"It's a general's coat, sir," he said defiantly. "God knows what old duffer it belonged to; but I might have worn it first- instead of second-hand, if I hadn't been a d----d young fool."
The splendid figure drew itself together formally, but the other's pride was up too, and so for a minute the two men faced each other honestly, Nicholson's eyes narrowing under their bent brows.
"What was it? A woman, I expect."
"Perhaps. I don't see that it matters."
A faint smile of approval rather took from the sternness of the military salute. "Not at all. That ends it, of course."
"Of course."
Not quite; for ere Jim Douglas could drop the curtain between himself and that brilliant, successful figure, it had turned sharply and laid a hand on his shoulder. A curiously characteristic hand--large, thin, smooth, and white as a woman's, with a grip in it beyond most men's.
"You have a vile habit of telling the truth to superior officers, Mr. Douglas. So have I. Shake hands on it."
With that hand on his shoulder, that clasp on his, Jim Douglas felt as if he were in the grip of Fate itself, and following John Nicholson's example, gave it back frankly, freely. So, suddenly the whole face before him melted into perfect friendliness. "Stick to it, man--stick to it! Save that poor lady--or--or kill somebody. It's what we are all doing. As for the rest"--the smile was almost boyish--"I may get the sack myself before the general's coat. I'm insubordinate enough, they tell me--but I shall have taken Delhi first. So--so good-luck to you!"
As he walked away, he seemed to the eyes watching him bigger, more king-like, more heroic than ever; perhaps because they were dim with tears. But as Jim Douglas went off with a new cheerfulness to see Hodson's Horse jingle out on their lesson of peace, he told himself that the old scoundrel, Tiddu, had once more been right. Nikalseyn had the Great Gift. He could take a man's heart out and look at it, and put it back sounder than it had been for years. He could put his own heart into a whole camp and make it believe it was its own.