“Why do you wish to have these troops?” I said, more for the sake of keeping back my reply than for anything else.
“Why? To make me strong,” he cried excitedly. “With men like that, and the quick-firing guns, I shall be more powerful than any of the rajahs near. But you hesitate; you do not say yes.”
I looked at him sadly.
“Come,” he continued, “at your age there should not be any hanging back. Have you thought what it means?”
“You have taken me so by surprise,” I replied.
“Oh yes; but can you not see that I make you at once a great man? one whom I trust in everything, and who will be next in my country to myself? Come, speak. You will accept?”
His eyes were fixed upon me searchingly, and I felt that I must speak now, though I trembled for the effect my words would have upon such a determined, relentless man, accustomed to have his will in all things.
“There are plenty of men more suited to the task than I am,” I said with a last attempt to put off the final words.
“Where?” he said, coldly. “Bring me a thousand older and more experienced than you, and I should refuse them all.”
“Why?”