You know those stupid heavy-headed
crocodiles in that big pool of the Nerbudda below the marble gorge, and
how they'll take nearly an hour wallowing and sidling up to a mud-bank
before they crawl out to bask in the sun; but just show the tip of your
helmet above the rock and they're gone. That's perhaps what I mean.
As we might say back in dear old London, this wily Rajput thinks he has
pulled my leg."
"I think, Colonel, that you are dead onto his wicket."
"Well, then, the thing to do is to emulate the mugger. But
this"--Hodson lifted the paper and he grew crisp, incisive, his grey
eyes blued like temper purpling polished steel--"we've got to act:
they've got to be delivered, and soon."
"I am ready, Sir."
"It's a dangerous mission--most dangerous."
"Pardon, Sir?"
"Sorry, Captain. I was just thinking aloud--musing; forgive me.
Perhaps when one likes a young man he lets the paternal spirit come in
where it doesn't belong. I'm sorry. There's a trusty Patan here who
could go with you," Hodson continued, "and this side of his own border
he is absolutely to be trusted; I have my doubts if any Patan can be
relied upon by us across the border.
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