. The
night seemed interminable. There were no stars, for a dense mist hung
above the trees. After an hour or two the firing slackened a little, and
presently, with great caution, a little lamp, carefully shrouded with a
blanket, was lit. A sudden burst of shots that came splintering into the
posts beside us caused the lamp to be hurriedly put out; but presently
it was lit again, and with infinite caution one man was dressed. At last
a little very faint silver dawn came gleaming through the tree-tops--the
most beautiful sight I ever saw--and the firing stopped. The dawn came
quickly down, and very soon we were able once more to see what we were
about, and count our losses.

Then we moved out. We had hardly any hope of catching the enemy, we who
were in a strange country, who were mounted on horses, and had a heavy
transport, and they who knew every stream and ravine, and had every
villager for a spy. So we moved back a march into a more open country,
where we hoped for better news, and two days later that news came.

CHAPTER VI

WAR--II

'Never in the world does hatred cease by hatred. Hatred ceases by
love.'--_Dammapada._

We were encamped at a little monastery in some fields by a village, with
a river in front. Up in the monastery there was but room for the
officers, so small was it, and the men were camped beneath it in little
shelters. It was two o'clock, and very hot, and we were just about to
take tiffin, when news came that a party of armed men had been seen
passing a little north of us. It was supposed they were bound to a
village known to be a very bad one--Laka--and that they would camp
there. So 'boot and saddle' rang from the trumpets, and in a few moments
later we were off, fifty lances. Just as we started, his old Hindostani
Christian servant came up to my friend, the commandant, and gave him a
little paper. 'Put it in your pocket, sahib,' he said. The commandant
had no time to talk, no time even to look at what it could be. He just
crammed it into his breast-pocket, and we rode on. The governor's son
was our guide, and he led us through winding lanes into a pass in the
low hills. The road was very narrow, and the heavy forest came down to
our elbows as we passed. Now and again we crossed the stream, which had
but little water in it, and the path would skirt its banks for awhile.
It was beautiful country, but we had no time to notice it then, for we
were in a hurry, and whenever the