Part 2 (1/2)

The French seemed surprised to see us They orown reet friends with flowers, but we had been led to believe that Europe thinks little of such manners Yet the French threers to us, the little children bringing arms full and baskets full

Thenceforward, day after day, we rode at exercise, keeping ears and eyes open, and h our very bones ached to be on active service And no h, who should have led D Squadron Yet I believe there was not one h all the time He who has honor most at heart speaks least about it In one way sha, for it ainst treachery

Treachery, sahib-we had yet to learn what treachery could be! Marseilles is a half-breed of a place, part Italian, part French The as being chiefly done by the Italians, now that all able-bodied Frenchmen were under arms And Italy not yet in the war!

Sahib, I swear to you that all the spies in all the world seemed at that moment to be Italian, and all in Marseilles at once! There were spies aht the hay Spies ah our lines to admire, accompanied by officers ere none too wide-awake if they were honest You would not believe how ue and soly

There were men who could talk Hindustanee hispered to us to surrender to the Ger in that case that we shall be well treated The German kaiser, these men assured us, had truly turned Muha to Sikhs, unless perhaps an additional notch against him! I was told they mistook the Muhammadans in another camp for Sikhs, and were spat on for their pains!

Nor were all the spies Italians, after all Our hearts went out to the French We were glad to be on their side-glad to help the day that I have struck a blow for France Yet the only really dangerous man of all who tried to corrupt us in Marseilles was a French officer of the rank of ue as well as I He said with sorrow that the French were already as good as vanquished, and that he pitied us as lahter The part, said he, of every wise o over to the ene penalties

I told what he had said to me to a risaldar, and the risaldar spoke with Colonel Kirby We heard-although I do not knohether it is true or not-that thewith his face to a wall I do know that I, in company with several troopers, was cross-examined by interpreters that day in presence of Colonel Kirby and a French general and soan to be talk at last about Ranjoor Singh I heard reat wonder, after all, that he should have turned traitor, for it was plain he iveness for hirew proud that where he had failed they could stand firm; and there is no mercy in proud men's minds-nor much wisdom either

At last a day came-too soon for the horses, but none too soon for us-e h the streets to entrain for the front As we had marched first out of Delhi, so we iments froent

French wives and children, and some cripples, lined the streets to cheer and wave their handkerchiefs We were on our way to help their husbands defend France, and they honored us It was our due But can the sahib accept his due with a dry eye and a word in his throat? Nay! It is only ingratitude that a raven ies, and I think the French women wondered at our silence I know that I, for one, felt extreh and of how his heart, too, would have burned if he had been with us With such thoughts as swelled in my own breast, it was not in ht think

D Squadron proved in good fortune that day, for they gave us a train of passenger coaches with seats, and our officers had a first-class coach in front The other squadrons, and ih I do not think any grumbled on that score There was a French staff officer to each train, and he who rode in our train had an orderly who knew English; the orderly cli all the tied inforaain, then he

The game was at an end when neither could think of another question to ask; but he learned ion was, but he knew a great deal about mine On the other hand, he told me all about their army and its close association between officers and(which was not so very ht of the British He seehly of the British, rather to his own surprise

He told me he was a pastry cook by trade, and said he could cook chapatties such as we eat; and he understoodin the front trains and Muhammadans behind-because Muhammadans must pray at fixed intervals and the trains must stop to let them do it He understood wherein our Sikh prayer differs froaht in a trench beside Englishe; and I have seen wounded Germans writhe and scream because their officers had told them we Sikhs would eat them alive Yes, sahib; not once, but many times

The journey was slow, for the line ahead of us was choked with supply trains, some of which were needed at the front as badly as ourselves Now and then trains waited on sidings to let us by, and by that i all the others in the end by aline whistles becaer noticed it

But there was another din that did not grow fa in the opposite direction train after train of wounded, traveling at great speed, each leaving a s And once in so often there ca The first tireased axles, but after the third ti the footboards, speaking to us through the s and pretending to point out characteristics of the scenery; and we took great interest in the scenery, asking thes, for it is not good that one's officers should be other than arrogantly confident

We were a night and a day, and a night and a part of a day on the journey, and th of France in that ti of the last day we began aluns and the bursting of shells-like the thunder of the surf on Boreat monsoon-one roar without intermission, yet full of pulsation

I think it was eneral waited with some French and British officers Colonel Kirby left the train and spoke with the general, and then gave the order for us to detrain at once; and we did so very swiftly, e Many of us were e by this and by that how sorely ere needed We knehat it means when the reenforceeneral caain with Colonel Kirby, and saluted us all most i for our own baggage and sent away at once With a French staff officer to guide us, we rode away at once toward the sound of firing-at a walk, because within reasonable liht be allowed to walk now the better they would be able to gallop with us later

We rode along a road between straight trees, most of them scarred by shell-fire There were shell-holes in the road, some of which had been filled with the first material handy, but some had to be avoided We saw no dead bodies, nor even dead horses, although sons were everywhere

To our right and left was flat country, divided by low hedges and the saht trees; but far away in front was a forest, whose top just rose above the sky-line As we rode toward that we could see the shells bursting near it

Between us and the forest there were British guns, dug in; and away to our right were French guns-batteries and batteries of the stations for the wounded, with endless lines of stretcher-bearers like ants passing to and fro By the din we knew that the battle stretched far away beyond sight to right and left of us

Many thingsthat were unexpected The speed of the artillery fire was unbelievable But what surprised all of us uns and before the guns we passed ht have sheltered, but there were none

There ca toward us They spoke excitedly with Colonel Kirby and our French staff officer, but we continued at a walk and Colonel Kirby lit a fresh cheroot After soreat square cross painted on its under side, and ere ordered to halt and keep quite still until it went away When it was too far away for its rowing dusk e halted finally behind the forest-dusky and cloudy, the air full of s and difficult to breathe During the last three-quarters of aall about us, but we had only lost one rew darker the eneht we could soht British infantry were holding the forest in front of us and a road that ran to right of it Their rifle-fire was steady as the roll of druiments that preceded us from India; they had been sent to another section of the battle These werefrom the first, and their wounded and the stretcher-bearers were surprised to see us No word of our arrival see line as yet Men were too busy to pass news