"So help me, sir!" he grinned, "But will she hold hers?"
Westward, into the hungry West,
(Oh, listen, wise men, listen ye!)
Whirls the East Wind on his quest,
Whimpering, worrying, hurrying, lest
The light o'ertake him. Listen ye!
Mark ye the burden of his sigh:
"Westward sinks the sun to die!
Westward wing the vultures!"--Aye,
(Listen, wise men, listen ye!)
The East must lose--the West must gain,
For none come back to the East again,
Though widows call them! Listen ye!
YASMINI'S SONG.
CHAPTER IX
Now, India is unlike every other country in the world in all
particulars, and Delhi is in some respects the very heart through
which India's unusualness flows. Delhi has five railway stations with
which to cope with latter-day floods of paradoxical necessity; and
nobody knew from which railway station troops might be expected to
entrain or whither, although Delhi knew that there was war.
There did not seem to be anything very much out of the ordinary at
any of the stations. In India one or two sidings are nearly always
full of empty trains; there did not seem to be more of them than usual.
At the British barracks there was more or less commotion, because
Thomas Atkins likes to voice his joy when the long peace breaks at
last and he may justify himself; but in the native lines, where
dignity is differently understood, the only men who really seemed
unusually busy were the farriers, and the armourers who sharpened
swords.
Pages:
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124