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The Colonel's one idea of the Indian Peninsula was a huge tiger waiting somewhere in a jungle to be shot. But Shere Ali was paying no more attention to the Colonel's disparagements than Linforth had done. "Will you join us at supper?" said Sir John, and both young men replied simultaneously, "We shall be very pleased." Sir John Casson smiled.
He has shown on every occasion the utmost forbearance, from consideration to the helpless state of the infant Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, whom the British government had recognised as the successor to the late Maharajah Shere Singh. "The Governor-General in council sincerely desired to see a strong Sikh government re-established in the Punjaub, able to control its army and to protect its subjects.
My friend Colonel Dhere Shum Shere now came up, whistling the Sturm Marsch, and challenged me to a game of billiards: he was in his manner more thoroughly English than any native I ever knew, and both in appearance and disposition looked as if he was an Anglo-Saxon who had been dyed by mistake.
Shere Ali did more than merely move. He struck his hand upon the balustrade and spoke impatiently. But he did not finish the sentence, for one of his companions looked significantly towards Linforth and his Pathan. Linforth stepped forward again. "Shere Ali," he said, "I want to speak to you. It is important that I should."
Shere Ali followed upon his heels. But these two were not alone to take that road. A third man, a Bengali, bespectacled, and in appearance most respectable, came down the steps of the musichall, a second after Shere Ali had crossed the road. He, too, had been a witness of the prize-fight. He hurried after Shere Ali and caught him up. "Very good fight, sir," he said.
And in the summer I met a man or two back on leave at my club. But on the whole it was pretty dull. Yes," and he nodded his head, and for the first time a note of despondency sounded in his voice. "Yes, on the whole it was pretty dull. It will be better in Cashmere." "It would have been still better if you had never seen India at all," said Shere Ali. "No; I don't say that.
I imagine that Shere Ali realised that it would be wise as undoubtedly it was for him to make his peace with the Mullah, and sent him accordingly the melons and the bags of grain as an earnest of his good-will." There the letter ended, and Ralston stood by the window as the light failed more and more from off the earth, pondering with a heavy heart upon its contents.
"Aowa! Aowa!" said Mowgli pettingly. "I have killed one striped ape, and sure am I in my stomach that Shere Khan would have left his own mate for meat to the dhole if he had winded a pack across three ranges.
"Have you any influence there?" he asked of Colonel Dewes; and he spoke with a great longing, a great eagerness, and he waited for the answer in a great suspense. Dewes shook his head. "None," he replied; "I am nobody at all." The hope died out of Shere Ali's face. "I am sorry," he said; and the eagerness had changed into despair.
"Your Highness may not have noticed that," and he pointed upwards to where on a high flagstaff in front of the house the English flag hung against the pole. "I give your Excellency no orders," replied Shere Ali. "But on the other hand I give you a warning. Shelter so much as one man and that flag will not save you. I should not be able to hold in my men."
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