“I could not say,” said King. To seem to know too much is as bad as to drink too much. “But I heard say that the sirkar has offered pardons to all deserters who return.”
“Hah! The sirkar must be afraid. The sirkar needs men!”
“For myself,” said King, “a whole skin in the 'Hills' seems better than one full of bullet holes in India.”
“Hah! But thou art a hakim, not a soldier!”
“True!” said King.
“Tell me that again! Free pardons? Free pardons for all deserters?”
“So I heard.”
“Ah! But I was seen to slay a man of my own regiment.”
“On this side the border or that?” asked King artfully.
“On this side.”