it is
over--gloriously over--and so my lips are unsealed at last. I confess my
fault--my very grievous fault. But it is not that for which you are
trying me. It is for murder. I should have thought myself the murderer
of my own countrymen if I had let the woman pass. These are the facts,
gentlemen. I leave my future in your hands. If you should absolve me I
may say that I have hopes of serving my country in a fashion which will
atone for this one great indiscretion, and will also, as I hope, end for
ever those terrible recollections which weigh me down. If you condemn
me, I am ready to face whatever you may think fit to inflict.

X. THREE OF THEM

I--A CHAT ABOUT CHILDREN, SNAKES, AND ZEBUS

These little sketches are called "Three of Them," but there are really
five, on and off the stage. There is Daddy, a lumpish person with some
gift for playing Indian games when he is in the mood. He is then known
as "The Great Chief of the Leatherskin Tribe." Then there is my Lady
Sunshine. These are the grown-ups, and don't really count. There remain
the three, who need some differentiating upon paper, though their little
spirits are as different in reality as spirits could be--all beautiful
and all quite different. The eldest is a boy of eight whom we shall call
"Laddie." If ever there was a little cavalier sent down ready-made it is
he. His soul is the most gallant, unselfish, innocent thing that ever
God sent out to get an extra polish upon earth. It dwells in a tall,
slight, well-formed body, graceful and agile, with a head and face as
clean-cut as if an old Greek cameo had come to life, and a pair of
innocent and yet wise grey eyes that read and win the heart. He is shy
and does not shine before strangers. I have said that he is unselfish
and brave. When there is the usual wrangle about going to bed, up he
gets in his sedate way. "I will go first," says he, and off he goes, the
eldest, that the others may have the few extra minutes while he is in his
bath. As to his courage, he is absolutely lion-hearted where he can help
or defend any one else. On one occasion Daddy lost his temper with
Dimples (Boy Number 2), and, not without very good provocation, gave him
a tap on the side of the head. Next instant he felt a butt down
somewhere in the region of his waist-belt, and there was an angry little
red face looking up at him, which turned suddenly to a brown mop of hair
as the butt was repeated