to be dying some three miles, away: 'Only verree, verree short leave
of absence, and will presently return, sar--'; the two constables,
armed with staves, bringing up the rear; and Faiz Ullah, a
Mohammedan's contempt for all Hindoos and foreigners in every line of
his face, explaining to the drivers that though Scott Sahib was a man
to be feared on all fours, he, Faiz Ullah, was Authority itself.

The procession creaked past Hawkins's camp--three stained tents under
a clump of dead trees; behind them the famine-shed where a crowd of
hopeless ones tossed their arms around the cooking-kettles.

'Wish to Heaven William had kept out of it,' said Scott to himself,
after a glance. 'We'll have cholera, sure as a gun, when the Rains
come.'

But William seemed to have taken kindly to the operations of the
Famine Code, which, when famine is declared, supersede the workings
of the ordinary law. Scott saw her, the centre of a mob of weeping
women, in a calico riding-habit and a blue-gray felt hat with a gold
puggaree.

'I want fifty rupees, please. I forgot to ask Jack before he went
away. Can you lend it me? It's for condensed milk for the babies,'
said she.

Scott took the money from his belt, and handed it over without a
word. 'For goodness sake take care of yourself,' he said.

'Oh, I shall be all right. We ought to get the milk in two days. By
the way, the orders are, I was to tell you, that you're to take one