`Observe!' said Dick Four. `One colonel of the Political Department in charge of thirty Sikhs on a hilltop. Observe, my children!'

`Naturally, Cathcart not being a fool, even if he is a Political, let Stalky do his shooting within fifteen miles of Fort Everett for the next six months; and I always understood they and Rutton Singh and the prisoner were as thick as thieves. Then Stalky loafed back to his regiment, I believe. I've never seen him since.'

`I have, though,' said M`Turk, swelling with pride.

We all turned as one man.

`It was at the beginning of this hot weather. I was in camp in the Jullunder doab and stumbled slap on Stalky in a Sikh village; sitting on the one chair of state, with half the population grovellin' before him, a dozen Sikh babies on his knees, an old harridan clappin' him on the shoulder, and a garland o' flowers round his neck. 'Told me he was recruitin'. We dined together that night, but he never said a word of the business of the Fort. 'Told me, though, that if I wanted any supplies I'd better say I was Koran Sahib's bhai; and I did, and the Sikhs wouldn't take my money.'

`Ah! That must have been one of Rutton Singh's villages,' said Dick Four; and we smoked for some time in silence.

`I say,' said M`Turk, casting back through the years. `Did Stalky ever tell you how Rabbits-Eggs came to rock King that night?'

`No,' said Dick Four.

Then M`Turk told.

`I see,' said Dick Four, nodding. `Practically he duplicated that trick over again. There's nobody like Stalky.'

`That's just where you make the mistake,' I said. `India's full of Stalkies--Cheltenham and Haileybury and Marlborough chaps--that we don't know anything about, and the surprises will begin when there is really a big row on.'

`Who will be surprised?' said Dick Four.

`The other side. The gentlemen who go to the front in first-class carriages. Just imagine Stalky let loose on the south side of Europe with a sufficiency of Sikhs and a reasonable prospect of loot. Consider it quietly.'

`There's something in that, but you're too much of an optimist, Beetle,' said the Infant.

`Well, I've a right to be. Ain't I responsible for the whole thing? You needn't laugh. Who wrote "Aladdin now has got his wife"--eh?'

`What's that got to do with it?' said Tertius.

`Everything,' said I.

`Prove it,' said the Infant.

And I have.