ndship
between them."

Dick, finding that the conversation now turned to the time when his
mother and uncle were girl and boy together, left them and went
downstairs. He found some twenty horses ranged in the courtyard, while
their riders were sitting in the shade, several of them being engaged
in cooking. These were the escort who had ridden with the Rajah from
Tripataly--for no Indian prince would think of making a journey,
unless accompanied by a numerous retinue.

Scarcely had he entered the yard than Rajbullub came up, with the
officer in command of the escort, a fine-looking specimen of a Hindoo
soldier. He salaamed, as Rajbullub presented him to Dick. The lad
addressed him at once in his own tongue, and they were soon talking
freely together. The officer was surprised at finding that his lord's
nephew, from beyond the sea, was able to speak the language like a
native.

First, Dick asked the nature of the country, and the places at which
they would halt on their way. Then he inquired what force the Rajah
could put into the field, and was somewhat disappointed to hear that
he kept up but a hundred horsemen, including those who served as an
escort.

"You see, Sahib, there is no occasion for soldiers. Now that the
whites are the masters, they do the fighting for us. When the Rajah's
father was a young man, he could put two thousand men under arms, and
he joined at the siege of Trichinopoly with twelve hundred. But now
there is no longer need for an army. There is no one to fight. Some of
the young men grumble, but the old ones rejoice at the change.
Formerly, they had to go to the plough with their spears and their
swords beside them, because they never knew when marauders from the
hills might sweep down; besides, when there was war, they might be
called away for weeks, while the crops were wasting upon the ground.

"As to the younger men who grumble, I say to them, 'If you are tired
of a peaceful life, go and enlist in a Company's regiment;' and every
year some of them do so.

"In other ways, the change is good. Now that the Rajah has no longer
to keep up an army, he is not obliged to squeeze the cultivators.
Therefore, they pay but a light rent for their lands, and the Rajah is
far better off than his father was; so that, on all sides, there is
content and prosperity. But, even now, the fear of Mysore has not
quite died out."

"My position, Margaret," the Rajah said, after Dick had left the room,
"is a v