ar!"

II.

A PRIVATE'S HONOR

I had not seen Mulledwiney for several days. Knowing the man--this
looked bad. So I dropped in on the Colonel. I found him in deep
thought. This looked bad, too, for old Cockey Wax--as he was known to
everybody in the Hill districts but himself--wasn't given to thinking.
I guessed the cause and told him so.

"Yes," he said wearily, "you are right! It's the old story.
Mulledwiney, Bleareyed, and Otherwise are at it again,--drink followed
by Clink. Even now two corporals and a private are sitting on
Mulledwiney's head to keep him quiet, and Bleareyed is chained to an
elephant."

"Perhaps," I suggested, "you are unnecessarily severe."

"Do you really think so? Thank you so much! I am always glad to have
a civilian's opinion on military matters--and vice versa--it broadens
one so! And yet--am I severe? I am willing, for instance, to overlook
their raid upon a native village, and the ransom they demanded for a
native inspector! I have overlooked their taking the horses out of my
carriage for their own use. I am content also to believe that my fowls
meekly succumb to jungle fever and cholera. But there are some things
I cannot ignore. The carrying off of the great god Vishnu from the
Sacred Shrine at Ducidbad by The Three for the sake of the priceless
opals in its eyes"--

"But I never heard of THAT," I interrupted eagerly. "Tell me."

"Ah!" said the Colonel playfully, "that--as you so often and so
amusingly say--is 'Another Story'! Yet I would have overlooked the
theft of the opals if they had not substituted two of the Queen's
regimental buttons for the eyes of the god. This, while it did not
deceive the ignorant priests, had a deep political and racial
significance. You are aware, of course, that the great mutiny was
occasioned by the issue of cartridges to the native troops greased with
hog's fat--forbidden by their religion."

"But these three men could themselves alone quell a mutiny," I replied.

The Colonel grasped my hand warmly. "Thank you. So they could. I
never thought of that." He looked relieved. For all that, he
presently passed his hand over his forehead and nervously chewed his
cheroot.

"There is something else," I said.

"You are right. There is. It is a secret. Promise me it shall go no
further--than the Press? Nay, swear that you will KEEP it for the
Press!"

"I promise."

"Thank you SO much. It is a matter of my own and Mulle