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Updated: June 7, 2025
'Then they would most certainly have slain me, said the Havildar-Major with a smile. 'And they would have done correctly, said the Chaplain. 'What befell the honourable ones later? 'This. The Kings of the earth and all the Armies sent flowers and such-like to the dead King's palace at Wanidza, where the funeral offerings were accepted. There was no order given, but all the world made oblation.
'I heard it might have been some matter touching the integrity of certain regiments, the Chaplain insisted. 'The matter was not in any way open to my ears, said the Havildar-Major. 'Humph! The Chaplain drew his hard road-worn feet under his robe.
'Let us hear the tale that it is permitted thee to tell, he said, and the Havildar-Major went on: 'So then the three, having returned to the Temple, called the fourth, who had only forty-five years, when he came off guard, and said, "We go to the Palace at Wanidza with the offerings. Remain thou in the Presence, and take all our guards, one after the other, till we return."
'I both saw and heard in the office full of books and papers where my Colonel Sahib consulted Forsyth Sahib upon the business that had brought my Colonel Sahib to England. 'And what was that business? the Regimental Chaplain asked of a sudden, looking full at the Havildar-Major, who returned the look without a quiver. 'That was not revealed to me, said the Havildar-Major.
He would have made a great priest, this son of ours. So they pray over their dead, out yonder, those foreigners? FATHER. Even a Kafir may pray, but they are manifestly Kafirs or they would not pray in a grave-yard. Go on! SON. "When their prayers were done, our Havildar-Major, who is orthodox, recited the appropriate verse from the Koran, and cast a little mud into the grave.
'And it was their honour and right to furnish one who should stand in the Presence by day and by night till It went out to burial. There were no more than four all told four old men to furnish that guard. 'Old? Old? What talk is this of old men? said the Subadar-Major. 'Nay. My fault! Your pardon! The Havildar-Major spread a deprecating hand.
Though he was the Subadar-Major's nephew, and though his father held twice as much land as his uncle, he knew his place in the scheme of things. The Subadar-Major shifted one hand with an iron bracelet on the wrist. 'Was there by any chance any woman at the back of it? the Havildar-Major murmured. 'I was not here when the thing happened. 'Yes! Yes! Yes!
I know that Attar Singh and Rutton Singh omitted no ceremony of the purifications, and when all was done Baynes Sahib's revolver was thrown down from the housetop, together with three rupees twelve annas; and order was given for its return by post. 'And what befell the two younger brethren who were not in the service? the Havildar-Major asked.
The Regiment was at home and at ease in its own quarters in its own district which takes its name from the great Muhammadan saint Mian Mir, revered by Jehangir and beloved by Guru Har Gobind, sixth of the great Sikh Gurus. 'Quite correct, the Regimental Chaplain repeated. The Subadar-Major bowed his grey head. The Havildar-Major coughed respectfully to attract attention and to ask leave to speak.
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