The native servants who had not yet run away
retained their places still, unquestioned. When an Englishman has
once made up his mind to trust another man, he trusts him to the hilt,
whatever shade of brown or red or white his hide may be.
But, since every rule has its exceptions, there were some among the
native servants, who remained ostensibly loyal to their masters, who
would better have been shot or hanged at the first suggestion of an
outbreak. For naturally a man who is trusted wrongly is far more
dangerous than one who is held in suspicion. But it never was the
slightest use endeavoring to persuade an average English officer that
his own man could be anything but loyal. He may be a thief and a
liar and a proved-up rogue in every other way; but as for fearing
to let him sleep about the house, or fearing to let him cook his
master's food, or fearing to let him carry firearms--well! Perhaps,
it is conceit, or maybe just ordinary foolishness. It is not fear!
So, in a country where the art of poisoning has baffled analysts
since analysts have been invented, and where blood-hungry fanatic
priests, both Hindu and Mohammedan, were preaching and promising
the reward of highest heaven to all who could kill an Englishman
or die in the attempt, a native cook whose antecedents were obscured
in mystery cooked dinner for a British general, and marched with
his column to perform the same service while the general tried to
trounce the cook's friends and relatives!
But General Baines felt perfectly at ease about his food.
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