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Well, I sent Le Breton a cheque for eight guineas for that lot, and can you credit it, it's remained uncashed from that day to this. I really think he must have destroyed it. 'No doubt, Arthur answered, with a smile. 'And the Bodahls? What about them? 'Oh! he kept that cheque for a few days uncashed though I'm sure he wanted money at the time; but in the end, I'm happy to say, he cashed it.
Now, I believe I'm right in saying, am I not, that it was your father who first subdued and organised a certain refractory hill-tribe on the Tibetan frontier, known as the Bodahls, wasn't it? 'Quite right, Ernest replied, with a glimmering idea slowly rising in his mind as to what Mr. Lancaster was now driving at. 'Ah, that's good, very good indeed, certainly.
I know as much about the Bodahls, in fact, as I know about Bayswater, or Holborn, or Fleet Street. 'Capital, capital, the editor said, fondling his big hands softly; 'that'll exactly suit us. And could you get at these plans and papers now, this very evening, just to refresh the gaps in your memory? 'I could have them all down here, Ernest answered, 'at an hour's notice.
It ran in the usual very abbreviated newspaper fashion: 'Russian agents revolted Bodahls Tibetan frontier. Advices Peshawur state Russian army marching on Merv. Bodahls attacked Commissioner, declared independence British raj. 'Will you write us a leader? the editor asked, simply. Ernest drew a long breath. Three guineas! Edie, Dot, an empty exchequer!
If he could only have five minutes to make his mind up! But he couldn't. After all, what did it matter what he said about these poor unknown Bodahls? If HE didn't write the leader, somebody else who knew far less about the subject than he did would be sure to do it.
And would his own article, written with his own poor thin cold fingers in that day's 'Morning Intelligence, help to spur them on upon that wicked and unnecessary war? What right had we to conquer the Bodahls? What right had we to hold them in subjection or to punish them for revolting?
I'll write a leader about these Bodahls, and let you deal with it afterwards as you think proper. They showed him into the bare little back room, and sent a boy up with a hastily written note to Ronald for the maps and papers. There Ernest sat for an hour or two, writing away for very life, and putting on paper everything that he knew about the poor Bodahls.
And yet, Ernest Le Breton had only written part of a newspaper leader about a small revolt of the Bodahls. And he suffered more agony for it than many a sensitive man, even, has suffered for the commission of some obvious crime.
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