many
casualties, had filled them with prejudice. They even called the White
Hussars "children of the devil," and sons of persons whom it would be
perfectly impossible to meet in decent society. Yet they were not
above making their aversion fill their money belts. The regiment
possessed carbines, beautiful Martini-Henri carbines, that would cob a
bullet into an enemy's camp at one thousand yards, and were even
handier than the long rifle. Therefore they were coveted all along the
border, and since demand inevitably breeds supply, they were supplied
at the risk of life and limb for exactly their weight in coined
silver--seven and one half pounds of rupees[9], or sixteen pounds and
a few shillings each, reckoning the rupee at par. They were stolen at
night by snaky-haired thieves that crawled on their stomachs under the
nose of the sentries; they disappeared mysteriously from armracks; and
in the hot weather, when all the doors and windows were open, they
vanished like puffs of their own smoke. The border people desired them
first for their own family vendettas[10] and then for contingencies.
But in the long cold nights of the Northern Indian winter they were
stolen most extensively. The traffic of murder was liveliest among the
hills at that season, and prices ruled high. The regimental guards
were first doubled and then trebled. A trooper does not much care if
he loses a weapon--government must make it good--but he deeply resents
the loss of his sleep. The regiment grew very angry, and one
night-thief who managed to limp away bears the visible marks of their
anger upon him to this hour. That incident stopped the burglaries for
a time, and the guards were reduced accordingly, and the regiment
devoted itself to polo with unexpected results, for it beat by two
goals to one that very terrible polo corps the Lushkar Light Horse,
though the latter had four ponies apiece for a short hour's fight, as
well as a native officer who played like a lambent flame across the
ground.

Then they gave a dinner to celebrate the event. The Lushkar team came,
and Dirkovitch came, in the fullest full uniform of Cossack officer,
which is as full as a dressing-gown, and was introduced to the
Lushkars, and opened his eyes as he regarded them. They were lighter
men than the Hussars, and they carried themselves with the swing that
is the peculiar right of the Punjab[11] frontier force