"They have
taught them to seek their bread from the earth and to leave their
dreams. This is only the beginning. The time shall come when they
shall stand shoulder to shoulder with their white brethren!"
How had the over-sanguine prophecy been fulfilled! The native at
Nicholson's side pointed a finger of scorn and anger at the silent,
ruined waste.
"Devil--English devil!" he said laconically, and continued on his way.
Nicholson's lips tightened. His own words came back to him with a new
significance: "In a strange country no one is an exception." This
Travers, this one unscrupulous fortune-hunter, heedless of everything
save his own advancement, had branded them all. He had undone, with
the help of a heedless woman, the work of generations of heroic,
honest labor. Truly the chain of individual responsibility is a long
one!
Nicholson had left Colonel Carmichael's bungalow at twelve o'clock.
The increasing crowd and Stafford's prolonged absence had urged him to
instant and independent action. In the best of cases, he had little
faith in the brother-officer's secret mission. Stafford was not the
man to exert any influence over the native mind. He was the type of
the capable and well-meaning English officer who, excellent leader in
his own country, is of small use when face to face with Indian
problems of character and prejudice. Nicholson had judged himself the
better advocate, and having obtained the Colonel's reluctant
permission, he had at once started for the royal palace.
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