“That’s right, young ’un; stick up for your regiment.”
“Jim was going to tell me,” Ted remarked, “something about that Pathan officer who was speaking to you this morning. Who is he?”
“Bahram Khan, do you mean?”
“Yes, that’s the man. We noticed the natives shrinking from him when he looked at them. Why was that?”
The lieutenant lay back in his chair and smiled.
“His is a queer story and typical of the Guides,” he replied. “A few years ago he was a well-known outlaw and brigand chief, who raided and burnt villages and robbed right and left. We could never catch him, so Lumsden, our colonel, offered to make him an officer if he’d join the Guides, and he consented and brought his brigands with him.”
Paterson regarded the speaker curiously.
“Is that a fact?” he asked.
“It is an absolute fact.”
“We’d keep that sort of ruffian out of the 193rd, wouldn’t we, Paterson?” Ted asserted. “Aren’t you afraid that you’ll wake up some morning with all your throats cut?”