The only persons who did not share the general regard for the White
Hussars were a few thousand gentlemen of Jewish extraction who lived
across the border, and answered to the name of Pathan. They had only
met the regiment officially, and for something less than twenty
minutes, but the interview, which was complicated with many
casualties, had filled them with prejudice. They even called the White
Hussars "children of the devil," and sons of persons whom it would be
perfectly impossible to meet in decent society. Yet they were not
above making their aversion fill their money belts. The regiment
possessed carbines, beautiful Martini-Henri carbines, that would cob a
bullet into an enemy's camp at one thousand yards, and were even
handier than the long rifle. Therefore they were coveted all along the
border, and since demand inevitably breeds supply, they were supplied
at the risk of life and limb for exactly their weight in coined
silver--seven and one half pounds of rupees[9], or sixteen pounds and
a few shillings each, reckoning the rupee at par. They were stolen at
night by snaky-haired thieves that crawled on their stomachs under the
nose of the sentries; they disappeared mysteriously from armracks; and
in the hot weather, when all the doors and windows were open, they
vanished like puffs of their own smoke. The border people desired them
first for their own family vendettas[10] and then for contingencies.
Pages:
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80