“‘They asked us if we were going up to Meerut to eat the ottah (flour) sent up specially by government for the Gurkhas,’ one of them replied. ‘And they said that the ottah at Meerut was nothing but ground bullock bones, and that we should be defiled.’
“‘And what was your answer?’ asked Reid.
“The little beggars drew themselves up proudly.
“‘We said that we were going wherever we were ordered; that our regiment obeys the bugle-call!’”
“Good little men!” commented the captain of the Guides, as his cousin concluded. “Our own Gurkha company would be hard to beat. Look at Subadar Merban Sing! the man who tried to save poor Battye. His men simply adore him; they’d do anything for him, and go anywhere with him. But aren’t your ‘almond-eyed Tartars’ Hindus by religion? How did they take the greased-cartridge yarn?”
“They’re Hindus, right enough, but they are soldiers first. They don’t worship either Siva or Vishnu one-half so fervently as they adore their rifles and kukris. So they simply said that they would believe whatever Major Reid told them, and when he assured them that the cartridges and the cartridge-papers were free from offence, they replied, without a moment’s hesitation:
“‘Then serve them out to us! We’ll use them, and everyone may see!’”