“The great Company thought you old enough to take charge of their guns,” he said gravely.
“Yes, but with older officers over me.”
“Well; I shall be over you; but you will have full charge of all my cannons. You understand them thoroughly.”
“Of course I know a little about them.”
“Little!” he cried. “It is magnificent. Have I not seen you often? Did I not see you carry them off after I had captured them, and was training my men? but slowly—oh, so slowly.”
“You forget that I was only a junior officer acting under my captain’s orders. It is nonsense, and you are saying all this to make me vain, to flatter me.”
“I never stoop to flatter,” he said coldly. “It is the truth. Yes, you are young, but you will soon grow older and more experienced, and train my men till they have all the speed of yours. Do you tell me that you could not drill and teach my soldiers?”
“Oh no, I do not tell you that,” I said frankly, “because I could.”
“Yes; of course you could, and it will be a proud position for you.”
“What! as a British officer in the service of a rajah?”